YONA YONA WEEKENDERS -- Sunrise

 

There are many New Year's traditions in Japan and I'm sure that all of them were attempted a couple of weeks ago. Included among them is being the lucky ones to catch the first sunrise to reach the nation. Well, the easternmost point under Japanese claim is Minami-Torishima which is an extremely remote atoll with poisonous snails some 1,848 km southeast of Tokyo. The citizenry can be very hardy and ambitious but I don't think most of them would venture quite that far.

A place that is far more accessible to see that first dawn of the year is Cape Inubosaki in Chiba Prefecture. Supposedly, it arrived at 6:46 am on January 1st. I was never all that keen myself to wake up in the early morning hours of New Year's Day to see the sun break through the horizon; I was perfectly happy to have any osechi or regular breakfast at a more civilized hour.😉

But I digress. A little over a month ago, I wrote about "Tokyo Midnight Cruising Club"（東京ミッドナイトクルージングクラブ）which was YONA YONA WEEKENDERS' 2nd single from May 2020 and also the penultimate track on the City Pop/punk band's second EP "Machi wo Oyoide"（街を泳いで...Swimming Through the City） a month later. It was quite the wistful and calming nocturnal melodic walk during a very jittery time on Earth.

Well, the final track on "Machi wo Oyoide" is "Sunrise". Having YYW have their music video set in a very bright empty swimming pool was probably the right call since although it still keeps that languid groove, "Sunrise" is a more upbeat tune about sun-up symbolizing hope and a happier future...plus some much-needed Vitamin D.