Words by: Akira 
Art by: Simonette Labrain

When my siblings and I were kids, our mum used to sing a lullaby to us every night before we went to sleep. We would have our nightly glass of milk, brush our teeth, faff around for a bit avoiding bedtime (little Akira didn’t understand just how great sleep was yet), then hop into our beds and wait. My mum would come in, sit down next to us and ask in Japanese, “What would you like me to sing today?”.

This ritual in our family is a memory I’m so fond of, and it wasn’t until I messaged my siblings the other day that I realised just how huge my mum’s repertoire was (Dad would sometimes sing us ‘There Will Be No Divorce’ by the Mountain Goats — I still remember every word). As I told my brother and sister about my idea for this article, it was fun to see what songs I had such clear memories of compared to the ones they did. So, here I would like to share with everyone which cute little Japanese songs the Shimote-Kerr siblings loved when we were little and have a special connection to even now.

Sachi – The Crow Song

My brother liked a song called 七つの子 which translates to “seven children”. The story in this song is about a crow that cries in the mountains. She has seven little chicks and exclaims over how cute her seven babies are with their big round eyes, which seems fitting for the amount of love we felt from our mum when she sang these songs to us. Sachi says that he remembers Mum singing this song to him when he was feeling sad or sick. Now, like a warm bowl of miso soup, it serves as a comfort song, and it still pops into his head every so often.

Akira – The Grandfather Clock Song

The song I remember the most, 大きな古時計 is quite literally translated to “big grandfather clock”. In this song, the narrator sings that on the morning their grandfather was born, his family bought a grandfather clock. The clock ticked every day without rest alongside the grandfather. But after 100 years, the grandfather clock stopped ticking, and so did the grandfather. I always remembered this being a pretty sad story, but I really liked the melody and bittersweetness of it. According to my mum, I always liked the ‘pretty, serene tunes’ more than the ‘fun’ ones, which is pretty on par for a ‘Folklore’ stan like me.

Lin – The “Doraemon” Theme song 

I’m sure there are a few readers who will be familiar with Doraemon, the blue earless cat from the future. The theme song to the anime is a very cute and cheery tune about how Doraemon can help you achieve your dreams and solve your problems with the endless gadgets in his pocket. He’s basically the Genie of Japan. Mum used to sing the song to Lin when she was little, then recently when she decided to actually watch the show, she says she experienced a rush of emotional nostalgia hearing the theme song again.

Even though this was the song Lin had the strongest memories of, she says that the songs mum sang to us in general are a pretty big feature of her life. So many of the songs are about everyday mundane things like crows, acorns, lunchboxes or snails, and whenever she sees these things, she’ll think of the melodies that go along with them. This is one of the things I really love about Japanese culture; this ability to see whimsicalness and joy in simplicity. There is just such a slowness, and an eye for capturing beauty in the things we walk past every day that makes everything feel a little more vibrant. So, when life gets a little boring, maybe you can make a song about the little things in life too.