When I went to visit Japan again in 2017, my friend Hiro and I got to go to a section in Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture called Koedo（小江戸）which features a lot of historical architecture including the building in the above photo. It apparently was a bank back in the day. But aside from that municipality, the only other city that I've visited in Saitama was the capital, Saitama City.
Indeed, I've heard of Kasukabe City in Saitama but alas I never had the opportunity to visit it. Apparently, it's home to the famous anime character of Crayon Shin-chan（クレヨンしんちゃん）and his family. By the way, the video is by the channel Virtual Walk/All Over Japan.
Earlier tonight on the news, the anchor reported that Carnaval has started up once more in Rio which I'm happy about, and that one of the first things to get under way was some sort of samba festival. So I thought that I could find something samba-esque among the kayo.
Well, I did find "Kasukabe Samba" but it really doesn't sound like a traditional Brazilian samba at all. Still, it's very pleasant listening although I was surprised that this was actually a single provided by the folk duo Cherish（チェリッシュ）in 1990 as a promotion for the city of Kasukabe. The reason that I was surprised was that in spite of the release year, it certainly sounds more like something that came from the 1970s, around the same time that the duo's arguably most famous hit, "Tento Mushi no Samba" （てんとう虫のサンバ）was released. This was written by Akira Ito（伊藤アキラ）and composed by Shunichi Makaino（馬飼野俊一）.
Hi, J-Canuck.
ReplyDeleteAt first, just after reading the title, I was curious about the song, but like you said in the article, “Kasukabe Samba” sounds nothing like traditional samba. In the last few years, as you could notice after a couple of my posts, I've been really interested in Japanese songs with Brazilian influences, so, for that reason, I’m always curious as to why a song have samba in the title but doesn't sound like samba at all. I get that sometimes they just mix some random Brazilian sounds with typical Kayo Kyoku, but this time there's nothing that screams Brazil at all. Maybe the Japanese definition of samba is very loose, which is understandable, by the way.
As for the Carnaval in Rio, it's still far from what we have in normal times, but I think we're slowly getting there. Because of the Omicron variant, the big, traditional samba parade was postponed until April, so there's little to watch on TV regarding Carnaval.
Unfortunately, I'm still very afraid of going out to party or things like that, so I'm spending Carnaval at home again this year. I also must work on an article for the University, so I wouldn't have the time anyway.
Hi, Marcos.
DeleteYeah, I was scratching my head after listening to "Kasukabe Samba" since the song doesn't have any Brazilian influences at all. I figured that it was named that way simply because it would remind old Cherish fans of "Tento Mushi no Samba".
I'm glad that things are slowly getting back to normal in Brazil and I'm hoping that Carnaval gets back up and running from April. I understand if you and your family want to take things very slowly about socializing again. Our family isn't in any hurry either although things are improving here.
Yeah I saw the same news on TV, slowly but surely the samba schools are back. BTW, for another interesting take on the topic, listen to "Star Wars Samba" by Masayoshi Takanaka. Surreal.
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