Friday

--edit-- Sorry this post got removed when I edited it so I'm reposting.

Welcome to a succession three posts that will be my weekend. :)

First of course, I'll get you up to speed.

Thursday I drafted my final protocol and spent most of the day extracting genes from gels and learning more of the vast world of techniques. I can't help but feel like I'm forgetting something, but no matter. I don't think Wednesday or Thursday were that exciting (non-work wise).

Work has become much busier, in that I'm rarely sitting down for more than 20-30 minutes a day! Tis awesome (makes the day go by faster).

My Japanese is picking up too. For the most part as long as the person isn't speaking too fast I can generally figure out what they're saying by picking out select words and verbs. Also, sometimes I feel like I could be completely deaf and still understand them. VERY much of the language is just intent and hand motions.

For example, Hashimoto-san has been training me for a while, and she doesn't speak English, but now it's a rare occurrence that I don't understand her. Cool eh?

Oh and Reiji finally left for good, at least for me anyways. He's moved further north in Japan and won't be back to visit until after I'm gone. Sad...

Good-bye Salute!

Oh and I had a new treat the other day. Apparently these are unique to one part of Japan. It's like a red bean little ball that's packed very very tightly inside what can only be described as a rubber balloon. You take it and poke it, and the outside pops off leaving you with a yummy dessert. :)


Okay, Friday. Had a meeting to discuss my project, learned how to genotype (well I already knew how, but it was cool learning it in Japanese!), and did some data analysis. But that's not the fun part.

Around 5, Nakamura-san and I headed out. Tonight was the night we were going to go see Hiramatsu Satoru, Nakamura-san's Piano teacher Auzai Takaaki, and Yagi Nobuo play at a livehouse called L'Assiette (little cafe with a small performance area). They're known for hosting top jazz/blues players. We left the lab and set off on a bus for about 10+ minutes (it was packed being a Friday), then hopped onto the train for another 30 minutes. We arrived at... the stop after Machida station (I forget...) and met up with her brother and her brother's wife, who knew preliminary English.



Oh by the way, if you're uncomfortable with awkward silences, don't come to Japan. It has nothing to do with language either, it's just when everyone is that polite, no one wants to take action for certain situations (meals, leaving, meeting).

Twas cool though. We had ridden on an express train away from the city, and were technically still in Tokyo (on the Yokohama edge), and it seems my scope of Tokyo still wasn't completely accurate. Shinjuku, Shibuya, Tokyo, Ikebukuro and all that are like NY city. And where I was right then was like a... suburb of sorts, in that the streets were a bit more relaxed, it had more of a homey feel (instead of a cut throat one you get from passing tons of people in Shibuya). Originally I was going to get a haircut then, but the place that Nakamura-san suggested wasn't going to have available hairdresser/barbers until a few hours later, so my hair would have to be cut another day... (it was getting long!) and instead just waited for the show to start.

A fancy cheese and chicken "pizza". Twas yummy.

Satoru and the older gentleman Nobuo played harmonica and Nakamura-san's teacher Takaaki played piano. The piano player wasn't particularly impressive, not anything Ben couldn't have done just as easily, but then again the piano player was just giving the blues progression as background.



The harmonica players were quite ridiculous though. Satoru is about 30-40 years of age (I can't gauge Japanese people's age at all; I mistook a group of med school students for middle schoolers once) and still has the show-off-y type of style, but can do a lot of neat tricks and riffs. The older, shorter guy Nobuo could do amazing solo work very very high up on the scale. His sound was much cleaner and at some points it really did sound like a trumpet, though I don't think he was actually any more skilled or had more harmonica experience, just a style thing, I guess. Plus he was funny :P.


By the way, Satoru's wife is from China so he could speak Chinese. It was interesting. I spoke to him in Chinese, he spoke to Nakamura-san in Japanese, and I spoke to Nakamura-san in English. Hey, whatever works right?

If you wanted to see what it looked like...

After about 30-40 minutes and some food, they started. I sat in the very front of the small cafe. They played harmonica-ized versions of popular songs. I knew all of them in the first half actually. The song selection included blues versions of: Someday my prince will come, Take Five/My Favorite things mix, What a Wonderful World, Stand By Me, etc. I've included some videos for your listening pleasure... unfortunately the sound quality isn't great. These are some of the great moments of the night.

An example of the Nobuo being funny and the harmonica dudes just messing around.


Wicked eh?


Some of the intricate solo work I was talking about earlier.


He wasn't really great at piano but twas cool hearing him sing Stand By Me.

The entire performance was about two hours with a break in between but it went by quickly. It became very lulling towards the end (though I fall asleep to pretty much any music). After the performance we took some pictures (and one with the group) though they're out of focus. (My camera had died so we used Nakamura-sans, but I don't think it was on the correct setting).


All in all, it was very enjoyable, but I wouldn't say the talent was really that high compared to people in the states, not that I've heard any harmonica players before. Just by listening to the audience, it really seemed that musical talent was a much more impressive thing in Japan. When I told them I played a little bit of violin, piano, drums and guitar and sang, they were completely shocked. When they heard recordings of Emory A capella, (Nakamura-san wanted the band to hear) they couldn't believe that we weren't a professional group on tour and making money. And the piano player slash harmonica-ists were good, but I don't think they were great enough to warrant as much popularity and as many shows as they do in the States, but then again blues is a states thing right? I dunno. Either way, it was still VERY good and exciting.

Afterwards the night ended and I headed back on the train for home. I was reading Harry Potter to pass the time. Unfortunately, I didn't notice that the express train didn't stop and my stop and I ended up going 6 stops too many. So I had to get off, go backwards, and eventually made it home :).