Sunday, February 26, 2006

Plums and Drums

I had a VERY busy weekend.
I did not get any packing done but I did get a little bit of much needed house cleaning sorted out. I also uploaded tons of pictures for you all to check out. This is when I noticed that I am VERY behind on my BabyJi picture file and need to spend some time updating this.

On Saturday BabyJi and I headed to our friend Jean’s house for a Plum Blossom picnic. She lives near the river and there is an old orchard tunnel of plum trees. We went last year but the blossoms were barely open; this year they were beautiful!!

BabyJi was a little shy at first but soon warmed up to everyone and started to have a great time. We went for a walk along the river with the one little boy and BabyJi has now decided that he is her new boyfriend.

I also made use of these truly wonderful slip-on children suits that I found for SOOO cheap. It is basically coveralls for kids and you can let them run around and they can get as dirty as they want but their clothes underneath are nice and clean.

There are many more pictures here: Plum Pics.







A ladybird of the most amazing colour!!!!!




In the evening BabyJi and I headed out to a musical in Kikugawa. I was really looking forward to this: my student/friend was acting in it and I had gone to their musical a few years before and had really enjoyed it.
Well the night turned into an expensive bomb.

Note to remember: DO NOT BRING BABYJI ANYWHERE AT NIGHT!!!
She had a mental melt down.

I saw about 40 minutes of the first set and then zipped out before she started causing problems and watched from the crappy TV in the lobby while Ji ran around enjoying herself.
I desperately wanted to watch the second half but Ji had an instant melt and we skiddadled out of there in a hurry.

I just gave up, called the taxi and headed home. Ji proceeded to have a melt down in the taxi then another one on the train platform. Two very drunk grandpa’s successfully got Ji to stop crying with all of there cooing and ahhing. She had another minor meltdown on the train but then fell asleep the rest of the way home.

She of course instantly woke up when we got home and was the picture-perfect happy-go-lucky baby who refused to go back to sleep until almost 11pm.

On Sunday it rained.
A lot!
So much the trains were stopped for about three hours due to excess water on the tracks. Everything was shutdown between Shizuoka and Kakegawa: both major Bullet train locations. Made for some very late passengers.

Rain didn’t bother us though: BabyJi and I headed out to the City office concert hall for a free Taiko Drums recital.

I LOVE Japanese Taiko drums!!!
I love them for a whole variety of reasons.

1. The sound does something wild to my emotions. Listening to them on a CD does not affect me the same way. Listening to them live activates every single nerve in my body: my hair stands on end and I tend to cry a lot. I get weirdly emotional and it is a little embarrassing. I don’t sob, but I do have to dab my eyes all the time. Sappy me.

2. Taiko concerts done properly are an amazing mix of costume, colour and light. They have a wonderful time playing with the lighting to create the most amazing mood feels.

3. Great groups also incorporate other instruments, like the shamesen and the shakuhachi.

4. The groups that are having fun also add in a little acting and tell Japanese folk stories. Too much fun!!

This was a local group full of tiny kids, teenagers and adults. You could tell that some of them were loving every second of the concert. Others you could tell were putting their whole heart and energy into it. I loved it.
So did Ji.

She was hilarious: bouncing up and down, banging the seat in front and clapping her hands. She even fell asleep for a few minutes.

We saw about 90 percent of it before Ji started to get too tired, but I was happy and have tons of pics to show you. Some are here but there are TONS on my main site: Taiko Drums.










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Posted by (Top)Andrea::2/26/2006 :: 13 Comments:

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