And So I Learned of “Band Geeks”

The academic year that I arrived in Fukuoka, my school’s brass band had about 15 kids. The teacher in charge joined forces with his colleagues in middle schools to recruit members for the new school year (the one that just ended) and together they were able to double the size of the band. What a difference it made!

Last Monday, during the national holiday Vernal Equinox Day, the band put on its second major performance. When the first one happened, I don’ t know. This time it was announced widely, so it was hard to miss. I even saw a flyer for it in my local supermarket! Since I saw they really wanted participation from the community at large, I invited two of my friends.

Before the concert, we had lunch and coffee. As we were talking, the conversation turned to the subject of “band geeks.” I wasn’t aware there was such a thing. As one of only four high schools in Detroit Public Schools with an entrance exam, the high school I went to was very different from the high schools I grew up seeing portrayed on TV and in movies. While I figured there must be schools that really did have something approaching the Nerd-Jock Dichotomy from media, I didn’t see it in my school. The best football player from my year was also in one of the school’s hardest curriculums. The only kids who were teased, and mildly at that, were freshmen with oversized backpacks. So I was surprised to learn that in the mainstream it’s not only kids who study too much, join the AV club, and play chess who are considered geeks, kids who play brass instruments are apparently also geeks!

I don’t get it.

I guess it’s because the common thread that I saw in what I thought were geeks was the assumed lack of physical strength and deep love for things few others enjoy, but it’s not easy to lug around a tuba or a bass drum, nor is music enjoyed only by a small fraction of the population.

Is it the clumsiness of walking around with such a big instrument that makes it look dorky?

I guess I’m just too big of a geek myself to understand it. *Shrugs* (I was in the orchestra. Does that make me more uncool? ^o^;)

I don’t know if being in the school band is likewise stigmatized in Japanese high schools, but I do wonder if the scarcity of boys is an indication that it is looked down upon. In my school’s band, of 30 members, only 2 are boys.

Now, while the band did grow, it’s still so small that some kids do double duty during the same song. On the one hand I think, it’d be cool if they could have more members so that they wouldn’t need to switch instruments mid-way, but on the other, I can’t help but marvel that they do switch between instruments without missing a beat. (Not that I could hear anyway.) Especially between instruments that aren’t that similar, such as trombone and bass guitar.

There was one teacher performing with the kids (not counting the conductor), as well as members of a local brass band, but these additional members didn’t perform in the last stage. Some third year students who graduated this year were up there, too, and they got a special send-off in song near the end.

The kouchou opened the concert with a short greeting. He said that some people might feel bad about enjoying themselves while the people in Touhoku continue to deal with the aftermath of the recent disaster, but that, on the other hand, wouldn’t everybody be better able to help out if they keep in high spirits? I agree.

The concert was divided into three sections as follows.

~Classical~

• “Minami Kaze no Maachi” – Watariguchi Tomonori
• “The Chaconne” – J.S. Back
• “Music in the Air!” – Alfred Reed
• “El Amor Brujo” – Manuel de Falla

I liked “El Amor Brujo” the best. Apparently it’s well known enough that it has an official Japanese title, 「恋は魔術師」”koi wa majutsushi,” an almost direct translation of the Spanish title, which can be taken to mean either “the bewitching love” or “the lover who is a warlock.” Since the title was written in Japanese everywhere, I didn’t know it was by a Spanish composer when I saw the title on the flyer!

