Another unexpectedly unusual week

It's Friday and I have to say that this has been an odd week. Looking ahead to June last week, I didn't clock this week as being especially unusual, but it has ended up that way. Here's a few bits and pieces:

Music practice

As I mentioned last week, I'm playing the piano for worship at church this Sunday and also at conference next Friday. Hence, practise was needed. On Tuesday I took three trains across Tokyo to meet with others from our mission to practice for an hour...and then took three back again. Three hours of travel! Because it is such a distance, I usually try to combine such a journey with at least one other thing. This time I managed to snag a friend/colleague for lunch. Precious quiet moments in a tiny Tokyo cafe.

Piano: I've been playing since I was 
four...it's like another "first language".

I also spent an hour and a half practising at school yesterday (the easiest piano for me to access). David found a practise room and I had a great time. It took me back many years to my childhood and teenage years when I spent at least an hour a day practising and three hours a week at my teacher's studio, many times playing the piano in one of her two practice rooms. As I've eased back into playing these last few weeks, I've realised that playing the piano (and reading music) is like a first language to me. I still find it very easy to sight read (i.e. play from written notes without first hearing a piece)...much easier than trying to play chords (what guitarists use). And to extend the metaphor...much easier than trying to operate in Japanese.

Being stretched

This week I've had few stretching experiences.

On Wednesday I took seven trains (after six the day before). My day only contained two main things: I took three trains to met a colleague from one of my teams for a catch-up about work and how he's doing. Then I caught another three trains to meet another colleague who is moving back to Australia. She's newer in Japan and needed a hand with driving a larger vehicle to shift some of her furniture to another new family who live about 45 minutes away. My job was driving! Usually it's David who does things like this, but he wasn't available when they were, so I volunteered. The vehicle was a HiAce, a little bigger than our 8-seater vans that we've owned most of our years in Tokyo. But I managed. Between us we also managed to hire it from a Japanese company. This is no small thing when you struggle with Japanese . . . it wasn't pretty, but we did it. And I didn't damage the vehicle in any way, so that was a relief! 

The van we hired to do the moving. 

When we were done, I took one more train to get home. In contrast to the day before I never left western Tokyo, just took a big train circuit, and never more than about 15 km from our house.

Then yesterday I had my annual Japanese medical. It's pretty much funded by the government. It was not very comprehensive, but they did a urine and took some blood and asked me if I had any concerns. The doctor, nurse, and I danced around in two languages, but, I think managed the basics. I really struggle with starving blood test. Breakfast is mandatory for me to have decent brain function and going without my mid-morning coffee is a double blow to my capacity. Then, having to speak Japanese on top of that . . . it's definitely not pretty. I haven't yet managed to explain to a medical professional how difficult I find it to function in my (very second) language without breakfast or coffee.

My big mistake, yesterday, however, was trying to be efficient. I also needed more asthma meds, so I thought combining that with my medical would be a smart move . . . and it was, until I got to the pharmacy next to the doctor. What I should have done was go and have my coffee and then come back, but I didn't. The pharmacy didn't have enough in stock to fill my prescription. This has happened every time I've been recently, so I shouldn't have been surprised. But this time it seems there were greater difficulties that I don't understand . . . the lady appointed to deal with me spoke loud and fast, but didn't seem to have all the information that she needed. Our interactions (entirely in Japanese) were punctuated with something like "chotto matte kudasai" (please excuse me) followed by her rushing back to talk to someone else (the pharmacist?). 

This back and forth went on for some time. 

I was sitting like a blob on the waiting seats, with a pretty massive headache and brain fog so thick that thinking was hard. 

Eventually she agreed that they could sell me two then and they would mail me the rest of the script later. I had to throw more complications into the conversation as I explained that I was going to be in Sapporo from Monday for five days, then back here for four days, then in Australia (I didn't mention Singapore) from the week after for five weeks!

I think we sorted it out, but now I look back, I'm not sure why it was so hard. Brain fog and headache contributed, for sure, but I'm hoping that it wasn't contagious and that she didn't also have compromised brain function!

The "medical" actually only took around 30 minutes, but the end result was that I pretty much was incapacitated for the whole morning. It was only after lunch that I started to be able to do anything much of value. And then I had a piano practice and staff family dinner at school . . . so yesterday I didn't feel like I got much of value done!

End of year feel

At both school (where David works) and OMF JHQ (our mission's national base) I found an "end of year" vibe. Certainly at school, where the school year ended this week, that was the case. I wasn't ready for it at JHQ. It's not the end of the year there, but with our national conference next week, there is a lot of "get this done before conference". And there are cross-overs between the two organisations. One key leader in OMF Japan has kids at the school, so they are heading off straight after conference on a short home assignment, and so she's been handing over jobs to people to take care of during the months she'll be away. Also so there was an edge of tired frantic-ness (overwrought?) there that I wasn't expecting.

Additionally, in both places there are people leaving after serving in each place for a long time. So there's an edge of sadness to it all as well.

