Shakuhachi!

Hey hey, today I went to a shakuhachi workshop. The shakuhachi is a traditional Japanese flute, originally used for meditation by monks! Anyway, it is very pretty if you can play it well. It’s a bit difficult to produce a sound at first, and takes heaps of practice to get a nice consistent sound. So it was just $5 for this quick little workshop, but that’s just cause the guy wanted to sell a few flutes. I have one now which I can choose to pay off in full, or return soon. I think I will keep it though. It’s $100 which is very cheap for a musical instrument, but I think it will be nice to practise on, and when I manage to produce a tone, it sounds very nice ^^. In the hands of a pro it would be awesome. Pity I’m only a beginner ^^. Well, I seem to have quite a nice collection of flutes now, despite the fact I can’t play any of them haha.

So here it is! My flute collection (click to see the full size picture)! From left to right starting with the little bowly thing that you probably don’t believe is a flute, we have the little bowly thing (I don’t know what it’s called haha) from China, Chinese pan pipes, Andean pan pipes, a Chinese… well… it’s a reed instrument, a Chinese flute called a Xiao, and finally a Japanese shakuhachi with the sellers label still attached haha. Funny considering I studied percussion. haha. Maybe sometime I’ll take a picture of all my percussion instruments.

So, if you can play shakuhachi, drop me a line and give me a few pointers . Right now, I certainly need all the help I can get…

Ouch (not really…) for China!

To China! We will leave on the 23rd of March and return on the 2nd of April. 10 days! So, in preparation for this lovely trip to China, we’ve all gone and gotten shots in our arm. Ouch . I think it was a hepatitis shot. Apparently this one will last me 20 years because I had one on my last trip to China three years ago. I thought you had to get a booster shot within 6 months of the first shot, but the doc said that’s more of an official thing so people don’t forget, and three years is fine, it will still last me 20 years. Well that’s excellent. So in a couple of weeks and a few days, we will be heading off to Kunming and Lijiang in Yunnan province. For your viewing pleasure, I present to you a map of China with all the major cities. You can see Kunming to the south. Lijiang is not shown, but it’s just a little bit north west from Kunming ^^. We will see Australia play China in the world cup qualifiers which will be interesting. Maybe I will buy another nice flute haha. Enough talking, the people want maps! But I’ve only got one!
… my arm feels strange

日本語で！
えっとね。。。あの～　はい。終わった。

。。。

いいえいいえ！もちろん終わらなかった！中国へ！3月23日から4月2日まで行きます！１０日間です！今日はお医者さんに会った、接種をしてきた。（接種はいい言葉だな～辞書で見つけた:D）痛い！＞＿＜！いいえ、うそ！ははは。ちょっとめんどくさいけどね。その接種は中国へ行くじゅんびです。YunnanのKunmingとLijiangへ行きま～すぅ～！Yunnanはとてもきれいなところだそうで、たくさんの人は休みのためにYunnanへ行きます！お父さんとお兄さんと三人のお父さんの友達と一緒に行って、サッカーを観て、たくさんのものを買って、新しいフルートを買う！＞＿＜！イエイ！上は中国の地図、もちろんねはは。Kunming見える？じゃあ、Kunmingのちょっと北西はLijiangです！近いですよ。じゃあ、ここで 本当の終わり。：Ｄ
。。。腕は変な感じがある。。。（’_’）