~Solo & Ensemble~

• Oboe solo from “Oboe Sonata” – Camille Saint-Saëns
• Clarinet solo from “La traviata” (known in Japanese as 「椿姫」”Tsubaki-hime,” based on the title of the play the opera was based on) – Giuseppe Verdi
• Euphonium solo, “Rhapsody for Euphonium” – James Curnow
• Trombone solo, which I couldn’t figure out what it was supposed to be, or by whom, but it says: 「ブルームト・アリア」エリック・パウデ, “Buruumuto Aria” – Erikku Paude
• Three-piece woodwind ensemble, “Idiiru” (“Edile?”) – Yousuke Fukuda
• Eight-piece ensemble, “Structure” –  Masamichi Amano
• Four-piece percussion ensemble, “Aeolian Quartet” – Shin’ichi Kaneda

For this section, 3 of the 4 soloists dashed off stage as soon as they had given their little bow after playing. I liked the “Rhapsody for Euphonium,” but the “Aeolian Quartet” was the most hype. For this piece, the percussionists came out with tinsel around their wrists and different colored headbands. You can find several performances of it on YouTube, but for the best sound quality, listen and download from this site: Kaneda Shin’ichi Online Memorial. Click on “Works,” then “Pieces for percussion ensemble,” then scroll down a little. You’ll see it.

In the process of looking for videos of the “Aeolian Quartet,” I stumbled upon Fukuda’s YouTube channel. Though the piece my kids performed isn’t up there, I highly recommend “Rhapsody IV – Moon Dance.”

~Pops~

• Deep Purple Medley
• “Michi” – EXILE
• “Sherii ni Kuchizuke” – I don’t know whose version they did, but the original is “Tout, tout pour ma chérie” by Michel Polnareff
• J-pop Medley
• “Tsubomi” – Kobukuro
• “Aitakatta” – AKB48

Actually, they didn’t write the name of the artists for this section in the program, even though they said it during the concert.

For this section of the concert, they came out in purple shirts and jeans (they had been performing in their school uniform), and for the first time, the stage was lit up with different color lights and a mini disco ball!

They totally rocked out during the Deep Purple Medley! >_<\m/

See the bassist's shadow on the ceiling? ^o^

During “Sherii ni Kuchizuke,” at various points the band members held up cardboard cutouts of hearts, stars, and other things. The MCs had said that whoever could say how many times the hearts had appeared would get something. When they asked, some little kids sitting behind me raised their hands and were chosen. They answered correctly and got a goodie bag, but I don’t know what was in it.

The J-pop Medley, as far as I could tell, was entirely ARASHI songs, but I could be wrong about that. Six of the band members were dressed like ARASHI, lip synching and dancing. I remember that it was six members because I said, “aren’t there only 5 people in ARASHI?” ^o^;

Then, for the AKB48 song, they said they were the XHS32 (X High School 32, instead of Akihabara 48), and five members sang along and danced onstage in what we usually think of as a “schoolgirl uniform”: pleated plaid skirt, white shirt.

As an encore, (though they did it automatically), they did the classic Peggy March hit “I Will Follow Him.” At one of the short concerts at school, one of the teachers had told me that this song had become popular in Japan because of the movie Sister Act. ^o^

And so, after 2 and a half hours, the concert ended. My friends and I went to have dinner at our usual burger joint, then we went home.

☆

次回！Staff Shuffle!

おまけ！Here’s a song that I found in an interesting way. I logged in to YouTube, and saw that it had psychic powers, as it was suggesting a channel called “Mastering procrastination.” The channel apparently doesn’t really have anything to do with that, but I loved the song the person had used in their video, which turned out to be “Who Would Have Thought” by Darren Hayes. Gotta love an artsy fartsy vid for a synth rock-pop track.

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Pottery in the Mountains

Tags

ezara, Koishiwara, Koishiwarayaki

This past Thursday the 17th, I went with the first and second year Art students, their teachers, and my co-ALT to the pottery village of Koishiwara to make 絵皿 – ezara – meaning “decorative plates,” or more literally, “picture plates.” About a week and a half before this trip, the head of the art department (whom many teachers at the school say looks like French actor Jean Reno rather than a Japanese person) gave us the handout the students got, and a template for our picture plates. Trudging through the handout full of art terms I didn’t know, I was rewarded with an introduction to three very interesting Edo-period artists: Ogata Kourin, Itou Jakuchuu, and Shibata Zeshin.

