Although I can't take credit for the photo itself (which is provided by nesnad via Wikimedia Commons), it is a shot of my old subway station on the Tozai Line, Minami-Gyotoku Station, in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture. When I started living in the area, I quickly learned that my station could only be served by kakueki teisha or local subways which stopped at every station. The station just west of Minami-Gyotoku is Urayasu and it has both kakueki teisha and kaisoku（快速...rapid express）. It was often the case that on my way home, I took the kaisoku as far as Urayasu, got off and then waited for the kakueki teisha to take me to Minami-Gyotoku. If I ended up sleeping on the former train, well, I'd end up several stations east of my home, much to my chagrin.
Some of my salarymen students have fallen prey to the kaisoku trap due to drunkenness or fatigue. They ended up all the way in the countryside by failing to get off at the right stop. One guy ended up on the final kaisoku of the night and by the time the train reached the terminus out in the dark woods, even the last local train had shut down. That was one expensive taxi ride back to civilization and then a confrontation with an angry wife.
About a couple of months ago, I introduced singer Ayumi Amano（天野歩美）who had once been part of the duo Kilala & Ulala (キララとウララ) in the 1980s. Well, going solo in the following decade, she released her first album in 1992, "Okurimono ga Aru no"（贈り物があるの...I've Got a Present For You） from which I introduced the track "Suki na Mono wa Suki"（好きなものは好き）. I found out about the album through kinuzure's blog "Tamaranaku, AOR Kayo"（たまらなく、AOR歌謡...Irresistible, AOR Kayo）.
Well, another track from "Okurimono ga Aru no" is "Kakueki Teisha". Although kinuzure had indicated that the album was a hidden City Pop treasure, I didn't particularly find "Suki na Mono wa Suki" to be from that particular genre, being more straight-ahead pop in my estimation. However, "Kakueki Teisha" is closer to urban form. It starts out with a nice fresh riff that to kinuzure sounds reminiscent of Christopher Cross although I think it's more Pat Metheny. Written by Kumiko Yoshizawa（吉澤久美子）and composed by Amano herself, it's a bright and light 90s tune that definitely doesn't sound anything like the unfortunate incidents involving my students by not transferring to the local train.
When I lived in the Kanto area I was mostly using the Tōkaidō Line and Keihin–Tōhoku Line and sometimes the awesome Saikyō Line! These days if I ride trains it is mainly the 奥羽本線 (Ōu-honsen/Ōu Main Line). I send a lot more time on city buses at least in the mornings. At first I was a little skeptical of the City Pop label attached to 「各駅停車」 but then I saw or rather I heard that periodic saxophone interlude along with the other elements and I knew you were right.
ReplyDeleteIt's why I put both City Pop and pop in the Labels. At best, I thought the song straddled both genres.
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