Hayabusa -- Yogiri no Serenade（夜霧のセレナーデ）

 

I'm not quite sure what the rationale behind it is, but it's a unique thing within the JR Shinkansen lines for different Bullet Trains to link up (in this case above, the green Hayabusa and the red Komachi) and travel together from one station to another after which they decouple with each going in other directions. Then they loop back and link up once more and head back down. Well, in the last few months, there have been some sudden and unexpected decouplings of these trains while en route which have snarled schedules all over the place and even made the top spot on the news. Hopefully, the problem is resolved as soon as possible.

As I mentioned in the last article that I put up for the singing group Hayabusa（はやぶさ）, even they had a decoupling of sorts when one of the former trio, Shouya（ショウヤ）, left in 2018 due to health reasons. So since then, it's been just Hikaru（ヒカル）and Yamato（ヤマト）holding the kayo kyoku fort.

On a recent edition of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新・BS日本のうた ）, Hayabusa appeared to perform their latest single from December 2024, "Yogiri no Serenade" (Night Fog Serenade). Written by Sho Asakura（朝倉翔）and composed by Masayoshi Tsuruoka（鶴岡雅義）from Tokyo Romantica（東京ロマンチカ）fame, it's a classic Mood Kayo right down to the Spanish guitar and the mournful backing chorus. It almost sounds like the song materialized right from the 1960s into the 2020s.

Hayabusa -- Akasaka Rainy Night（赤坂レイニー・ナイト）

 

Although I have been to the tony district of Akasaka in Tokyo a number of times, nighttime visits were pretty rare for me (maybe two or three times?). For one thing, going there at night often meant dining and drinking at some expensive joints, something that I really couldn't afford on a teacher's salary. Still walking in Akasaka past sunset gives that feeling of being in a cool and well-to-do district as an alternative to Ginza. Incidentally, giving credit where credit is due, the above video has been provided by the YouTube channel Tokyo Night District.

Just my two pennies here, but I think when it comes to the Mood Kayo genre, there are a couple of popular tropes: one being rain and another being Akasaka. Mood Kayo is seen as the urban cousin to enka with a lot of bars and clubs in its songs, so Akasaka is just the place for that, and for some reason, rain adds to the atmosphere or the mood. Therefore, I guess it was a done deal that a song titled "Akasaka Rainy Night" would be created. After all, we've had songs such as "Una Sera di Tokyo"（ウナ・セラ・ディ東京）and "Ame no Akasaka"（雨の赤坂）.

In any case, "Akasaka Rainy Night" is a February 2024 single by the kayo kyoku group Hayabusa（はやぶさ）that was released just yesterday, and I saw it performed on the NHK program "Hayauta"（はやウタ）which is why I'm writing about it here. Written by Naoki Yasuoka（保岡直樹）and composed by Masayoshi Tsuruoka（鶴岡雅義）of Tokyo Romantica（東京ロマンチカ）, it sounds like a classic Mood Kayo with that Latin guitar plucking and harmonies by the duo's Hikaru（ヒカル）and Yamato（ヤマト）. At the same time, though, I can also pick up on some swinging French jazz lurking under the main melody.

At first impression, I thought that Yasuoka's lyrics would depict another tale of heartbreak in the big sad city, especially with all that rain. However, the words don't really show that, instead illustrating some sort of rendezvous happening in Akasaka while the precipitation is happening outside. Well, the weather may be cold and wet outside but at least the love is keeping them warm. 

I first wrote about Hayabusa back in 2017 with their "Romantic Tokyo"（ロマンティック東京）. At the time, they were a trio but  Shouya（ショウヤ）left the group in 2018 for health reasons.

Hayabusa -- Choten Fever!（超天フィーバー!）

Caught a rerun of an NHK kayo program yesterday afternoon, and one of the featured guests was the group Hayabusa（はやぶさ）with their return of the good ol' kayo in the 21st century. I first mentioned about them in late 2017, and since then, the trio has been whittled down to a duo (just Hikaru and Yamato now).

Hayabusa performed their September 2019 single "Choten Fever!" (Ultra Heaven Fever!), an odd amalgam of enka and disco as the main vocalist Hikaru sings about the good life in the dance clubs with that characteristic vibrato of the former genre done to the beat of the latter genre. As Hikaru goes high, Yamato goes low like the bass guy of a doo-wop group. Written and composed by Kenichi Maeyamada（前山田健一）, who I usually associate with zany anison, "Choten Fever!" sounds as if it should have been a theme for an anime somewhere, and sure enough, it was one of the opening themes for "Duel Masters!!" in 2017. It doesn't quite hit the mark for me, but it's fun and quirky enough that I had to mention it.

Hayabusa -- Romantic Tokyo（ロマンティック東京）

Ueno-Hirokoji

On the news tonight, CTV told me that the top 4 safest cities on the planet were:

1. Tokyo
2. Osaka
3. Singapore
4. Toronto

Yeah, my hometown is the 4th-safest city on Earth for 2017. Perhaps...no, probably, it is my well-honed cynicism and the supposed self-effacing nature of Canadians, but Mr. Survey....YA GOTTA BE KIDDING ME! Really? Pedestrians are getting killed and injured by cars almost nightly, there seems to be regular gun battles in the northwest of the city and certain other neighbourhoods, and now I'm starting to think that any Tim Hortons coffee shop past sunset gains a bullseye. Maybe we're a distant No. 4 way down below Singapore. And perhaps we're not quite as bullet-ridden as Chicago but still that ranking for us is hard to believe.

Shibuya

Anyways, enough about my minuscule rant. I can believe that Tokyo would get the No. 1 ranking although lifelong citizen students over there have confided in me that the megalopolis is getting more dangerous. I guess it really depends on one's point of view. But for me, there are some really nice areas at night in The Big Sushi. I loved walking through shiny glittery Ginza, Akasaka, and even slightly seedy East Shinjuku and Ueno.

Therefore, with that prelude, I bring you "Romantic Tokyo" by Mood Kayo trio Hayabusa（はやぶさ）. I first saw Hikaru（ヒカル）, Yamato（ヤマト）and Shouya（ショウヤ）on an episode of NHK's "Gogo Uta"（ごごウタ...Afternoon Songs）, the afternoon kayo program (I will have to write about that one someday soon), and they performed something rather offbeat which I will also explain in a future article. However, I want to write about a song that has been part of their raison d'etre since Hayabusa first started in 2011.

(karaoke version)

Only Hikaru is from Yokohama but Hayabusa's first three singles centered on the bayside city. "Romantic Tokyo", their 4th single from October 2014, shifted things to the capital, and it is truly a romantic musical ride through Tokyo. You can just imagine a mature couple tripping the light fantastic through the various neighbourhoods peeled off in the song.

(empty karaoke version)

Tsubasa Kazu（かず翼）provided the lyrics while Masayoshi Tsuruoka（鶴岡雅義）of the veteran Mood Kayo group Masayoshi Tsuruoka & Tokyo Romantica（鶴岡雅義と東京ロマンチカ）composed the song with that old-fashioned Latin flavour of the genre from the 1960s. Old is truly new again. "Romantic Tokyo" made it all the way up to No. 19 on Oricon.

Ginza