Just a shout out~

General
#1

Ladies and Gents

I just want to take a minute to say hello to everyone~
I have actually been a Bachido member for quite some time, but this is my first official post.

A little about myself:

I’ve been in Japan back and forth since 2005.
In 2009 I felt a loss in passion and left the country.
A friend introduced me to some popular Tsugaru shamisen music… the passion was re-ignited.
Within a a year and a half my life had completely changed and I was back in Tokyo.
I take every conceivable opportunity for change, improvement and adventure and decided that I wanted to learn Tsugaru Shamisen.
1-year, 100 hours of effort, and more money than I want to talk about later, I finally had managed to take all the necessary steps and get all the necessary introductions to land the teacher that any beginning shamisen player could only dream of having.
And now, I look to add to Bachido in any way that I can.

My overall knowledge of shamisen and all its complexities and songs is relatively limited, but I am learning more every day, and am loving every step of this journey.

I may not be on here every day, or even every week for that matter… But I am here and saying hello~
I look forward to getting to know all of you, and wish each and every person all the best in their journey. May we all get where we are going a little wiser than we were when we first departed.

All the best and nice to meet you!

Norm Nakamura

#2

Nice to meet ya Norm!

#3

Welcome! Do you have any video or audio recording? It’s always interesting to see others play!

#4

Thanks for the kind welcome guys~
Thought kyle might jump on here and say hello, but i guess he’s a busy guy~

as for now, I don’t have any recordings, but I should by July.
hoping to make the best of things~

Talk to you all soon!

#5

Oh snap, how rude of me! Indeed, I missed this thread. (A couple threads slip my awareness here and there) My apologies.

Though you’ve been a member of Bachido for a while, welcome to Bachido! :slight_smile: I’m happy you’ve made your presence here known, Norm. And I look forward to your contributions here, whenever you can! :slight_smile:

In Tokyo, did you ever get to pop into Katou’s shop or Oiwake (the minyou bar in Asakusa)?

Glad to have you on board! :slight_smile:
Kyle

#6

Lol no worries~

And thanks for the welcome!

I hope I’ll be able to contribute quite a bit, but you never really know until things get going~

As for Katoh’s shop, I have not yet been there.
I actually live right in the heart of Asakusa, and have yet to visit the minyou bar lol. It’s been on my list forever, but it can prove to be amazing how hard it can be to find time for the simplest of things lol.

Just on a closing note for this particular comment box, as I get deeper and deeper into the Shamisen world here in Japan, I hope to bring more and more light to the Bachido network, and introduce it to the many that I meet along the way.

I think that this is a great community, filled with great people, so I would love to help it grow~

Thanks again, and best of luck to everyone!!

#7

If I may also make a shout out!
I have also been a long time member (very inactive, but I hope to change that).

I’m Josh Davila. I originally hail from southern California (about an hour outta LA from the city of Riverside) but as of the past year my home is in central Japan (Gifu to be more accurate).

I’ve been playing studying/practicing shamisen since the summer of '06. I got myself one of those cheaper introductory model shamisen without the azuma sawari and the one with the synthetic skins that sound like poo. It’s been a trooper though, no major complaints and I’ve learned a lot with it.

My shamisen adventures started during my Uni days after I had joined my schools student run taiko club. (Perhaps some of you may know of the collegiate group, Senryu Taiko @ UCR ? ) Any way, one fateful day I met Mike Penny when he came to town and eventually began making more and more connections. Long story short, before I moved to Japan I was studying with a teacher for about 2 years. I acquired a handful of techniques and loads of experience.

These days I’m simply trying to keep my skills from diminishing during my weekends by practicing a bit. Otherwise I’ve been constantly striving to save the funds for a new, proper shamisen.

If there’s anyone else in the area (in or around Gifu/Nagoya perhaps) I’d love to hear from you. Otherwise I’d like to meet more of you out there in the world wide community!

Cheers!

#8

Awesome to see you posting Josh! And I’m excited to hear more from you! (Now we just need to get Mike to actually start posting more too)

I hope we can meet up in Hirosaki next year. That would be the best! Will you still be living in Japan next spring?
It’s good that you’re making a practice routine in order to keep your skills; it’s easy to just let them slide when you don’t have your friends around to keep the motivation up.

Don’t forget about the Chuko page for when you go new-shamisen shopping! :slight_smile:

#9

Hey Grant! Hope you’re well!
I should be here in the chubu region. No plans to relocate back statewide so it is very possible we may have a reunion in the future here in Japan!

Don’t forget about the Chuko page for when you go new-shamisen shopping!

I’ll definitely keep my options open when I eventually do lay down some serious yen! Thanks!

#10

Welcome Josh!

#11

Hi to Norm and Josh! :slight_smile:

#12

Hi,Josh!!! I was in Gifu last weekend, and now still near you, in Aichi. Hope to have a chance to see you someday!

© 2020 Kyle Abbott