Train Station Melodies （発車メロディ）

 

Seeing back on Tuesday that I put up the congratulatory posting on a couple of Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）songs getting used as train station melodies at Kiyose Station, I've decided to put some more melodies into KKP. I've known for a long time that pop songs have been used among the vast network of stations across Japan but this is the first time that I'm putting up such an article here on the blog. As such, the following are only a few of such melodies.

Puffy -- Nagisa ni Matsuwaru Et Cetera （渚にまつわるエトセトラ）

This is only played at Kinosaki Onsen Station on the San'in Main Line in Toyooka City, Hyogo Prefecture during the winter because the area is known for its haul of tasty crab, and the Puffy trademark tune has the lyric of "Let's go and have some crab!".

Iruka/Kaguyahime -- Nagori Yuki (なごり雪）

The evergreen folk song by both Iruka（イルカ）and the band Kaguyahime（かぐや姫）can be heard at Tsukumi Station on the Nippou Main Line in Tsukumi City, Oita Prefecture. According to an archived article, songwriter Shozo Ise（伊勢正三）had based the song on this particular station itself.

Kyu Sakamoto -- Ue wo Muite Arukou (上を向いて歩こう)

C'mon...there was no way that this song was NOT going to be included as a train station melody somewhere in Japan. In fact, it's used at a number of stations...one being Keikyu Kawasaki Station on the Keikyu Main Line in Kawasaki City west of Tokyo. Kawasaki City is special, though, because Kyu Sakamoto（坂本九）was born in the city.

Masafumi Akikawa -- Sen no Kaze ni Natte （千の風になって）

Up at Onuma Koen Station on the Hakodate Main Line in the town of Nanae, Hokkaido, this tear-worthy ballad plays for about ten minutes a shot in various arrangements while folks wait for the train. Apparently, the setting in the song was the town itself.

Isao Sasaki -- The Theme from Space Cruiser Yamato (宇宙戦艦ヤマト）

One of anime's greatest theme songs also resides at Kure Station on the Kure Line in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture. The real-life battleship Yamato was built at the former Kure Naval Arsenal which is one reason for the theme being used at the station. The other reason is that the late creator of "Uchuu Senkan Yamato", Leiji Matsumoto（松本零士）, was the Director Emeritus of the Yamato Museum located near the station.

Kami Takada Shonen Gasshodan/Zone -- Theme from Tetsuwan Atomu （鉄腕アトムのテーマ）

Of course, I have to finish off with the one train station melody that I used to hear all the time while I was living in the Tokyo area. I used to hear the "Astro Boy" theme when I was making the transfer from the JR Yamanote Line loop to the Tozai Line at Takadanobaba Station to head on back to Chiba Prefecture. 

So, for any of you who have lived in Japan, are there any train station melodies that were part of your lives?

Kami Takada Shonen Gasshodan/Zone -- Theme from Tetsuwan Atomu （鉄腕アトムのテーマ）



Oftentimes, when I got together to watch a movie and/or have dinner with the gang in Shinjuku or Ikebukuro, a few of us would take the JR Yamanote Line to take us partway home. In my case, I got off a couple of stations away from either of the two city centres at Takadanobaba Station since that was the connection for my home subway line, the Tozai Line. And every time I got onto the platform, the station theme would come on like this:

For you classic anime fans, do you recognize it? Of course you do. It happens to be the theme song for "Tetsuwan Atomu", aka "Astro Boy". The manga magnum opus by The Father of Manga, Osamu Tezuka（手塚治虫）, was set in this very neighbourhood. A lot of very cheap and ramshackle apartments for university students are still there along with a thriving café-and-restaurant life.

As a kid growing up in Toronto, I sometimes woke up to an instrumental version of the famous theme for the updated version of the series on TV. However, the original sung version had been around for a good 2 years before I was even born. Back then, the heroic theme, written by Tatsuo Takai（高井達雄）, had been sung by the Kami Takada Shonen Gasshodan (The Kami Takada Boys' Choir), a group consisting of students from Kami Takada Elementary School in Nakano Ward, Tokyo. From the 1950s to the 1970s, the choir had been recruited to sing a number of TV program themes and commercial songs, but I can guess that the "Astro Boy" theme is one of the, if not the, most famous song they've done. I think even among the kids today, the theme is still eminently recognized and recognizable.

And that's no surprise when singers and groups have been covering the song for decades. One such example was the Sapporo-based girl band, Zone, which released their first single, "Good Days" in 2001. At the time, the group consisted of four members: Miyu Nagase（長瀬実夕）, Mizuho Saito（斉藤瑞穂）, Maiko Sakae（栄舞子） and Takayo Okoshi（大越貴代）. Zone's ska-tinged version was used in the 2003 edition of the anime.

(Sorry, the video has been taken down.)

This is the full 2:26 version of the song done by The Columbia Yurikago Kai（コロンビアゆりかご会....Columbia Cradle Club), back in January 1963.

Of course, Goodyear knew a good thing when it saw one, and the company even recruited Atomu himself into the ad. Maki Watase（渡瀬マキ）, the lead vocalist from the rock band Lindberg is taking care of this version.

Mention this song or hum a few bars here or over in Japan....you will be happily joined in song! I can also bet that quite a few commuters do the same thing at Takadanobaba Station.