Yoshitaka Minami -- Shiokaze Douri no Uwasa（潮風通りの噂）

 

The city of Urayasu（浦安）, Chiba Prefecture is right next door to my residence city of Ichikawa（市川） in the same prefecture. Both cities gave me some strong impressions. Both of them are bedroom towns for Tokyo but whereas Ichikawa spread out so widely that there was no way I could explore all of it even within a few days, Urayasu struck me as having a dual personality.

For me, there was Old Urayasu around the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line's Urayasu Station (refer to the above video) which I was far more well-acquainted with. It was the usual conglomeration of fast-food restaurants, izakaya, pachinko parlors, one major department store, supermarkets and apartment buildings. I used to teach at a juku some fifteen minutes walk away from the station so I often made use of the local Starbucks, KFC, the family restaurant and the MUJI store there. 

But then there was Shin-Urayasu or New Urayasu as you can see below. And it was like comparing night to day. The new development looked like a southern California resort community by the sea. There were palm trees, wide boulevards, a lot of spiffy new condos and attractive shopping malls. Of course, all that was probably started when Tokyo Disneyland began operations there in 1983. I could get to the area by a bus that actually began its route in front of my subway station, Minami-Gyotoku（南行徳）, just one stop east from Urayasu on the Tozai (why it didn't start from Urayasu itself is beyond me). It was a half-hour ride one way to Shin-Urayasu Station. Mind you, unless I had friends come over from abroad to head to the Mouse House, I never really frequented the Shin-Urayasu area. It appeared and most likely still is too expensive for my blood.

I knew that Urayasu had its humble beginnings as a small fishing town but I never really saw that side; Urayasu has always been that bedroom town/condo community for me. But I got that historical reality put into my brain while listening to Yoshitaka Minami's（南佳孝）single from 1978 "Shiokaze Douri no Uwasa" (Rumours of a Sea Breeze Avenue) because it was the theme song for an NTV drama of that year called "Kaigara no Machi" (貝がらの街...Seashell Town) which took place and was actually filmed in Urayasu when it was a whole lot smaller and sleepier. It's a pity that I can't find any footage from the drama.

Unlike Minami's familiar City Pop stuff or his 50s/60s twangy material, "Shiokaze Douri no Uwasa" is quite the softer song. For one thing, he had nothing to do with the actual creation of the song which was handled by lyricist Keisuke Yamakawa（山川啓介）and composer/arranger Yuji Ohno（大野雄二）. The result is something that sounds quite early 70s Carpenter-esque but then again, any languid tune with an oboe in there will always remind me of Karen and Richard Carpenter. Again, there is no sign of the drama on YouTube but from the song itself, I can imagine that "Kaigara no Machi" was a pretty down-home TV series with plenty of that smalltown Urayasu atmosphere.