Ah, I'd better stop writing here and get back to the things I need to get done "before conference".

Yesterday's Global Hymn Sing

At the start of the month I wrote about the Global Hymn Sing that OMF and Keith and Kristen Getty were promoting. It was yesterday (in Japan time), the 25th of February. 

It seems that close to one million people participated across the world. But I suspect that there's a number of churches who participated and didn't get registered (there's still time to register, if your group sang, but aren't on this map).

Our church sang the hymn at all three of our services and then a special global praise and prayer time was held after lunch. We had 16 people there (plus children), which was a great encouragement. 

We aren't leaders in our church, so it was something I told our pastor about and he organised it, however he sought to involve the two OMF families who attend our church (us and another family). I didn't feel able to lead from the front (in Japanese), but unexpectedly I did get to help in that I played the piano for a couple of hymns that we sang at the prayer meeting. I had no warning that I was to play, so it was satisfying to know that I can still sightread hymns! Alas I had to decide on the spot that the designated hymn's arrangement was too tricky to sightread. Without a song leader, the new refrain was a bit tricky (the hymn is an old one, by Isaac Watts, but the Gettys wrote a new refrain for this event) and the piano arrangement didn't include the melody, which made it even trickier!

But as I said at the start of this post, it was an encouraging time. It's a mission-minded church and wonderful to see so many people turn out for a non-regular prayer meeting. Though it seems set to become an annual event!

Friday Five

Lotsa stuff going on. Here's a roundup:

1. Blast from the past
I had coffee with a friend from high school yesterday. We didn't know each other very well at high school, but have built a friendship via Facebook (she's an avid reader of my blog too). It was a high octane time, where she asked stacks of questions she's been saving up. Thoughtful, searching questions. Wow! 

This is one of the articles I scanned.

2. High school reunion planning
On top of that she's spearheading the organisation of our 25th high school reunion for next year. So we talked about that a bit too.

I really didn't come away from high school with any friends who I kept up with, but Facebook has been a great place for at least touching base with some. It was amazing to get face-to-face with someone from that long ago! You realise how limited our view of the world was back then and how we only really saw some of each other's lives, but not a holistic view at all.

So we have a closed Facebook group where lots of photos and so on are being posted. I even scanned a couple of newspaper articles and photos to contribute yesterday. I pulled out my school magazines and loaned them to my friend too.

3. Musical instrument dilemmas 
We've finally had all our boys learning an instrument this last six months. As a musician from a very early age myself (4 years old I began piano), it's not been easy to sit back and wait for the enthusiasm needed to take on instruments. 

Our youngest son took up piano at five. He's taken a break this least six months. Unfortunately he's making lots of noise about not wanting to go back to it when we get back to Japan next year. Instead he wants to jump over to trumpet. I'm not sure what to do about this. I'm happy for him to try trumpet, but feel sad that four years of piano will be thrown away.

Our middle son took up percussion last year when his whole class was expected to take up an instrument. He's continued that in Australia and done well.

Our eldest son has not showed an interest until the last 18 months when he's been interested in guitars and other strumming instruments. He's taken up lessons in Australia. It's been a really good move, one of the few things he's looked forward to in school at times has been his guitar lesson. Yesterday he asked if he could take longer lessons next year and today he's looking at the possibility of buying a guitar, because he's had to give the school's guitar back today. That passion makes my heart sing.

4. Pondering writing
I've been working on a couple of articles for two different magazines. They've not been easy to write! 

I'm also rereading Stephen King's "On Writing", a writing book, and finding it quite inspiring. We'll see where that leads.

5. Summer stuff
The cricket is on in our lounge room (same room as my desk) this afternoon. This is like comfort food. Summer sounds. I grew up with this and it's been largely absent in Japan. Wonderful to have this running in the background of our day (though not good for productivity here). Additionally fun is that all the boys are absorbed by it, asking all those sorts of questions about the game that I used to ask my dad when I was a kid.

I've been eating a mango every day. That's summer too, and divine! I haven't had mango for five years.

School is finishing for the year in the next two weeks for our boys. I'm not quite ready for that. Christmas plans are coming together. It's been five years since we've done Christmas this way. We've spent so long in Japan now that Christmas in summer is no longer normal. It seems like a shadow from the past. Familiar, but unfamiliar at the same time.

Music trains your brain

Every since I worked as an assistant music teacher for my piano teacher when I was in my last two years of school, my philosophy has been that, as a parent, I would never force my child to learn an instrument. And I guess that overflows to any sort of extra curricular activity. I saw too many piano students who just hated piano, but were forced to learn.

That has been put to the test in the last few years as I've had boys who've gotten to the age of potential instrument learners.

This is our son practising.

One boys has not shown any interest in learning an instrument (aside from a fleeting interest in guitar that has gone nowhere due to the lack of a guitar teacher). Nor has he shown any interest in choirs (and CAJ has some excellent choral teachers and divine choirs). We've never pushed him in this area, but he's shown an interest (and passion) for sports instead, so we've encouraged him and supported him in that.

