One of Ours

Another hop across the Pacific, and I'm back in Japan again. Arriving at Narita, I unconsciously opened myself up to all the little changes that would greet me as I switched modes. Immediately I was impressed with how well-mannered all the Japanese around me were -- around the baggage carousel there's a "no cart" zone, and everyone was politely waiting for their luggage with their carts outside the zone. Several of the girls I saw waiting for their luggage sported "yaeba" (YAH-eh-bah), the famous cute crooked eye teeth that Japanese females often have, since Japanese very rarely get braces on teeth here. To combat the sweltering heat and humidity of the air around me, I went to buy a drink. While there were many choices familiar to anyone from the States -- Coke, Pepsi, even Mello-Yellow, which is being sold in "retro" bottles here this summer -- more than half the drinks available were varieties of bottled Chinese oolong or green tea.

As usual, I lost a day in my return trip to Japan, leaving on Monday afternoon from California and arriving on Tuesday night. It's only fair since I get a day free when I go the other way, leaving Japan at 2 p.m. and arriving in America at 8 a.m. on the same day, in effect arriving before I'd even left. Jumping from one side of the planet to the other means dealing with jet lag, which is never fun. Jet lag is really bad going from Japan to the U.S., since you have to stay awake a whole day before it's time to sleep, however going the other way isn't so bad: you just wake up too early the next day, and start to get dull around the edges in the afternoon.

Japan's cold northern region is home to enka, the blues-like "country music" of Japan that has a very unique sound and is enjoyed by truck drivers and everyone over 50 years of age here. Filled with themes of one's wife running away to marry another man, of images of the cold Tsugaru Straits between Honshu and Hokkaido, and of sake-drenched loneliness, it plucks at the heart in ways few other kinds of music can. Sung by both men and women, enka songs capture the sweet pain that we all feel in life. Enka, which probably originated in Korea, often employs tremolo vocals, singing while changing the pitch of your voice (not totally unlike yodeling) to express the emotion of the singer. Because enka songs are the last thing Japanese would expect a gaijin to be able to sing, I made it a point to learn many songs when I came to Japan, great fun while singing karaoke. Here are some samples of enka if you'd like to hear what it sounds like:

http://www.quixium.com/enka/ayako_fuji.mp3

http://ar.geocities.com/badfish19u/bokyosakaba.mp3