Hi everyone,
You may know that our own Karen is in Japan right now, participating in a residency with Shidara. There's an official residency blog being kept on Shidara's MySpace page (here's the link I followed to get to it: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=296778693&blogId=482139407. You can probably subscribe to it from this page.)
Karen posted the latest entry to the official blog, and has had time to send one email. I've pasted both below. Happy reading!
From Karen's email:
April 5, Tucson
Left on United flight at 6:54am. At SFO, all residency participants met in the International Terminal, at our gate. There are 9 women from Moab Taiko Dan, Teresa and Brian from Seattle, Karen Young and Kelly from Boston, Shane from British Columbia, Kristy and Tiffany. Robin and Martha, who I think are from Santa Fe, and Miranda were scheduled to meet us at the hotel in Tokyo.
I think we landed in Japan around 5pm, but by the time we gathered everyone and their luggage, exchanged currency, and found one participant who had mysteriously flown into the other wing of the terminal, it was probably around 6:15. In fact, we only found our missing person because we decided to split up and get the takkyubin process started, and the path to those counters went past that exit. Phew!
The takkyubin is one of the most civilized comforts of traveling, if you have a specific destination for some days. It ranks right up there with the good-sized shelves behind all the toilets I've thus far used. Hooks are fine and good if whatever you're carrying has a strap and can be easily re-moved and hung. Shelves are better.
We lined our large bags up at the takkyubin and they were processed and sent on to Shidara for about $18. We got our Japan Rail Passes, trained to Tokyo Station, grabbed snacks and caught the subway to a stop near our hotel, the Sakura.
Sakura hotel is down a very narrow street—almost just an alley, really. It has a nice little porch with incredibly uncomfortable but kinda snazzy looking aluminum chairs, and, weirdly, a wall arrangement of tiny cactus plants. It obviously has a large number of foreign guests—most of the tourist brochures in the racks and many of the flyers were in English—but it maintains a sense of Japanese tradition in that there are tiny towels and fabulously starched and precisely folded yukata on each bed.
I slept great until about 3am, but then only slept fitfully till 6:00am, at which point, I gave up and started getting up, as did most of us. I set out to find coffee. I bought coffee at the hotel and joined the other Moab ladies to walk to the Imperial Palace grounds. It was really spendid. The streets were much quieter than I expected, thinking back on Korea. But it is still a very stimulating Asian city.
We crossed the river, whose surface was coated on the sides with fallen blossom petals. Only a few blocks aways, we began to see signs of a tourist destination, added signage and the hint of a tapestry of Sakura trees behind the others. It was breathtaking. We climbed the hill. There were many more people now, walking, running, heading to work, even walking dogs, which surprised me. But nothing really prepared me for the onslaught of cherry blossoms that covered the bowl around the reservoir. We stopped to take photos. And when we climbed a bit further and got to the gate entrance, I was stunned. It was like a filigree tunnel of cherry trees; it felt like walking through snow covered trees in a forest, and despite the city noises (which were much less intense than I remember in Seoul) there was a bit of that same snow-quiet.
Even the Japanese were as enamored of the sight, taking photos, strolling. We passed through the massive wrought iron framed gates and the palace (which looked strangely modern) to the park where people were walking and running their dogs. A passel of Cavalier St. Charles! Some photos and more strolling, then we returned the way we'd come. I was feeling antsy because I wanted to get back to the hotel and send this email. I left before the others, but got lost. Found some Cows on Parade.
(Editor's note: I have no idea what this means, but we can ask when she's back.)We left the hotel for a battery of subway lines, then emerged in a totally lovely little section of town, little backpack laden ducklings waddling down narrow streets to the Asano showroom.
After that, it was more subways, to trains and a lunch at the shinkasen station, the bullet train to Hamamatsu, where Owaki-san of Shidara waited with a rented van. We did a little shopping as people changed money, then headed into the mountains. Shidara greeted us as we rolled into Toei-cho, in their usual exhuberant way.
We lodged for the night at a very old ryokan that was originally a geisha house. We all bunked on one large floor, but divided by shoji screen doors that created 2-3 people rooms. The family lived right down stairs that were open to our area. We are being treated royally by the townspeople and Shidara.
