It’s been two weeks???? Did I miss a week? Well, actually, I did – I just couldn’t bring myself to the keyboard last week due to a largish disappointment. We thought we had sold our house to a nice young couple – it was to be their first home (how do you afford that much money in your earlier 30s????). Anyway, bottom line is they got cold feet and cooled off, probably in part because of one of their fathers who came to look at the house on their third viewing and didn’t seem to like it.

There also wasn’t that much to talk about – there has been quite a lot of rain during the last two weeks (you may have heard of the flooding on Kyushu). It seems the weather was trying to catch up with the missed rain in a splurge. Other areas also got a lot of rain, but nothing like what was experienced on Kyushu – particularly in the Fukuoka prefecture. In Kyoto we had quite a lot of rain, well over 300 mls during this period, along with multiple thunderstorms. You may, or may not, know that I love thunderstorms, so it’s been good for me – but the kids…

So to week 31, when the highlight was a Kodo (taiko group) concert! Unfortunately I had to go by myself (my bag had a lovely view in the other seat) because of the delays in selling our house and Craig being stuck in Adelaide. I tried to find someone to fill the other seat but they all had things on, so it was me and my bag. I don’t want to go over the top with superlatives, but Kodo were GREAT!!!!!! It was two hours of energy, with mainly taiko drums, although there were other instruments such as various flutes, other percussion instruments and what appeared to be a Jamaican steelpan; it certainly sounded like it.

They played nearly every type of taiko drum there is, from shime through various sizes of nagadō-daiko and three hira-daiko. They also have a very large odaiko which sits on a stand on top of a large wooden float which can be moved around on the stage because it is on wheels (it takes a few people to do it, but it is easier than trying to pick up a drum that large, along with its stand!).

There were two significant highlights for me. One was a song which commenced with seven men on shime, playing a relatively simple beat but was made very difficult because they were playing it very quietly most of the time, with one at first and building up to the seven and some pattern changes by different individuals and changes in loudness, from very quiet to very loud and back, in the same beat. Technically difficult. They also added in some nagado daiko and other percussives, including a large gong. As I was listening to it I recognised it as rain and thunder – it was very similar to what I had envisioned as a song when we had to write our own song at our taiko class last year in Adelaide.

The other highlight was the odaiko on the float. It was used a few times, including an amazing solo piece. The stage was darkened and the float moved into position, with the head facing the audience. When the light came up there was a male drummer in front of it, back to audience, with only a mawashi type of belt on. He was very muscly (as you’d expect doing that type of drumming professionally) and with the rest of the stage darkened and a cream coloured mawashi on, he looked nearly naked (well, essentially he was).

What really caught my attention (and I tried really hard not to look…) was that his glutes were moving in time with the beat, so that when he hit with his right hand, his right glute flexed, and similarly with the left hand, his left glute flexed. That aside, it was an amazing piece, very physical and went on for some time – you could see at the end he was breathing very heavily.

As we were leaving the auditorium, it was raining, which I had expected – I had taken my sun parasol with me because it was sunny and hot when I left and I thought I could use it for the rain. It was raining pretty heavily when I went outside, so really I just kept my head dry (my parasol isn’t as big as a ‘normal’ umbrella). The other thing was the thunder and lightning that was happening as we got outside. Funny, it was sort of like a continuation of the performance! I had a ten minute walk to the railway station and about halfway there, there was a lightning bolt directly above me…very bright it was, and the thunder was like a massive gun going off concurrently. Amazing. There was another bolt directly above just after I reached the station platform. Good day all round!!!!!

My outing during week 32 was to see the Yayoi Kusama exhibition in the Gion! Yes, thanks to Craig’s eagle eye and an article in the Kyoto journal, we found it. I mentioned last post I had searched the electronic oracle, and walked around in the Gion area in the hope I would see a poster referring to it, but had found nothing. So, as you can imagine, I was very excited to go and see it, and I wasn’t disappointed. I love her work and there were many paintings and prints she had produced I had never seen before. Also, there was one of her giant pumpkins outside the venue. It was fantastic, especially sitting in the very traditional Japanese surroundings it was in.

(Photos taken inside exhibition where we were allowed to)

The added bonus was a beautiful garden behind the museum space, and I found the theatre where many Geiko and Maiko performances are held. Another fantastic day seeing some of my favourite things. How can I top this??? One thing is the sale of our house, so that Craig can finally join me and we can experience these things together – and, as of today, our house is officially sold!! Settlement is on 8 August, so Craig should be here in around a month. Finally. To top it off, I may have found a taiko group to join.

On Monday this week, I met with the builder and architect, to sign off some more paperwork and get an update of where everything is up to. It seems everything is progressing and the builder expects to commence construction work on 28 July; yes, this month! While at this meeting, I was talking about the Kodo performance, in part because Hisayo (the interpreter) was one of the people I invited to see Kodo, and I was saying how much I missed playing and wanted to find a group to join. She had previously told me her father had donated some taiko drums to a local shrine so they could set up a group and she and her brother, the builder, could see them play.

When I said Craig and I wanted to join a group, she told me that Fukuda-san (the builder) actually knows the leader of the group his father donated the drums to and he might be able to introduce us! Fukuda-san showed some footage of them playing. The drums her father donated consisted of three odaiko, three shime and some nagado-daiko. They would have cost a lot of money. Anyway, the group seemed pretty good, so I look forward to meeting them. (As an aside, they were very surprised we had been playing taiko in Australia – they didn’t realise there was anything like this in Australia).

In the world of tv, I have two things of interest to mention. One was accidentally coming across Bondi Rescue on one of the stations as I flicked through – over-dubbed! My curiosity got the better of me, and the over-dubbing was funny seeing those very Australian guys speaking through the megaphone in Japanese, so I continued watching. It turns out this was part of a program which was showing segments of rescue shows from around the world. Amusing to see Bondi Rescue on Japanese tv.

The other item of interest was a performance which was in a Noh theatre and was very Noh-like, except it didn’t seem to be a play. It was more like showing the physical movements and music of a Noh performance. Having said that, I have never seen a Noh performance, so it might be I missed the subtlety of a Noh play in the performance. None-the-less, very interesting to watch and the movements were like a cross between dance and walking, with a gliding sort of movement, use of fans and the movement of their slightly exaggerated clothing.

Well, that’s it for now. Things are progressing and soon we’ll have the excitement of seeing our dreams starting to become realisation. I have to meet with the new neighbours in a couple of weeks, which should be interesting. They are worried about an accommodation place being built there and any potential fallout in terms of amenity for them. Apparently there are a lot of foreigners building accommodation but not living there and some guests have caused issues for the locals.

Cheers!