Anyway, I decided to go with a common motif in my work, the contrast of hard and soft (just that not Dalí-ish, haha). This is the sketch for the plate:

"Man is condemned to be free..." --Sartre. A meaning added after the fact. ^o^;

I made photocopies and colored them in different ways. We would only have 5 colors available to us: blue, brown, black, black made my scratching, and the beige of the unglazed plate. Of course, laying the glaze on in several coats would make that color darker. We would have carbon paper to transfer the drawing directly unto the plate.

The day of the trip, we got to the school at the usual time. We were told to get on the ichinensei bus. It was a nearly two hour bus ride to Koishiwara. On the way, we passed the Egawa Dam, which sits on the Chikugo River (I think). The mountains around the dam’s reservoir lake were really beautiful. I tried to photograph them from the bus:

I actually took this on the way back.

Once we got to the village, we went straight to the pottery studio we’d be working at, Yamaichigama. “Kama”（窯 – sound changed to “gama”) means “kiln” but in this case it appears to serve more as “house of” as in specific fashion houses (Chanel, Vuitton, etc). Apparently, the Emperor bought pottery from this studio nearly 20 years ago!

Notice the kanji for "Yamaichi." @_@

<Kanji Geek Moment>I noticed it in several places around the village, unusual (to me) kanji that consisted of the upper part “hitoyane” (…or maybe it’s “irigashira,” I’m not sure since they look the same and both would make sense, I think) and things that you don’t normally see under that radical, such as in this case, the kanji for “ichi.” This seems to be some sort of naming system for pottery houses. I have no idea if it’s possible to make regular computers write these things, but online I’ve not been able to find any. The names of the pottery houses with such kanji just get written in katakana.</Kanji Geek Moment>

*Ahem* Anyway, the studio inside was a bit chilly, but all in all a very nice country cabin. There were many pieces on display, and more up for sale.

There were other rooms, but this is where I worked with some first years. Actually, at the table behind the couch there.

I sat with two girls and my co-ALT and got down to business. Given how intricate my design was, I knew I would need all the time allotted. As we worked, I couldn’t help but hear the girls’ conversation. One was telling the other what happened on the previous night’s episode of The Best House 123, a show that, every time I’ve seen it, has dealt with reenacting incredible incidents from abroad (not necessarily with the utmost accuracy).

Then the girl listening to the recap finished glazing her design, that of a boy giving a girl some flowers. I heard her say, “I want to write some English on it…something about love…but what? Should I ask…?” I said, “It’s okay, go ahead.” The girl was surprised and said, “She understood?!” ^_^; (I don’t know how many times I’ve spoken to Art Course in Japanese…) So the girl says, “I want something like, 若い恋人…” Even though I knew that there was an English term for what she was trying to say, I couldn’t remember it. I said, “Young Lovers? But that sounds kinda…” So I asked my co-ALT, “How do you say ‘young lovers’ without sounding–” and before I could finish he said, “Puppy love.”

I felt like an idiot for not being able to remember that term. I said, “I must be too jaded for that.” ^o^;

So the girl wrote “puppy love” on her plate but remained unsatisfied: “How about some lyrics from a love song? An Avril Lavigne song maybe?” I, who don’t particularly like Miss Lavigne’s oeuvre, couldn’t help her there either, but luckily, my co-ALT could. He wasn’t 100% sure he was getting the lyrics right, but close enough.

Time was almost up, so I decided to just leave my design as it was.

After applying the glaze, before firing.

The green will turn black, the blue will stay about the same, and the brown will hopefully remain light enough to pass for gold. The plate will be fired and varnished by the studio’s people.

Now here’s some unfired plates by three different student artists:

I didn't feel like waiting for Photoshop to load so I could smudge out the student's name on the lower right plate, so I just miniturized my iTunes window, put it over the name, and took a screencap. ^o^;

I can’t wait to see what these will turn out like! I don’t know when we’ll get them back though. At least in time for bunkasai in May, since the plates are put on display then.

