Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Welcome to the forum. I am a former JET. I started shakuhachi a few years before going to Japan and found JET a great way to understand the culture. My boss used to joke that I only came to Japan as my shakuhachi was homesick.

Hey Kyraath,

I actually dug the D&D stuff on your site.  I a former DM thinking of getting back into it, as 4e looks fun.  I've been working out my own game multiverse, on and off, for the past 10 years, and am thinking of putting it all together into a unified campaign package.  Kind of what you seem to be doing too.  My hope is to play on something like fantasy grounds, or some other app that does virtual tabletop.   The cards are awesome.  I love em.  How'd you make them?

Oh, and welcome to the shakuhachi-land.  The key to shakuhachi is patience and an obsessive bent.  I'm guessing you've got both of those bases covered. 

Matt

Kyraath,

If you set up something that uses remote or virtual table-top stuff, let me know.  Anyways, my ability to do this would depend on the availability of a virtual table-top (such as DDI has promised), as it's a little distance from Montreal to Colorado (or Japan for that matter).  Fantasy Grounds II is also a possibility, but I don't know much about that.  I may be interested in joining up on your campaign and certaily am interested in hearing more.  Perhaps once my own campagin world (and multiverse) is up (probably 6 months from now), you might be interested in testing it out.  It's nice for us DM types to get to players as well.   I have a couple of players lined up and they have expressed an interest in a module/story-based style of play.  I like the idea of interconnected modules, each with their own beginning, middle and end.  It is fun to weave together such modules into an overarching narrative that gives the players a focus and purpose and takes them from lowbie to epic levels.  Okay public nerd display over now.  Back to flutes.   Shoot me an email sometime.  I'm interested.

Damn, did I just reveal a mispent youth and adolesence?  Oops.  Did I mention I also like Shakuhachi?

Last edited by Lorka (2008-10-15 08:59:23)

Lorka wrote:

If you set up something that uses remote or virtual table-top stuff, let me know.  Anyways, my ability to do this would depend on the availability of a virtual table-top (such as DDI has promised), as it's a little distance from Montreal to Colorado (or Japan for that matter).  Fantasy Grounds II is also a possibility, but I don't know much about that.  I may be interested in joining up on your campaign and certaily am interested in hearing more.  Perhaps once my own campagin world (and multiverse) is up (probably 6 months from now), you might be interested in testing it out.  It's nice for us DM types to get to players as well.   I have a couple of players lined up and they have expressed an interest in a module/story-based style of play.  I like the idea of interconnected modules, each with their own beginning, middle and end.  It is fun to weave together such modules into an overarching narrative that gives the players a focus and purpose and takes them from lowbie to epic levels.

I have Fantasy Grounds II and ran a low-magic D&D game with it a year ago (for about a full year) but everyone's schedule changed and we had to call it quits. (All of the players were friends of mine from overseas.) I recently ran a game in Chinese for some local friends but again, scheduling problems. I've been hesitating about setting up a new game online with Fantasy Grounds because I take my gaming seriously (put a lot of time into it) and can't stand when lackadaisical players don't show up or put any energy into the game... Sounds like the two of you might be great players, though   Anyways, let me know if you're interested...

Zak

Hi Kyraath,

Welcome to the forum.  I teach and play shakuhachi in Kochi prefecture, next door to Tokushima.  If you ever plan to make it over to Kochi you're welcome to drop in on a lesson or maybe I could just point out some of the sights to see in Kochi; just send me a mail beforehand if you plan on coming through as I have a fairly busy schedule this fall and am not always around.   There are various shakuhachi related events going on this fall; next weekend on October 25th some local shamisen, koto, and shakuhachi players and I are doing a concert at a Shingon Buddhist temple called Chikurinji (in Kochi city) at 2:00 p.m.; it's a free event and anyone is welcome to attend.  On December 20th my sensei's shakuhachi group is holding its 20th anniversary concert at Kochi's Bijitsukan (Art Museum) Hall.  I used to play D & D in the years before computers were in vogue...remember playing while spring break tent camping down in the Florida Keys about a quarter century ago...


Daniel

Thanks for that edosan.  sarcasm noted.  I will not post about things unrelated to shakuachi.

Last edited by Lorka (2008-10-18 21:10:09)

Wow I'm back and thanks for the welcome everyone.  I seem to have gotten myself super busy the past couple days and haven't touched the computer in a week or so.  This weekend is going to continue the craziness though as my Koto performance is on Sunday.  I'm really excited because we've been practicing like crazy AND once the Koto concert is over, I get to start my Shakuhachi lessons for real.  For now I've just been trying to sustain a single note as long as possible without changing the pitch to train my breathing.  I haven't had a lesson yet but that seemed like a good way to begin.  Is there anything else I should do as a super basic beginner before my first lesson?

I'd LOVE to come to some of the Kochi Shakuhachi events.  I've been looking for a good reason to do some more Shikoku exploring.  The 25th is unfortunately right out because of my Koto concert on the 26th, but this December thing sounds interesting.  When it gets closer to the time I'll get some more info from you for sure.

Lorka wrote:

Hey Zak,

I am moving house and job hunting at the moment, so it would be a bad idea for me to commit to anything "right now", but a few months down the road I may be very interested.  I should warn though: I was a DM for about 10 years, but like yourself I had players with schedule conflicts, and not all of them put in as much energy, so that tended to bring the bar down for those who did.  I finished up my last campagin when I was 22, so I have not played in 11 years (just turned 33 last week), so I may be a bit rusty as a DM and a player.   During those years though, I always kept developing my campagin universe and ideas (though mostly in my head, which makes me sound schizo).  Back then we did not have the internet, as it is used now, so finding eager (and mature) players was near impossible.    I kept up with 3e and own a number of the sourcebooks.  I was initially sceptical about 4e due to lots of nay sayers, but after looking into it and checking out a number of the freely available adventure PDF's on the wizards site, I think the game is a great improvement with lots of potential for fun.  It also makes player cooperation and teamwork more significant and makes every class one that is worth choosing.  Anyways, I said to myself I was not going to ramble about this and here I am doing just that.  Zak and Kyaath, I am both interested.  We should get in contact and chat.  A roleplaying alliance born of shakuhachi, I would never have guessed such a thing possible.  Strange indeed. 

Matt

You guys are ALL going to play Monks, aren't you?  Monks and Bards. 

Druid for me!  I summon woodland creatures.