Motoyoshi Hosotsubo -- Machiwabidori （待ちわび通り）

I discovered this pleasant song by accident on one of the Internet radio stations not too long ago and was wanting to write about it. This is "Machiwabidori" (Road of Waiting Impatiently) by Motoyoshi Hosotsubo（細坪基佳）released in February 1982 as his 2nd single. Yep, I realize that this isn't a familiar name but at the time he was also one-half of the folk duo Fukinoto（ふきのとう）which was responsible for one of the rare songs of my youth via a taping of "Sounds of Japan", "Hitori no Fuyu Nara Kuruna"（ひとりの冬なら来るな）.

A little less obviously folky than "Hitori no Fuyu Nara Kuruna", "Machiwabidori" is still evocative of traveling happily through the clean air of the countryside. Written and composed by Hosotsubo, the song talks about a fellow who's finally on the verge of making his peace with a relationship that is now very much in the past with the melody sounding like a cathartic release from all that stress. Perhaps the fellow is heading out to an onsen alone to relax after his final decision. In any case, it's nice to hear some of the old happy stuff. The above video, by the way, is from a radio program in which the song starts at about 45 seconds in.

(cover version)

Hosotsubo was handling his solo career while still performing in Fukinoto so not surprisingly, "Machiwabidori" has often been treated as a Fukinoto song. It was also a track on his 2nd album from the same time as his single release, "Yoto to Garasudama"（洋燈とガラス玉...The Lamp and the Glass Bead）.