Once everyone had finished their plate, they went about chatting with their classmates and buying a little plate or cup. I was enchanted by one of the studio’s motifs, and felt it was a bit pointless to buy just one plate, so I got 2 chawan and 2 plates. ^_^; They were on sale, and I got one of them for free because it had a tiny little crack in the foot. Besides, I can’t help but respect people who make their living off of their artwork.

This design spins me right round. Photographed once I got back home.

Once we left the studio, we headed to the pottery museum. Near the entrance, there were some pieces on sale. As I was looking at them, one of the very few boys in Art Course came up to me and said of one of the mini flower pots, “It’s very cute.” I said, “Oh yes, it is. Maybe you can buy one and give it to your mother?” To which he replied, “It’s a desk.” Myself now confused as much as he must’ve been, all I could muster was an “ah.” He then went back to his friends, told them what he said to me, and one of them told him, “You idiot, you just said ‘it’s a desk’!” ^o^;

Photography was allowed in the museum, but my batteries were low and I wanted to save energy for the mountains near the dam, so I only photographed a few of the pieces. Here’s my favorite, I think it’s what black holes would look like if they had any Aesthetic Emotions:

Believe it or not, that center black part is actually a good 5 inches deep! @o@

I didn’t try to remember the artist’s name, thinking it would show up in the picture, but unfortunately it’s a bit hard to read. Using my mad Google skillz, I think I found the right potter: Ohta Tomitaka (太田富隆). The title of the piece is 「青釉掛分鉢」which I really don’t know how to translate. It seems to be just a description of the piece, something like “Blue Glaze [some sort of] Bowl.” But I much prefer to think of it as “Infinity Basin” or “Black Hole Bowl” or something else cooler sounding than Blue Glaze Bowl. ^o^

After the museum, we got back on the buses to head back. Due to my sleep-deprived weekend, once we were past the Egawa Dam and I got my shots, I let myself doze off. The students had also fallen asleep by then.

~Side Post: Calligraphy in the Juutaku~

As for the cause of said sleep-deprived weekend, it was mostly that everything I had planned on doing got interrupted by watching coverage of the Touhoku disaster and answering messages from the States. Add this to the fact that I’m a terrible procrastinator, and the main task I needed to finish in time for Monday’s classes didn’t get done until 5AM that Monday. ^_^;

There were a few kids who had earned so many participation points throughout the year that they had more points than they needed to achieve a perfect score on our Oral Communication test.  (We make the test have only about 45 points each time, so that they cannot achieve the full 50 point score without participating in class.) I had asked the teachers what to do about these cases, since I thought it was unfair that the kids not get credit somewhere for their work. I was told to write down the names of students with leftover points, but I got the feeling nothing would be done with it, so I decided to give these students a present.

What I usually give out are nameplates/bookmarks done in calligraphy, in a style based on Gothic Black Letter. Depending on how much time I have, I’ll add an outline of silver or gold on the letters so that they pop out. With even more time, I like to laminate the nameplate so it can better serve as a bookmark, but unfortunately I haven’t had the chance to do so here in Japan.

I’ll end this post with a picture of the ones that I think turned out the best from that all-nighter. I took this photo before I erased the guideline. I don’t have photos of the ones I did before this.

I wasn't sure which system of romanization each student prefered, so I just did whichever looked best. The non-Japanese name is that of an immigrant student.

☆

次回！Ahhh…mmm…and I just realized that from the standpoint of symbolism, it was a bit strange to end the concert with “Smoke on the Water.” Good thing they called it “Deep Purple Medley” instead.

Just Some Thoughts

While the situation in parts of Touhoku remains dire, life in Fukuoka is normal as ever. My co-ALT expressed the feeling that he almost wished the disaster had had some sort of negative effect on us here; it seemed unfair to have it so good while the people in Touhoku are struggling.

