Frankly speaking, I'm not sure what the state of summer festivals this year is considering that COVID-19 seems to be raging through Japan once more. I'm on the fence here since although I know that people have to stay safe, I also feel for those residents who love their matsuri and have been rarin' to go with them once more after a couple of years of no celebrations. I remember that the Sumida River Fireworks Festival was cancelled this year as well after a tentative date of July 30th, but I'm not sure about some of the smaller and local festivals.
My thoughts above were sparked after watching the video for Pizzicato Five's September 2000 23rd single "Tokyo no Gasshou" (Tokyo Singalong). It has the divine Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）along with good buddies, singer Shigeru Matsuzaki（松崎しげる）and hip-hop musician YOU THE ROCK☆ painting the town red through Old Tokyo, including my old work area of Asakusa during the summer.
It's quite the thing to see representatives of Shibuya-kei, 70s balladry and turn-of-the-century hip-hop altogether as they ply their vocal trade (Nomiya and Matsuzaki crooning away while YOU weaves rap here and there) while the music reflects the influences, too. Although I don't think "Tokyo no Gasshou" will go down as one of my favourite P5 tunes, I'm thankful for letting the trio show me some of those natsukashii scenes including walking along Nakamise Douri and the rickshaw rides around Asakusa. A couple of friends and I did one such ride around the neighbourhood; I think the operator took one look at me and reckoned that he was really going to earn his pay that night.
The one thing that I never got to do which is featured in the latter part of the video was enjoying a trip on the yakatabune on the Sumida River. I'm not sure how much one would pay for the ride and dinner but I figure that it must be a special occasion. In any case, YOU THE ROCK☆ and P5's Yasuharu Konishi（小西康晴）created "Tokyo no Gasshou".
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