Oh, I bought a shamisen. This is a picture of the shop where I bought it. Mine is the one with the black on it, on the countertop. If you don't know what a shamisen sounds like, check out this video on youtube.comShould be fun, once I practice a bit. I actually bought the thing last weekend, but they come unfinished like the image below. It took a week to stretch the drum part on it and get the strings set. And I bet you can't guess what my shamisen's drum is covered with.
That's right, dog skin. I know what you're thinking... but Andrew, I thought that shamisen were usually covered with cat skin! What's up with the dog skin?!?
To be honest, I thought the same thing when the store owner told me that too. Apparantly, the good shamisen are covered with cat skin and you can see the cats' nipples if it is well made. I'm not sure exactly sure what the difference is between dog and cat skin but I'm sure it is very complicated, so I didn't ask in Japanese.
In other news...
I've noticed a few things lately here in 日本... I recently grabbed a drink with a couple of friends and the bartender gave me a 3 leaf clover on the top of my Guinness. Sure, it's not a 4 leaf clover, but hey, it was still a nice touch. Beyond that, the other day I was at a Mos Burger (my favorite Japanese burger joint) and got some ketchup with my fries. The lady made the ketchup to look like an adorable bunny and it made me feel warm inside. Perhaps that was just the hot grease, but you know what... when you live by yourself in the middle of nowhere with very few friends and fewer that speak English you really need that every now and then. Maybe you should also do something nice like that soon.... don't you think?
Oh, and yes, I realize that in the US baristas in coffee shops often make designs in coffee, but the ketchep in a fast food joint was new to me.
In other news, I went to a fun Halloween party the other day in 天水 (tensui) at a friend's house. I thought that 150 people would show up, but it was still fun with around 80 外人と日本人(foreigners and Japanese people). Oh, and I'm just about to the point where I could do this blog in terrible, grammatically incorrect Japanese so don't hate me if I start some blogs in Japanese. It's good practice for me and, hey, you might know what it feels like to not know what the hell's going on like me. Consider it a cultural experience.
she went as a rice ball... it made me happy
the day after the party... i was the first to wake up apparently.
No comments:
Post a Comment