Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Karmajampa wrote:

many at the Festival are going to arrive 'jet-lagged' and will sound a little 'Finnish'd'.§

Kel,
That is the funniest line I have heard in a good long while.

Amok,
I would really like to go to the Festival, but I am not sure about money or time. If I do find the way to go, then I would really want to share a room. Aside from being cost effective, it is a great way to get to know someone from somewhere else in the world.
Like you, I am a student, don't smoke, rarely drink, play shakuhachi fairly poorly, though I don't have much of an accent and my Finnish is almost guaranteed to be infinitely worse than your English.
I am looking to finish school in March and then will need to get a job to pay off the exhorbitant student loans, this could cause a time problem. Few employers would want to hire someone that will be taking a vacation a couple of months after being hired. But, I think being 46 years old and having gone more than 14 years without a vacation, I think I fully deserve it.

I hope to see you all there, and if I hear a Kiwi accented shakuhachi with a white cane swinging from it, I will call out "Hello Kel, watch out for my knees!"

A stop in Frankfurt could be fun as well. I'm not sure how flights work from Georgia, USA to Sidney, Australia work, but having someone to talk shakuhachi with for a bunch of hours sounds ideal.

We'll have to see how things pan out.
Damon

Last edited by nomaD43 (2007-12-15 00:17:03)

Well, fellas, it is my pipe-dream to get to Oz in the summer of 2008, but please keep me informed of further ideas for inexpensive accommodations and collective ventures. I'm a great believer in the power of the collective.

Chris
xrismoran@hotmail.com

Well, I was looking at some costs last night and I'm sure I could find a way to afford the Festival, accommodations and meals. The real problem is the airfare, the cheapest fare  I was able to find was over $2000. This is a very prohibitive cost for me. I don't think there is any way I could afford this trip.
Damon

Chris Moran wrote:

Excellent thinking. The big-hitters can go to the expensive sushi-bars, but the bohemians and proletarians can brown-bag it from Woolworth's. (I ate out of Woolworth's in Dublin, Ireland for the better part of a semester in college, many eons ago.)

We may even be able to do better than that and still eat something that isn't grass from the backyard. If the hostel happens to have some kind of facilities for cooking we could easily enough cook our own meals there. I've been told that my sushi is quite edible and I can make a decent range of Japanese foods. I'd love to see what others can cook up as well.

nomaD43 wrote:

Helsinki to Sydney is about $2200 via British/Virgin.

The best route I got was something like going to Frankfurt from Helsinki and then using Qantas to fly directly to Sydney. I believe the route was priced at 1200 euros or so which is still under 2200 USD. Every single cheap flight from here seemed to go through Frankfurt no matter how you designed the route. For a while I tried to consider the possibility of flying to another country that is closer if I could get cheaper tickets to those places. Unfortunately Australia is so in middle of nowhere that there aren't really many good options. Besides, the ticket prices seemed to be rather strange when you tried to make a trip through China or something. Sometimes you'd save a lot of money by going through some Smalltown, Nowhere. My father who worked at Finnair for most of his life asked some friends of his who used to travel a lot if they had any ideas. I'm hoping to hear back from them soon.

For those discussing the cost of the trip from America or Europe to Australia, I have an idea.

There are about 200 days left until the festival. If you take your shakuhachi around with you, komuso style, and blow until people give you $10 everyday until the festival, you'll have the plane fare and you'll be kick ass by the time you reach Sydney from daily blowing!

I am serious. Think about it. It's totally doable.

Tairaku wrote:

There are about 200 days left until the festival. If you take your shakuhachi around with you, komuso style, and blow until people give you $10 everyday until the festival, you'll have the plane fare and you'll be kick ass by the time you reach Sydney from daily blowing!

Well, it's winter in here right now. Although right now it's still warm as far as winters go it only gets worse during the upcoming months. Taking a shakuhachi outside is not a viable idea unless it's one made out of wood or a Yuu. Making those $10s would get expensive real fast as the flutes I have start turning into splinters. I think that the komuso had the advantage of not having to play out in freezing temperatures.

Joking aside, I was kind of hoping to do just that on the upcoming summer as soon as it gets warm enough to take a shakuhachi out. Unfortunately it isn't soon enough to make a sizable contribution to my war chest. I think my original plan of eating nothing but ramen until then might work out better.

Chris Moran wrote:

What about taking it indoors to the pubs? You could probably make $20 a night just getting people to pay you NOT to play in their pubs, especially if of you focus on your kan register material like Kumoi Jishi.

It's a shame that Kumoi Jishi is the next piece I'll be starting on and therefore I cannot play it yet. Come to think of it, having no idea how the piece goes might actually help in this case. Still, this idea has the same problem as the last suggestions. Not only would I end up with some broken flutes, I'd also be looking at paying some hefty hospital bills. Somehow I get this feeling that the experiment would end up with my balance in red.

Chris Moran wrote:

Before the cops or the little men in white coats dragged me away I'm sure I could make off with a few bills each day.

I recall checking to make sure that playing in public is not illegal around here. Turns out, it's not. What makes me curious is, how badly do you need to play for it to become some kind of crime? Would me playing Kyorei count? What if I played the whole thing in Kan instead? Dai Kan?

The most key to success in any endeavor is to visualise it. If you see yourself going to the festival then you just need to start taking small steps to get there. I envision you guys at the festival enjoying a Bombay Sapphire martini with me, my shout (Australian for "I buy the drinks"). Ken will also be there so we must have a www.shakuhachiforum.com party!

amokrun wrote:

ps. I'm not sure if visualizing myself in Australia after some Bombay Sapphires makes me want to come there or not. It's not a pretty sight, I can tell you.

It may not be a pretty sight if you are the only Bombay Sappihired spirit there.  However, the offer seems to suggest that there will be an ambient aqua-marine glow radiating from indeterminable places and people. Unquestionably better than a slap in the gut with a wet fish and possibly a good reason to do all that you can to get there.

Last edited by Jeff Cairns (2007-12-16 20:09:04)

amokrun wrote:

ps. I'm not sure if visualizing myself in Australia after some Bombay Sapphires makes me want to come there or not. It's not a pretty sight, I can tell you.

Vegemite,
water and tea,
will help bring
your shakuaussie visions
to life
for thee
with
lasting memory.

Chris Moran wrote:

amokrun wrote:

Would me playing Kyorei count? What if I played the whole thing in Kan instead? Dai Kan?

My friend, if you can play all of Kyorei in Dai Kan (the register, not the radish) I am certain as the day I was born that someone, somewhere would bestow an official shakuhachi honor, title, and/or bamboo name upon you just for that single accomplishment ...

I never said I could play it well like that. I can try, though, and I'm sure that some of the notes would be in Dai Kan. Trying to listen to that may or may not damage your hearing.

From Europe check out 'Emirates' Airline prices.
From the USA, make sure you have your shakuhachi blowing while you wander down those long corridors at LAX, they have great ambience.
I am visualizing my Martini slipping over my parched tongue, as I listen to Riley Lee playing from the top of the Sydney Opera House, sunrise gently revealing harbour waters resonating with the World Shakuhachi Ensemble blowing Ro Buki.
I blow bubbles through my straw into my martini, they gurgle with the charm of koro koro.

Kel. §