Chiyuki Asami -- Inokashira-sen（井の頭線）

 

Whenever I arrived at Shibuya Station, I often saw and heard about the Keio Inokashira Line which begins and ends there. I didn't ride it all that much but I believe that there was that one time when I used it to head over to the popular district of Kichijoji. A bunch of us all decided to have hamburgers at one particular place there. By the way, the above video is from the YouTube channel, Tokyo Explorer.

Romance was definitely not something that I ever thought about when it came to the Inokashira Line, and yet I did come across this song by singer Chiyuki Asami（あさみちゆき）. When I was posting Kazuya Amikura's（網倉一也）"Good-bye Yokosuka" （Good-bye 横須賀）over the weekend was the time that I discovered "Inokashira-sen" (Inokashira Line) because Amikura was the composer with Mami Takubo（田久保真見）as the lyricist.

Released as Asami's 3rd single in October 2004, the Keio train line is the setting for some bittersweet memories by a person who got on the line with their erstwhile lover back in happier times. It's been categorized as an enka on J-Wiki, but I think that there is also something folksy in the arrangement, too, so maybe this could also fall under the category of a 21st-century New Adult Music tune. "Inokashira-sen" managed to peak at No. 64 on Oricon.

Asami was born as Yoko Yamamoto（山本陽子）in Yamaguchi Prefecture. Her distinctive stage name was formed with the family name of Asami coming from the love of the morning seascape in her hometown and the given name of Chiyuki taken from her brother who had sadly passed away some years previously. Beginning her career in 2003, she's been known as The Diva of Inokashira Park, a place where she still performs monthly as a busker. She likes to cover kayo kyoku, J-Pop, enka and folk. She has released 20 singles up to 2017 and several albums.