In September Yuki, baby Saraswati and I took our first family trip to Japan, to spend time with our friends and Yuki's family, as well as doing a few concerts around the country. This summer was one of the hottest on record in Japan, with days over 40 degrees before we arrived. Our first couple of weeks there were like Indian monsoon season - hot and sticky! It quickly cooled off for our last week or so though. Thanks to everyone who helped out a little by organising small concerts, and to those who came along too.
Family sightseeing on Enoshima, where there is a shrine to Benzaiten, the Japanese Saraswati.
More photos on Yuki's Facebook album.
Sun Sep 1 Genshin-An Japanese garden concert with Taro Terahara (bansuri) and Takaaki Kuno (ghatam)
Fri Sep 6 Kamakura: Concert at Magokoro with Yuki Taniguchi Flindell (Dhrupad, bhajan) and Baku Hirakawa (sarod)
with Baku at Magokoro
Sat Sep 7 Shibuya: Vocal concert with Fumie Negishi, harmonium accompaniment by Tomomi Kitami. A most excellent concert - Raga Behag in vilambit ektaal, madhya laya teentaal, drut ektaal, Raga Chandrakauns in teentaal, 2 dadras. As far as I know, Fumie is the first to be doing so well in Indian classical vocal in Japan.
Sun Sep 8 Kanda (Tokyo): Dhrupad workshop and concert with Yuki
Dragon on Enoshima. (More Enoshima sightseeing at Yuki's blog)
Butoh dance workshop at Ohno Dance Studio, near Yokohama
Yoshito Ohno giving butoh dance class
Fri Sep 13 Nagoya: Concert with Tetsuya Kaneko, Yuki Kaneko and Yuki Taniguchi Flindell
First item: Yuki Kaneko (violin) and Shen (tabla)
Second item: Yuki (dhrupad vocal) and Tetsuya (pakhawaj)
Third item: percussion duet by Shen and Tetsuya.
Tabla solo in vilambit teentaal, Pakhawaj solo in madhya laya chautaal, duet in drut teentaal
Two and a half couples - what a great team!
Sat Sep 14 Kobe: Sagar (sarod) and Kazuyoshi Ohasi (tabla)
Sat Sep 14 Kobe: Shuhei Ozaki (sitar) and Shen
Sat Sep 14 Kobe: Raga bhairavi sitar-sarod duet
At this point in tour I was supposed to perform at Yamauto Festival with sitarist Yasuhiro Minamizawa, however a typhoon came along and changed our plans. We went to the festival on Sunday afternoon so that I could see what goes on there at least. Rainfall ranged from drizzle to heavy and we decided we would be more comfortable returning to Kyoto (90 mins drive) and coming back for our morning performance early Monday morning (Monday being a holiday). The typhoon hit overnight and in the morning several roads and tunnels were closed. It's very lucky we decided to come back, otherwise we might have been stuck in Yamauto for a few days! And I had a concert in Osaka that evening...
Mon Sep 16 Osaka: Calcutta Night Vol 96 with Tadao Ishihama (sitar)
Driving back to Tokyo, after the typhoon the air was very clear. This was my clearest view of Fuji-san ever! After the very hot summer there was no snow on top - very unusual.
The next day I went for a walk with my old mate T.C. Deane who took this beautiful photo from Inamuragasaki headland, near Kamakura.
Australian sunrise flying back home.
More photos on Yuki's Facebook album.
1 comment:
Thank you for sharing such a great post. It’ll help people, looking for the best places to visit in Japan.
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