The bird
I did something silly while I was in Japan. I gave away our bird.
Don't get me wrong, there's no way we could have brought in a live one. japanese customs might have deemed it necessary to turn it into yakitori.
It was a lovely ceramic bird, yellow and blue in colour. nothing more than a simple pottery whistle. But, filled with water it sang like a true song bird. Michelle had entrusted it into my safekeeping.
You sound like a real bird when u play it, she and Alex said. It was a nice compliment. Everytime I played I imagined a red-breasted Robin, lungs all puffed up and ready to expell its song into the wilderness.
Many of the Japanese were intrigued by the bird. It helped that I held it in my hands like an occarina while playing. Snug and warm, as though unwilling to let it fly away into the emptiness of the concert hall.
The Tsu conductor who hosted me was pretty impressed by it. The children loved it; probably imagining that there was a real skylark in the auditorium.
She asked, Can you Help me Get one? (after my sheepish acceptance of a silly gift that I enquired about).
So I gave it away.
Michelle was mighty peeved at me I guessed. No amount of coaxing could convince her to let the matter slide.
Guilt-ridden, I looked for some way to get it back in singapore. I found Similar ones online. But they cost an arm and a leg, the same amount as a real bird.
I decided to go by the roundabout route. Spoke to Suntec information (where she got the bird) and was put in touch with the vendor whom she got it from. So, a replacement bird will be on the way, if all goes well during our meet tomorrow.
It was interesting to go on this bird hunt. I felt like some gameshow host, trying to search for things lost and never found. It helped that the vendor was from China and only spoke Chinese, so I had a mighty difficult time communicating with him. Exciting.
Will it work out?
I'll let you know in the weekend.
All up
Finally.
I've uploaded all the pictures onto my webshots album. The links are as follows
Tsu - http://community.webshots.com/album/552541732wwdrLK
Kyoto - http://community.webshots.com/album/552541755uhODfk
Fujinomiya - http://community.webshots.com/album/552544481zouugw
Fujisawa - http://community.webshots.com/album/552543505tXZGSj
Tokyo - http://community.webshots.com/album/552541240faGBns
Extension - http://community.webshots.com/album/552541249CmOvBe
have a looksee.
Kyoto 2
Realised that I have way too many photos. Will probably put them up in webshots if possible. Anyhow, I think this segment will be on the Gion Festival in Kyoto.
Hmm..having trouble trying to upload the rest. I think I'll have to try hosting them at webshots and providing a link instead.
Kyoto 1
Next stop was Kyoto. I figured, maybe the pictures first, writing would be left for later posts. I took many shots in kyoto. Maybe a three-parter series is required.
Some everyday scenes.
The first meal. It was hilarious, ebcause my mangled japanese didn't help at all. I even took photos of the food display outside to aid us in ordering.
our first encounter with the train system. This was quite simple, compared to the Tokyo transit systme.
A view from a temple near our hostel. Alex Jianqun and I hiked up to it right after breakfast. For lack of a better word, we had nothing better to do.
Nightlife, temples and nature next.
Tsu
Tsu/Nagoya
Our first stop for the tour. Unfortunately, I didn't go as camera crazy for this part of the trip due to worries of camera capacity. Still managed a few good pictures.
The first group shot. Beaming faces, relieved of aircabin pressure.
The next two are pictures of Nagoya Castle. A grand place, with a neatly pruned tree. Also managed to see deer in the dried up moat.
A shot of the shopping arcade we visited.
The back and front of my first homestay. the lady with the V for victory was our host. It was pretty fun, because we slept in the school's main hall (pretty small); and we brought out our futons everynight for sleep. Drank lots as well because her mum drinks like a fish.
A final shot of a miniconcert that occured before ours. It featured many for the raw talents from the Tsu guitar school. This was particularly interesting, mostly because the dog was extremely restless during his owner's strum and sing-along. He should have done Desafinado instead. A more fitting song title.
Portions
I've been procrastinating on writing about the trip. So many memories 'terred in the heart, un-vocalized. Perhaps, a blow by blow account would suffice.
But I can't seem to put my finger on it. My fingers extend across the keyboard, ready to recorrd down nostalgia for posterity. But nothing come out. I think, perhaps pictures would be a better alternative.
We went to several places - Nagoya, Tsu, Kyoto, Fujinomiya, Fujisawa and Tokyo. I'll try listing down the pictures in that order from next post on.
The trip
I was thinking of writing a little diary of sorts, a collection of my thoughts and feelings of my trip to Japan.
I started the same way I ended. A little bit of yearning for the food from hope; a sadness of having to leave. I told a good friend that I was sad to leave, unlike the rest. Brimming with excitement of the tales to regale to their folks.
The decision to leave, a product of my belief that life came in stages. This trip marked the end of another stage in life, a passage into working life and adulthood. Japan proved to be a neat little full stop to a phase of life filled with music.
It was taking up too much of time. I was both amazed and ashamed to learn that tsu ensemble members were not full time musicians. They had to juggle married life, life on the road (some were truck drivers) as well as performing. I couldn't do that.
So I plucked up the courage and faced reality. I think it was time to move on. So that I had more time for other bigger things, and more important events in life. The kids in church, and of course the wonderful missus who put up with crazy schedules and quite weekends. Not forgetting the job.
She held my hand and squeezed.
Dear, don't stop doing what you love.
And that was enough courage for me to carry on playing.
Rays of Light
Something to whet the appetite. A beautiful sunset in Japan. I spotted this in Fujinomiya, right before our evening performance which concluded our most exhausting day. Most of us were dead tired before we even started on the evening performance.
It was reinvigorating, to see this sunset. Beams cast through the clouds, as though issued from a heavenly furnace.
We did pretty well after that I guess.
