Kobe Portopia Hotel in Osaka Bay is a place that I first saw when I was on the Toronto Japanese Language School graduation trip in the summer of 1981. Though we never stayed there back then, I did wonder what it would be like to stay in first-class accommodations like that. Well, I just had to wait nine more years when I and hundreds of other JET Programme teachers got to stay there during a Renewers' Conference. As it was, it was a pleasant three-night stay although I struggle to remember much of my time at the conference.
Y'know...it may not be too difficult to come up with another Author's Pick in the near future with the theme of hotel-based kayo kyoku. It wasn't too long ago when I posted BORO's "Negresco Hotel"（ネグレスコ・ホテル）based on the real-life place in France.
Maybe the hotel in "Shiosai no Hotel" (Hotel of the Sound of Waves) is more existential than literal. NSP's September 1981 21st single came at a time when autumn was seen as the season of the death of romance. Through vocalist Shigeru Amano's（天野滋）lyrics, the hotel is a whole lot emptier and devoid of the fun and games of men and women...which might explain hearing the sound of those waves a whole lot better. Amano was also responsible for the melody which Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）arranged, and at first, I was content to categorize "Shiosai no Hotel" as a rock-tinged New Music tune but that underlying groove gradually infiltrated my ears, and so the City Pop label got added.
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