Bread & Butter -- Yume ga Tobu（夢がとぶ）

 

Although KKP readers probably know by this point that I had this summer 1981 trip to Japan that was a major turning point in my life, I have yet to relate that one of the last stops on our graduation trip was Mikimoto Pearl Island in Mie Prefecture. According to Wikipedia, the island is the birthplace of cultured pearl cultivation.

It's been over forty years since I've been on the island but I remember that we got to stay in a Japanese-style hotel which was very luxurious, and frankly we teens (being teens) underappreciated and over-deserved the accommodations. We also got to visit the Mikimoto Pearl Museum which actually owns the island and I distinctly have that listed price of one small black pearl seared into my head: $10,000 in 1981 US dollars. Try to imagine how much it would cost now.

Our first set of accommodations was the Tokyo Prince Hotel next to Tokyo Tower and that was also a mighty fine and distinguished place to rest our bones for the first leg of our tour, but the Mikimoto Pearl Island hotel was truly something of a resort vacation. Not sure if the place exists anymore; I see a number of hotels around the bay listed but nothing on the island itself.

In any event, perhaps I can interest you in a slice of Resort Pop? I mean, this particular tune by duo Bread & Butter（ブレッド&バター）, "Yume ga Tobu" (The Dream Flies), has that vibe reflective of this subset of City Pop where all those Seizo Watase（わたせせいぞう）and Hiroshi Nagai（永井博）citizens head out to the beachside hotels and inns outside of Tokyo for a weekend before heading back to the megalopolis. Written and composed by the husband-and-wife team of lyricist Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and composer Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）, the 80s arrangement aside, there is something quite 1970s about that melody.

"Yume ga Tobu" was released as Bread & Butter's 22nd single in September 1985. It was also a part of the duo's BEST compilation, "Miracle Touch", whose title track I've already provided an article for.