Ukulele visit of Asakusa, Tokyo, Japanese ukulele

My knowledge of Japan and Japanese is rather thin and basically amounts to being able to count to ten in Japanese, which anybody having practiced a Japanese martial art for some time should be able to do.

Add to this a couple of verses from the Ponyo theme song I learnt thanks to Keonepax‘s lovely ukulele version and you’ll know exactly how little I know.

Today’s Japanese ukulele findings will enable us to visit Asakusa, in Taitō, a district of Tokyo, and to go through the Kaminarimon (the Thunder gate) leading to the buddhist temple Sensō-ji. The Sensō-ji temple is dedicated to Kannon, the goddess of Mercy.

Now that we’ve done a bit of sightseeing, let’s listen to some Japanese with Ruth from the UK doing a cover of a song by Yumi Kimura, called いつも何度でも Itsumo Nando Demo. The song was used in Miyazaki‘s animated film Spirited Away.

If you’d like to follow the Japanese lyrics (Latin alphabet) while listening to the song, click here.

Time for some improvised Japanese blues in a friendly atmosphere.

And now for some classical ukulele with Japanese Gawasiman, who has arranged Feste Lariane, by Luigi Mozzani on the ukulele. A great demonstration of tremolos on the ukulele.

Having trouble sleeping ? This soothing Japanese song with no image to distract you should help you. Its title 今日の日はさようなら Google translates as ‘Goodbye to today’s sun’.