Another boy was passionate about learning the piano early on, so we let him, yet pushed him whenever he wanted to quit. He's been learning for over three years now! He's also shown interest in joining the elementary choir, which he's finally been able to do this year.

The third boy who had a go at violin for a while when we were in Australia, but couldn't continue that in Japan due to the lack of an English-speaking teacher and never got up the enthusiasm for anything else, not even choir, until the opportunity to take up percussion this year. This, he has taken on with a great deal of enthusiasm and get-up-and-go. It is new for me, having someone practising thumping, but I'm glad he's able to pursue this.

I met a friend for ice-cream the other day. She is a flautist and, like me, has a piano-learning child. It was encouraging to share our common frustrations as musicians who know-how-to-practise and try to pass that on to our kids!

I also mentioned to her this blog post by another musician friend. It is exciting to see how my personality was shaped and potentially those of my children are being shaped, by learning instruments.

Positives of learning an instrument, according to research mentioned in the above blogpost, include:

• improved reaction times
• better ability to stay focused
• heightened awareness of their own actions
• spotting mistakes more quickly and accurately

Fourteen years into parenting and I still say that it is important that the passion (at least initially) to learn an instrument comes from the child themselves, though this is controversial and I've nearly ended up in arguments when I've expressed my opinion ill-advisedly on occasion. But the positives for those kids who do have the opportunity and passion to learn an instrument are exciting, to be sure.

In love with Bach

I fell in love with this piece, the last movement of the first Bach Partita, when I learnt it, maybe late primary school or early high school.

I'm sure that I never played it this fast or this smoothly, but there is something cool about crossing your hands over and also I love "making the melody sing" as my teacher would have said.

Follow-up on the recital

Thank you for everyone's interest in how the recital went yesterday. I made it through. Thankfully, as my son was the youngest student, we were first up. Not too much time to get sweaty palms.

I found a Youtube video of the piece we played yesterday, to give you an idea. (I played the bass, or on the left.)

We of course played it better than this :-) It is to be "lively", so we played it faster. My son's teacher also gave us the interpretation that the fast notes or quavers (US=eighth notes) were to  be played in a DOO-ba rhythm, rather than even in length and emphasis. These two do that a little, especially towards the end. But I think we managed it the whole way through.

I've just replayed the video my husband took of our performance and I'm happy with how it went. Not perfect, but pretty good none-the-less. For those of you who are my Facebook friends, we've posted our video there.

Now I just need to work on keeping him motivated to practise through the coming long summer holidays (starting next Friday). His teacher has another duet for us to tackle, so that should be fun. And hopefully I can get him to show-off to our families when we're home.

I'm not really a sentimental sort, but there was something special about playing with my son in a performance. Piano can be a lonely occupation. To have the opportunity to do it with other people is special. It is quite something to be able to help pass on a skill that I've been given to my son and then participate with him (kind-of like playing a sport with him). We'll see how long it is before he overtakes my ability, though! He's only seven, so I've probably got a few years at least!

Fun and piano

Last week we had parent-teacher interviews at school. As almost an afterthought our youngest son's school-based piano teacher offered us an interview time too. I'm glad I took him up on the offer because I gained a better idea of his style of teaching and his goals.

This is the first time one of my sons has learned "my" instrument. I learnt the piano from the age of 4 until I finished school at 17. However my teacher was a strict, no-nonsense kind of teacher. Many students were quite scared of her.

For some time my lessons were before school at 7am on a Monday morning. Really tough. But we weren't allowed to yawn! So besides teaching me how to play the piano, my teacher taught me how to yawn without opening my mouth — a useful skill.

But anyhow, my piano education was along a classical line. My 6 y.o. is being taught in a slightly different way. Hard to exactly define, but his teacher is into electronic music and jazz a bit too, so his method is probably a lot more fun. He's encouraging our son to hum along while he plays. He was happy to hear that our son had experimented with playing Jingle Bells with a drum sequence that our Clavinova produces. I'm pretty sure that my childhood teacher would have been horrified. 

It is not easy to teach a lively 5/6 y.o. boy to play the piano. But we seem to be succeeding (I include myself there, because I think he'd be floundering without my help during practises). One way is obviously to keep it a bit fun. And when you're thinking about fun and piano, it is great to take a look at Victor Borge, a comic pianist. Here's a Youtube clip to show you what I mean:

Can I pick up a latent skill again?

I'm practising this piece at the moment. No particular reason except that I used to be able to play harder pieces than this . . . 20 years ago. I also find playing the piano a soothing activity (when you aren't performing). Oh, and a friend in the neighbourhood has a baby grand piano (my favourite instrument) that I could play, if I make the time. 

It has been a long time since I practised a classical piano piece, though. Listening to this makes me realise how much more I need to do. Could take a while! For those of you who want to know, this is Bach, Two part invention No. 13 in A minor.