Masahiro Ikumi -- Say, My Love

Sigh...next time I visit my old stomping grounds again in Chiba Prefecture, I really ought to take more photos of Urayasu（浦安）. The above was the only one I took in October 2014 and that was from my friend's car and it was a rainy day.

To give you some geographical perspective, I lived in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture which is an eastern bedroom city for Tokyo. Urayasu is the city that is between Tokyo and Ichikawa. The Tokyo Metro's Tozai Line runs through my old station of Minami-Gyotoku（南行徳）and the one before it, Urayasu Station.

The above video (and I thank you, peakysaltsy for the remembrance of my old neighbourhood) shows the area which I like to call Old Urayasu. Just surrounding Urayasu Station, it has that look of a sub-city centre, and yep, I got off here once or twice a week to teach at my friend's juku which was about 10 minutes away on foot. You may notice the Seiyu Department Store right by the station? I went there fairly often since there was a CD store and also a local MUJI. Another reason is that there was a family restaurant up on the 2nd floor where I ate frequently enough so that I would get some knowing smiles from the staff there whenever I entered. I believe one of the waitresses must have thought on seeing me come in that I would be responsible for helping out the restaurant coffers immensely when I ordered my meal.

To give credit where credit is due, this video is by toki-toki and it is of the area that I call New Urayasu. Although Old Urayasu is the area that I was more familiar with, I actually made the effort to take a bus to visit the new and gleaming part of the city time and again, and it definitely couldn't look more different. With the palm trees, modern condos and a fancy-schmancy shopping mall characteristic of this area by Tokyo Bay, it positively demands a City Pop album.

Well, come to think of it, I did find one some months ago. The above video is of part of the 1983 album "uLAyasu" by jazz guitarist Masahiro Ikumi（幾見雅博）. I'm not sure what the really big caps of "LA" in the title are all about but I can speculate that he had wanted to bring some of that LA sound into the Chiba city. Since the new part of Urayasu probably hadn't been developed at the time of the album's release, I don't think Ikumi was inspired by that for his album although New Urayasu looks like a really nice beachside district of Los Angeles.

Anyways, the first track, "Say, My Love" sounds like something that would make for a nice musical accompaniment for another video of New Urayasu. For those who aren't in an aidoru or enka frame of mind, this is a nice gin and tonic to go with that glass of Perrier chaser. Artists like him, Casiopea and The Square were making some fine fusion back then.

As I said, the information on his website isn't particularly comprehensive but Ikumi is also a composer, arranger and producer who has produced a lot of commercial music for companies ranging from Coca-Cola to JAL. Plus, he has had his hand in making anime music and scores, including the one for the 1998 movie "Perfect Blue". He originally hails from Shizuoka Prefecture.

Well, what do you know? peakysaltsy was even able to put up a video of my old neighbourhood around Minami-Gyotoku Station, or as the locals call it, Nangyo（南行）! Ahh...good times.