I’ve been wondering the past few days. While I think it is sort of cool when players yell out these sounds while playing Jonkara Bushi, I can’t help but thinking that it’s a bit weird. Does anyone know when it started and why? And which one do you think is the best?
Paging Dr. Gerry?
Ha or Huh-ah as (retired) colonel slade(?) drinking “john” daniel’s would so eloquently and often say 
I think the very first post and topic from me on this forum inquired about those very utterances I had noticed in shamisen clips . . . so this should be uplookable under the title ha huh huah huh or a similar enough search term . . . seriously and in the meantime and until gerry or someone else finds the time for a serious additional response I shall or at least could - possibly - entertain you with one or the other recent taxi story huh?
so with regard to the aforementioned drink I as a serious driver unfortunately can’t share a picture of a regular customer sipping on a halfsized bottle of jack in the car she is decent though in general and usually sober actually she probably needs a sip or two probably thanks to my driving style although she politely denies that reasoning
(I drove her to italy and back for 1200 euros and 100 tip in one week a month ago and she likes to take the occasional 200 euro ride beyond the city borders since then and is a generally nice customer who also pays for lunch on such excursions and even did present a half sized bottle of jack as a gift for tonight
anyway I actually wanted to share another story and shall get to that soon after getting a coffee . . .
so and without regard to the above clip I was outside at the art house taxi stand early morning yesterday which is along the “mur” river that runs through the city and out of the blue a potential custumer on foot approaches . . . she was wet . . . and said she was just recently thrown into the river . . . actually this sounded like a very believable story . . . and if I could drive her home despite her literally dripping state . . . well it was not some emergency she was not shocked by what indeed seemed to have happened but nevertheless actually joyful and more or less in acceptance of such an occurance as a joke by some “friends” . . . so the first thing I said was well cool that you got out of the river too . . . so I pondered and pointed out the option of her sun drying a bit first of course also and seriously considering the unlucky fact that I have cloth seats that would remain wet for most of the day if I took her for that early morning ride . . . also I had nothing of a plastic quality to cover the seats as she politely inquired about actually she seemed a lot nicer than that elderly woman who entered the car perfectly dry but nevertheless leaved the seat wet about a year ago . . . so seriously if I would have had leather seats I would have accepted her by that point or were we not under such financial pressure I might have anyway but at the time and for those reasons I declined also since there was another cab nearby and yeah I suggested that if he had leather seats he could possibly very well accept her and drive her home and so it seemed to work out after a minute of discussion with that collegue and she got her drive home . . .
BH, I think your doctor would say you drink too much
Ah I’m sitting in the cab enjoying soberness and a cup of coffee … coffee and sparkling mineral water are like the top nectars from the heavens to me and I seriously usually don’t even drink a beer or any other drop of alcohol throughout the working week … on the equally usually very tired but leisurely first evening of a weekend I admit that a computer and john daniels can be quite a combination … anyway thanks for your concern and all and speaking of all I also thanked you at Shamisen – BH for your spirited lyrics contribution from a while ago with regard to the taxi driver song
Yes now that I have a driver’s license and a car, drinking just became a problem because I don’t know when I might want to go for a ride 
oh congrats and of course and I can’t stress this point enough, one should always be aware of that other option of going for a ride that is out there too . . .
very strange . . . at least in retrospect and as I am sipping on a drink on this fine saturday evening that past week of working the streets for 6 days only fueled by coffee and mineral water seems to have passed in a breeze despite all the effort Yeah seems I can get into vacation mode quickly even if it’s just a weekend and was one able to get a cup of good sake around here chances are I would not even just stay home tonight
Haha if you only have 1 day where you can safely drink enough for it to have any effect, then of course it becomes easy to get into that mode that day!
I would like to meet Noriko and George sometime and jam! I wish we had more time in Japan to play improv.