BEGIN -- Ojii Jiman no Orion Beer（オジー自慢のオリオンビール）

 

Summer arrived in the wee hours of this morning. It certainly feels like summer in my room since my room is traditionally the warmest in the entire home. But outside, it's not too bad out there; it's sunny but there's a nice breeze wafting through the area so the heat isn't really torrid.

In any case, to commemorate the official arrival of the hot season, I decided to see what kind of summer song I can post up today. I figure that something about beer would be nice since in both of my countries of birth and ancestry, the golden suds are absolutely beloved especially on a really hot day. 

Looking through the Net, I found this song was popping up a fair bit. BEGIN, the band of Okinawan blues, released a single in July 2002 titled "Ojii Jiman no Orion Beer" (Grandpa's Prized Orion Beer), an aural showcase for Okinawa's famous brand of beer. I've had Orion Beer a couple of times when I went to an Okinawan restaurant in Tokyo...it went down smooth enough. As the good folks put it in their lyrics, Orion is the elixir of the gods in Japan's southernmost prefecture. Not surprisingly, it became a commercial song for Orion itself.

Somehow, I don't think the Japanese needed the arrival of the summer solstice to go into happy hysterics today. But I think that a lot of beer of all brands was imbibed.