Songs from NHK's "Furu Café Kei Haru-san no Kyuujitsu"（ふるカフェ系 ハルさんの休日）

 

In a world of Starbucks, Excelsior and Doutour coffee shops in Japan, it was always nice to know that there were (and hopefully still are) also plenty of independent cafés run by coffee masters. I always had a soft spot for the mom-and-pop shops although I only had the franchises in my Ichikawa neighbourhood. However on occasion, I was able to visit such places with friends like the one you see above in Saitama Prefecture when I returned to Japan for a couple of weeks in 2017. From the décor to the aromas to the menu, every such café I visited there had its own sumptuous experiences for all of the senses.

So you can guess that an NHK program such as "Furu Cafe Kei Haru-san no Kyuujitsu" (The Old Cafés ~ Haru's Day Off)  would be right up my alley. Starting from 2015 as a pilot one-off, it got the green light for regular seasons in 2016 which have also been showing on our local Japan TV. I would say that the show is a "dramatimentary" (crushing together "dramatization" and "documentary") with actor Gouta Watanabe（渡部豪太）as Haru Sanada（真田ハル）, a blogger who has been traveling throughout Japan in search of those atmospheric and woodsy coffee houses. I can absolutely relate to him. Incidentally, the actual café owners and other real-life associates take part in the hijinks as well.

Now the reason that I'm even referring to "Haru-san" is not because of the theme song. It apparently doesn't have an official one but there have been rotating tunes over the past several years according to its J-Wiki article. I could track down three out of the four listed on YouTube and all four of them are cover versions of past kayo.

Ayano Tsuji -- Nantonaku Nantonaku（なんとなくなんとなく）

A cover of The Spiders'（ザ・スパイダーズ）classic from 1966 (and yes, that's partially the reason that I put the original up only a few hours ago), Tsuji（つじあやの）gives it her own quintessential spin via her trusty ukulele. Her version is on her 2004 album "Cover Girl".

Asako Toki -- Kimi ni Mune Kyun （君に、胸キュン）

I already gave my paragraph on Toki's（土岐麻子）cover of Yellow Magic Orchestra's hit in the article that features both original and cover. A track on her 2006 "Weekend Shuffle" album, it's a groovier rather than technopoppier, and it fits that feeling of enjoying an afternoon at the coffee house with a good friend or book.

Hiromi Ohta -- FUN x 4

An intriguingly Caribbean take on Eiichi Ohtaki's（大滝詠一）doo-wop original from his classic "A Long Vacation" from 1981, Ohta's（太田裕美）cover was a part of a 2009 tribute album for "A Long Vacation" titled "A LONG VACATION from Ladies". Pass the sunblock, please.😎

Now the one song that I couldn't find was "Hatto Shite! Good"（ハッとして! Good） which was originally recorded by Toshihiko Tahara（田原俊彦）in 1980 (ahh found it now).

Ayano Tsuji -- Kaze ni Naru（風になる）

 

Kyoto singer-songwriter Ayano Tsuji（つじあやの）has been mentioned once before on KKP for performing the theme song, "Ashita Kitto"（明日きっと）, for the Kyoto-based NHK anime "Maiko-san Chi no Makanai-san"（舞妓さんちのまかないさん）.

But what I failed to mention is that I had seen her on television while I was living in Japan now and then. She's always had that countenance as a down-to-earth woman with short hair and glasses while plucking away at her ukulele. While attending high school in the early 1990s, she joined a folk song club. She had wanted to play the guitar, but she found that her hands were too small to strum the strings, so she moved to the ukulele. According to J-Wiki, she practiced playing along the Kamo River near her school.

Her career began in 1998, and in 2002, Tsuji released her 6th single in June titled "Kaze ni Naru" (Becoming the Wind). From my memories of her music, "Kaze ni Naru" fits her style of a comforting and laidback pop song. No pretensions about this one...she could perform this in front of buddies at a campfire as well as at a full concert. Very apt music video for the song, too.

Reaching No. 13 on Oricon and going Platinum, "Kaze ni Naru" was also used as the theme song for the Studio Ghibli film "Neko no Ongaeshi"（猫の恩返し...The Cat Returns） which was released in theatres a month following the release of the single. 

Go Sakabe -- Theme from "Maiko-san Chi no Makanai-san"（舞妓さんちのまかないさん）/Ayano Tsuji -- Ashita Kitto（明日きっと）

 

When it comes to anime via TV Japan, the ones we've been seeing for years are "Chibi Maruko-chan"（ちびまる子ちゃん）and "Meitantei Conan"（名探偵コナン）and they're nighttime fare. However, in the last couple of weeks, we've actually begun seeing something even more heartwarming and stomach-filling to boot during the noon hour. There's a Wikipedia article regarding "Maiko-san Chi no Makanai-san" (Kiyo in Kyoto: From the Maiko House), but to explain things here, it's based on the 2016 Aiko Koyama（小山愛子）manga in which a couple of best buddies, Kiyo and Sumire, head from their Aomori Prefecture hometown to undergo maiko training in Kyoto. Kiyo doesn't have the chops for it but gets to stay anyways as the cook supporting the maiko house.

I wish that there were some excerpts from "Maiko-san" featuring the food of the episode since they are very yummy including the tonkatsu. The one disadvantage regarding Kiyo, if you can call it that, is that she's a little overzealous with the cooking. The last episode I caught had her go overboard with the dishes to the extent that the maiko were all crying uncle. After all, maiko can't afford to look like J-Canuck.

Ah...well, I found one excerpt after all!

On the TV Japan broadcasts, "Maiko-san" is coming out in 10-minute spurts so judging from the 20 to 25-minute videos that I've witnessed on YouTube, the broadcast service is spreading each episode over two to three weeks. So I gather that we may still be on official Episode 1. No matter...I'm simply enjoying the characters, the setting and the food. And Kiyo and Sumire are being played by anime's A-team of Kana Hanazawa（花澤香菜）and MAO respectively.

https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm38335277

When I first saw the show a couple of weeks ago, there was definitely someone singing a theme song but more on that singer later. Well, on seeing this video of the opening credits, I was then a little startled since there was a very different jazzy and catchy instrumental instead. On first thought, I'd assumed that there was another one of those copyright issues so the instrumental was used. However, I went through the J-Wiki article on "Maiko-san" and discovered that the anime had been first telecast on NHK World's Japan service earlier this year, and it was music director Go Sakabe（坂部剛）who had come up with that jazzy instrumental as the official opening theme.

"Maiko-san" then got to be re-broadcast again but this time on NHK's Education channel, namely Channel 3, from October, and so that's the version we've been getting. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, this time around, there is a sung opening theme and that is "Ashita Kitto" (Tomorrow For Sure) by singer-songwriter Ayano Tsuji（つじあやの）, herself a native of Kyoto. It's an appropriately heartwarming and relaxing song. Unfortunately at this point, I could only find the version at opening credit length.