Since I’d been going to rent videos from Tsutaya again, I had to return some just a few days after the earthquake. I wondered if I’d seem callous for watching DVDs at such a time, but when I got there, there were many more costumers than usual. When I got to the shelf with the show Heroes on it, I was surprised to see that nearly all the DVDs for that series were rented out! I concluded that people were getting tired of the 24-7 disaster coverage. When I went today, a fair number of the Heroes DVDs were still out. Normal TV programming came back a day or two ago, though there’s still a ticker at the bottom of the screen with information.

When I went to the bakery this past Wednesday, the baker asked me if my school was taking donations. I said that it wasn’t (which was accurate at the time), but that I’d donated on my own. He said, “Foreigners always give money freely at these times.” I didn’t know if he was just being nice, but I said, “Well, Americans are used to there being active charities and volunteer organizations at all times, so I guess that’s why we don’t really think about it too much.” Later as I was thinking about it, I wondered if the carefree attitude many Americans have towards spending money in general is also a factor. ^_^;

My school’s Student Council announced Thursday morning that they were going to start taking donations. I wasn’t gonna be there in the afternoon, so I didn’t get to see how it went, but Friday morning during Closing Ceremony they announced that they had collected over 60,000 yen! The school has under 1,000 students and about 80 faculty and staff, meaning each person would have to donate only 55 yen to reach this amount. But since I’m sure not every single person donated, it’s an impressive figure.

So when the Student Council came around to the teachers’ room after Closing Ceremony, I thought, I need to pitch in as much as everyone else! But when I put my 1000 yen note in the box, I saw that so far there were only 100 yen coins in there, and the boys were surprised. Guess everyone put in their allowance the day before?

Another thing I’ve been thinking about is the whole referring to Japan as this monumental entity. I think I’ve brought this up before, but this is what I mean:

Takoyaki Lady: How do you like living in Japan?
Me: Well, I really like living in Fukuoka. It’s a wonderful place.
Takoyaki Lady: *Seems confused*

A conversation I’ve had with several Japanese people in Fukuoka:

Fukuoka resident: Japanese winter is very cold, isn’t it?
Me: Oh? Winter in Fukuoka is very pleasant for me, because my hometown’s about as cold as southern Hokkaidou, and likewise gets lots of snow. During a storm, it can pile up to your knees!
Fukuoka resident: Oh no! I couldn’t live in a place like that!

(Interestingly, many people in this area complain that Dazaifu City is so much colder than the cities it’s right next to, yet they otherwise act as if Japan has the same weather throughout the whole country.  -_-‘)

Something many fresh American JETs do:

Fresh American JET: In America, we [such and such], but in Japan, [this and that].

This is a pet peeve for me. The United States is a huge and diverse country; to try to explain what all of its people do in one sentence is ludicrous. While Japan isn’t as wide, it does span a significant north-south range, and has almost half the U.S.’s population, so to try to do the same for it is just as absurd.

When it comes to coverage of the Touhoku disaster, we easily see how referring to one area of Japan as “Japan” is problematic, but will people continue to do it when it comes to other things, I wonder? While some get irritated at their friends and families back home for sending them a message every hour telling them to leave Japan at once, apparently ignoring the fact that there’s no danger in their region, will they continue to talk about how “in Japan this” and “in Japan that” when they’ve only had enough experience to say that “in my region this” and “to my knowledge that”?

Fukuoka is Safe

I think there might be a few people in the States who only get news of me through this blog, so I figured I should go ahead and post here that I’m fine. Fukuoka was virtually unaffected by the earthquake and ensuing tsunami that struck the Touhoku region yesterday. There was a tsunami advisory for a few hours, that’s all.

When this happened yesterday, I didn’t think it was that bad. First time I saw it on the news, there were only two deaths. Twenty-four hours later, and that number is in the hundreds, with many more missing. I’m reading that this is one of the biggest earthquakes in recorded history, and it feels surreal that everything here should be fine while houses are flowing down the street just four hours away as the bullet train flies.

