Nakamori Akina - North Wing & Dramatic Airport 中森明菜 - 北ウイング＆ドラマティック‧エアポート (Part 2/2)

This is part 2 of a two-part blog post about Akina’s famous song, North Wing, and its sequel, Dramatic Airport.  You can read part 1 here.

In part 1, we’ve heard Akina’s story.  In this part, we'll continue with Satoshi’s story.

Again, I hope you’ll enjoy it.

Dramatic Airport ドラマティック‧エアポート - Satoshi’s Story

Chapter 1 Anxiousness

Satoshi was hurrying southbound on 19th Avenue towards the airport this evening.

19th Avenue ran north-south through San Francisco’s Sunset District.  There were 3 lanes each in both directions.  The cross streets, which ran east-west, all had their names’ initial letters follow the English alphabet, starting with “I” and ending in “W”.  Irving, Judah, Kirkham, Lawton, Moraga, ..., Ulloa, Vicente and finally Wawona.

The fog had slowly crept in.  It’d also been drizzling.

Satoshi stopped at the red light before Noriega Street.  He felt uneasy and a bit irritated tonight.  The squeaky sound that the windshield wiper made was not helping.

“10, 9, 8, ..., 2, 1, 0,“ Satoshi was looking at the pedestrian signal as it was counting down.  As the light turned green, Satoshi sped through.

“Shit!” yelled Satoshi.  He just saw the light on Ortega turning from green to yellow.  Satoshi quickly made up his mind.  He stepped on the pedal and sped right past the yellow light.  

The traffic lights along 19th Avenue were intentionally synchronized.  This helped during rush hour, but it also meant once you hit a red light you’d hit it in subsequent junctions as well.

Satoshi sped past the yellow lights at Pacheco, then Quintara, Rivera, Santiago.  Unfortunately, he couldn’t made it past Taraval as the light turned red long before he had any chance.

“6:08,” Satoshi peeked at his wrist watch irritatingly while waiting at the red light.  The windshield started to turn foggy and Satoshi had to roll down the driver side window.  He looked up at the sky and saw a few dimly flashing red and green lights.  They were from the wings of an airplane.  It was flying slightly slanted as it’s making a turn towards the airport.  Soon, the airplane disappeared into the fog.

Satoshi turned his head back to the road.  The light finally turned green, and he sped off without hesitation.

Chapter 2 Air Mail

(A week earlier)

Satoshi had not been sleeping well lately.  In fact, he had not been sleeping well ever since he got back from Tokyo a month ago.

“It’s all over,” those were Akina’s last words when they met at a cafe in Shibuya a day before Satoshi returned to San Francisco.  Satoshi had been trying to convince Akina to come with him.  Obviously, it didn’t end up well.

“Why don’t you stay with me in Tokyo?” Akina would end up arguing with Satoshi every time this topic came up.

Akina was actually not unreasonable.  Satoshi grew up in Japan and only went to the US after middle school.  He’s fluent in both English and Japanese.  His parents were still living in Japan.  Frankly, it would not be hard for Satoshi to find a well paying job in Tokyo.  However, Satoshi’s current job focused on the software industry, and Silicon Valley was at the center of a technological revolution.  He didn’t want to miss that opportunity.

On the other hand, although Akina's English was fluent, she had never lived in a foreign country.  It’s a big unknown whether Akina would be comfortable living in the US.

“Well, “ lamented Satoshi.  He had trouble falling asleep again tonight.

Satoshi woke up late the next morning.  It’s Saturday so he didn’t need to go to work.

Satoshi went to the kitchen and quickly made some brunch.  He wanted to run in the Golden Gate Park this afternoon.  As he went out, he saw Mr. Bergman the postman at the door steps.  Mr. Bergman had been on this post route for more than 10 years.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Bergman.”

“Good afternoon, Mr. Takeda.  Looks like you have something from Japan today,” said Mr. Bergman.  He handed Satoshi an aerogram.

“Thanks,” Satoshi wondered who wrote him the letter.

“Take it easy.  You've been looking pretty tired lately,” said Mr. Bergman, as he walked to the next house on the block.

As soon as Satoshi looked at the address on the front of the aerogram, he almost screamed immediately.  It’s Akina’s handwriting!

Satoshi quickly tore it open.  

There’s only one line.

“I’ll soon be by your side.  - Akina”

Chapter 3 Reunion

San Francisco International Airport appeared to be melting away amid light drizzle.

Satoshi found himself on the ground.  He saw an airplane approaching the runway.

“This must be THE flight,” Satoshi thought to himself.

Even though he couldn’t see it quite clearly, Japan Airline’s red crane was so distinct that he could not have mistaken.

The airplane landed safely, and was slowly moving in Satoshi's direction.  Several people were transporting a white gangway to prepare for passengers to get off.

The airplane stopped in front of Satoshi.  He's intently staring at the plane door.  His heart was throbbing.

The door opened.  Passengers were slowly pouring out.

Soon, more than half of the passengers had gotten out but still no trace of Akina.  "She has got to be on this flight!" Satoshi convinced himself.

At long last, a familiar face appeared at the door.  She was looking around as she stepped off the airplane, as if she was trying to find her bearing in an unfamiliar land.  She also looked a bit worn out from her long journey.

Satoshi rushed towards the plane immediately, pushing aside the crowd and arrived at the bottom of the gangway.  Akina started to notice him as she was walking down the steps.

