30-sec preview
2023 · From the album Bansanka (Acoustic Version) - Single
Bansanka (Acoustic Version)
by TUKI.
The reading
A song about staying with someone you keep hurting, framed as a lifelong dinner where every 'I love you' is another course served between apologies
02 · Interpretation
TUKI.'s 'Bansanka': A Love Served in Courses, With Tears for Seasoning
The title 'Bansanka' translates roughly as 'dinner song,' and the song takes that image literally: love as a meal shared across a lifetime, with the beloved asked to serve up declarations of affection like courses in a tasting menu. It's a quiet, acoustic track from October 2023 by TUKI., a young Japanese singer-songwriter whose minimal arrangements tend to put the lyric front and centre. Hearing it that way, 'Bansanka' is less a tender ballad than a confession dressed up as a dinner invitation.
The opening is almost a push away. The narrator keeps repeating that they make the other person cry, so they shouldn't be together, so they want to be forgotten quickly. Being human, they add, means sometimes wanting something different to eat, an unusually candid admission that the appetite for other people, other lives, doesn't just vanish because you love someone. The refrain of 君を泣かすから (because I make you cry) functions like a drumbeat of guilt the singer can't stop tapping.
Then the reversal arrives. Without the other person, everything is 味気ない, flavourless. The narrator wants to see no one else. They call themselves selfish for it, which is accurate; the song doesn't try to launder the contradiction. Love's 'proof of existence' is called vague, and the singer asks the partner to teach them what it is, as if the beloved were both the diner and the chef.
The counting of nights
The song's central device is the escalating count. First it's 何十回, tens of nights, that could never produce enough 'I love you's or a grand enough full course. Then 何百回, hundreds. By the final verses it's 何千回 and 何万回, thousands and tens of thousands of nights, and the verb has shifted from 得られぬ (unattainable) to 忘れぬ (unforgettable). The grammar quietly moves from lack to permanence. What started as a tally of what love can't deliver becomes a tally of what won't be forgotten.
The second verse mirrors the first but twists the knife. The singer still makes their partner cry, still can't imagine a lifetime working out, and admits to a lack of confidence and an unwillingness to change. The line about love's proof shifts too: earlier the partner was asked to explain it, now the singer notes the partner is right there, as if presence itself were the proof they kept demanding in the abstract.
The bridge is where the song softens its hands. The one who didn't leave, who stayed close, turned out to be only this person. The 'spice of tears' will remain in the partner's chest, a line that doesn't ask forgiveness so much as acknowledge the residue. Tears are folded back into the culinary metaphor; the pain becomes part of the meal's flavour, not separable from it.
A promise that includes the damage
What makes 'Bansanka' interesting is that it never resolves the contradiction it opens with. The singer still believes they'll hurt this person, still thinks forever is unlikely, but by the final chorus they are promising to keep arranging those 'I love you's anyway, for thousands and tens of thousands of nights. The 頂戴 ('give me,' spoken casually, almost cheekily) at the end turns the whole thing into an ongoing request rather than a conclusion. The dinner isn't over. It will go on being prepared and served by both of them, tears and all.
For a song built on simple acoustic textures and a repeated meal metaphor, it holds a surprisingly adult view of love: not that it fixes you, not that it stops you hurting the other person, but that you keep showing up to the table. That stubbornness, more than any confession in the lyrics, is probably why the track found a wide audience among younger Japanese listeners online, where TUKI.'s stripped-down recordings have circulated steadily since her debut.
Themes catalogued
03 · Lyrics
"Bansanka (Acoustic Version)"
君を泣かすから だから一緒には居れないな
君を泣かすから 早く忘れて欲しいんだ
人間だからね たまには違うものも食べたいね
君を泣かすから そう君を泣かすから
でも味気ないんだよね
会いたくなんだよね
君以外会いたくないんだよね
なんて勝手だね
大体曖昧なんだよね
愛の存在証明なんて
君が教えてくれないか
何十回の夜を過ごしたって得られぬような
愛してるを並べてみて
何十回の夜を過ごしたって得られぬような
最高のフルコースを頂戴
君を泣かすから きっと一生は無理だよね
君を泣かすから 胸がとても痛くなんだ
人間だからね たまには分かり合えなくなって
君を泣かすから また君を泣かすから
でも自信がないんだよね
変わりたくないんだよね
君以外会いたくないんだよね
なんて勝手だね
大体曖昧だったよね
愛の存在証明なんて
君がそこに居るのにね
何百回の夜を過ごしたって得られぬような
愛してるを並べてみて
何百回の夜を過ごしたって得られぬような
最高のフルコースを頂戴
離れないで 傍に居てくれたのは
結局君一人だったよね
涙のスパイスは君の胸に
残ってしまうだろうけど
何千回の夜を過ごしたって得られぬような
愛してるを並べるから
何千回の夜を過ごしたって得られぬような
最高のフルコースを
何万回の夜を過ごしたって忘れぬような
愛してるを並べるから
何万回の夜を過ごしたって忘れぬような
最高のフルコースを頂戴
Lyrics via Google. Copyright belongs to rights holders.
04 · FAQ
