さんぽ (Sanpo) from My Neighbor Totoro — Full Lyrics Breakdown & Meaning (JLPT N5)

📄 Search the full lyrics for “さんぽ となりのトトロ” ↗

Why this is the perfect first song

Two things make a song good for a beginner: it has to be easy the whole way through (not just in one line), and it has to be famous enough that you'll actually hear it again and want to sing along. さんぽ is both. Composed by Joe Hisaishi with lyrics by Rieko Nakagawa and sung by Azumi Inoue, it was written to sound like a small child skipping out the door on a walk — so every word is concrete, every line is short, and the whole thing moves at a pace your ear can keep up with. Nothing is slurred, nothing is slang.

The song, part by part

The opening — "歩こう、歩こう"

It starts by repeating 歩こう (arukō), "let's walk," and then わたしは元気 — "I'm full of energy." That's the whole mood of the song in one breath: cheerful, ready to go. 歩こう is the volitional form of 歩く (aruku, to walk) — the casual "let's ~ / I'll ~." It comes back later as たんけんしよう ("let's explore"), so if you learn this one form you've unlocked the song's backbone.

The feeling — loving the walk, rain or shine

The next idea is simple and warm: I love walking, so let's keep going. The key word is 大好き (daisuki, "really like / love"), which uses the 〜が好き pattern — the thing you like takes が, not を. Even the weather turning doesn't dampen the mood; the singer stays 元気 (genki, energetic) either way. It's an attitude lesson as much as a language one.

The scenery — a walk in nouns

Here the song becomes a string of places: a slope (さかみち), a tunnel (トンネル), a grassy field (くさっぱら), a narrow one-plank bridge, a bumpy gravel path, a downhill stretch. There's almost no grammar to parse — it's a camera panning across a landscape, naming each thing. For a learner that's ideal: you can catch and keep one concrete noun at a time. Try to pick out トンネル and さかみち on the first listen.

The little creatures — も…も, "both … and …"

Now come the animals: bees buzzing (みつばち、ぶんぶん — note the onomatopoeia ぶんぶん for "buzz"), a lizard sunbathing, a snake taking a ひるね (hirune, a nap), a grasshopper hopping. Then the invitation: きつねも たぬきも でておいで — "foxes and raccoon-dogs, come on out!" That も…も frame ("both A and B") is a genuinely useful pattern, and でておいで is the gentle, childlike "come out" (from 出てくる) — the kind of soft invitation you'd say to a friend or a pet.

The ending — "友だち たくさん、うれしいな"

It closes on pure feeling: 友だち たくさん、うれしいな — "lots of friends… how nice." That sentence-final な is the sound of talking to yourself with warm emotion ("…isn't it nice"), and うれしい (ureshii, happy/glad) is a core N5 adjective. The walk ends not at a place but in a mood — which is very Totoro.

Grammar you'll take away

• Volitional 〜こう / 〜よう ("let's ~"): 歩こう, たんけんしよう. → volitional guide
• 〜が好き / 大好き (liking things): → 〜が好き guide
• も … も ("both … and …"): きつねも たぬきも
• Sentence-final な (soft emotion, talking to oneself): うれしいな
• Onomatopoeia: ぶんぶん (buzzing) — Japanese leans on these constantly.

Key vocabulary

Every one of these is high-frequency far beyond this song — learn them here and you'll meet them everywhere.

How to study it

1. Play the video above once and just enjoy it.
2. Play it again reading along with the official lyrics (search the song title + 歌詞).
3. Take one section from this page — the opening, or the animals — and re-listen until you can hear each word. Then move to the next.

Want more at your level? See more N5 songs. Not sure which grammar to shore up first? A free N5 mock test will point you straight at it.