Oita Music Festival

It's rather late so I'm not going to type out much, but today was a pretty fun day. Oita had a huge music festival going on this weekend with live bands playing on 16 stages throughout downtown. My friend Izumi (Well, technically she's Mary's friend, but I go over there all the time and have been taking Kimono lessens from her mother (Okamura-san, who I've mentioned here before I'm pretty sure), and teaching English to her son, so she's my friend too) was playing on one of the stages. I met them (All 3 of them came) at the station and then showed them to the stage they were going to be playing at. I carried the Koto for her. I ran into a bunch of people I knew at the station, and they all thought it was mine. It was kinda awkward because I lacked the Japanese to explain the situation to the non English speakers.

Anyway, She preformed, and it was awesome. I took pictures and video. I just put the videos up on Youtube. If you're interested in hearing some Japanese traditional instruments and singing (Though I think the Koto tune I recorded is actually a Russian tune) you should check out the videos below.


(Izumi playing the Sanshin, an Okinawan version/predecesor of the Shamisen, which is a Japanese 3 string Banjo)
If you want to watch it on actual youtube: http://youtu.be/wwfduzUt3iw

(Izumi playing the Koto, which is functionally similar to a harp I guess.)

If you want to watch it on actual youtube: http://youtu.be/-xBQD_PouT0

After the performance a guy came up to me and asked to take my picture. He apparently thought I was rather interesting looking and wanted to enter my photo in some kind of contest. If his photo wins, my face will be in a Japanese Magazine somewhere I guess. He bought us all potato wedges as a thank you. After that I helped Izumi and her family get their stuff onto the train. Fitting the Koto in there was kinda interesting. It is not a small instrument. After that I was heading back to my bike, which invovles going through an underground walkway. In the walkway there was a Japanese guy singing and playing guitar. This wasn't part of the festival, but I thought he was pretty good. I talked with him for a bit about how I liked his music and he said he had a CD. I asked him how much, but instead he gave it to me in exchange for taking a photo with me. (He got one on his own camera, but I wanted one with mine too.)

(The sound quality on this one isn't nearly as good as what he was actually singing. My camera picked up all the noise of the people walking behind me really well though)

If you want to watch it on actual youtube: http://youtu.be/Nml3biqaTkA

So yeah, I had a fun day. Hope you did too.

~Daniel

A bit of shopping

After many years of faithful service, my trusty canteen as started leaking. Since my hopes of finding a replacement US military style canteen are rather slim here in Japan, I decided to check out the water bottles while I was shopping this evening. I must admit that my eyes were drawn to the insulated Pokemon water bottle. But aside from Pikachu, it was all new generation Pokemon, which I'm not at all familiar with. I was also dismayed at the price. There wasn't a single water bottle under 2,000￥ ($20). Not willing to spend that much on a hollow container, I set off to find socks. Socks are actually a much bigger problem then I ever expected here in Japan. Most socks that I see are for feet up to 26cm. Often less. My feet are 28cm minimum. However, the place I shop is also a hardware store that has supplies for working folk. So I was hopeful for larger sizes. Thankfully I was right. I found a pack of socks for size 27-28cm. And what's more, they had them in the tabi style toe socks. I picked up 6 pack for like 525￥. I was pretty happy. Since I'd gotten lucky with my sock purchase, I decided to check if they had Japanese work boots. In Japan, construction workers don't wear steal toe. They were the ninja style tabi boots. As you might guess, I've been wanting a pair of those that fit me. I'm glad my feet are as short as they are. I can squeeze into the 28cm sometimes, provided they aren't too narrow (Which is a very common problem for me in America, more so here). However fortune seems to have stayed with me as I was able to find a pair  that fit. These ones also have a zipper instead of the classic fastening style witch is a bit difficult and painful for me due to the thickness of my ankles. (I'm so not Japanese sized.) On my way to the cash register I passed by what appeared to be a clearance bin. Inside the bin they had something I recognized. They had the same kind of double walled metal water bottles that Kazu would use to bring us Hot tea or cold water while out on the orchard. They had been marked down to half of their starting price. Had a half price sticker on it and everything. The new price was 1999￥.  At less then the cost of anything else I had been looking at earlier, I decided "What the heck, I drink a lot of water anyway. I may as well." So I tossed one of the 1.8 liter ones into my basket. When I got to the register and the lady scanned the bottle, it came up 1000￥ cheaper then the price tag. Apparently the half off sticker applied to the reduced price, not the original. So I essentially got a $40 water bottle for $10. I was rather pleased.

(The fruits of my shopping labors)

Ok, It's basically midnight. I'm off to bed. Take care!