KKP Tokyo Meetup

It's been always difficult to explain the concept of "縁(en)" to my fellow American friends.  The usual English translation is "connection", "relation", or "bond".  To me, it's more like "fate", a certain force in your life that makes certain encounters unavoidable, as if it's written.  And so, around 3 weeks ago, on November 18, 2023, while I was traveling in Tokyo, I finally met, in person, Noelle Tham, one of KKP's contributors who's also an enka 演歌 lover.  J-Canuck, the owner of KKP, was joking that I've become the official KKP ambassador, traveling around the world meeting fellow KKP members.  According to J-Canuck, now that I've met both him and Noelle in person, I hold the record of having met the most KKP contributors around the world!  I'm surely honored. And if this is not "縁(en)", I don't know what to call it 😊.  In fact, discovering KKP back in 2012 was certainly some kind of fate.

Noelle and I met at a Yakiniku 焼肉 restaurant in Kichijouji 吉祥寺 in Tokyo.  Although I've been to Tokyo many times, I've never been to that part of the city.  Originally, we tried to go to a restaurant that specializes in Maguro マグロ, or Tuna, but unfortunately it's fully booked that night and so we settled for Yakiniku.

Even though we've met online several times, it's a completely different experience when I finally got to meet Noelle in person.  Call me old school but I've always preferred face to face meetings.  I think it'd be quite sad if we all lived our lives in the so called metaverse. But I digress.

We talked about a lot of things - family, places where we grew up, studying in Japan, life as a foreign student, traveling etc etc.  It was my 5th day in Japan (I was there for a week) and Noelle asked me where I've visited.  I said I went to Shibamata 柴又 because I remembered watching a Japanese drama named Tokyo Sentimental (東京センチメンタル) some years ago.  In one episode, the main character went on a date in Shibamata and said it's famous for its unagi (eel over rice).

Shibamata is definitely not a tourist spot among foreigners.  However, it's very famous among local tourists because of an extremely well-known TV drama and movie series called "It's Tough Being a Man 男はつらいよ".  According to Wikipedia, it holds the Guinness record of the longest running movie series starring a single actor, Atsumi Kiyoshi 渥美清.  From 1969 through 1989, two films were made each year, whereas from 1990 through 1995, one film was made and released each year during New Year.  Kiyoshi, who played the role of Tora-san 寅さん in that series, passed away in 1996 at the age of 68.

As soon as I mentioned Shibamata, our conversation immediately shifted to one about music.  It turned out that Noelle's mom loves Shibamata because it's associated with her beloved enka song "Yagiri no Watashi 矢切の渡し".  In Shibamata, there is a historical site by the same name.  It's a tiny little old pier where residents of Tokyo have been using to cross the Edo River 江戸川 by boat since the beginning of the Edo Period 江戸時代 (1603-1868).  The boats are still running today from March through November, weather permitting.  Furthermore, as I've said above, there're almost no foreign tourists in Shibamata and so Noelle's mom would like to check out this relatively off beaten path.

In 1976, Chiaki Naomi ちあきなおみ released "Yagiri no Watashi 矢切の渡し" as a B-side song in her single Sakabagawa 酒場川.  It was written by Funamura Tooru 船村徹 whereas Ishimoto Miyuki 石本美由起 took care of the lyrics.  It's a story about two young lovers who decided to run away from their parents.  They were secretly trying to cross the Edo river at Yagiri no Watashi amid heavy rain one evening, surrendering to their fate and letting the river carry them to wherever it may be.  The song was later covered by a whole bunch of people including Hosokawa Takashi 細川たかし, Misora Hibari 美空ひばり, Fuji Keiko 藤圭子 (Utada Hikaru's 宇多田ヒカル mother), and even Nakamori Akina 中森明菜.  Among them, Hosokawa Takashi fetched the highest record sales for the song, according to Wikipedia.

Here's Chiaki Naomi's version.

And here's Hosokawa's version.

Personally, I like Chiaki's version better because she used two different voices, a male and a female one, for the part where the two lovers converse with each other.  Her voice also brings out the drama depicted by the story of the song.

It's been a very very enjoyable evening.  Thank you, Noelle.  If I happen to be in Tokyo, we should do it again.