2003
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2002
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2001
- edition 2001
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2000
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6 - 15 september | 16 - 30 september | 1 - 15 oktober | 16 oktober - 4 november
Diary: by Julius Schulz (jazzmusic)
Monday 6 October 2003
After a good flight from London to Tokyo we arrived in Fukuoka at night. Mr. Oseki picked us up at the airport and brought us to a hotel. After a much-needed shower we went to eat in a Izakaya (small restaurant). The food was delicious and the staff were heartwarmingly friendly. It was nice to get to know Oseki-san and to learn some things about Hirado. Tomorrow morning we will go there by car. Very exciting.
Tuesday 7 October 2003
Today Oseki drove Cora and me from Fukuoka to Hirado. It was a nice drive along the coastline. This was the first time I was able to see this in the real, very impressive. Every time I go to a new place I always try an take in as much details of the surroundings as I can, as if the place were a museum. I therefore expect that the first few days here will bring with it some fatigue because of all the new impressions. Along the big bridge we arrived in Hirado and went to eat a little something in Oseki-san’s bar, called Carillon. It is located at the harbor and is a home-base for several 12xholland activities. After that we went to have a look at the apartments and chose which one to life in. My Japanese style apartment is located in the city center. I like the practical way in which the Japanese arrange their house and household. They often invent fun solutions for household equipment design problems. You have to completely surrender to the Japanese culture; radio and television on and eat rice for breakfast. I kind of like that, but I am curious about how things will feel after 4 weeks time. At 18:00 there was a welcome party at Carillon. We arrived in Hirado harbor by boat but…. 10 minutes early, the shipper thought the weather conditions were not very good and it started getting dark. So then we decided to step into the café without people waiting there for us. When everybody had arrived there were speeches, introductions, and we toasted and ate. It was a very nice atmosphere, complemented by live-music by Machida-san (flute) and a friend of his who played the guitar, and I played on the drum set available. Oseki was relieved that I could actually play the drum, seeing is believing! After a few beers everybody plunged into numerous talks. First in English, then in Japanese. It becomes dark here after five, and at 21:00 I thought it had to be 23:00 already. I do have to get used to the time difference a bit, but up to now I can handle it.
Tomorrow the first meeting will be held about the projects and there will be a city tour.
Wednesday 8 October 2003
This morning at 10:00 there was a meeting about the Jazz-Night. We drove, with 3 long Dutchmen in a small Japanese sport scar, to the historical museum. It is a very beautiful building with a splendid garden. The idea is to hold the Jazz-Night in this garden. Cora and I will be giving a performance and a band from Sasebo will be coming, with whom I also will play a few pieces. Monday I will go to Sasebo to meet the band members.
After the meeting I inspected a drum kit which Mr. Machida and I picked up at City Hall. The drums are all worn down but I think they’ll be usable after the old drum skins are replaced. Tomorrow, with the old drum skins still on there, I will be doing a workshop at Nakatsura elementary.
Once back in the city center, me and Cora were taken on a tour of Hirado. Because of lack of time we only visited the castle and the nearby garden and temple. The weather was fantastic, which made the view from the castle and the seawater quite something to look at. Next we visited the main supermarket (Elena). After this I went into town by myself for a while. I really enjoy doing things by my self from time to time. You feel much freer and it is fun to talk Japanese to people, they don’t know any English. Fortunately my Japanese ability is sufficient to get by. Yokatta.
I have not succeeded in calling to Holland yet, international telephone cards are not easy to find here. When I finally got the right international number to ring from Tycho, the Dutch cultural representative of Hirado city, my girlfriend in Holland did not pick up the phone. But without her picking up the phone 1000 yen was deducted from my telephone card. I don’t want that to happen again. I will e-mail her tomorrow.
After the meeting with the teachers of Hirado elementary school, during which we prepared my workshop to be held there the day after tomorrow, I tried to eat something. I am not very hungry. I would like to sleep, but it would probably not be a good idea to sleep so early. I guess I will have to stay up a little bit longer.
At 20:00 Cora, Tycho, I and a few other people (among which a Scot and an American who teach English at the schools here) went to an onsen, or Japanese hot spring.
I was wonderfully relaxing to rest in the different kinds of warm baths there. I would like to do this again for sure!
Thursday 9 October 2003
Boy, did I sleep well! This morning I again took a look at my plan for the workshop. I have a lot of material and will not have enough time to do everything. I will decide what ideas to use once I arrive at the school. At 11:00 there was a meeting at City Hall about my schedule. There are no problems with the schedule, it’s just that it is very busy. Cora and I still have to look at how we can make a joint dance and drums performance. For me it is the first time to perform with a dancer. In the afternoon I had my first workshop at Nakatsura. It went very well, the children were having a good time and me too. The people were very friendly and that makes the whole thing that more fun. I did everything from memory and everything went great right from the beginning. While I was working with the in all 37 pupils of the several different groups, I kept a close eye on what was going on around me and thus got a good idea about what to do together with the children. Next time I might do things a little bit more interactively (involve the children more) but the way things are now the workshop was already very satisfying. All in all a good headstart! When I came back to Hirado-city I went to play soccer with the children of Hirado elementary school on the playground there. I had a really good time. The children have lots and lots of energy, you can see them sporting around all the time. After school is over they always play soccer whilst waiting for their parents to pick them up. The parents usually come round at as late as six o’clock.
After I had dinner I went to Shikamachi with Machida-san and his daughter Yoriko. Shikamachi is on the mainland of Kyushu. There I met the leader of a Taiko-group (Japanese drumming), they will probably allow me to perform with them. It would be a really nice experience to perform with a group like this. I will have to rehearse a lot of times, because everything is drummed synchronously and there is no sheet music. But, as with all other things, this too will turn out just fine I guess.
