Sad to say, but I didn't do all that much exploring outside of the central 23 wards of Tokyo during my life in Japan. However, I do remember meeting with a mix of teachers and students one Sunday to do some picnicking at Mt. Takao in the city of Hachioji which is inside the Japanese capital itself out in the west end. Yup, there are actually woods and a mountain in the megalopolis that has been seen to be an inspiration for Coruscant in "Star Wars". The above "Discover Nippon" video is a decade old but you can still get the idea.
Other than that, I don't know very much about Hachioji and I haven't been in the urbanized parts of the city. Wikipedia has stated that it is a bedroom city much like my own burg of Ichikawa in Chiba Prefecture. Hachioji currently has a population of around half a million people.
Ahhh...comedian, racer and TV personality HIROMI（ヒロミ）probably felt that too many people outside of his hometown didn't know enough about Hachioji either, so in March 2022, he recorded and released his own tune "Hachioji no Uta" (Hachioji Song). HIROMI indeed performed this last night on "Uta Con"（うたコン）as a slightly tongue-in-cheek but mostly heart-on-sleeve tribute to the city. The comedian along with fellow comedian and musician Hanawa（はなわ）wrote the lyrics while Hanawa took care of the rollicking music. Basically, he sings about some of the other celebrities who hail from Hachioji such as YouTuber Fuwa-chan（フワちゃん）and the one-and-only Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）. Also, he sings the praises of Hachioji Ramen, the plentiful gingko trees and the fact that there is as much as a 5-degree difference between the city centre and Hachioji (might be vital during summer). Mind you, the guy cheekily warns that a lot of the middle-aged guys living there are former bike gang members.😱 "Hachioji no Uta" managed to reach No. 68 on Oricon as a part of a double A-side with "Kamisama to no Yakusoku"（神様との約束...Promise with God）.
Over the years that KKP has been around, I've been happy to say that we've had some familial connections among the various artists featured here on the blog. For example, we've had the Yamashitas and the Suzukis as just a mere few examples. Well, with the inclusion of HIROMI onto "Kayo Kyoku Plus", we have another husband and wife since he married 80s aidoru Iyo Matsumoto（松本伊代）in 1993 so they are celebrating their 30th anniversary this year.
To finish off, here is the more urbanized section of Hachioji thanks to Video Street View Japan.
This was a fascinating post as I knew next to nothing about Hachioji. I spent some time in Kanagawa Kawasaki, but I didn't venture out all over Tokyo either. Most of my years in Japan have been spent in Tohoku.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I kept things within the 23 wards for the most part, and the area was plenty big enough for me already. I recall having dinner once in Kichijoji.
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