The Choir Arrives

a picture a friend took from our rehearsal this afternoon

Where is the line between audience and stage?

We welcome 10,000 Japanese people to join us in making music together.  13,000 people apply for the honor, 10,000 are chosen with a few thousand seats remaining for the"audience" who will also sing.  Several choirs will join through telecast.  They have all been rehearsing for 3 months in separate choir groupings and are well-prepared, music fully memorized, German pronunciation conquered.

In this stadium of fellow performers, for whom are we performing?  It is at once grand and intimate.  A world brought together by Beethoven and a Japanese vision.

Gratitude for Beethoven

It is an honor to play Beethoven 9 again.  Each time something new, a new awareness of something that appears as if by magic, there all along and just waiting for my ears and soul to meet it.  Different conductors, different musicians, different stages in life.  And Beethoven never heard it.

How many years of devotion does it take?  Beethoven lived in sound, and lost it.  And yet still had it inside of him.  So strong a force.  Where does it come from?  From what fountain, what need to share with the world, against all odds?

It is inspiring to be with him again.

Thanksgiving

36 people from all over the world crammed into a little apartment in Japan to celebrate an American tradition of giving thanks.  We ate a lot of food and shared with one another the things for which we are grateful.

cutting the turkey

some new traditional Thanksgiving fare

some of the food and people

from France, her first Thanksgiving turkey cutting

more of the offerings

yorkshire pudding from our Englishmen

mashed sweet potatoes with a chopsticks

the crew taken with a friend's panoramic camera

Thanksgiving Eve

It is the eve of the HPAC Thanksgiving.

Several years ago a group of foreigners, including a fair representation of Americans, stumbled upon the shores of Japan.  They brought with them the tradition of relying on the goodwill of the native population to help them acclimate to an unfamiliar home.  In place of maize and wild turkeys, they found miso and seaweed.  The Japanese helped them set up their telephone service, make Shinkansen and hotel reservations online, and translated for them the ins and outs of everyday life, including important looking mailings.  The Americans were very grateful.

These foreigners brought with them the tradition of giving thanks once a year, an opportunity to reflect and eat a lot of food from the land of yore.  And some of their Japanese friends were curious about the tradition and agreed to come to the gathering and take part in the festivities, just as they had openly shared their own matsuri (festivals) and local fare.  Some of the non-Americans agreed to bring new dishes to the table, opening new traditions upon traditions to those already laid.  It was hoped and expected that the evening would be warm and full of gratitude.

One American who had purchased too many sweet potatoes in anticipation of making mashed sweet potations for the evening, thought to take a sweet potato to her Japanese teacher thus establishing a new "Thanksgiving in America" tradition of presenting one's Japanese teacher with a sweet potato on Thanksgiving.  But the ubiquity of sweet potatoes in Japan, her Japanese teacher's ability to feed herself, and the fact that this isn't actually a tradition, all deterred her from establishing the tradition.  Tomorrow she will simply sip the Japanese tea her teacher will inevitably bring her, as they look over kanji and Japanese grammar, and give thanks.  

Patience and Perseverance

A few days ago, my Tae Kwon Do Master announced that he would be testing for 6th dan alongside his own teacher who would be testing for 7th dan which carries the designation of Grand Master.  It was a humbling and inspiring announcement to hear.  I practice with their example in mind.  Where does it end, where does it begin?

Some things in life take a long time.  There are some ways of being that take a long time to develop.

Sun on a Rainy Day, Starry Skies to Come

It was a rainy day today.  I biked to shodo just before the clouds broke, and biked home in their pouring.  When I arrived to the classroom, only Wada-sensei had arrived.  I found my desk, the only one with everything laid out–felt mat, brush, paper weight, paper–all borrowed from her for the time being.

She asked me how many siblings I have and we had a short exchange in Japanese about my brothers.  Maybe she was testing my Japanese or beginning a psychological profile of me to determine my capacity for following-through with the art of shodo.  I hope having two younger brothers doesn't disable me from drawing straight lines, but maybe she was looking for an explanation for the first day of class.  

Or perhaps she was just making conversation.

She started by giving me the hiragana たいよう(ta-i-yo-u, "taiyou," the Japanese word for "sun").  Appropriate for the weather.  

Wada-sensei's on the left, my final ok copy on the right,
circles (maru) indicating that those parts are good

It seems that once we bring something to her to check, she makes corrections but also gives another assignment.  Perhaps she figures that by the time we decide to bring our work to her it is time to take a break from learning from that subject.  She doesn't expect us to keep pounding away at it with correction after correction.  But I usually like to try to make the correction and get her OK.  I made a small adjustment on my hiragana for taiyou, got her approval and then set to work with the next thing she gave me, the kanji for the same word:

Wada-sensei's copy with numbers indicating the stroke order

I lost track of time.   There was a lot to digest here.  The strokes in the upper character, which I had learned and come to love last week, alluded me today.  The spacing and angles of the lower one were also tricky to manage.  I took it to her and watched her redraw the opening strokes with which I struggled, watched her stop the brush right before the end and wait, and wait, and wait, before finally completing it.  You have the time, she seemed to be telling me.  I learned a lot watching her make that stroke.

She gave me several corrections and two (2!) new sheets of assignments.  Was this her way of encouraging me to keep moving forward and obsessing a little less?  Regardless I couldn't leave the sun on a rainy.  Several more corrections from her, and then finally I got it.  She rewarded me with hana maru (flower circles) and showed the whole class of middle-aged Japanese women who enthusiastically cooed at how jouzou (skilled) I was.  It was very sweet.

Corrections, corrections and then....hana maru!

I started on the first of the next two assignments, but felt fairly complete for the time being with my sunny winnings.  Next week, on to starry (hoshi) skies (zora) (ほしぞら、星空)

the examples to follow next week

Hakuho v Harumafuji

Tonight was the final night of the November sumo tournament, the one and only night when the two top wrestlers get to fight one another.  Currently carrying the top rank of Yokozuna are two Mongolians:  Hakuho and Harumafuji.  If their names don't seem Mongolian, it's because they aren't.  The Japanese sumo tradition lovingly bequeaths them.  For the past few years, Hakuho has maintained an incredible record of having the most wins in a year.  I really enjoy watching the calm in his face before a match.

But tonight, it was not to be for Hakuho.  In the course of a sumo career it only seems natural.  As much as I enjoy his approach, it was also interesting to see him lose, the calm on his face only slightly disturbed by the disappointment.  It was a first for me.

If you're interested in seeing a sumo match, here is a link of this final match.  This is a video of the English television coverage of the final match between Hakuho and Harumafuji (with additional commentary from an American guy in the peanut gallery).  You can see the Japanese advertising, the costumed referee, the long prelude to the fight including the salt throwing, the bow dance following it, and hear some explanation of what's going on.  The actual fight starts at 4:26 and last for about 18 seconds.

Sumo Time