Last week's lesson with Kaneko-san was filled with my adventures from America. My essay didn't have space to cover my return to Japan and so this week I gave a summary of all the musical events that had happened at HPAC. It's been a busy month! I wrote this in my essay and Kaneko-san laughed since that is the title of the Japanese book we're using: Japanese for Busy People. I enjoy his sense of humor.
We covered some new vocabulary and grammar and I learned a fun new word/expression of the day: 子どもができる (kodomoga dekiru, pregnant, or literally "child able"). He also told me about an event sponsored by TIFA to go to Nakayamadera for Setsubun. I had been wanting to celebrate the day and had been trying to think of creative party games involving masked devils and bean-throwing, but just couldn't contrive a whole evening of entertainment based on these two things. Now I can celebrate by hanging out with Kaneko-san and throwing beans at devils on my birthday. I'm pretty excited about this.
I gave him my essay and he read through the events of the month with interest and attention as always. At the end of the essay, I mentioned that an interview of me had been put in the program book and so I gave him a copy. He went through the book, page by page, looking at all the musical activities that I had just mentioned, amazed at the number of musicians in the Respighi concert (I had written that I had had to use 耳栓, mimisen, earplugs) and he was impressed by all the pictures of Sado-san. He saw the advertisement for an upcoming outreach concert I wrote about in my essay that we are having at an art museum, the same one that I had given him a ticket for last month. He was excited to see it and it sparked the memory of his visit there. I was glad he had gone.
He looked at my interview and read it with great interest, making words audible that I cannot read, kanji that does not have meaning to me. I heard in Japanese some of the things I remembered saying– about my cello, about the foods and places I like in Japan, about personal things that I enjoy doing.
I called my grandfather this past week. We only spoke for about 7 minutes, but he said that the more immersed I can become in Japan, the happier I will be. I've been thinking about that a lot and I think it is true. It gives me great the pleasure to share more with Kaneko-san and the other people that I am coming to know here. As part of the interview, the office staff asked if they could share this blog address with the members of the HPAC audience and I'm happy that they did. It makes me happy to come closer to the people with whom I share music, just as I enjoy sharing more with Kaneko-san.
To all who come to our concerts, a very warm welcome to you here. Know that I will always be happy to hear from you. Thank you for having me and for our time here together. どうもありがとうございます。
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