This week:
Coffee extraordinaire James Ong buys a shamisen, the instrument he’s been dreaming about playing for years.
We come back home to check out my flaccid kawahari job on the front side of the dou, and find the solution is simply tightening the skin more. Not easy, as I have a fear of breaking the skin.
On the subject of breaking skin, we watch Grant ‘Shamisensation’ Reimer pass his black belt test. Congratulations to him! Grant has been training hard, five days per week for for 2.5 years, and really deserves it.
He had asked me to play shamisen during the knife fight segment of the test. My playing started okay, but went downhill as I got distracted by the amazing display in front of me.