Friday 10 October
Today was a busy day, two workshops at Hirado elementary school and in the evening the first shodo (Japanese calligraphy) lesson. The two workshops (one and a half hours per lesson) went will. I was having a good time and I think the children were too because they were extremely upbeat after the workshop ended. They enthusiastically participate in the exercises and when I play solo, or with accompanying music from CD they listen with full attention. The school’s atmosphere is nice as well, and I don’t mind the fact that the people there say sorry and thank you with everything they do. I actually kind of like that, it’s like they always stress the positive aspect. After a brief break and some shopping it was time to participate in the shodo lesson. The teacher is a very nice man who is really very knowledgeable about shodo. He can draw kanji in a lot of different styles. Cora and I have to choose 1 or 2 kanji which we will practice how to write. This lesson mainly consisted of explanations, also about the history of some of the kanji and though I knew a thing or two about it already, I still learned some things. Next week we will start drawing. After the lesson I bought curry rice (kare raisu) at a take-out store and conveniently ate it at my own place. I had a beer too.
Saturday 11 October
At 9:00 I did a workshop with the Hirado junior highschool brassband. They played a piece for me that I will be performing together with them later on. It was a piece with swing feel, in the mood, but they did not have a clear idea about what “swingfeel” is. So I used this lesson to explain to them the history and essence of swingfeel/jazz music. When we played the piece together at the end of the lesson, thing went a lot better already. After the lesson we ate and drank something together and the children got a chance to introduce themselves to me and speak some English. Most of the kids were a but too shy for that, so I mostly told them about Holland and things like that…
In the afternoon I went for a stroll along the back alley’s of Hirado and arrived at two very beautiful temples, with magnificent Buddhistic graves. I also entered a bamboo forest for the first time in my life. There are no paths through the forests here, and that makes them rather inaccessible. That is kind of a shame, in Holland these paths can be found everywhere but here they apparently don’t really care as much about them as we do.
At 18:00 I went to eat in an izakaya called “spagetti itarian stairu”. When I spoke with the owner I learned that he likes Jazz. He immediately went to get his CD’s and there were some really good ones in there! He really wanted to play them for me and that's how I came to eat spaghetti with music by John Coltrane in the background.
I the evening there was a party in café Carillon where people could bring their own instruments to and play. I accompanied lot’s and lot’s of guitarists because guitars were the only other instruments around. The atmosphere was kind of nice and I never played Japanese croon songs (enka) so that was kind of fun.
Sunday 12 October
I still get up very early, most of the times at 7:00, and after that at 8:30. On Sunday most of the shops here open up and so I did some grocery shopping, one of the things I enjoy most. It makes you feel like a local. Only the children and old people still get a strange look on their face when they see me. A lot of children between 12 to 16 years of age want to try their English on me. So lot’s of “Hello” and “Bye-Bye” and giggling.
At 11:00 I played tennis with Oseki-san, or to state things more clearly, received a tennis lesson from Mr. Oseki. The Japanese really value a good technical basis when they are sporting, but I often play for fun and do not practice all that much. First our scores were even, but after he said something about the way to grip the tennis racket I lost it!
At 14:00 I watched a Japanese traditional concert at the Matsura museum. It was lovely; the surroundings, the audience and the performers (shakuhachi and koto or guitar) played very well together. The atmosphere was very relaxed and enjoyable.
After the concert I again went for a walk in the hill area situated around the town. I am becoming to like this place more and more. I am thinking about exploring other more remote area’s of the island on another occasion. Now that I am talking about traveling: the organization is not very happy about me going away from the island for 1 or 2 days. Isn’t Hirado good enough? They suddenly became very stiff when I spontaneously said that the other islands of Nagasaki should be nice as well and that I would like to go there some time by boat. Hahaha.
I now have a complete picture about the different people working on this project and their mutual relations. It think this is important because you then can understand what people really mean to say behind the lines, and get to know what is expected of you.
In the evening I did a workshop with the Wind Ago (meaning flying fish) ensemble. People here are not always punctual; every fifteen minutes somebody else arrived and joined us. In the end there were 12 people in all. I practiced Jazz timing with them and
explained how it works. There was no interpreter around but with my mix of half English half Japanese things were quite alright. At the end I had them play a theme in addition to a blues scheme, for the rhythm section I used a CD. Maybe I can have them improvise on the scheme. Afterwards I went to eat a little something at Rokuyoukan café and at 11:30 I arrived at my place.
Monday 13 October 2003
Today I did not feel very well, I had an appointment at 14:00 and I slept as long as possible. Sometimes the combination of the time difference, the difference in food, the numerous impressions and the pressure caused by the things I still have to do makes me feel exhausted and then you do not know for sure what caused it. I do not have a cold, but sometimes I do feel a little feverish, or is the sultry weather to blame for all this sweating? At 14:00 there was a meeting about the reconstruction of the Dutch Tradehouse. Several representatives of interest groups were present and Cora and I were asked to give our opinion on what could be done with the project in the future to attract as many visitors as possible.
In the evening I was supposed to play with a Jazz group from Sasebo, a harbor town on the mainland with 250.000 inhabitants, but because today was a national Japanese holiday, the bar was closed. So then we went for some drinks in a café and at 24:00 I got back to my place. I did not sleep before 02:00 though.
Tuesday 14 October 2003
At 07:00 I was awakened by the noise of the children in the apartment upstairs running up and down (don don don) and jumping off the closet or something like that… So I was pretty tired and weak when I had to go to City Hall to meet the mayor of Hirado-city at 09:00.
After this formality I had to go straight to Hirado elementary school to do a presentation for group 3. I still felt very weakened so it did not go exceedingly well, and the class was a bit noisier than normal al well. Sometimes this is because of the accompanying teacher who does not have as much of authority, but it also could have been my condition.
