"That means that the people are really not doing much with music or other art."

Chomp, chomp, chomp.

That's me eating those words! Today we went to Harmony Hall for the local art exhibition. Harmony Hall is a community center. For those of us in the USA that means an old building with creaky floors and poor heating and lousy acousitcs. Not so in Japan. Harmony Hall is a multimillion dollar facility, the result of an extensive and very competitive fight between world renowned architects. It has art galleries, a lovely water decorated walk and two concert halls. The smaller one only seats about 300 people. It is the home of the local philharmonic orchestra. They have plays, ballets and other dance shows, as well the art shows and other artistic exhibits. I plan to go back there many times.

Today is Japan's national holiday to celebrate their beginning. The actual origins of Japan are lost in the mists of time but they date themselves from the first emperor. Today is their 2,676th birthday. Makes the USA seem very new indeed.

Oh, and if you are tired of the same old sword and sorcery movies try Onmyaji. We just watched two of them. Of course you will need to get one that is subtitled in English or your own language du jour. It is a fun set of movies about magic and heroism from Japan's 13th century. Pretty decent special effects.