Y'know...I've come across a few song titles that involved ages such as Saori Minami's（南沙織）jaunty "Juu-nana Sai"（17才）and Shinji Tanimura's（谷村新司）elegant if haunting "Ni-juu-ni Sai"（22歳）.
Then I hear singer-songwriter Kohei Dojima's（堂島孝平）"Ni-juu-go Sai" (25 Years Old) which was the coupling song to his January 2002 16th single "Fuyu ga Tobichitta"（冬が飛び散った...Winter Has Flown Away）. As Dojima himself sings at the very beginning, "25 blues for you", and it's a pretty darn frenetic tune with some Jose Feliciano Latin guitar feelings, and according to him, being 25 can suck donkeys. The fellow in this song seems to feel that the mid-20s is mid-life crisis time. Everyone seems to be coupling up except him, he's had his bicycle stolen and he's going through the doldrums in Japan's capital.
But man, is the song popping all over the place with that guitar and percussion! You are just about obligated to run late to the subway station with a piece of bread in your mouth, just like that anime trope, if this song is running in your head. I also forgot to mention that the electric organ in there also brings in a bit of jet-set 1960s...almost tagged it with Shibuya-kei. When I was 25, I was teaching in the mountains of Gunma so didn't quite have that feeling of unfulfillment in life quite yet.
When I was 25, I was living in Kanagawa prefecture and spent a lot of time exploring and sightseeing. In recent years, there have been a whole lot more bear sightings and encounters, so I probably won't be able to do a lot of the traveling I used to.
ReplyDeleteYeah, those bear attacks have been sharing prime time news space along with the new Prime Minister's activities and any major weather events.
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