Because I had an important performance on my schedule for tonight I cancelled my second workshop of this afternoon on the advice of my interpreter and Tycho. I slept like a log from 13:00 till 16:00!
With the help of a painkiller I am all shaped up for the performance at the Yuukouji Temple. Cora first did an improvised dance and then I filled the second half of the performance with a drum solo. The temple was beautiful and lanterns and spotlights added a nice touch. About 120 people came to see the show so the temple was filled rather well. Cora started her dance, accompanied by a flute, in the garden and whilst dancing she went into the temple. Inside I played on the original temple drum instruments to create an even more interesting atmosphere during Cora’s dance. It was very enjoyable seeing Cora dance. She combines outstanding technique with strong expression. I started my solo with rhythms reminiscent of Japanese temple music and slowly changed over to rhythms from other parts of the world: Africa, South-America, and Jazz. I really liked performing this. I think it is a shame that in Holland it hardly ever happens that you get the chance to do a free improvisation in front of such an audience so enthusiastic and listening so intensively. You get a lot more respect here and the people here do not have the Dutch attitude of “now come on, show us whether you can actually do something…”. After the solo I did 3 jazz pieces accompanied by music on CD, it sounded like a real trio if you closed your eyes. I really like to show and let people hear what can be done with my instrument in combination with bas and piano. Drums can be very subtle as well.
After that the priest/monk came to the front, who was a bit jealous of my technique. He wanted me to play on a Japanese temple drum together with him. However he was kind of drunk, to the amusement of the audience present. Nobody understood what her really wanted but it was certainly funny and we have the people a great show to watch. Then he went to get his CD’s and wanted me to accompany the music on them. This became the climax of the evening because Cora also joined in to dance. The CD had songs on it by the Gypsy Kings, among which a song called “Bambolero” or something. The crowd went crazy when the priest began to dance closely with Cora on a ballad by Nat King Cole. After the performance was over I had dinner with some people and went home very satisfied.
Wednesday 15 October 2003
I was picked up at 9:00 by a teacher from Shijiki elementary school, I went there to do a presentation with all the classes together. Shijiki is a village on the southernmost part of the island. The drive up to there by itself already was very beautiful.
All the schools, no matter how small, have a gigantic gymnasium. All the 70 children could easily fit in there and when the stuff was brought in I could start immediately. I try to do things a little bit different every time because you always learn something new from the previous lesson. The same story or item can be told in so many different ways. When I wanted to finish up by playing along with a CD, the rather stern, but still friendly school principal brought his own CD, asking me to play to it! All the better I thought, if they are satisfied then I am too. It turned out to be a CD by Richard Clayderman!! Fantastic to experience something like this. After two pieces I finished up and the principal came to me and she turned out to be deeply moved by the performance. Afterwards I lunched with the children from the sixth class. The interpreter was there for me the whole time too. And once again the kids were really cute. I do not understand why Dutch children can be so horrible sometimes.
The interpreter drove me back and we visited some nice places like a nice sandbeach with palm trees during a detour along the coast. When we were walking around the area I heard the sound of drums and flute’s. It turned out that a yearly traditional ceremony was going on in the temple situated next to the beach. We were allowed to watch the performance. The local people had had dinner first at long tables and now they were sitting in a circle around the musicians and dancers. It was a great performance! People from the audience were allowed to turn the big drum upside down suddenly, which led to a lot of hilarity among the rest of the people. I myself threw the drum around three times. The drum would then roll over the ground like a barrel and an assistant would then put it back on it’s standard. The last bit of the way back went across a nice mountain pass.
When I arrived home I was immediately picked up by Machida-san to go to Kayese (or Kaise), which is situated underneath Sasebo and takes more than a one hour’s drive to get to. There we visited the Jazzy Kids, a group of children for 9 to 14 years of age together forming a jazz orchestra. They have been playing together for seven years now and they just rock! So much guts and power! They played everything by memory. 20 girls played all the brass instruments, from tuba to trumpet, and they played on two piano’s too. The boys all wanted to play on the drum or bass. They (10) took turns while each of them played a piece. It really was a feast for the eye, the way they so naturally make music in their own way. I played along for a few pieces and I will be back next week to do a rhythm section workshop. I also had to hand out a lot of signatures, which I even drew on their bags with a magic marker. In Holland I always have to pay money when I have to sign, this is really something else. I arrived home at eleven after I went for dinner at a Japanese restaurant with Machida-san. It was a long but nice day.
Thursday 16 October 2003
This morning I had a look at my e-mail and once more checked my schedule with Tycho. After that I visited another big Hirado temple, the Saikyoji. Next to it lies a big pagoda, the Sanjudaito. I spent two hours there, the place was magnificent and again I took a lot of pictures. It was nice to go and see places on my own again for a while. I also ran into Cora, she also came to visit the temple, but we understand each other well and we both pleasantly went our own way.
I treated myself on a nice big plate of beef/curry with a large salad at a Japanese restaurant. At last my stomach is full again because cooking for myself is something I still have not done here. I do not want to put in all that effort and then eat the food at home alone.
In the evening I was picked up at 19:00 to go to the Taiko drum group in Shikamachi. There were four men there and they gave a hell of a show for me. I felt reeeeeeeeeeeally small. Are those guys (13 to 17 years old) strong! After that I had to come on stage and perform with them. It must have went pretty good because the drummers were very impressed with my play. It turned out that I could hit the drum as hard and even a little faster than they could. I myself was the one who was surprised most, I really did not expect this. Next week we will practice some pieces for our performance at the Hirado cultural festival.
