Shinji Tanimura
-- 帰らざる日々/ Unreturning Days
Getting started on this theme of bittersweet good-byes
--Ii hi tabidachi with pictures of japan
--Wasurete ii no yo
Of course it ought to be sung by a guy in a suit and a woman in kimono. The concert versions prefer the shortened version that cuts out the bit about 'you'll have to straighten your own collar from now on' and goes straight to the repeated mutual enka-tremolo 'don't go away!' This one keeps them.
(For comparison purposes Ne me quitte pas. Alas that Brel can't resist tearing a passion to tatters, and that Sting's French vowels hurt me.
Tokyo Sabaku/ Tokyo Desert
Saw this first in an advertisement which was pulled by you tube. One could do a whole nostalgic Japan thing out of commercials alone. JR has made it a stock in trade.
うえを むいて あるこう / Sukiyaki which I keep reading as Saiyuki. Of course the title means something like I'll go walking looking up at the sky (so my tears don't overflow, you understand-- the Japanese have sad sad songs and bouncy sad songs and this is one of the latter)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVsngtT6prQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M0psqlHyGM
The classic weepie Road, which I'm kerblonxed to learn had a sequel. Several sequels, apparently.
