Asakusa Enka Store

Have you ever heard of Enka music? The slow, sentimental, old fashioned ballads that the older Japanese can’t get enough of? Here’s a speciality record store in Tokyo’s Asakusa district selling CDs, books, posters and VHS video of the latest and brightest stars on the Enka heaven. Recently there has been as close to a generation shift as you can get in this genre as many young artists have started out on their careers. The young artist who made the biggest splash in the media was Jero (or Jerome Charles White, Jr), the first black Enka singer! Unfortunately I couldn’t find his poster in this store. The enka stores are the last CD shops to have decent sales figures I think, as more and more big name record stores are going out of business, it seems that many of the typical enka generation seems to treasure their older media still. This store is called Miyada, if you ever need to ask for directions. Here’s one of my favorite Enka songs, the super famous classic Akogare no Hawaii Koro from the 1950 movie with the same name with the legendary Haruo Oka (岡晴夫).

Okinawan Drummers – Furusato Matsuri

In January I visited the furusato matsuri at Tokyo Dome and saw, among many other things, these Okinawan drummers perform! I have been twice to Okinawa but never seen anything cultural so this was a treat. Scores of drummers and dancers showing us their traditional high stepping dance complete with a very un-japanese drum rhythm, slow and methodical, with high pitched singing voices and the almost drone like string instruments they use. Almost hypnotic. Any man looks better with a drum but I guess these handsome men wouldn’t look bad even without their drums.

I’m posting quite a few photos to give you a sense of how the movement looks like, not sure if it works! The performance took place on a massive stage and I was nowhere near the dancers, luckily though I had my Bigma with me (a Sigma 50-500mm 3.5-6.3 super tele), also known as “Dr. Backercracker” and the “Widow Maker”. A huge lens I bought second hand that I almost never have the energy to carry around with me. My back is thankful to me for not using it too often. It was dark and with a dark lens like this I had to crank the ISO up to almost unacceptable levels to bring the shutter speeds up and above 1/500 (for handheld photography). Enjoy!

BillyKen ビリケン – J-Pop

At the Furusato Matsuri I managed to catch one of the few Japanese pop bands (J-pop) I know and actually listen to whenever I hear them, BillyKen (or ビリケン in Japanese). I first came across them when I was indulging in a hobby of mine, collecting cover songs of tunes I like a lot! The tune I was looking for was that absolutely timeless classic of Japanese music, Nagoriyuki from 1975 (here in the original by Kaguyahime my favorite Japanese band of all time, or this more famous version by Iruka, here), one of the only songs that make me cry every time I hear it. One of the dozens of covers I found was a modern, hip-hop styled cover by BillyKen. I really liked their version with great singing, nice rap interpretation and overall fun style. So over the years I’ve always made a point of listening to them when they turn up on radio or TV.

BillyKen is a duo currently signed to a major record label and they did great work for children affected by the earthquake and tsunami last year, one result of which was the video for one of their songs that I also recommend, aruite yukou (あるいてゆこう). Anyway, here’s a few shots I took, it is always great fun to shoot at concerts where the organizers are smart enough to be cool about cameras!

Omiya Taiko Drummers

Yesterday morning we actually had a bit of snow north of Tokyo and it’s really getting colder, so I spent a few minutes dreaming about summer by going over these photos from the Omiya Summer Festival earlier in the summer. I can’t wait for summer to come again next year! This was a rare group with only young member, I did shoot some video too but my camera microphone didn’t stand a chance against a dozen or so drummers at full blast just feet away, so the video turned out unusable. Drumming is a little bit special in Japanese culture, I believe it is one of the few socially accepted ways in which young Japanese are allowed to make a lot of noise so some parents like to encourage their kids to take up drumming to boost their self expression and confidence. That is also one of the reasons young athletes and students tend to scream a lot during sports in or after school, it is encouraged by the teachers, and when I was in a sports club at university here in Tokyo we were told that no points could be awarded without a good, long shout! These taiko drummers were shouting while drumming. And they do look very confident.

Speaking of confidence, how about that guard at the last photo?