Friday 17 October 2003
Today I am off, I only have my shodo lesson in the evening and if I want to I can go to see a Japanese musical first. I decided to do a bicycle ride to the northernmost part of the island. That was a good idea because the trip up to there was rather nice. For the firstr 15 minutes I thought, “why did I even start doing this”, because the road sometimes became so uphill that I hat to get off the bike and walk. But it was worth the effort because I came to beautiful spots, even a deserted beach where I swum for a bit and enjoyed some sunbathing. The Japanese do not like sunbathing, swimming and strolling. In any case, not in the way that we Dutch do those things. Most people here always walk around with an umbrella to protect themselves against the sunlight.
The musical was rather fun, there was dancing, acting, singing and music. I could make up most of the story though the Japanese was hard to understand. After the musical I immediately went to Tateishi-san for the shodo lesson. I wrote two kanji’s in the free style and in tensho old style). One of them was Odaiko (drum) and another was Yû. The first kanji of the name of my girlfriend Yûko who stayed in Holland en who I miss very much from time to time. That makes five weeks a very long time. At 23:30 the lesson was over and the end result will be framed. During the next lesson we will make a stamp (Tenkoku) to sign the works. For the stamp I will choose the kanji Gaku/Raku (used for Tanoshii, among others). This kanji is both used for music, fun and instrument.
Sunday 18 October 2003
At 9:00 I did a rehearsal with the hirado junior-high Brassband. I play two pieces with them at the school festival (29 October). “In the Mood” and a Hungarian dance by Brahms. “In the Mood” is kind of a swing-feel jazz piece, so I am spending most of the time on practicing the right timing and swing interpretation. It starts to get along nicely but the tempo still has to become a lot quicker. We are now on tempo 138 and the designated tempo for the piece is 172. But the performance will be a great success no matter what, I am sure of it. Machida-san and his daughter Yoriko are assisting me with this job. Yoriko is capable of repairing instruments, and that comes in very handy because most of the students do not know how to tune and keep their instrument in a good condition. After the rehearsal I visited Machida-san’s house to lunch there. He makes sign boards, and inside the house is a workplace and he lives there with his wife, sun, daughter and mother. The place is like a maze. He himself calls it a submarine because of the long small hallway and the lack of sunlight. Even in the smallest corners things are stored away. It is a typical Japanese house with sliding doors and tatami. I really liked to see how things look on the inside. The lunch was very good, udon and several kinds of dried fish and kimchi.
At home I took a quick break until 16:00 because then I was picked up to go to Tsuyoshi, on the southern part of the island, a 45 minutes drive. There Cora and I will do a performance tonight. It is a small village and we play in the culture center (Bunka). There was not enough publicity for this performance but 50 people showed up anyway. Most of them were women with children because the men stayed at home for an important baseball game on the television that night.
My performance was also kind of a presentation because I explained a lot and did some of the rhythms together with the audience. It took an hour, I really liked it and I got the idea that the people were of the same opinion. Cora also did a great dancing performance (one before, one after my performance). After the performance we were invited to go to the local bar. It turned into a karaoke party and I did not know that I sang so badly. Singing or whistling along is no problem, but singing the melody all by my self is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I got some tofu- and fish snacks and lot’s of Japanese Whiskey, called Black Horse (kuroi uma). It was a long ride back in Machida-san’s pick-up truck. Did I mention before that it becomes dark here at 18:00 and that it becomes increasingly cooler then? (In Holland it can be light outside even after 9 ‘o clock).
Sunday 19 October 2003
Because I was free for the next two days I decided to make a little trip to Nagasaki. If it would turn out to be a fun place I could stay the night there and come back to Hirado the next day. It took a 3,5 hour bus and train trip to get there. The train rode along a big inland sea and that was a nice view. It also rode past themepark “Huis ten Bosch”, a city consisting of copies of famous Dutch buildings. I could see the Dutch Domtoren (Domtower) from the train and that made me feel kind of weird. I however did not feel the need to go there.
I am trying to go and look for as much authentic things as possible while I am in Japan. I am starting to realize that Hirado is the perfect spot for doing just that. As soon as you cross the bridge and enter the mainland, the neon signs, mega supermarkets and auto dealers parade starts. It is a long cheerless line of commerciality and ugliness. The Japanese do not notice this and just go their own way. During the whole bus ride an unnaturally high-voiced woman’s voice can be heard who announces every single one of the 31 bus stops, adding to that she also announces the next stop, and says the same thing about to be careful about stepping out etc., and when there is no new stop in sight music with commercial messages blare from the speakers. I cannot believe that the passengers around me are undisturbed by this and can take a nap as if nothing is happening. In the daytime a bus ride like this is kind of nice though, sometimes the rides takes you in between the rice paddy’s, or along a foresty mountain pass. But anyway, about Nagasaki… it is a city like many other, and I am not interested in shops so I did not have anywhere nice to go after 17:00 and so I decided to go back to Hirado the very same day. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I went there with my girlfriend, going somewhere together increases the things you can do. Anyway, I was already homesick for Hirado! The people there will enjoy hearing that!
Monday 20 October 2003
Revenge! Today I spent a lovely day touring around the island. I went to the Kawachi mountain pass on my bike. At some places I had to walk, dragging the bicycle alongside but sometimes I could also go downhill at speeds of 60 kilometers per hour. At the top, a beautiful view in every direction. You can see the see everywhere, as well as the other islands in the vicinity of Hirado. You can also stroll through the fields, which contain lots of flowers and swaying mega large grass-hay, almost the size of corn. After the descent I decided to lie down on a deserted beach. It even had palm trees and white sand! At 16:30 I got back at my place, tired but satisfied. For the first time I cooked a good meal! Pasta with tuna sauce (including Kimchi). For the next few days I will be doing my daily drum workshops at elementary schools again. Fun.
