Gedo Senki (Tales from Earthsea)

23th March 2006

Number 59 - Refreshment is on the 3rd Floor

On the second floor, where the production staff are,
you can't really go around with a slack expression on your face.
But keeping a frown on your face all day is tiring.
So, several times a day, I escape to the 3rd floor.

There, there is a man working on the advertising for the film "Tales of Earthsea", known as Nayochin[1] who is very worth disturbing.
So I go there to refresh myself and engage in idle gossip with no relation to work.

Today too I climbed the stairs, at about 9 o'clock, at which point I heard a high pitched voice singing.

There, using his mobile phone in one hand as a mike, was Nayochin twisting his body around as he sang Takashi Hosokawa's[2] "Life is a Bittersweet Song"[3].

Looking at the contents of his iPod,
it was packed full of enka[4], rakugo[5] and Miyuki Nakajima[6].

He joined Ghibli in February of last year, married another employee of the company in July, and just a month ago their first child was born.
His spouse is a woman who is the very picture of cool.

What on earth did that woman see to fall in love with in this thirty year old man who is passionately crooning "Naaa-niii-waaaah-setsu daa yoooo"[7]?

"An enormous...?"[8], without seeing any opportunity to catch him unaware,
I went back down the stairs I had come by.

Translator's Notes

[1]: Who we have already met in entry 14 of this blog.

[2]: An Enka singer

[3]: This is my translation of the Japanese title: Naniwabushi da yo, jinsei wa (浪 花 節 だ ょ 人 生 は) or "Life is Naniwabushi". Naniwabushi is a style of music that was popular from the Meiji period to the Second World War. It's themes are typically human dramas of love and heartbreak, similar to those of country music. The title could equally be rendered "Life is a Song of Heartbreak" or, more broadly something like: "Life is a Johnny Cash Song".

[4]: Enka is a kind of popular music (as distinct from "pop" music) liked by mostly older Japanese.

[5]: Rakugo is a traditional Japanese comedy style, again liked by mostly older Japanese.

[6]: Japanese pop singer. She made her debut in the 70's (although apparently still going strong in the new millenium), so she is presumably also an older taste.

[7]: Enka vocals are really crooned. This is the same title/lyrics as in note 3 above.

[8]: The translator accepts no responsibility for any innuendo contained in this line.