On my way out I bumped into into the guest-house uncle who gave me an umbrella and told me how to get to Shakuji Koen- the park that my neighborhood takes it's name from.
Only five minutes away from my dorm, the Koen is beautiful. Tall trees surround a small picturesque Japanese lake, complete with an island temple in the middle. The air was crisp, hardly anyone was about and the only noise was the quacking of ducks.
As I neared the temple the quacking stopped and I heard the sound of a strange instrument drifting across the water.
On a sheltered bench outside the temple gate sat an old man tooting on an electric saxophone (I kid you not!). He beckoned me over and asked me the usual "When did you arrive? How old are you? Where are you from?" questions. On hearing that I was an Igirisu-jin (Engrish person) his eyes brightened. He pulled a battered book of songs out from his pack and played me a selection of british favorites. It's hard to put into words the feeling of listening to the eletcro-sax rendition of Scotland the Brave while watching the morning mist float around a Japanese temple. I'll leave it up to your imaginations!
At 7am other old Japanese ladies and gents started to arrive. Excited to have an audience, they explained to me that they were the Ikekai (lit: Pond-meet) singers and that they came to the temple every morning to give their vocal chords a workout and greet the new day. They treated to my own personal concert- 9 Japanese pensioners singing their hearts out and one jet-legged blond staring on in disbelief.
The rest of the day was good too and I would go on, but I've borrowed one of the Shibuya Apple stores computers and fear I'll be kicked out if I stay any longer.
Pictures of the temple soon- if I can find somewhere to upload them!
5 comments:
Japan sounds every bit as quirky and wonderful as I had been led to believe (by Western media and its ilk), the knowledge of which is heartening on a life-long scale. :)
i think we also went to this lake. take a look at the comment on the previous blog entry for some information on the gig. also, start using cyber cafes! and check your facebook. we need to sort out sunday.
The Land of the Rising Sun — now you now why!
You must be quite near to a main shopping district if you can walk to an Apple store. Let's hope their assistants are cool enough to tolerate regular blogging vagrants.
Did you tell the electronic saxophonist that you played too?
Keep the blogs coming.
Foke Satome
Sounds like you're already experiencing the authentic sights and sounds of Japan: complete strangers who strike up conversations just for the novelty of talking to a real live gaijin. Having had similar encounters in the past, I can definitely say the funny positive ones outweigh the rarer creepy ones involving men who follow me around department stores asking for sex. (Am guessing you probably won't have to deal with those.)
Here's another challenge in the Fossicker vein.
Get this into your "Mind the what?" subheading for those still not getting the full cryptic allusion in your blog title.
Post a Comment