Tuesday 21 October 2003
At 10:20 I did a drum presentation for the 3rd grade children of the Hirado elementary school. It went pretty good because I was well rested, the last workshop was almost a week ago. Most of the children really like to try their hand at the drum set. They then have to play a simple rhythm, which still turns out to be pretty hard once they try to do it. Sometimes I guide their hands and play a difficult rhythm (with my foot on the base drum pedal). I then pretend as if the child is playing everything by him/herself and then the class goes crazy.
It is still nice and warm here, with an average temperature of 23C today. I think it was about 30 degrees when we sat in the sun in the discussion room of City Hall. We talked about several things concerning the concerts Cora and I will do in a few days time. Oh boy!
At 15:00 I went to Ikitsuki with Machida-san. It’s an island close to the Hirado shore. Hirado and Ikitsuki are connected by a bridge, and the drive towards there was spectacular. We drove past Hirado’s highest mountain, with twisting roads through the rice fields along the coastline. After we arrived there Machida took me to the northernmost area of Ikitsuki (10 kilometers long). It has a lighthouse, the top of which provides a view of 250 meter high cliffs.
At 17:00 I came back home and at 18:00 I was picked up to go to a new taiko group. They will be playing next Sunday, as will I, at the Tabira cultural festival and the organization thought it might be fun if I tried to performed together with them too. They however did not know about this idea and it was kind of hard for me too to get a clear picture of what I would want to do with them. After an hour of talking, of which I hardly understood anything, they decided to put a small performance together. Normally taiko drumming also consists of precise synchronous choreography, with arm movements and accents played by everybody at the same time. But I cannot learn how to do that in such a small time span and therefore I can not perform with them in that way. Now we are doing something that consists of three parts: a Taiko piece which I will be accompanying on a drum and then a solo part for me alone and then finally a joint ending piece. I think it will be a nice spectacle for the audience. I do have to be careful not to get blisters on my hands of all this taiko drumming; the sticks to play on the drum are as thick as an elephants dick and with a little bit of sweat, friction and beating the drum as hard as you can your skin breaks in no time!
Wednesday 22 Octover 2003
I am now in the last half of my period of stay in Hirado, time goes by very quickly now. The day started out with a pretty hefty program, I had to do a workshop for one hundred 4th grade students in the gym of Hirado elementary. This was the toughest workshop yet. Everybody had loads of fun but I myself had the idea that some things did not come into its own. The teachers forgot to introduce me to the group and because of that things did not start out all too smoothly. I introduced myself, in English, but I guess the interpreter was not really into it yet because he looked at me with big eyes and did not know what to say for a moment. His nervousness also affected me a bit. Also, when I finished up my workshop nobody responded. Again I told the interpreter “I am finished”, but whatever he said, it did not get through to the group and they just kept looking at me. In actuality it was only a brief moment, but at that time it seemed to last forever. It is a pity when you can not finish with a climax. Again, the students and teachers all thought it was great, but in the meantime I can compare this experience with previous ones.
At 15:30 I went to Sasebo (Kaise) to meet the Jazzy Kids again. I like this band the best. I have put together a program for the concert at the Hirado cultural festival and during the rehearsals I put forward my ideas for improving the several pieces of music. Adding an intro or an accompanying part of music in “time feel” etc… They were very enthusiastic and progress was noticeable immediately. A girl of about twelve years of age sing along with two pieces (“Autumn Leaves” and “You’d be so nice to come home to”). I am a big fan of hers, I have rarely seen anybody as cute as that. If I were twelve I would certainly have my sights on her!
Later that evening I had a wonderful dinner at Oseki-san’s place, temakisushi and nabe. Drunk a bit too much beer and sake, so…
Thursday 23 October 2003
Enjoyed sleeping late today. In the afternoon I made a nice bicycle trip along the center of the island. First along the east coast, then I crossed over to the west coast. On a bicycle or on foot you experience the surroundings far more intensively than looking at it from the inside of a car. I had never done a bicycle tour of the mountains before coming to Hirado. From time to time the road gets so steep I have to get of my bike and walk. I was beat but very satisfied when I came home.
In the evening I did a rehearsal with Taiko group Yamato, from Shikamachi. I am now writing a piece which we will perform on the third of November. I am also practicing one of their music pieces. It is a lot of hard work pounding the taiko drums, the skins are not very tight and the sticks are heavy. Before I play I first put tape around my fingers to prevent blisters.
Friday 24 October 2003
At 10:00 I left for Houki, a village located in the island’s center. It’ a half hours drive. I am going there together with Katsura-san, he is one of the two interpreters who help me out. All of this he does voluntarily, he is actually a police agent! I am going to do a workshop for all the elementary school kids of Houki. The workshop went very well and I am getting more and more spontaneous ideas that turn out to be successful. After a talk with the school principal, who showed great interest, I lunched together with the fifth and sixth graders. Everyday at 13:00 they eat a warm meal together, consisting off rice with meat and vegetables and soup. I always really enjoy this time, the kids have an opportunity to ask me questions and I usually tell them a thing or two about Holland. After this I was given the chance to go and see some nice places with Katsura-san until four in the afternoon. He wanted to show me the west-coast of Ikitsuki. It has some beautiful cliffs and the road trails closely along the sea. It was magnificent, the blue of the sky and the sea, the green of the forests and the rice fields. There were also some cow farms.
At 16:00 I went to do a rehearsal with the Junior high brassband. It went fine, only the soloists are very timid, but with our help they will get by during the concert.
After that I ate some champon, Hirado ramen at Machida-san’s place. It tasted fine.
At 20:00 I went to Tateishi-san’s place for my last shodo lesson. We made a stamp with a kanji I had selected before. You need to engrave the kanji in a bit of soft stone the size of a stamp with a small chisel. I succeeded in doing this and the result was fairly good. I am allowed to keep the stamp.
