Yes, I agree that we are still several months away from those festive events of a Japanese summer. But it's gosh darn balmy here in Toronto at a mind-blowing 6 degrees Celsius, so you can forgive me at the torrid heights this day in late February.
Another nice thing is that NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新・BS日本のうた）is back on the Jme schedule after a few weeks away. At one point, I'd feared that it wasn't coming back to our streaming service due to lack of popularity, but happily it was back on Sunday evening.
Anyways, the first song up on the episode was "Tebyoushi Ondo" (The Clapping Song) which took me a while to track down the source year, but apparently it was 1964. The singer was no problem, though, since it was the beatific Haruo Minami（三波春夫）. Written by Hachiro Kadoi（門井八郎）and composed by Kazuo Harukawa（春川一夫）, it is as it is defined: an enjoyable festival song to be danced and clapped. For you folks in snowy climes ranging from Niigata Prefecture to Toronto, Ontario, just close your eyes and pretend that you are rhythmically marching in a circle and clapping your hands in the heat and humidity of a typical August natsu.
I just check the weather for Toronto and learned that currently it's Humidity is at 92%!?! around Pearson Int'l Airport. Looks like some Matsuri BGM like the clapping song will compliment Toronto's current atmosphere
ReplyDeleteThe humidity is probably due to the amount of sweat and tears exuded by frustrated passengers at Pearson due to delays and cancellations. I've got a friend heading to Japan today and I sure hope that he departs on time.
DeleteI will keep my fingers crossed that your friend's flight departs on time!
DeleteI haven't heard from him grumbling about his plane so I assume that it did arrive safely in Tokyo.
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