Guqin

I had this great opportunity to talk with this person who is so passionate and knowledgeable about Asian music. He also has a guqin, and he was super nice to teach me how to play and let me try it.

This was such a great experience because things are so different from koto. The string was silk, so it creates whole different sound. I can understand that this was more intimate, private music rather than sort of "performing art." It doesn't have bridges nor pics. So my fingers touch the strings and the body of the instrument directly. This made me feel closer and more intimate relationship with the instrument, which we are losing with the development of technology.

Technique is different. I used whole different finger muscles and parts. Of course this means that there are different sounds and effects. Sometimes this actually reminded me of Shamisen technique because these techniques are about fingers, strings and the instrument body, which is the same as Shamisen.

This instrument has scores from old times. this is

Anyways this was a whole new learning and sensation that I enjoyed a lot.

This Holiday Season

Throughuot this holiday season,

1) I was reminded that food is culture for some places, which I tend to forget when I live in North America. And then, when it comes to Japan, food is not only culture, but it's art! Ah, I now have to think about going to Japan. I saw too many great food pics taken in Japan this last couple of weeks!

2) I realize that I have been with the opportunities to appreciate the beauty of Japanese language (or my mother tongue), which is also something that I tend to forget here in Vancouver. This is probably because I practice classical art form. I feel lucky that I have people who let me realize and appreciate the beauty of the language.

2 Months

2 months have passed since then. 

So many stuff happened around me.

One thing is that I haven’t been there yet. I haven’t felt the air, smelled, heard, or seen my Tohoku. So maybe I’m not understanding any reality.

Nowadays, I can get any information live wherever I live. I heard about the earthquake, and I watched tsunami coming with little delay. Sure some information migt be exaggerated, and other might not be toled at all. But maybe I saw and heard more than my friends did in Tohoku.  

My friends in Tohoku didn’t know about the reality of tsunami area till a couple of weeks later. I watched the tsunami situations of several places live. The thing is that I was still able to sleep at night. It was not like my friends who couldn’t sleep as they feared another earthquake. I guess this is what it means to be and not to be in the reality. 

I experienced another reality here in Vancouver. So many people stood up and took actions for Japan. They couldn’t help doing more than just watching news. I was one of those. Well, in my case, I was more with selfish reasons. I didn’t have confidence to deal with this disaster in my hometown by myself. I wanted to be with other people. I didn't want to go through this situation alone. 

Indeed, it worked out. It helped me a lot that I went out of my house, spent time with people, and worked with them. Maybe I knew unconsciously that I needed to be with people. 

What’s more, the place I was at for these 2 months was the hub of Japan earthquake relief. What this means is that people who were there were those who were concerned with my hometown and wanted to do something for the people there. There might have been other reasons than this, but fundamentally, this is why they were there, visited the office, or contacted us. It was such a good feeling to be surrounded such an atmosphere. Sure not everyone there knew that I’m from Tohoku, but I knew. So I was really thankful everyday. 

I met with many many people. I experienced a lot of good wills every day. Of course not everything went smoothly as we had such a variety of people, but you know everyone had a good intention, so it should work out. And I think it did. I do feel if we had this much of variety and still everything went smoothly, that’d be weird. Don’t you think so? I even feel what we’ve done is really amazing thinking about the variety that we had. 

Well, I’m writing in the past tense, but this does not mean things are over, we still keep doing some stuff. Just I am no longer at the office everyday, and I started doing other things as well.

In these 2 months, I met with so many wonderful people. Since I speak both Japanese and English, I got to know 2 worlds, I met with more people, and I was helped in many different ways. I learned a lot. I had never appreciated the fact that I speak 2 languages this much before. 

I think though what happened there was quite simple: help those who need help. Just do what we can do. If a bit of my effort can help somebody a lot, why just don’t do a bit of the effort? And when I need help, accept someone’s offer and appreciate it. Quite simple, right? It doesn’t need to be your family or friends; whoever in front of you may be able to help you or you may be able to help them. Then, let’s do it. That’s what I am reminded.

In Japan my friends who live out of Tohoku go to Tohoku for volunteering. So many people in BC are doing a lot of things. My friends in Tohoku have started sending me some good news.

It would still take a lot of time to get back to the situation before the earthquake. But I know the strength of Tohoku people. We’ve always lived with severe nature, so we are much stronger than those in urban areas. 

I am proud of being a Tohoku person. So it’s hurting that I am not there at this moment. But maybe there is a reason that I’m here in Vancouver. So I will do what I can do from here as a Tohoku person. 

2 months have passed since then, and this is what I thought. 

The photo is sakura in Tohoku, sent from my friend.

BC Japan Earthquake Relief Fund

Spring Rain

I was just playing with my neighbour cat outside, and that was when I encountered the moment that it started raining.

The smell of the air suddenly changed.

I just realized, “oh?”

A second later, I started hearing the sound of rain.

Yes, spring has come.

Intercultural Innovations

I got an email with a poster about a recital attached at a midnight. This person’s email is always something, and this time, there was nothing stated but a poster arrived via email.

So, thinking “it’s so him!,” I just phoned him next day to check what his message was. Is he performing, or wanting to go together, or something else? Sure he was going to perform.

His performance is always spectacular, so I went to the recital with my friend.

As you can see in the poster, this was a bit experimental with the theme of “West meets East.” There is a lot of potential to develop and it will be very interesting once this style was sophisticated more. This time, it was more like each instrument met each other recently and does not really know each other yet, though everyone shares the same interest and goal.

It was more like they got together for the same journey, and they are excited about it, but since they met the members recently, they need to get know each other and figure out each one’s role before the journey starts, kind of moment. So I am so interested in how each instrument will figure out their own position though experiments like tonight.

Yes I enjoyed this very initial moment of a new wonderful journey.

And his performance! He was WOW again. He never disappoints me. It was like his music took me to another world or something. Just so beautiful. Maybe I’m in love with his music.

I wondered, as I felt what he did was not something that one can compose, like it was more free style and too amazing to write down on music sheet. Yes it was his improvisation.

So yes I have another wonderful night in Vancouver. 

LES TWINS

I just run into this on the web.

I am not familiar at all with HIP HOP or that kind of music, but I think this is super cool. There movement, technique, and fashion, and the situation, everything is so amazingly placed and just so cool!

I would love to see them in real. Hope they come to Vancouver……

English Version

Well, I thought I want to have a blog in English. Well I have been thinking so since I started Japanese one, but yes I admit, I was lazy. But now here I started, finally. Let’s see how long I can keep.