JapanNewbie

Nekoyasha – Happy Kansai-ben Music

Posted on 03. Sep, 2009 @ 9:56 am by harvey in Media, Music Views: 514

Found this bubbly Kansai-ben (Kansai Dialect) single by a new Japanese band calledNekoyasha (猫夜叉) over on HearJapan.

Nekoyasha Nandeyanen Single

This hyper-cute (and I don’t use that term lightly) song has lyrics like:

なんでやねん、なんでやねん、なんでこんなにおもろいねん！

nandeyanen, nandeyanen, nande konnani omoroinen!

Why? Why? Why is it so interesting/funny!?

空が青いのはなんでやねん〜
空は青が好きなんだ。

sora ga aoi no ha nande yanen
sora ha ao ga suki nan da

Why is the sky blue?
Well I like the sky being blue!

Or another happy West Japan (Kansai) related line…

地球が丸いのはなんでやねん？
たこ焼き丸いのはなんでやねん。
僕ら、わからんことだらけ〜

chikyuu ga marui no ha nanndeyanen?
takoyaki marui no ha nanndeyanen
bokura, wakarann koto darake

Why is the earth round?
Why is takoyaki round??
There are so many things that we don’t understand!

…And so on with other extremely cheery and bubbly lyrics.

As you may know, “nandeyanen” is probably one of the most famous Kansai-ben phrases, which is basically the equivalent of “nandedayo!” in standard Japanese. It has a playful, “why in the world?!” ring to it.

Nekoyasha Members

The Nekoyasha band’s lead singer Minmin Yokoyama is from Osaka, and the entire song is in Kansai-ben. As you can see even takoyaki (old takoyaki jnewbie link!) makes an appearance in the lyrics.

If you’re looking for another source of Kansai-ben to pump up your listening comprehension skills, or if you just like super-happy female-vocal Japanese music with an old school Showa era feel you might want to give this single a listen.

If you’re interested in learning more about Kansai-ben check out this older post with Kansai-ben language lessons, and if you’ve got a iPhone or iPodTouch check out our Kansai-ben iPhone application!

Enjoy!

Harvey

Link:
More info on Nekoyasha on their brief Japanese Wikipedia page.