Bi(non)lingual Chamber Music

It's such an interesting thing to rehearse in two languages.  Yes, music is the universal language, but words really help to clarify.  And yes, much can be said without words, but thousands of years have done a good job of categorizing and labeling certain human expressions so that they can be easily and fairly accurately transmitted to others.  I think my time in Japan has helped me to respect the beauty of language.  And also that it is possible to work without it, with practice.  But I do think that it takes practice.  It is a skill that requires nurturing and perhaps has to be grown between specific people or groups of people, getting to know what to expect, learning to intuit something and make valid assumptions.  And so growing with a new chamber music group in this way is a really beautiful opportunity.  Just as in any chamber music ensemble, musicians have to really put out their "feelers," have to "read the air" and infer what another person's intentions are.  Listening is so important, but listening in a very active way.  Even with those that speak the same language, there is a point past which words cannot go.  They certainly help in getting there, but to work without them is a wonderful exercise in the art of chamber music.

Seeing Fukunari-sensei Again

Yesterday I returned to Fukunari-sensei.  She was the same as before but with a broken wrist.  But she was just as sweet, just as eager to teach, grabbing the pen with her left hand.  It is such a pleasure to be in her presence.  I wish there were some way that I could bottle it up and take it with me.  And the way that she moved and tried to get through more material seemed to suggest that she too was aware of the passing time that we have.  I wrote in my short essay that I had gone to see Arches National Park in America.  When she read that there were red rocks in the shapes of arches she seemed confused.  I showed her a brochure that I'd brought and she couldn't believe it.  She'd never seen anything like it.  She's never been to America.  But there is a possibility that she will visit next year with her friend, maybe even to where I'll be living.  How wonderful to be able to see her again, to see someone so familiar from a different side of "home."

Wakuwaku End

This was the last Wakuwaku ever.  It's a pretty unique experience to play for a huge audience of uniformed Japanese 5th graders, something I don't think I'll ever get to do again.  And it was really wonderful to hear their voices singing Furusato with us.  And it was fun to hear the narrator describing the music and the hall the same way every performance in Japanese and understanding a little more every time over the course of three years.  Like a statue being shaved.  And to hear the creativity and humor of my colleagues in the instrument demonstrations, something I wish could happen in other performances, but which is truly unique to this sort of repetitive educational concert.  Perhaps it was the repetition that drove people to such extremes and gave them the opportunity to try so many different things.  

As I walked off the stage, the girls in the front few rows started to excitedly wave and then more joined when they saw they could get a response.  It's an image I hope to save in my memory, to remember the huge smiles on their faces.  

For Being You

As I was rounding the corner on my way home from HPAC, I had a rare foreigner sighting.  He was a middle-aged gentleman, an American judging by his accent, speaking to someone in English on his cell phone.  It was one of those moments when I ceased to be in Japan.  He had grayed facial hair and a convivial smile, "Oh great!  And how are you getting along with....?"  And then I biked away.  I imagined it to be "medical school" or "the new puppy" or some other topic of such nature.  Perhaps it was that I could understand the combination of smile and words, or maybe just the posture and way that he walked, but there was something in his demeanor that was so comfortingly familiar.  I see foreigners every so often, but rarely are they of such age or so open in their body language, facial expression, and voice.   Usually they seem to be grappling with conformity in Japan.  Maybe having an English cell phone helps.

This man gave me absolutely nothing, probably didn't even notice me, but I received quite a lot from him, just from his demeanor, from something to which he was giving little or no conscious thought.  There are so many ways to live.  And we can pass them along to others, just by existing.  It's possible to be different from what is around us, from what is suggested by our circumstances.

I think it's been a good experience to be in a place where I feel different, and yet not wrong.  I think it takes a lot to trust that.  And I appreciate any instance of verification from others, such as this gentleman just talking to a friend on his cell phone.

Happy Crows

This morning as I was practicing Tae Kwon Do by the river a man came up to me and gestured to the nearby tree.  "There is a crow's nest up there.  You are causing them stress."

I felt bad at the idea of causing the crows stress.  I don't want to be causing anyone (animals included) stress, so I moved away from it to give the crows a little more space.  I would like to say that I did so with no curiosity as to how that man knew I was causing them stress, how he knew there were actually crows in the nest (I knew there was a nest because I had heard sound coming from it a few weeks ago, but had heard nothing recently), wondering if he would have said the same thing to me if I were a different person, and wondering about all the other loud things that occur on the river (such as children playing baseball in the same place).

It made me think about what happens when someone throws something at you that challenges what you are doing or suggests you should do otherwise.  I think it takes a lot of flexibility and self control to be able to immediately go with it.  And I think also a lot of courtesy, which happens to be one of the aims to achieve in Tae Kwon Do.  It was an opportunity for me to reflect on courtesy.  Of course I want to show the crows courtesy, even if the life of a crow is going to have far more danger and stress than me kihoping harmlessly below their nest.  Perhaps I can give them an easygoing start as this thoughtful gentleman had envisioned for them.  It can be hard to balance courtesy and the right to do as one wishes.  And it can be hard to trust the source and motivation of the suggestion.  But to extend courtesy at the suggestion is a skill worthy of cultivating.

So from now on, I will move to a new place.  I don't know if the crows are in their nest, if they are stressed about me being there any more than having baseball coaches shout and children yell, if that man was just exercising whatever power he felt he could, or if he was an ornithologist.  None of it really matters.  If it is possible to reduce some suffering (be it the crow's or the man's as he takes on their stress vicariously) I'm happy to do it.

Wakuwaku Week

It's the last Wakuwaku week.  Only 3 more days of seeing 2,000 middle schoolers, of hearing instrument demonstrations, of hearing the narration about our hall and the thunderstorm created by the lighting and sound engineers.  Only 3 more days of Radetzky March.  It might be the last time.  What a thought.  I hope I'm ready for it.

Move-out Meeting

We had our meeting concerning procedures for ending contracts and moving out of Japan.  And the stress begins.  It's good to have some advanced warning of how expensive it will be.  There will several different expenses each around $100 and the big one, an estimated $3000 in taxes.  We'll lose 20% of our last pay check because we'll technically be Non-Residents by the time it is issued mid-month.  We'll have to navigate our way to the city hall to close out our health insurance, and to the phone company to end our contracts, and to the bank to close our accounts and transfer the last amount.  We'll have to make appointments with garbage disposal to take away anything larger than 30cm and purchase coupons to attach to the items.  We'll have to plan our cleaning and sorting to align with the different garbage days, making sure that nothing is put in the wrong type of garbage.

It's the same every year.  I've seen two years of core members depart and live through it and this year is probably the least difficult.  There are only 5 of us departing.  Usually the number is 10 or more.  And this small number means more attention for each of us and our needs.  The office will be better able to help with every step of the transition.  And as from the first day we arrived in Japan, we continue to lean on the experience of our forebears.  We knew it was going to be expensive (I seem to have forgotten the $3000) and we knew it was going to take a lot of work.

For me, it's probably going to mean shedding a lot of things.  I recently read about Marie Kondo a Japanese home making wiz who has tips for tidying up.  I think it was perfect timing.  Thank the thing for being in your life, and then let go.  

I'm hoping that this zen approach to things and the Pointer Sisters will get me through.  And I'm planning not to go into stress mode about it until July.  I should have enough varied garbage days in July to get through most things.  Well, maybe I'll start at the end of June.....