Akira Mita -- Night in Roppongi（ナイト・イン 六本木）

 

When I was making my acquaintance with the various parts of Tokyo once I landed there at the end of 1994, one area that I got to know was Roppongi, one of the big entertainment spots in a megalopolis filled with entertainment spots. At the time, the action was basically on the main strip which is Gaien-Higashi Dori which goes through Roppongi Crossing and heads over to Tokyo Tower. It was (and still is) lined with all sorts of establishments such as The Hard Rock Café, Tony Roma's, a lot of clubs and bars, and the notorious Gas Panic. There is a certain Showa Era grottiness to the avenue that kinda developed over the decades but there is no doubt that the strip has been popular especially when Halloween hits the area.

However, perhaps to counteract that grottiness, the huge shiny development that is Roppongi Hills rose up just west of Roppongi Crossing in 2003. With its representative Mori Building jutting up like a massive silver cylinder, I remember when the area first opened up since for the first few months, it was virtually impossible to enter because of everyone else who had wanted to take a look at the place. But I eventually got into the complex and even got to meet a student in one of the cafés there on a weekly basis. Some years after that, another commercial complex was erected by the name of Tokyo Midtown north of Roppongi Crossing. There was a decent hamburger joint there and one of my favourite tonkatsu restaurants, Hirata Bokujo, is also located in Midtown.

Of course, being born and raised in Toronto, I never got to know what Roppongi was like back in the early days. Was it a gleaming place to be seen in economically recharging Tokyo? No real idea, but perhaps I can get a slim glimpse via Akira Mita's（三田明）"Night in Roppongi", his September 1968 single. 

Mita was someone that I first introduced through his November 1963 debut single "Utsukushii Juudai"（美しい十代）which was representative of that innocent seishun kayo of young love in high school. But with "Night in Roppongi", it looks the lad has grown up and is taking on the grownup entertainment and love in the famous neighbourhood. Written by Jun Hashimoto（橋本淳）and composed by Tadashi Yoshida（吉田正）, the song takes full advantage of the Group Sounds music that was having its heyday during that time, thanks to the jangly guitars and rollicking percussion.

If any of you viewers ever get to Tokyo for the first time, have a walk through the area, old and new.