From the official Shidara residency blog:
Thursday, April 9
Hi! This is Karen Falkenstrom. I was the road manager (or asst. rm) on both the 2006 and 2008 Shidara tours, and will be again for the 2010 tour. I'm also participating in this first, fantastic Shidara Residency program. Yesterday, Megan warned us we'd be living and training alongside Shidara, experiencing their life as it is. And even though I know they are taking it easy on us, it's an intense experience to be
working so hard on so many things... for so long.
Today was our first morning of stretching and running together. Fortunately, it's been easy to wake early, since I'm still partially on Tucson time, so I've been popping awake at anywhere from 3–4am each day anyway.We met down in the large open area in front of the school at 5:45am. Together, we did taiso, warming up, and then split into running and walking groups. I started off with the runners, but had few delusions that I'd stay there.
Down the very steep driveway to the road, and then up, up, up through the forests of cedar and bamboo and sakura, Japanese flowering cherry trees. There was a little mist, of course, and we passed quiet houses—some very old—beautifully laid stone walls and a Buddhist temple surrounded by sakura. The blossoms are falling now, like snow flurries whenever the wind picks up a little. I can really understand now, what
Shidara members mean when they speak with such love of their home. It is an extraordinarily lovely place on earth.
I'm embarrassed because I finished my road loop and climbed the steep drive back to the school..., and there wasn't anyone around. That's a really bad sign because it means I'm not where I'm supposed to be. I found out later that we were supposed to run the loop as many times as we possibly could in one hour, not just run it once. Some Shidara members got around 4 times for my lazy one. I'll do better tomorrow. I didn't see them, but there were reports of deer and a fox and a monkey sighted
on the run.
I managed to put my shamisen together before breakfast, which included, among many lovely dishes, a refurbished dish made of last night's festive spaghetti dinner. There was so much spaghetti, I'm told we'll be seeing variations of it appear on the table for the next few meals, until it's all gone. It appeared at breakfast with some cheese on top, and at lunch with cheese and egg, and then again at dinner, roughly in the same form as lunch. Alongside the spaghetti, we've had many other
fabulous dishes: soups and chicken and fish, daikon salad, tofu noodles..., but since I'm not a foodie, I'm sure my descriptions will not do them justice.
As in keeping with the spirit of the residency, we are doing everything right along with the Shidara members, so we can see what it's really like to live and work here. After breakfast, we split into four teams and cleaned the studios, main areas and the bathroom. I got bathroom duty and spent most of the time scrubbing the large trough-like sink and then wiping windows. Then in a flash, and right on time as all
things are here, we grabbed our taiko gear and assembled in the downstairs studio for a workshop on how to care for and maintain our instruments. I actually feel like I can tie a shime and an okedo now, which is kind of miraculous.
Lunch (during the end of which the 2010 tour staff met) and another workshop session. This time we got basis on atarigane, chappa and, for those who wanted, fue. I saw some of the Shidara apprentices scribbling notes during this, and learned later, as I suspected, that they don't get that kind of instruction normally, so were taking advantage of the opportunity to hear many techniques explained for the sake of the residency participants that they might otherwise never hear all at
once.
Then next session was kind of a revelation to the other participants, though I kind of knew what to expect from watching one of their rehearsals back in 2003 after the concert in Sacramento. We were allowed to observe an actual Shidara rehearsal. They played what we all thought was a totally ass-kicking Hono Kuni. Then Chabo-san critiqued them, and it seemed, as one residency member put it later, severe. But that's how it is. That's why they are so excellent That's how each member gets to
that place where they can conjure up all of their ability and give it to the world. It was something anyone who thinks they want to play taiko seriously should witness. Megan said later, on a scale of light to severe, this was just a normal practice. I think it gave all of the residency participants something to think about.
It's too late now, and all my bunkies (14 other women) are trying to sleep in this room with me clacking on my computer. So, I won't go into tonight's onsen (bathhouse) visit, or dinner, my private shamisen lesson with Tago-san! and the 9pm nightly residency participant meeting. I know it's a long day when what I've done is too much to write about. And I know it's special enough to steal a few precious
hours of sleep to post something at all, so folks who are not here can read about it. oyasuminasai!
