Tokyo FM Choir: Recording Session

Figure 1.--Even though this recording was made in January, which like the United States is the middle of winter, many of the boys showed up in short pants for this 1994 recording session. Of course as is the custom in Japan, thy have taken their shoes off.

The Tokyo FM Choir not only gives public performances, but they also make recordings which are marketed by Tokyo FM. The choir uniform is not required at these recording sessions, but many boys wear them anyway.

Music Recordings

I'm not sure what type of music the choir records. It appears to be mostly popular music and children's songs. Christmas music is a popular annual staple of the choir. The boys in these photographs are recording Nakane-ondo. "Nakane-ondo" is a popular traditinal Japanese piece sung by children at school events. Oondo is a kind of traditional Japanese style popular music.

Uniform

The boys for the recording session wear the blue sweaters the choir sometimes performs along with white shirts. Only a few of the boys, however, wear the blue short pants to complete the choir uniform. The choristers in shorts wear both blue and white kneesocks and ankle socks. The choir requires white kneesocks for choir performances.

Practice and Recording Sessions

One interesting image shows a recording session. Apparently some schools asked Tokyo FM choir to record songs. Tokyo FM did not require the choir members to wear the complete uniform. Most did with the exception of the short pants.

Figure 2.--Another photograpg of the Nakane-ondo recording session. The boys in shorts appear to wear both ankle socks and kneesocks.

The recording session occurred on January 22, 1994. That is the dead of winter -- at that time of year, even on a nice day, the temperature would only rise to the low 50s and would be at or below freezing in the early morning. Yet you'll notice a good half of the boys are in short pants and white knee socks. Some of the boys looking to be wearing tracksuits, perhaps with theit choir uniforms on underneath. I don't know why some of the boys are wearing long pants. It was still normal in 1994 for most boys Japanese boys to wear short pants, even during freezing or snowing winter. One Japanese HBC contributor reports that, "Generally, wearing long pants because of the cold winter was a shame. But boys catching colds or weaker boys were allowed to wear long pants." Short shorts were a virtual uniform for boys. Most boys didn't complain about feeling the cold. The Japanese contributor notes, "It's true. Because when I am a elementry school boy, I wore short pants and didn't feel the cold, too." This photo was not taken at a performance and was not in public, thus a non-official oacasion, so some boys wore long pants. The comments above fits mainly in Tokyo and its suburbs. In northen parts of Japan, they are not appropriate as it was becoming more common to wear long pants in the more severe winter weather