Burnt CDs, High School Flashbacks & Japanese Elevator Music

Today, for the first time in eight years, I burned myself a CD. Yes, in the land of sushi, samurais & Suzuki, there is no such thing as Pandora or mainstream American radio. I actually had to travel back in time to recover my blank, burnable CDs. Well not physically, but in spirit... 


Creating a playlist on my laptop prompted flashbacks from my high school years, cruising around in my '95 Saturn, blaring none other than the greatest rapper of 2004, Lil Jon. The sad thing is I still know every word from “Salt Shaker.” What’s even sadder? Thanks to a 20-minute daily commute to class, I was that girl who had every song ever written by 50 Cent and Ludacris memorized. True story.

Regrettably, you will not find "Magic Stick" nor "Slow Jamz" on this CD.

Anyways, even though my rinky dink Mazda does have one of those after-market CD players in the dash, the only radio station that you can find in English is one that’s designed to meet “all of the musical tastes on base,” if you catch my drift. One minute you’ll be listening to Adele’s “Rumor Has It,” and the next, you’ll be frantically reaching for the volume knob to mute the 1967 hit “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” I mean, I’d rather listen to Japanese jibber jabber (talk radio) than kumbaya classics from the sixties.

Speaking of Japanese radio, if you ever walk into a store off base, you’ll notice the difference in music immediately. Ever been to Disney World’s Small World exhibit? Remember the little kids singing like robots? Well, it’s a mix between that and the strange electronic sounds you’d expect from a Nintendo game. I’m not saying every song is like this, but it’s their equivalent to our elevator music…obviously intended to be soothing, but unfortunately quite irritating.



Disclaimer: This is anything but cute. It could be the most annoying song you've ever heard in your life.

And while we’re talking music, I will say that it caught me by complete surprise to hear “Call Me Maybe” at a sushi restaurant today. Whatever happened to the zen garden genre you'd expect to hear while you’re in Japan? You know, flutes, harps and babbling brooks? Perhaps they think we prefer the one-hit wonders over their more traditional tunes? Not me… Pour me some green tea and put me in a trance! Make me think I’m climbing Mt. Fuji, not clubbing at the shore. This is JAPAN, after all. Not New Jersey.

What I'd prefer to hear while feasting on raw fish.