The Undokai（運動会）Songs in Honour of International Day of Play

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by Tetsuro Kurata

 

It's another Hump Day this week and as has occasionally been the case, I like to put up an Author's Pick article just to liven the middle of the week up. Today, I found out that June 11th is the International Day of Play according to the United Nations. Now, I wasn't sure what they meant by "play"; was it referring to board games, gaming or sports? Well, I should have known since we're talking about the UN here that it was about kids' having that right to play for health and development.

As such, I've been reminded of the undokai (Sports Day) that I attended while I was on the JET Programme over 35 years ago. Mind you, the sports day festivities took place in the autumn but they do reflect about what the International Day of Play is all about: getting the kids together to do all sorts of activities such as relay races and ball tosses throughout the day. Because I was in a village, Sports Day took on even bigger meaning as a good chunk of the population came out to cheer on the kids at my junior high schools. Afterwards, when the kids went home to rest and shower, the parents and staffers headed out to imbibe copious amounts at the local izakaya in what could have been called the International Day of Drink (followed by the International Night of Gastrointestinal Distress and Headaches).

Regardless, I heard a number of songs played repeatedly during those Sports Days on the loudspeakers as BGM or tunes accompanying some of the events. I'm listing a few of them here along with a couple of Western oldies.

Princess Princess -- Diamonds

Bakufu Slump -- Runner

Toshinobu Kubota -- Ryuusei no Saddle (流星のサドル）

George Washington Dixon (perhaps) -- Turkey in the Straw (known as "Oklahoma Mixer" in Japan)

Leroy Anderson -- Bugler's Holiday (known as "Trumpet Fuki no Kyujitsu" in Japan)

Reminiscings of Youth: The Keio Plaza Hotel

 

I'm providing a special Reminiscings of Youth article tonight in that it doesn't revolve around any of the Western songs that I usually centre a ROY around. The target is actually a building!🏢

Earlier tonight, I was watching an NHK hour-long documentary on the stories behind the architecture of some of the buildings erected in Tokyo in the 1960s and 1970s. It wasn't too dense and academic since it was some entertainers who were leading the way including a comedian who had studied architecture at university before he decided to take that very different career path.

A number of buildings were featured including a few in West Shinjuku which is also known as the Skyscraper District. I used to walk through the area on a weekly basis since I did have one teaching gig in the area for several years, and I thought it was quite the marvel to put up so many hulking towers there considering how earthquake-prone Japan is. One of the buildings on that program was the Keio Plaza Hotel, accommodations where I stayed at for four nights and five days during the summer of 1989. It was the base for many many new recruits on the JET Programme as we had our orientation session there before getting shipped out to our respective prefectures.

What I learned on the program was that the Keio was the very first skyscraper to be erected in West Shinjuku which used to be the site of a huge water treatment facility. And from Wikipedia, I found out that it was the first high-rise hotel in Japan. Looking at a photo of the hotel when it was first put up in 1971, it stuck out like a sore thumb in the middle of nowhere so I could only imagine what the first guests were thinking when they arrived. Of course, since then, the Keio has been swamped by fellow skyscrapers including other hotels.

I'd assumed that the Keio Plaza was actually put up a decade later but the program set me straight, and I also discovered that it was given its distinctive Z-shape (looking at the roof from the sky) so that every room had a decent view. As I said off the top, I was able to stay there for the better part of a week during an especially torrid summer, and my biggest memories included having the view of the soon-to-be complete Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building which struck me as looking like a life-sized version of the SDF 1 from "Macross" and having a fellow JET teacher/free spirited hippie type take me barefoot outside to the nearest international phone booth while my sweat glands allowed me to become a human sprinkler in the notorious heat and humidity of a Tokyo summer.

Although I only stayed there that one time in 1989, in the years since when I was actually living and working in the Tokyo area, I have used the Keio lobby as a meeting place for folks whenever we didn't want to meet up at the usually crowded JR Shinjuku Station, especially when our dinner venue was actually in West Shinjuku. 

