Yukari Ito -- Sasurai（さすらい）

 

Personally speaking, I can't say that I am a particularly good traveler. I never developed the wanderlust or the smarts or the financial supply to head on out to a different country to explore, so I do have the admiration for those (and they include some of my friends) who have taken that jet, ship or car to take the risk to go around that unknown country, meet new people and learn new things.

Kayo kyoku has plenty of examples where such folks have gone onto new pastures within and outside of Japan, but usually not on a mission of learning but one of forgetting, namely that romance that has dried up like autumn leaves in late November. The one example that comes immediately to mind is enka veteran Sayuri Ishikawa's（石川さゆり）trademark "Tsugaru Kaikyo Fuyu Geshiki" （津軽海峡・冬景色）.

I found another example, and this time, it's a sad straight kayo titled "Sasurai" elegantly sung by Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）. According to Jisho.org, the term means "wandering alone in a strange country", and the lyrics by Ou Yoshida（吉田旺）clearly illustrates this as the protagonist walks around in a new town with no people she knows as she searches for someone to unload her story to. Perhaps that town might be located way out on the other side of Japan, but the melancholy melody by Shosuke Ichikawa（市川昭介）under his pseudonym of Akira Nishi（西あきら）indicates that the man or woman may have gone as far afield as France or Spain (mind you, the last minute of the song gets overlaid with some boppy 70s kayo percussion). 

"Sasurai" was released as Ito's 21st single in October 1970...perfect timing in kayo terms since that is when the romance falls as much as those autumn leaves. In a way, although I think that Ito delivers this wonderfully, this is also a song that could fit the discographies of either Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）or Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）in her diva period.