Hayabusa -- Akasaka Rainy Night（赤坂レイニー・ナイト）

 

Although I have been to the tony district of Akasaka in Tokyo a number of times, nighttime visits were pretty rare for me (maybe two or three times?). For one thing, going there at night often meant dining and drinking at some expensive joints, something that I really couldn't afford on a teacher's salary. Still walking in Akasaka past sunset gives that feeling of being in a cool and well-to-do district as an alternative to Ginza. Incidentally, giving credit where credit is due, the above video has been provided by the YouTube channel Tokyo Night District.

Just my two pennies here, but I think when it comes to the Mood Kayo genre, there are a couple of popular tropes: one being rain and another being Akasaka. Mood Kayo is seen as the urban cousin to enka with a lot of bars and clubs in its songs, so Akasaka is just the place for that, and for some reason, rain adds to the atmosphere or the mood. Therefore, I guess it was a done deal that a song titled "Akasaka Rainy Night" would be created. After all, we've had songs such as "Una Sera di Tokyo"（ウナ・セラ・ディ東京）and "Ame no Akasaka"（雨の赤坂）.

In any case, "Akasaka Rainy Night" is a February 2024 single by the kayo kyoku group Hayabusa（はやぶさ）that was released just yesterday, and I saw it performed on the NHK program "Hayauta"（はやウタ）which is why I'm writing about it here. Written by Naoki Yasuoka（保岡直樹）and composed by Masayoshi Tsuruoka（鶴岡雅義）of Tokyo Romantica（東京ロマンチカ）, it sounds like a classic Mood Kayo with that Latin guitar plucking and harmonies by the duo's Hikaru（ヒカル）and Yamato（ヤマト）. At the same time, though, I can also pick up on some swinging French jazz lurking under the main melody.

At first impression, I thought that Yasuoka's lyrics would depict another tale of heartbreak in the big sad city, especially with all that rain. However, the words don't really show that, instead illustrating some sort of rendezvous happening in Akasaka while the precipitation is happening outside. Well, the weather may be cold and wet outside but at least the love is keeping them warm. 

I first wrote about Hayabusa back in 2017 with their "Romantic Tokyo"（ロマンティック東京）. At the time, they were a trio but  Shouya（ショウヤ）left the group in 2018 for health reasons.