Thanks, Al, for sharing your experiences. I remembered your Ueno park story but had forgotten
about your busking at Asakadai. Well, the weather turned really nasty on Friday, and the rain and
wind finished off what sakura blossoms were left, so there were no hanami parties going on this
weekend. As the weather warms I'll try anyway. Perhaps my comments about the security guards were
a bit on the bitter side; it'sjust that there would be guys with guitars all around, in Shibuya
anyway, and I'm sorry but some of them were/are REALLY bad, but the guards seemed to make a
beeline for the gaijin with the flute. I wasn't even busking, just trying to get some more
practice in after work. I'll start learning some Fukuda Rando and enka (hmm, maybe on the last
one) instead of just minyo and honkyoku. I've only tried busking a couple of times, but it's
intrigued me for a while as a way to hone one's performance ability. It's like a cafe I played in
in the US recently a few times--the acoustics were so bad, and the audience so distracted, that I
felt if I could play half-decently there I'd accomplished something. One night, a series of
emergency vehicles screamed by, sirens blaring, in the middle of Tamuke, my last piece, meant to
quiet the crowd. Not being John Cage or of that ilk I was at a loss how to incorporate the sirens
into the piece so I just stopped and waited..a sort of failure I guess.
Peter H
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