Blizzardboy | A Kiwi in Japan

When I first came to Japan I lived in Akita. Everyone there spoke very strange Japanese, but I thought it was normal. And one day someone introduced be to Yoshi Ikuzo who is a “traditional Japanese enka singer” from Aomori (the top-most province of Japan’s main island). His hometown, Kanagi-cho is one of the places Alan Booth visited in his book Looking for the Lost: Journeys Through a Vanishing Japan.

Yoshi’s accent is close to the Akita one, so listening to him was good for my studying.

Here is a video of one of his songs remixed. A classic:

He has quite a sense of humour which makes his music more interesting than most Japanese enka singers, kind of like the Japanese Johnny Cash. I have a Yoshi Ikuzo t-shirt which I was wearing when we arrived in Finland. It says Ikuzo with a big star around it and looks like a heavy metal t-shirt, so this video is very apt. The place we stayed at in Helsinki was over-run by heavy metal fans who were going to a big metal festival. The Ikuzo t-shirt was a great way to make friends…

Thanks to D.Y.E.chan for posting this on mixi!