Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Thursday, June 26, 2025

Cheuni -- Narita Hatsu(NARITA発)/Park Junyoung -- Haneda Hatsu(羽田発)

 

For Japanese music listeners, especially those who like their Mood Kayo, enka and general kayo kyoku, you probably are well aware that airports have been the go-to settings for romantic endings and reminiscings, a place where songwriters have loved to establish their songs. I guess some broken hearts just need to go to their local terminals as much as they need to head out to the countryside resorts to drown their sorrows. Mind you, some of those airports have top-notch restaurants.

Strangely enough, in the past several weeks, I've been able to find a couple of songs with similar titles that are forms of airport kayo with the only difference being the airport in question. And the two airports are right in the Tokyo area.

One is "Narita Hatsu" (Departing from Narita) which describes one woman's wistful need to visit the international airport out in Chiba Prefecture (and it used to be the airport of choice whenever I returned to Canada on vacation) to remember the last time she saw her now ex-paramour. Sung by South Korean singer Cheuni(チェウニ), this was her 13th single from January 2008 and it was written by Ichizo Fukuda(福田一三)and composed by Kazuya Amikura(網倉一也). It's quite the classy and dignified example of New Adult Music or Mood Kayo; with those strings in there, I was almost convinced to even throw in the Fashion Music label. There was even something quite Teresa Teng(テレサテン)about the song.

Now, the whole reason that I decided to do this double take on airport kayo with two different South Korean singers was that I saw Park Junyoung(パク・ジュニョン)on an episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"(新BS日本の歌)several weeks ago as he sang his 6th single from August 2016, "Haneda Hatsu" (Departing from Haneda). Haneda Airport, right in the middle of Tokyo, has been my airport during my visits to Japan in the 2010s, and yep, they've got some pretty fancy and delicious fare in those restaurants.

But getting back on track, Park's song, which hit No. 21 on Oricon, has the protagonist taking a somewhat more disdainful and embittered view as she is the one who's getting on the plane and taking off forever. Her old boyfriend hasn't even shown up to say goodbye so she's giving him the kiss off in absentia. The music by veteran Keisuke Hama(浜圭介)is pretty folksy and whimsical considering Shinichi Ishihara's(石原信一)lyrics, and listening to that mandolin-esque instrument playing throughout the song, I was rather wondering about it being a modern-day Exotic Kayo. 

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