For those of you that are wanting to take five and watch some calming scenery from across Japan’s various areas without having some anime reference flashing in front of your face at 54 beats per minute, then check out Japan Scene’s channel on Youtube (link). You’ll definitely appreciate the picturesque quality of the images and delivery of the subject matters through video.
After World War II, Japan bootstrapped itself to undergo a massive reconstruction effort. The country was almost, in less than a decade, immediately ready to start over in full stride. With many Japanese countrymen ready to start over and to begin new lives (as some were veterans from the war and would, even then, never discuss about it with others). They started to rebuild and as a result, it start to later on by the 1960′s become an international superpower in Asia. It’s rapid turn from a war-torn country to one that is as we know it today, is one story that has been described by some as “an economic miracle”. One thing to keep in mind about Japan, as far as the person that has never been there is concerned, is that it’s a country that frequently undergoes change. It has been that way always almost and, as a result, can cause some to lose some things that they should have kept in the past. That explains why there is always redevelopment projects throughout the urban areas of Japan and why some business are “here today and gone tomorrow” as far as your local mom and pop shop is concerned.
So it’s sometimes not just a curiosity for those outside of Japan, but also those that live in Japan, to look at movies, photos, and relics of times past and cherish them as they really have a charm that comes from being a part of that particular time period of Japanese history (especially recent modern history).
There is a coffee table book that had all these pictures of people’s living spaces called Tokyo: a certain style (click here). The book was published during the 1990′s so most of the photographs show apartments and houses with many things typically found in homes at the time. It was a bit of a popular reference book for those that are wanting to understand about living in Japan and what to expect (the “cockpit feel” of typical Japanese apartments being one of them).
To the point: Each decade of Japan during the 20th century was dramatically different and each one spelled the frequent undertaking of change. Which is why the following film is one of many cherished memoirs that many, Japanese and those that take interest in Japan, find quite precious.
If you’ve ever watched “Samurai Champloo”, then you may recall the opening hip-hop song, “BattleCry”, performed by Shing02. Shing02, real name Shingo Annen, was born in Tokyo and later came into the San Francisco Bay Area and became immersed with Hip-hop while working with other artists of the area. Before setting for heading back to Japan in 1996, many of the independent albums and that he made in the U.S. reached Japan and garnered much support. Since then, he’s worked back and forth in Japan and in the U.S., often collaborating with artist from both countries. He still lives in the Bay Area.
Shing02′s style is purely hip-hop songs that play on concepts. So the songs are not in the traditional hip-hop with the telling a story as much as going on to explaining indirectly a series of concepts that string together to then get the entirety of what he expresses. So although it’s indirect and not delivered at full force as you would find in most hip-hop artists’s works, it does allow for the listener to approach the song with more ease than just simply taken through it.
In 2002, there was this album released by Ryuichi Sakamoto and two of his fellow “classmates” that studied a bit under Carlos Jobim (the “godfather” of bossa nova) called “Casa”. For those of you that may have listened intently to the music of Neon Genesis Evangelion, there are some heavy loans of bossa nova incorporated into it’s soundtrack and credits song in every episode.
In Casa, or “house” in Spanish or Portuguese, all the songs are given different renditions of the original song compositions by Jobim. Giving each song it’s distinct slow pacing.
*update: Sakamoto will be playing a benefit concert for helping the victims of the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami. Check the site here if you’re insterested in checking it out and buying some tickets.
Note: Keep living. One day and night at a time. (>^0^)_/