Hachiro Izawa -- Hokkai no Mangetsu（北海の満月）

I do miss those kaiten sushi joints back in Tokyo. There is a place in downtown Toronto that has sushi come out on floating boats but I don't think that's quite the same.

Back on the most recent episode of "Uta Kon"（うたコン）, enka veteran Takashi Hosokawa（細川たかし）sang this particular tune which had me searching for the original version on YouTube. It was easy enough to find and after listening to Hachiro Izawa's（井沢八郎）"Hokkai no Mangetsu" (Full Moon Over the Northern Seas), I felt like I had to bring out more respect for the fishermen who have provided the wonderful tuna and mackerel on many a plate at those kaiten sushi restaurants.

This was Izawa's 45" that came out in October 1965, and it blasts out of the gate with a yell by the singer that could be the biggest min'yo declaration or something epic from a Spanish opera. It certainly got my attention like accidentally ingesting a large hunk of wasabi. Izawa then goes into this huge story of the fishermen heading out into the weather-beaten seas to get their daily haul like soldiers going gamely into battle.

Written by Yurio Matsui（松井由利夫）and composed by Joji Osawa（大澤浄二）, "Hokkai no Mangetsu" was successful enough that Izawa got his first of two invitations to NHK's Kohaku Utagassen that same year. And it looks like the singer made every moment of his appearance count as he gave out that yell on the steps. There's not only sweat coming out of the crew's pores...it's also pride.