Saturday 25 Ocotober 2003
A busy day with a lot to do! I was on the move from 9:30 until 23:00. It started with the Kunchi festival, a street parade to celebrate the rice harvest. There are dragon dances and the people in the parade wear traditional clothing (Samurai, monks, horsemen). People who gave a donation to the temple are visited by the dragon to exorcise evil spirits and to bring good fortune. After the parade we were expected at the Matsura Historical Museum on the hill above the city. Here in one of Japan’s three oldest teahouses a yearly tea ceremony is held. We were invited too. It was breathtakingly beautiful, everybody wore kimono’s and the teahouse in the garden was magnificent. Once inside the teahouse the tea ceremony was held for Cora and me. Everything is done very concentrated and according to set rituals. However the guests are allowed to talk normally, it is not meant to be very formal. It is also meant to be a social event. The green tea was rather good, not all too strong. In the second teahouse we were served very strong tea. It looked like green mud, that’s how thick it was. You always get something sweet with it to compensate for the strong taste of the tea.
After the lunch at the museum, which contained a bento box with different kinds of food, Cora and me were expected to perform at the yearly Santouka Festival, held in the main hall of the city theatre (Bunka center). Santouka is a famous Japanese haiku poet. During his lifetime he also stayed in Hirado for a certain period. A lot of haiku specialists will assemble to participate in this event. I and Cora were given the task to combine our arts and haiku in a certain way. Last week I was given a collection of Santouka’s works and I already selected four haiku’s to represent with the use of my drum. I had more or less formulated some ideas about how to get my interpretation of the haiku’s across to the audience. It was not until 10 minutes before going on stage that I wrote some things down on paper, just in case I would lose track of what I was doing during the performance. During the performance everything fell into place, and I loved it. A hall filled with a couple hundred guests who had been listening to speeches and lectures all day, were now listening to my haiku interpretation on drums. Cora already had danced on piano music, also with haiku’s as a theme, so the shift was not all too big. A female co-worker of 12xHolland first read the haiku out loud (in Japanese) after which I would play for about five minutes. I myself knew the English translation. It surprised me that I could express the meaning of the haiku’s so exactly. The arsenal consisting of the drum set and stick can be used to make so many different sounds and ambiences. The thing I liked best was that after I had finished people said that they could feel a very strong image and meaning in my performance, images and meanings which corresponded to mine. They were really surprised that I, according to them, had understood the Japanese way of thinking and incorporate it into my play. I was given some present, among which a very nice teacup with a handwritten haiku on it. Later on, at 18:00, we were taken on a tour of a sake factory. Afterwards the owner invited us to dinner. It was the yearly Kunchi eating festival. Long tables were standing on a tatami floor and laid out upon there was a wealth of food. It looked great and it tasted that way too! My glasses were refilled with sake and beer continuously and so it came to be that I went to my next appointment in a semi drunk state. Actually I was too tired, but there still was a jam session scheduled for the evening and people had come especially to a café to partake in it. I played there for one hour and a half and then I really wanted to go home. I sticked to my guns because “I really needed to stay because this and this person still had to come etc…”. I then said they should have come earlier and went home sweet home, straight to bed. It is not that a day like this is physically very demanding, it’s the numerous impressions and nice things to see that wear you down. It’s like going to three museums in a row.
Sunday 26 October 2003
Today I spent the morning taking a long rest again, though I keep waking up at 07:00. I then stay in bed until about 11:00, drinking coffee, reading and listening to music. Yes, it has been a week since I got hold of some classical music CD’s!!!! Lent them from Machida-san. I feel at home anywhere as long as I have some got good music to listen to. Mozart, Bach and Beethoven, that’s all I need. At 13:00 I went to have a look at a temple situated next to Hirado castle, it’s in the vicinity of my apartment. A yearly traditional dance festival was held there. The dancers, all men, were wearing fabulous outfits. I liked the samurai outfits the best. While they were dancing they were accompanied by the music of flutes and drums. They were more like fighting rituals than dances. First with a bow, then with a sword.
At the beginning of the afternoon I started feeling the tension that always precedes a performance. At 14:30 I had to go to Tabira to perform at the yearly cultural festival. Cora also performed, she repeated the Haiku dance performances of yesterday. I did not know what I was going to do until the beginning of my performance, I did not have any idea about what the audience would be like. It was only when the announcement was over and the curtain opened that I knew that I was far away from the audience, on a large podium. Because of all the lights I could not have direct contact with the audience.
I decided to do a drum solo without a fixed theme and subsequently did a solo which contained the melody and scheme of a Jazz standard (“All the things you are”). It was a lot of work but a successful performance nonetheless, I think. After my solo I did a joint performance with the Tabira taiko group. Four sturdy girls played a set piece, and in the middle of the performance they let me do a free solo on several Japanese drums and on my sign they continued with the last part. I also wore a nice costume and we had quite some fun. I don’t really know how well our performance was received. After the performance we were invited by the Yamada’s, who stick closely to all our events and who also do some voluntary work for 12xHolland. Afterwards we went to a beef restaurant where we ate Hirado-Beef. A famous dish. I did have some problems entering the beef restaurant; I appeared to have some chicken meat in my pocket, which repeatedly triggered off the Chicken detector, a security gate at the entrance. Oh boy.. Now I am home, typing this report.
Monday 27 October 2003
My last week in Hirado has started, even faster than I expected! During the next few days I will be doing the last rehearsals for the final performances. The next performance will be held tomorrow, at Thursday evening, we will be doing the Jazz Night. 200 tickets each priced at 1000 yen have already been sold. That will bring in some money for 12xHolland.
