Traditional Japanese Concert

Today was a day of concerts and festivals! Yina took me to a concert for traditional Japanese music. The first piece was three women each playing a stringed instrument called a koto. Each koto was slightly different: a normal koto, a bass koto, and a soprano koto; no doubt each with a unique Japanese name but I only know the generic name. After each song, they would reconfigure which instruments were to play. The women also played the shamisen, a fretless, three-string guitar with that traditional Japanese sound. Twangy, dissonant and dramatic. A man was playing a shakuhachi, a large bamboo flute with a haunting meditative sound.

They played a variety of songs, some the subject of nature: rain, mtns and the like. One song surprised me, they played a song about 9-11 that is apparently quite popular around Japan.

We took dinner at the Asian month festival. Unfortunately it was raining, but they had a stage set up for various Asian performances and a slew of Asian food stands. we ate Thai shrimp noodles, Chinese rice tamales, gyoza and egg rolls, Japanese veggie pancakes. It was all delicious. The show that evening was Thai dancing. Two women wearing intricate colorful costumes. One with long golden fingernails and wings the other with ornate spinning squares on her back. The men wore a dancing sheep costume with lots of character. Scratching himself. The kids loved him.