Venus

A folk-style love song. The title came from Hirasawa hearing that descendants of the Inca can see the planet Venus in the sky even at daylight.

Lyrics

 * 1 "Could be “star” or “stars”, as the Japanese is ambiguous about number. And since the same word can be used to designate planets at times, it may be “planet(s)” instead."
 * 2 "“People” in the sense of “people of this country”."
 * 3 "Since the sun sets in the west, this could be a poetic way of saying the west is still in the dark of night, even though the hints of dawn are coming in the east. But feel free to look for connections to songs like “The Westward of Time”, which also has a ship hurrying westwards."

Versions
An acoustic ballad whose second half is backed with drums. Used as an insert song in "Pursuit", the second episode of Detonator Orgun.
 * Water in Time and Space, 1989
 * Susumu Hirasawa - vocals, gut guitar
 * Shingo Tomoda - drums

Features a full band with orchestra arrangement and a wind synth-led extended coda, created mostly so that Hirasawa would have time to change costumes mid-show.
 * Eror CD, 1990
 * Susumu Hirasawa - vocals, gut guitar
 * Hikaru Kotobuki, Kazuhide Akimoto - keyboards, backing vocals
 * Katsuhiko Akiyama - bass, backing vocals
 * Kazutoki Umezu - wind synthesizer
 * Shingo Tomoda - drums, electronic percussion
 * Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Nurse - strings, horns


 * Hirasawa Error Engine - Hirasawa Three Acts in Three Hours: Upper, 1994
 * Susumu Hirasawa - vocals, acoustic guitar

Performed as part of TAKA's solo set, with Hirasawa as guest guitarist.
 * I3 Days'94 Tokyo & Osaka

A symphonic, orchestral, string-oriented style arrangement. Hirasawa released 5 sketches of it on "The Aggregated Past KANGENSHUGI 8760 HOURS" website as he worked on it.
 * Hen-Gen-Ji-Zai, 2010

Live performance of the Kangen Shugi arrangement.
 * Tokyo I-jigen Kudou, 2011

Covered by Jun Togawa and Missa Fukuma (sister of Hajime Fukuma).
 * others

Connections

 * The lyrics touch briefly on the concept of philosophy: In it, Venus is associated with water and the ocean and is the guide through the fearful world of the unconscious, sharing a similar thematic to the song's lyrics. Hirasawa would later explore the field in more detail with Philosopher's Propeller.