At this point, all I can do is hope that everyone in danger is rescued, and send forth positive chi.

UPDATE (March 28th, 2011): Fukuoka is still safe.

I see that I’m getting lots of hits from people Googling to see if Fukuoka is safe or not, so I figured I should update this entry with that little bit.

Bachata en Fukuoka Translation / 「バチャタ・エン・福岡」日本語訳

Tags

バチャータ・エン・フクオカ, Bachata en Fukuoka, 福岡でバチャタ, Translation, 日本語訳

UPDATE (Feb. 12, 2014): I’ve tweaked this translation and posted it to my translations blog, Warped Frost. Find the new translations here.
改訂（2014年2月12日）：「バチャタ・エン・福岡」の和訳・英訳に改良を加えたので新しいブログ「Warped Frost」でご覧ください。

_________________

Finally, here it is! My translation to Japanese of Juan Luis Guerra’s hit song “Bachata en Fukuoka.” I’ve included an English translation as well, but I made the Japanese translation from the original Spanish lyrics. This translation isn’t perfect, but it’s better than what automatic translators will give you. I’ve seen a couple of blog posts in Japanese about the song, but since so far no one has straight out translated and uploaded it, I figured I’d go ahead and try. There are some lines which, although they sound romantic in Spanish, end up sounding a bit morbid in English (e.g. “con tu piel de abrigo” = “with your skin as my coat”), so because I don’t know if this holds true for Japanese, I decided to go ahead and translate such lines less poetically.

For those just now tuning in, “Bachata en Fukuoka” is a song by Dominican artist Juan Luis Guerra. He had recently been to Fukuoka performing, and he fell in love with the city. As for “bachata,” it is a type of Dominican dancing.

The record company doesn’t want people embedding the video, so click on this link to get to it : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4NBD3SqBwg

Also, here’s an interview with Guerra in which he talks about his experience in Fukuoka, the song, and its video. As anyone who’s lived in Fukuoka can realize, the video wasn’t actually shot here. Due to time constraints, the video was shot in Los Angeles. Guerra also explained in this interview that it would be difficult to find a woman of Japanese descent who could both dance bachata and do wire work (for the video’s flying dance scenes) anywhere outside of Hollywood. Even so, they couldn’t find a Japanese woman with these skills.

And now, Eli butchers this message by trying to say the key points in Japanese without having had it checked by anyone!

下記は私が翻訳したフアン・ルイス・ゲラの大ヒット「バチャタ・エン・福岡」です。完璧ではありませんが、グーグル等のオンライン翻訳より正確だと思います。英語訳も書きましたが、日本語訳はスペイン語の歌詞に基づいています。日本でこの歌は知られているそうですが、私は今まで日本語訳を見つけられていないので、自分で翻訳してみました。

~~~

“Bachata en Fukuoka”

Dile a mañana que se acerca mi sueño
Que lo que se espera con paciencia se logra
Nueve horas a París viajé sin saberlo
Y crucé por Rusia con escala en tu boca

Yo canté tu bachata aquí en Fukuoka
(Tu bachata en Fukuoka)

Y un atardecer pintó de canvas el cielo
Caminé la playa de Momochi, mi anhelo
Y se me escapó una sonrisa del alma
Aquí me enseñó “arigatou gozaimasu”

Yo canté tu bachata aquí en Fukuoka

Pa’ bailar contigo (pa’ bailar)
Se me alegra la nota
Quiero cantar contigo (quiero)
Una bachata en Fukuoka
Una bachata en Fukuoka (pa’ soñar contigo)
En el mar las gaviotas
Con tu piel de abrigo (quiero)
Vivir bachata en Fukuoka

Y llegó la hora de partir y decir sayonara (con pocas ganas)
Y una palomita se posó en mi ventana
Konnichi wa, ohayou gozaimasu

Pa’ bailar contigo (pa’ bailar)
Se me alegra la nota
Quiero cantar contigo (quiero)
Una bachata en Fukuoka

Una bachata en Fukuoka

Sueños, de arena en las olas
Besos, me daba tu boca
Tengo, estrellas y rosas
Niña, cantando en Fukuoka

Pa’ bailar contigo (para bailar)
Se me alegra la nota
Quiero cantar contigo (quiero)
Una bachata en Fukuoka
Una bachata en Fukuoka (pa’ soñar contigo)
En el mar las gaviotas
Con tu piel de abrigo
Vivir bachata en Fukuoka