I have been at my apartment all day because I will be out tonight from 19:00 till 01:00.
I will be going to Sasebo/Huis Ten Bosch to go to a café and meet the musicians with whom I will be doing a joint performance at tomorrow’s Jazz Night.
We played some music together and things went fairly well, I enjoyed this chance to play together with other Jazz musicians. Tomorrow a drummer of this band wil be coming from Sasebo to Hirado because he wants to take part in the performance as well. He will be bringing his own drum set so we will have two of those on stage. At 01:30 I arrived at my place and immediately went to bed.
Tueasday 28 October 2003
I woke up at 07:00 because of the noisy neighbors and tried to go to sleep again until 12:00. Because I felt so empty and tired. Actually I wanted to get up and do some fun things but I simply do not have the energy. Maybe I am out of reserves. I did not felt really happy staying inside all day so at 14:99 I went outside to get some lunch (Ramen in soup and gyouza) and to do some e-mailing at City Hall. I was called and was told that I would be having a rehearsal with the Junior-High Brass band, with which I will be performing tomorrow. I knew that I had to be at the temple of the Matsura museum at 16:00 for the final and only rehearsal for the Jazz-Night performance (which was to begin at 19:00). I thought it’s sink or swim, let’s go do this! I asked Machida-san whether he knew a secret and special medicine that gives you more energy. He himself works day and night so… He gave me Korean ginseng tea powder. “But don’t drink it before you go sleep!!” he said. I immediately made a cup of tea and we got started. The high school rehearsal went fine, tomorrow will be loads of fun, I am sure of it. Then I went to the place of the Jazz-Night. The stage was already set up in the beautiful Japanese garden. With lighting and rows of folding chairs. The surroundings are perfect. Anyway, rehearsals and some talks transpired into the following program: first the Sasebo-band with their own drummer (40 min.) then a dance performance by Cora accompanied by Machida-san on the flute and myself with drums/percussion (10 min.). It should sound like Japanese music and she will be dancing through the temple garden followed by a spotlight. We would finish up with the Sasebo-band and my as drummer, and then finally the last piece with two drummers in a drum battle (60 min.). When the Sasebo band suddenly started playing at 19:00 I became rather pissed off. The audience did not understand why I was not playing (my face was on the poster and a lot of people had come to see Cora and me) and how this was related to 12xHollnad.
They were playing in a rather self-seeking and arrogant way. Maybe they were shy, but it did not look that way. After 40 minutes I had really had had enough of them rattling on and on and I felt like taking drastic measures to put an end to all this. It was a mistake to first devise a program and then not having somebody telling the audience what was going to happen this evening. Finally somebody appeared on stage to explain the what’s and why’s about tonight’s performance and that made me feel a lot better already. Now to get musical revenge, I want the audience to hear music that is sizzling hot and radiates fun!
After the nice performance by Cora the second concert started. After two pieces I was into the groove and we rocked the place. I gave it everything I got and this in turn kick started the band. It might sound arrogant but it is just one of the laws of making music, you must never let them bog you under by people who think things will be ok without giving it everything they have got. I love going to the limit in my music, and it causes the audience to sit on the edge of their seats too. Doing this also causes things to happen on stage which were not planned but still take the performance to a higher level. It was a successful evening and the 12xholland people also liked it to see me playing with a real band and my earlier irritation had turned into energy which was helpful to everybody. Afterwards I did not go out to have a drink and some food because I rather wanted to try and go to sleep immediately. Tomorrow again a busy day.
Wednesday 29 Ocotober 2003
It was kind of tough to get up this morning because I had to be at Hirado elementary school at 9:30 to do a workshop with 50 second grade students. It was a really nice workshop because the children acted very spontaneously and they participated with eager. I had adjusted the program to these slightly younger children (7 years of age) which turned out well.
In the afternoon I had to do a concert at the Junior High school with the Brass band. The gigantic hall was filled with students and their parents, today was the yearly culture day and all grades did a performance encompassing singing, dance or plays.
The festival started off with the Brass band and after the concert I had to fill 15 min. with a performance of my own. It was kind of an unreal feeling, standing in front of a couple hundred people and not knowing what to do yet. But routine gets you a long way and firstly I did some explanations about different drums and the cymbals of the drum set. Next I did a long solo containing rhythms from different countries and continents of the world.
After it had ended I was very tired and took a nap at my place for a while until 16:00 when I was picked up to go to Kaise to do a rehearsal with the Jazzy Kids. We have fixed the repertoire for November 3rd and together we tuned up their music pieces a little bit. This was kind of tough because of the language barrier and because they do not know how to read notes and so do everything from memory. The band has members as young as 7… Anyway, the drummers of the band had to let me play on the drums instead during some pieces. That can be a rather sensitive and so I presented them with all of the drum books I had brought from Holland. When we were finished I went with Machida to go back to Hirado, he had taken me to kaise, and I ate Sukiyaki for dinner there and afterwards we went to an Onsen (hot water bath house). I arrived home completely worn out and went to bed immediately.
Thursday 30 October 2003
Got up at 9:00 this morning to do this month’s last workshop. I was doing the workshop at Hirado elementary school again, this time with the two sixth grade classes. And what a difference compared to yesterday! The kids were really shy so it was very hard to start anything. Nothing helped. Even my interpreter, Mr. Koteda, did not succeed in changing things round and create a more relaxed atmosphere. The kids all loved it though, it’s just that I need the enthusiastic participation of the pupils all the time to be able to make the workshop work. So this last lesson did not turn out to be a real blast.