Well, I guess since I used the Keio Plaza Hotel as a target for this special ROY, I figure that I will just have to give another one for the Tokyo Prince Hotel sometime down the line since that place has even more meaning to me. In any case, I will provide the songs at No. 8, 9 and 10 for August 1989 on the Oricon chart this time around.

8. Bakufu Slump -- Resort Lovers （リゾ・ラバ）

9. Princess Princess -- Diamonds

10. Yumi Matsutoya -- Anniversary

Bakufu Slump -- Resort Lovers （リゾ・ラバ）

I mentioned for my first article on the rock band Bakufu Slump（爆風スランプ） that "Runner" was the much-heard go-to song for Play Days at the various schools in my area of Gunma Prefecture way back when. But in the same period, vocalist Sun Plaza Nakano also made his distinctive voice on the telly with Slump's 14th single, "Resort Lovers".

The lyrics about the trials and tribulations of holiday romance were from Nakano while the dune buggy-driving melody was by New Funky Suekichi（Newファンキー末吉）. Unlike the 12th single of "Runner", I don't think "Resort Lovers" quite fit the Play Day ethos at the schools I visited but I also think that the speakers also played this tune as well...such was the power of Bakufu Slump back in the day. Mind you, the music certainly could get athletes' blood pumping.

"Resort Lovers", which was released in July 1989, peaked at No. 4 on Oricon while becoming the 20th-ranked single of the year, just a couple of positions down from "Runner". Not too bad at all. The song was also placed in Bakufu Slump's 6th original album, "I.B.W." which came out later in November and hit the top spot on the charts.

Bakufu Slump -- Runner

Along with a few other songs, such as Princess Princess' "Diamonds", Bakufu Slump's（爆風スランプ） "Runner" is one of my musical memories of my time in Gunma between 1989-1991 as a teacher on the JET Programme. And like "Diamonds", the memory was further engraved into my brain because "Runner"was a favourite tune to be played over (and over) the speakers at the annual junior high school Play Days. Just having the title "Runner"probably would have relegated it to the list for the Broadcasting Club to play it, but the instrumental version just had that jumpy melody to give the kids that extra spring in their step during their dashes.

The crew that eventually became Bakufu Slump came from an amalgam of two bands that had performed and won some big prizes at a 1981 band contest sponsored by the Yamaha Music Foundation: Bop Gun（爆風銃） and Super Slump（スパー・スランプ）. Making the union official from 1982, the new band led by the gravelly-voiced Sun Plaza Nakano（サンプラザ中野） made a name for itself as somewhat of a comic band and all-round hellraising group at their concerts by liberal usage of fire extinguishers on the audience and smashing watermelons (good golly, they were the Gallagher of J-Pop!....feel free to look up the performance artist on YouTube). And the usually very staid atmosphere on the Japanese music ranking shows such as "Yoru no Hit Studio Deluxe"（夜のヒットスタジオDELUXE) during the 80s was turned upside down when they showed up and brought their outsized theatrics onstage.

I guess when I arrived in Japan at the end of the decade, the band must have mellowed somewhat. Had no idea of their playful anarchy when I first came across them on TV, although I quickly realized what a character Sun Plaza Nakano was with his sunglasses and shiny cue ball head. Now, for the record, the rest of the band are: Pappara Kawai（パッパラー河合） on guitar, Funky Suekichi（ファンキー末吉）on drums, and Barbe-Q Wasada（バーべQ和佐田） on bass since 1989 replacing HaHiHuHeHo-Jin（はひふへほーじん）.

"Runner" was the band's 12th single released in October 1988, and the song that Nakano and Co. are best known for. I think it was more than the kids that the song inspired. Probably a lot of adults regained a second wind on hearing the refrain, "Hashiru, hashiru..."(running, running...) , and even now, the Nakano-and-Suekichi-penned hit still gets played at the high school baseball competitions....and probably the Play Days as well.

It got as high as No. 6 on the Oricon weeklies and became the 18th-ranked song of 1989. Not surprisingly, Bakufu Slump got its invitation to the 1988 Kohaku Utagassen although its pretty remarkable getting to play the song there on New Year's Eve less than 3 months after its release. It also became a track on the band's 5th album, "High Lander" released in November 1988. It peaked at No. 3 on the album charts.