~~~

「バチャタ・エン・福岡」（福岡でバチャタ）

僕の夢が近づいてくるのを朝に言って
辛抱強く待っているものは叶うものなんだ
分からずに９時間パリへ向かっていった
あなたの唇での乗り継ぎの後ロシアを超えた

ここ福岡ではあなたのバチャタを歌った
（福岡であなたのバチャタを）

ある夕暮れが空をキャンバスとして染めた
憧れの百道浜に歩いた
心からの笑顔が浮かんでしまった
ここでは、彼女が「ありがとうございます」を教えてくれたんだ

ここ福岡ではあなたのバチャタを歌った

あなたと踊るため（踊るため）
僕の引いている音符が嬉しくなる
あなたと歌いたい（歌いたい）
福岡でバチャタを
福岡でバチャタを（あなたと一緒に夢を見るため）
海でカモメが
あなたをギュッと抱きしめながら（生きたい）
福岡でバチャタを生きたい

別れの時間なので、（不本意ながら）さよならを言う
小さいハトが僕の窓に降りて止まった
こんにちは、おはようございます

あなたと踊るため（踊るため）
僕の引いている音符が嬉しくなる
あなたと歌いたい（歌いたい）
福岡でバチャタを

福岡でバチャタを

夢、波に乗る砂の
キス、あなたの唇が僕にくれた
持ってる、僕が星とバラを
あなた、福岡で歌っている

あなたと踊るため（踊るため）
僕の引いている音符が嬉しくなる
あなたと歌いたい（歌いたい）
福岡でバチャタを
福岡でバチャタを（あなたと一緒に夢を見るため）
海でカモメが
あなたをギュッと抱きしめながら（生きたい）
福岡でバチャタを生きたい

~~~

“Bachata in Fukuoka”

Tell the morning that my dream’s coming closer
Because the things you wait patiently for come true
Without realizing it, I’d traveled for 9 hours heading for Paris
And I crossed Russia with a stopover at your lips
I sang your bachata here in Fukuoka

One day the dusk painted the sky as its canvas
I walked on Momochi Beach; I had longed for it
A smile spread out from my soul:
This was where she’d taught me “arigatou gozaimasu”
I sang your bachata here in Fukuoka

To dance with you (to dance)
My notes become happy
I want to sing with you (I want to)
A bachata in Fukuoka
A bachata in Fukuoka (to dream with you)
On the waters, the sea gulls
Holding you tightly (I want to)
Live bachata in Fukuoka

The time to (reluctantly) part and say sayonara has come
A little dove alighted on my window
Konnichi wa, ohayou gozaimasu

To dance with you (to dance)
My notes become happier
I want to sing with you (I want to)
A bachata in Fukuoka

A bachata in Fukuoka

Dreams, of sand on the waves
Kisses, your mouth gave to me
Stars and roses, I brought
Girl, singing in Fukuoka

To dance with you (to dance)
My notes become happy
I want to sing with you (I want to)
A bachata in Fukuoka
A bachata in Fukuoka (to dream with you)
On the waters, the sea gulls
Holding you tightly (I want to)
Live bachata in Fukuoka

~~~

So, that’s it folks! I’ll come back and clean this post up when it’s not 1:30AM. ^o^; But I’ve had this on the back burner for a while now, so I just wanted to get it up.