Take 5

AlumNus

I've been thinking about writing about my trip, where we went. Fortunately, I've been compelled to do so after being tasked to write one for AlumNus. Here it is.

GENUS goes Japan

I recently fulfilled a dream of mine – a cross country music tour in Japan. The cheery smiles of our hosts, the hustle of the city and the endless seas of green rice fields and farmers that cycled between them; memories best left in the heart.

I’m an alumni from the NUS guitar ensemble under the NUS Centre for the Arts management. We’re known as GENUS. For those music afficianados out there, we are an ensemble that plays with guitars with Niibori instrumentation and a whole lot of genres.

Recently, we were invited to go on tour to Japan. Needless to say, it was a milestone event for the club. We had never been overseas (save a short trip to Malacca years ago). Seeing that this was an invaluable chance, many of us jumped at the opportunity. Some like myself, relinquished the chance of attending our own commencement. Some lessons are better learnt beyond our shores.

Our official trip was from the 7th to the 17th of July, although some of us chose to extend it by four days. Within this short 11 day span, we visited Nagoya, Tsu, Kyoto, Fujinomiya, Fujisawa and Tokyo; sat on coaches for more than 30 hours and personally, got enough onsen and train tickets to form a deck of cards.

Being a music tour, it was not all fun and games. On several occasions it invovled crazed sprints from performing venue to bus, and cold-sweat inducing moment when we realised that we would have to perform in front Dr Hiroki Niibori, the creator of our Niibori-styled ensemble.

From a cultural standpont, it was an eye-opener. Few of us could speak Japanese. While we had undergone a 3 hour workshop on the culture and language, we were little prepared for the encounters that followed. These were of the interesting, and bewildering kind; given that we also participated in the homestay program. I remember that a good friend of mine who was seated next to me in the flight reciting the Japanese phrases that he learnt. This, at 5 am in the morning.

Each of the cities offered a different slice of life. Nagoya and Tsu was our first stop. This was where I learnt to throw most of the customs I learnt about out of the window. The geniality of my hosts (I stayed with the ensemble conductress and her spritely mom) extended to them offering their whole liqour cabinet to us for the local version of a “small nightcap”. We also had a chance to interact with the local university. I can recall their truncated attempts to speak English to us and our own mangled Japanese interpolated and punctuated with laughter from both sides.

Kyoto was our second stop. Its rich cultural vibrancy allowed us a chance to observe a delicate geisha performance in Gion corner. It was also where we had a good break, and a chance to do things on our own. My particular favourite was cycling around the city to see the sights on rental bikes. We even had the chance to catch the preparations for the local Gion Festival while pushing our bicycles through throngs of people on the sidewalk.

A recurring theme was our visits to the onsens. Nothing describes the searing bath water, and the shock from splashing oneself with icy cold water after. Not forgetting of course, how to deal with modesty issues, for which there was little room. I began to love this so much that I resolved to visit at least one in every city I visited. Needless to say, I lost much water retention weight, and gained in false bravado.

My favourite was our visit to the small city of Fujinomiya, which has a picture postcard setting. In the background, the imposing Mt Fuji, an impenetrable majestic sentinent keeping watch over the small city. This was where I saw the marriage of the urban landscape and nature, where strains of city sound gradually gave way to cicadas in the fields and winds whistling through the mountains. We also had the chance to interact with local city officials who deemed it a great honour to host visitors from the island republic. Most touching was our performance at the local retirement home which left many residents in tears when we left.

Finally, there was Fujisawa where the main niibori school was located. Thankfully, the Dr Niibori was more piqued than disturbed (since it was his first time hearing an overseas ensemble) and his colleagues highly enthusiastic in in their applause. They were delighted to have non-professional musicians, and students from NUS visit them. Tokyo was like any other megalopolis, a wonderful and technologically advanced place with electronic districts and countless trainlines; strangely alienating with giant LCD building-front screens in Shinjuku.

I wonder, when we can visit again.

posted by leo @ 8:36 PM