is the fifth studio album released by the Japanese rock band Asian Kung-Fu Generation, released on November 5, 2008. The album peaked at the second position on both the Oricon charts and Billboard Japan. Its lead single, "Fujisawa Loser" managed to peak at number five on the Japan Hot 100 and at the number six spot on Oricon. The album's tracks are named after notable stops along the famous Enoshima Electric Railway in order starting from Fujisawa and ending with Kamakura. Additionally, it includes the three b-sides "Enoshima Escalator," "Yuigahama Kite," and "Kugenama Surf" released over the past two years within "Korogaru Iwa, Kimi ni Asa ga Furu," "After Dark," and "Aru Machi no Gunjō" respectively. In promotion of the conceptual album, on November 9, the band held an exclusive live concert within an undisclosed location in Kamakura.
The band has since released a continuation of this album, covering the stations of the Railway line which did not originally have a song. This began with Yanagikōji Parallel Universe, a B-side track to Demachiyanagi Parallel Universe.
Track listing All songs written and composed by Masafumi Gotoh.
B-sides Song Length B-side of "Hello Hello"2:45"Fujisawa Loser"
Personnel
Masafumi Gotoh – lead vocals, guitar, lyrics Kensuke Kita – lead guitar, background vocals Takahiro Yamada – bass, background vocals Kiyoshi Ijichi – drums Asian Kung-Fu Generation – producer
Kenichi Nakamura – mixing, recording Michifumi Onodera – mixing, recording Stephen Marcussen – mastering Stewart Whitmore – editing Yusuke Nakamura – art direction
Surf Bungaku Kamakura Complete
Asian Kung-Fu Generation's eleventh studio album, Surf Bungaku Kamakura Complete (サーフ ブンガク カマクラ（完全版）) was released on July 5, 2023. The album contains re-recordings of the original songs and new five songs, also dubbed "complete version" as now it covers every Enoshima Electric Railway station. Two new tracks, "Yanagikouji Parallel Universe" and "Nissaka Down Hill" were already released as B-sides of "Demachiyanagi Parallel Universe" and "Shukuen", respectively.
Three weeks before the release of the full album, the band released an EP called Surf Bungaku Kamakura (half carton) (サーフ ブンガク カマクラ（半カートン）) that included five new songs and an instrumental cover of Caramelman's "Shonan Electro", exclusive on music streaming services.
On the day of release, an Instagram live talk was held on Gotoh and Kiyoshi's Instagram accounts, broadcasting from New Enoshima Aquarium. To promote the new album, the band took a different artist photo at each Enoden station, which were then displayed as posters at the respective stations for a two week period starting from the day prior to release.
Track listing All songs written and composed by Masafumi Gotoh, except where noted.
Chart positions Album +Chart performance for Surf Bungaku Kamakura Chart (2008)Peak positionJapanese Albums (Oricon)2Japanese Hot Albums (Billboard Japan)2
+ Chart performance for Surf Bungaku Kamakura (Complete) Chart (2023) Peakposition Japanese Combined Albums (Oricon) 5 Japanese Hot Albums (Billboard Japan) 3
Single SongChart (2008)Peakpositions"Fujisawa Loser"Oricon6Japan Hot 1005Billboard Japan Adult Contemporary6Billboard Japan – Adult Contemporary Airplay . Billboard. Retrieved on 2008-11-10.
References