今日たかと美術館にいった。小さいでもよかった。Olivieの自転車を借りた。後でたかと日本語を勉強した。後は本を読んで、尺八を練習して、少しい書いて、絵を書いた。明日先生のコンサートに行く。
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　じゃ後でね、
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　クリス

Today I went with Taka to a art museum. It was small but good. I borrowed Olivie's bike. Later I studied Japanese with Taka. Besides that I read my book, practiced shakuhachi, wrote alittle and drew a picture. Tomorrow I will go to my sensei's concert.
Later,
Chris

Hopefully Taka can come to the concert with me, but she might be called for a job interview. I guess I'll just have to see. Hmm... I think I will go back into the past and revive an old memory of Japan for me.

Learning to play in public.

One thing I began to understand here in Japan is that it is crowded. I need to practice my shakuhachi playing, but where? My room is very small and I don't want to bother my follow tenants. Even though they say it is fine I still feel obligated to play elsewhere. The only options left to me were to travel about 45min one direction to play at the edge of town in the forest, or to play along the banks of the Kamogawa with the multitude of joggers, dog walkers and folks going for a stroll. The first spot I selected made me rather nervous. I don't really like to play in front of people unless I can perform the piece correctly. I was literally about 2 feet from the path so any person passing by would have a front row seat to my playing. I quickly decided against this spot and moved down the river aways to another area with a bit more space to play more openly. This second spot seemed ideal and such it was, but my choice of timing was at the end of many people's day. When I would arrive many people were just out to walk their dogs or coming home from work or any other assortment of activities. This is where I first developed my ability to play without feeling awkward in public. Well not as awkward that is. After playing at this time of day for awhile I started to move back my starting time, slowly at first then drastically. I went from 5 to 4 to 3:45 then to 10 in the morning. With this last transition I found the perfect time to play. During this time on the weekdays most people are at work so my audience was less. This was the perfect blend of public and private playing for me. I could test out and practice the notes I was not satisfied with and when people came across my path I could play the parts I better knew. The gap between people coming within listening distance was longer and let me play more at peace. Although not comfortable playing in public I can now have people listen without immediatly stopping and feeling uncomfortable. I have even had people stop and watch and I continue to play on. For me this is an advancement in my playing, giving me more confidence.