I had a great Japanese lesson with Nomura-san (my cute little Japanese instructor, he's in his late 70's) and then they announced that there was some sort of musical sharing thing afterwards with the International Association. I thought I would just go back to the classroom and sleep or plan, but then I thought 'No, I work enough, I'm going to do something fun'. I'm so glad I went in. It's a big open tatami room and there were these long flat stringed instruments called Koto on the floor. We all gathered in the room (taking off our shoes first and put them in rows facing the door, of course) and then were seated all around the outside of the room on these flat square cushions. They invited 3 people to come and try playing along with the ladies while they played a couple of songs, the new people just sat there looking perplexed, I was dying to get on one. For ne of the songs an old guy sang along to, the song is called "Sakura" which means 'cherry blossoms', it's very well known. Then they played a couple more songs and then my wish came true, they invited everyone to come and try the instruments out and gave a little lesson on how to use them. Seeing that it is an International Association they wanted all the foreigners in the room to try them out, so I got to play quite a bit. I was pretty good if I do say so myself! So cool. I felt all Japanese like and now I want to find a way to play more. It's sort of like playing the strings of a piano so I liked it, unlike playing guitar which I am now completely convinced I will never be successful at.
A Koto is a traditional Japanese instrument that was brought to Japan from China around 800 AD. It is just under 200 centimeters long and made of paulownia wood which is an Asian flowering tree. There's 13 (or 17, 20, 25 or 30) strings that sit on these little bridges along the deck. The strings are plucked by picks that fit over the thumb, second finger and third finger. I felt like the bad guy in "Big Trouble, Little China". The pitch can be changed by moving the bridges so tuning is a big deal. Koto music, as it's known now, was established sometime (around 1614 and 1685) in the Edo period.