I still couldn’t get the fatigue out of my body and head, so I stayed in bed all afternoon, until 16:00. After eating outdoors I was picked up at 19:00 to go to Shikamachi to participate in the last Taiko group rehearsal. The boys and teacher of the group all had come to my jazz-concert and thought it was really good and spectacular. The teacher had brought me some presents and we talked a bit about the differences and similarities between taiko and jazz drumming. With Taiko drumming the movement (or show aspect) of the arm that is not used for hitting the drum is very important. There are a lot of set choreographies. It surprised me that though the taiko players could play difficult sequences they had difficulty imitating my small improvised variation on a set pattern. I now really wanted to learn some of their nice movements so I would not be standing there like a wooded puppet during the performance. We also practiced the piece for 4 small taiko drums, which I had composed. Arrived at my place at 22:30, quickly went to bed again.
Friday 31 October 2003
A day off! What shall I do? I decide to go to an island in the vicinity of Hirado called Oshima. A ferry operates between Hirado and Oshima and I boarded it at 12:35. It was nice, windless and warm weather. It is a magnificent sight to sail past Japan’s coastline, with the scenery of all kinds of small islands continuously changing.
At 13:15 I arrived at Oshima. Machida-san had called me to tell me that he had arranged a guide to show me around on Oshima. I did not see anybody when I arrived and so I decided to start walking through the small harbour town myself. Then a small auto bus came nearby at high speeds, stopped at the pier and out jumped a man who started looking around like crazy. When he saw me I waved to him and he indeed turned out to be that certain Mr. Mazuguchi which Machida had spoken of. First he took me to a harbour café to eat lunch, he himself had to leave again and was going to pick me up at 14:30 to give me a little tour of the island by car. The island is a little too big to walk across and the slopes are too steep to ride by bicycle. I spent some time talking to the bar owner and his wife. It is only now that I notice that I am able to speak a bit of Japanese, in Hirado I converse with all the co-workers in English.
The drive across the island was spectacular and before I knew it I had used a whole roll of film taking lots of pictures. The mountaintop of the island had a magnificent view of the surrounding area. The sea, the coast in the distance, the nearby islands, the paddy fields. Also nice to see were the villages, old houses and farms and everybody is either farmer or fisherman there. Especially on an island like this you really get an idea about what life in Japan used to be like. Everybody depends on and lives in harmony with the sea. People here are also far rougher than those in Kyoto or Tokyo.
At 16:00 I returned to Hirado by boat, this time going in the direction of the setting sun.
Unfortunately the sun had not yet turned red before I arrived in Hirado, I was just about half an hour early for that. The sun sets here at 17:30. This trip was really worth the while!
My host in Hirado is Mayumi-san, she irons my laundry, sometimes even irons a shirt of me and brings me something nice to eat from time to time. She is a great cook! This time she brought curry rice and it was just as good as the curry I eat in Holland. The curry sold at the restaurants here is a bit bland, and does not have potato in it.
Today I will stay inside for the rest of the day and will go to bed early.
Saturday November 1st 2003
This morning I experienced the beginning of a cold, I have tried to get as much rest as possible but apparently that was not sufficient. This afternoon I was invited to the birthday of Machida’s son. We went to eat at a sushi restaurant in Saza. The food there was very good and made me feel al little better already.
Afterwards I went for a stroll through Hirado and when I walked past the (Matsuura Historical) museum garden the sliding doors of the teahouse opened and I was invited to tea by one of the museum staff members. That was a nice experience because while I was sitting on the tatami mats inside the teahouse I could see the beautiful garden through the opened shoji doors. It started to rain a little bit, the gardener started to burn hay and all this together formed a nice whole. I was allowed to borrow an umbrella to use on the way back. That rain shower did not do me much good, and my throat started to get sore, nonetheless I would have to perform that night. In my condition, I would rather have wanted to stay in bed that night. At 22:00 I left that café and went home.
Sunday 2 November 2003
Everybody is very concerned about my condition because I have to do the important final performance of this month at the Hirado festival. After the sound check and the last rehearsals that I had to do in the main hall they took me to a doctor and I was given several different kinds of medicines against colds, throat aches, coughing and fever. At Machida’s place I was given Udon soup with lot’s of leek in it and after that I took my medicines and went home to get some sleep.
Monday 3 November 2003
Today I spent most of the day playing at the festival. I did not have a clear idea about how I was feeling anymore, I had completely lost contact with my body, but according to the things people said I looked very tired and everybody was very concerned.
The performances went very well so I was very happy about that. I spent quite some time saying goodbye to all the kids of the orchestra’s I played with. The Jazzy Kids and the Hirado Junior High school band. I was very sweaty after the last performance, which I did with the Taiko group, so I had to be careful and put on some dry clothes. The new clothes however became wet in a few seconds too, I just kept on sweating.
At the end a lot of pictures were taken and I was asked to give my signature to a lot of people. Machida-san really had to laugh about me being treated like a big star. He does not often laugh, so… I could not really cope with all the things going on around me and I felt numb at the 12xholland farewell party. I knew that I had to eat a lot because I did not eat properly today because of lack of time but I was not hungry, now that I am ill, I really do start missing Dutch food!
Tomorrow we will go to Fukuoka and after one night at a hotel I will be going to Tokyo by airplane and Sunday November 9 I will return to Holland.
In spite of the busy schedule and me becoming sick at the end, this has been an unforgettable month. Everybody was friendly and cooperative. It was a pleasure to teach, and to perform for a Japanese audience. Never before have I played for an audience that listened so intensively. During this month it turned out that I am able to do a lot more things than I thought I could and often I did not have the time to worry about things and thus have hardly ever been nervous, only well concentrated.
Further, the island itself is very pretty and I enjoyed that very much.
To everybody who participated in the 12xholland project I want to say: Thank you so much!!!
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6 - 15 september | 16 - 30 september | 1 - 15 oktober | 16 oktober - 4 november