Carol - I haven't seen much yet but then I have only just scratched the surface of the music scene here. I am in an agricultural town. That means that the people are really not doing much with music or other art. There is a limited amount of painting, Wakana's mother for example, and little else. Of course, language is a bit of a barrier but Wakana helps out there.

At first I thought you were looking for Japanese manufactured accordions but the Japanese might be too polite to build or play them. *Grin*

On Wednesday I went down to Yokohama for the celebration of the Chinese New Year and to connect with a previous co-worker from Guam. She and her fiancée now live in Japan. The New Year parade was wonderful but very short. It seemed to be a set of three of the same thing. First there was a little handcart in which the parade staff was setting off the traditional firecrackers. Those were LOUD! I imagine the guys working the cart spent the rest of the night saying "WHAT?" every time someone spoke to them.

Then came the dancers. They wore elaborate costumes and heavy grotesque makeup. The first set of dancers seemed to represent some kind of Chinese nobility. The second set of dancers wore a mix of styles. The third set was a representation of some kind of battle between good and evil. Those guys were good. They had large batons that were "weapons" and they kept them moving in a rapid succession of twists and spins, throwing them into the air and stepping around to catch them and swing them at each other. Their costumes were quite elaborate too.

The next in each set were the Chinese tigers or lions or whatever. They each held two people and consisted of a grotesque mask and a long body. The person in the head would approach the crowd on either side and shake it, make the mouth open and close. I saw individuals in the crowd speaking with the person inside the costume and laughing with them, friends or family members I thought. Once more the last group was the best. The head person would leap into the air, assisted by the tail person. The head would shake ferociously and the beast's fangs seemed ready to rip into the flesh of the bystanders. Then the head person would give a tremendous leap and next be standing on the shoulders of the tail person and the beast would suddenly be as tall as two people, shaking it's head and threatening the crowd.

Then came the long dragon. This was a long colorful fabric Chinese dragon carried on poles. The dragon spent the whole parade chasing a ball carried by the leader of the troupe. The dragon danced in a series of spirals and circles, always chasing the ball and never catching it. At one point he encircled one of the Chinese tiger beasts when it was in it's tall stage. It was quite a display.

Last came the drum and cymbal band. They kept up a noisy rhythm for the dancers. Generally there was an older man beating the big drum and younger students (?) on the cymbals around him.

These separate elements came in sets consisting of the dancers, Chinese tiger beasts, long dragon, and band. They would march a few steps and then perform. The firecrackers came at the start of the parade and at the end. It was quite a spectacle.

I met up with my friends after the parade. They arrived late because they expected the parade to start at 6:00 PM and it actually started at 4:30. Fortunately for them they arrived early and were able to catch up with the tail end and see the last set.

I arrived in Yokohama around lunchtime. Before I went to Chinatown I went to the Yokohama Maritime Museum. The city has built a lovely maritime park with the Nippon Maru permanently docked next to a lovely open square. The other side of the square is the semicircular façade of the museum. The museum is built underground to keep from cluttering up the view of the ship. The backside of the museum is a long grassy slope from which you can see the whole ship from above the deck.

Japan does not have a great maritime history. There are stories of Japanese fishermen who get swept out to sea and are picked up by passing ships. One of those stories involves a crew picked up by a whaler. Most of them elect to be returned through China to Japan. One of them decided to stay on the whaler. He traveled the world before returning to Japan. On his return he was taken before the Shogun who required him to write his story down. I am still looking for an English translation of that story.

Anyway, the museum is mostly dedicated to modern shipping and trade. They do have a display related to the Nippon Maru and its travels. There are some displays of Japanese coastal trading and fishing vessels. There is a wonderful diorama of the arrival of the Black Ships in Yokohama. There is a nice diorama of Yokohama harbor as it is today with views from cameras set up to show harbor activity. One display shows a model of the Nippon Maru under full sail. You can press buttons to change the wind direction and the model braces its yards around to adjust to the new wind direction.

I went to the library where I panicked the woman at the desk with a simple question. "Do you speak English?" quickly creates a variety of reactions here. She hustled off to find someone who could talk to me. I explained that I was a singer of English and American sea shanties (and had to explain what those were) and I wanted to know what the Japanese had for traditional sea music. I knew I was shooting in the dark. She parked me at a reading table and went off to see what she could find.

I turned to look at the magazine rack and was surprised to be looking at a publication in English. It was the Mariner's Mirror, the Journal Of The Society For Nautical Research. The society was founded in 1910 and the publication is published quarterly. The November 2004 issue I was looking at had a wonderful set of papers and notes. One paper was titled 'Wetymologies, limber scupper, and bilge' and was about the origin of those words. There were also full-scale articles on the history of the English fisheries in Iceland, the difficulties avoiding the U-boats on the oil run between the Clyde and the Firth Of Forth during the First World War, and Lascar struggles against discrimination. There were "notes" which seemed to be smaller scale articles. These included a description of an 1804 frigate action, Antarctic whaling, and the biography of a naval surgeon of the early 19th century. There was a section of "Queries" from people who had found references to certain bits of history and wanted more information. These included details of Chinese divers used to salvage money chests from a shipwreck in 1761, the activities of Captain Plucket at Norman Cross, Irawaddy patrols, and marlinspike design for the Royal Navy. There was an answer section for previous queries. They addressed fore and aft bridges, horse latitudes, lighting on 18th century ships, and stuns'ls. The correspondence section discussed previous articles. These had apparently addresses the Golden Age Of Piracy and Topmen of the 18th Century.

I was quite excited about this little discovery until I turned to the subscription page. $70 for a year's subscription seems a bit steep. Still, if anyone is interested you might try writing to them. Apparently only snail mail is used there was no reference to a web site at all though I haven't looked yet. The address is:

M. P. J. Garvey, fca
Stowell House
New Pond Hill
Cross In Hand, Heathfield
East Sussex, TN21 OLX

Good luck. If any of our English friends run across back issues in a used bookstore please think of me. I will gladly reimburse you for the purchase as long as the purchase price is reasonable, i.e., considerable less than $70 for 4 issues!

Oh, and the woman came back with three books. There was a book of songs related to the Nippon Maru, a songbook from the old Japanese Naval Academy, and another songbook of sea songs. Of course they were all in Japanese but I carefully copied the titles and brought them back for Wakana to read. She thinks we might be able to find them in the Japanese version of a used book web site.