Junretsu -- Tohoku de Attamarou（とうほくであったまろう）

 

I think that I have referred to Ginzan Onsen（銀山温泉）once before in a KKP article, but if so, I do want to refer to it again tonight for the purposes of this particular article. Just before the pandemic sent international travel into hibernation for a few years, my anime buddy and a couple of other friends had gone over to Japan and decided to splurge a bit on a couple of nights' stay at the famous hot spring resort in Yamagata Prefecture. From the photos, it certainly looks like they had quite the luxurious experience. By the way, I'd like to point out that the above video comes courtesy of Kuga's Travel, a YouTube channel that I've been subscribed to for a few years now.

Over the past few years, my student, who will soon be a professor teaching tourism policy at a university, and I have been talking about where inbound tourists ought to explore outside of Tokyo. He opined that the Tohoku region (where Ginzan Onsen is located) and Hokkaido are good places to see and they could certainly use the tourism bucks. My anime buddy has developed a liking for Tohoku himself so he's visited Hirosaki in Aomori Prefecture and will be going to Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture later this year.

It looks like the national broadcaster NHK has also tried to help the area out through its Tohoku Onsen Area Support project. Last week on "Uta Con"（うたコン）, veteran folk singer-songwriter Iruka（イルカ）appeared to sing her evergreen "Nagori Yuki"（なごり雪）, but she was also there to see popular kayo group Junretsu（純烈）since she had composed a song for the guys titled "Tohoku de Attamarou" (Let's Get Warm in Tohoku) with the group leader, Kazuyoshi Sakai（酒井一圭）, providing the lyrics.

"Tohoku de Attamarou" was made the theme song for NHK's onsen project and it's a happy-go-lucky kayo with a bit of steel pedal twang praising the wonders of the Tohoku area such as a soak in the various hot springs. Even Iruka herself couldn't resist adding a few chirpy words of encouragement during the song. It was released as a digital single last October and from the music video above, it was one of the last appearances of now-former member Ryohei Odai（小田井涼平）who left the group as of January 1st 2023. Odai has been replaced by actor, model and singer Hiroaki Iwanaga（岩永洋昭）who had once played one of the Kamen Riders more than a decade ago.