"Satoshi!!!" Akina exclaimed.  She couldn't believe her eyes.

Satoshi ran up the gangway steps, ignoring all the people around who were clearly perplexed by his unusual action.  He put his arms around Akina, as if trying to tell her that she was the only thing that mattered in this world.

Chapter 4 Destination

"Beep~~~~~~! Beep~~~~~~!" the car from behind was honking impatiently.

Satoshi woke up from his delusion.  The sky was still drizzling.  The windshield wiper continued to make that noisy squeaky sound.

The traffic light in front of him had turned green.  This was the last traffic stop before getting onto highway 280, where it'd take him all the way to the airport.

Tonight, two hearts that once parted, yet still burned in love, would be reunited.

Satoshi stepped onto the pedal, and began his final rush.

(THE END) 

Disclaimer
The above short story is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Epilogue

The 2 short stories I wrote were based on the lyrics of North Wing 北ウイング and Dramatic Airport ドラマティック・エアポート.  Through these stories, I am trying to recreate the songs' scenes, mood, as well as emotions.

I absolutely enjoy songs that invoke my imagination.  North Wing and its sequel, Dramatic Airport, fascinate me because when I looked at their lyrics, I could immediately formed a story in my mind.

To all young readers, since both songs are from the 80s, that is the background of my stories as well.  This means email and cell phones were extremely uncommon.  Even long distance calls were quite expensive back then.  The World Wide Web was yet to be born (Internet existed though).  Snail mail ruled the world in communication.  And yes, there's something called aerogram - the cheapest international air mail available.

Both songs' lyrics were written by Kan Chinfa 康珍化, whereas all the music was written by Hayashi Tetsuji 林哲司.

By the way, J-Canuck wrote a series of articles on Hayashi Tetsuji’s music recently.

North Wing was released as a single on January 1, 1984, whereas Dramatic Airport was recorded in Akina’s album, Possibility, which was released in October 1984.  North Wing only reached number 2 on Oricon’s weekly chart, while the album Possibility reached number 1.  There’s been some controversy regarding why North Wing didn’t reach number 1.  According to Wikipedia, it was due to the methodology used by Oricon at that time.  That methodology has since changed.  Had the new methodology been used, North Wing would have been number 1.  Some Akina fans were frustrated because that would have made Akina’s consecutive number 1 singles streak longer.

As for the music, I love the melody and the arrangement of North Wing.  In case you haven’t noticed, both North Wing and Dramatic Airport have the same unusual arrangement of starting with the chorus.

I couldn’t think of a better singer than Akina for both songs.

A few trivia about North Wing.  

North Wing refers to Narita International Airport Terminal 1’s northern section.  According to Wikipedia, “North Wing” was only one of the candidates for the song title.  Other titles considered were “Midnight Flight” in Katakana ミッドナイトフライト, and “Midnight Flight” in Kanji 夜間飛行.  The final title was decided by Akina herself.  The article says she’s influenced by Yumi’s (松任谷由実) song, Central Freeway 中央フリーウェイ.

Also according to Wikipedia, the Japanese audience suspected that the flight mentioned in the song was Japan Airlines 401 (someone actually went into such detail), which flew from Narita to London’s Heathrow via Anchorage Alaska.

I forgot exactly when I first listened to North Wing.  I was probably 14 or 15.  Even though I didn’t know Japanese at that time, somebody must have told me the story in the song.  San Francisco, not London, was the first city that popped up in my mind.  I don’t know why.  I’m currently living in the San Francisco Bay Area but that only started in mid-90s.  I was thinking of San Francisco even before I moved there.  Of course, London is famous for its fog but so does San Francisco.  

Another reason why I have San Francisco in mind was this line in its lyrics. 

日付が塗りかえてゆく　苦しいだけのきのうを
A brand new day puts new paint over my pain-filled yesterday

Technically speaking, if you fly from Japan to London or San Francisco, either way you’ll arrive on the same day (i.e. leaving Tuesday in Tokyo, arriving Tuesday in London or San Francisco).  But when I read this line, I immediately think of the international day line, which passes through the Pacific Ocean.  So, the plane must be flying over the Pacific to the US, and hence San Francisco because of its famous fog moving through the Golden Gate.

I also went through a little fact check myself.  Or should I say exploring the theoretical possibility?  If you fly midnight in Tokyo, that’ll be 3pm London time (I’m using GMT, not sure about daylight saving in UK) and 8am San Francisco time in summer.  Direct flight to London takes around 13 hours so it’ll arrive 4am in London.  This matches Dramatic Airport’s lyrics that the flight arrives at night.  Similarly, flight time from Tokyo to San Francisco is around 9 hours and it’ll arrive at around 5pm.  With drizzle and fog (霧雨), which was mentioned in Dramatic Airport’s lyrics, San Francisco can look pretty dark even at 5pm.  I would accept that “the flight arrives at night” in that case.

My conclusion is that London is likely what Kan Chinfa had in mind.  But my version of North Wing and Dramatic Airport will always happen between Tokyo and San Francisco.

In case the above YouTube video is taken down, this is a 2nd video.

Once again, congratulations on KKP’s upcoming 10th anniversary.  Updating a blog every day for 10 years is no small feat.  I’m sure Japanese music fans greatly appreciate both your effort and insights.  Thank you, J-Canuck, for sharing your love towards Japanese music with all of us in the past 10 years.