So the cops came a'knocking...

General
#1

Hi bachido folks,
I have been following all your interesting forum topics avidly for over a year now but never posted myself (I feel like a bit of peeping Tom! ).
Anyway I had a funny experience the other day that you might find amusing…

I just arrived in kyoto the other day, I am regular visitor.
This time I am staying at my girlfriend’s house in Sennyuji.
I unpacked my shamisen from its mitsuri case and put it together.
I started playing a bit just to check the tuning and make sure all was in order.
Ran through a couple of minyou, a Jonkara or two, and within 20 minutes
there was a very abrupt knock on the door. Upon opening the door I was confronted by a very serious looking member of the kyoto police department.
He very politely informed me that there had been a complaint from a neighbor about the noise I was making. Apparently this neighbor had been working a night shift and was trying to sleep (sumimasen!).
So the cop was very surprised to see that the perpetrator of this most heinous shamisen crime was a gaikokojin.
He said he would like very much for me to play something for him but, sadly, because of the complaint, this was not possible.
Still, that didnt stop him from inspecting my passport and taking down my details!
So now, if I want to practice, I will have to go to kamo river or Sennyuji forrest, away from residential areas.

So in closing, for my shamisen crimes against the good people of kyoto…
Honto ni gomen nasai!!

Cheers, thanks for reading, bachi on!

#2

Hi Dave!

Hahaha!! Oh my, what a great story as your inaugural post! :smiley: That’s truly a shame that you couldn’t play in the house, but I can just imagine the officer’s face when he saw. :wink:

Ironically, it’s a Japanese instrument so difficult to actually play in Japan, due to the noise. Even Nitta san, who just moved into a ‘mansion’ with his wife, has to be very careful about practicing shamisen at home.

How is the weather there? Is it clear enough that you’ll be able to play outside? (It’s kind of rainy today in Santa Cruz, so the question just came to mind. :-P)

Kudos for coming out of the shadows, Dave! Bachi on!!

#3

Hi Kyle
Sadly it is belting with rain here too!
Luckily I have a friend who owns a small bar in kyoto and he lets me practice there during the day before he opens.

#4

Ah damn! The mental picture is epic! :o:O:O:O

Damn coppers, keeping a shamisen brotha down!

#5

:slight_smile: great story

#6

It is a familiar story in Japan and still is sorry for you and somewhat fun and amusing(^ ^)
My son lives in Kyoto and plays Kemenche often. Luckily it is a violin like instrument and does not give a big sound. However, when son’s wife played a drum, someone on the upper floor got angry and hit the floor(>_

#7

Well as I always say…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2YgZX9Thm0

Luckily for me I live next to people who have parties constantly so they don’t care

#8

Haha oh yes, it’s a pretty common fear, I guess.

I am using my teachers older broken shamisen (we call it the “Zombisen”). The strings are old and stiff so I really have to strike the aggressively. The neighbors don’t speak English so they always send their son to tell me I’m bothering them.

Have you tried a shinobi koma?

#9

G’day Joseph,
Yeah, I do have a shinobi koma similar to the deluxe model in the bachido store. I have 2 shamisen and I keep the shinobi permanently on the lesser of the 2 for night time practicing.
Dont get me wrong, it’s a great koma, but they can be a hassle to take on and off all the time as you have to loosen the strings all the way to do it. The other reason I’m not using it in kyoto at the moment is I stupidly forgot to pack it!
Anyway, the rain has stopped here and the weather is nice enough to practice al fresco.

#10

That’s what I was going to say, use the quiet koma. Is there any way you can dampen the strings or something? Or play with a cloth bachi or something? joke

Wow, right now I am really glad I live in a large house in America. This is a problem that I never thought of. I even practice taiko loudly and don’t bother anyone.

Oh, and Welcome to Bachido, Dave! These are some SUPER NICE folks. :slight_smile:

#11

Thanx Lorraine.
Maybe we could develop some kind of rubber practice bachi!!

#12

Haha, we have another thread going on that very topic (developing new types of bachi), you should throw in that comment.

Hrm, is there anyway you could maybe wrap a thin piece of cloth around the dou to dampen the sound? We do that with taiko drums when we want to make them quieter. I’ve not had a need to try that, (and it sounds as if it might be cumbersome), but it might work.

#13

Good story, Dave - it bring back memories of Kyoto for me, good and bad. I was always looking for ways to make my playing a bit less annoying for my neighbors. I was practicing for hours every day, and probably drove the woman who lived above me almost crazy. She never actually called the police, but she stomped around, slamming doors and muttering to herself whenever I started to play (the fact that I could hear her muttering says something about the way sound travelled in that building).
You’ve touched on a few of these tricks already, but here’s my list:
1.) Do some of your playing away from home. Like you , I found the Kamo river to be a good practice spot, and played there a lot in the evenings. You’re really lucky to have a friend who owns a bar, that sounds perfect for daytime practice. I used Karaoke boxes to practice in during the day; they are ridiculously cheap in the afternoon because everyone wants to go at night.
2.) I found shinobi goma useless for Tsugaru because you still get the heavy skin thwacking sound with every hit. It sounds like you are perpetually nailing something together. Instead, I used something on the skin under my regular koma. Mouse pads are one possibility, and another is those plastic things Japanese school kids put under a page when writing, to protect the pages under it. They are about 1mm thick, and you can cut a 10 cm strip that runs parallel to the strings - goes under the koma, and covers the area where the bachi hits, so greatly reduces string and skin volume.
3.) Work on left hand technique without the bachi, just using the nail of your index finger.
4.) Get a kankara shamisen to play anytime of day or night without annoying anyone. You can pick one up in Kyoto at the ‘ethnic’ instrument shop in the Teramachi arcade, just south of Oike street. The last time I was there they still sold kits for about $35, and you could put the thing together in 30 minutes, no tools required, and besides sanding the neck, it hardly requires more work than putting new strings on your shamisen… I can’t recommend the kankara enough for the freedom it gives you to play whenever and wherever you want.

#14

G’day Gerry,
I know the shop you’re talking about, we call it the hippie shop.
I like the idea of the karaoke room.
The other thing I’m gonna do is play a set at the open-mic night at the irish bar “the gael”, do you know it? It used to be called “Tadgs”
It’s near the corner of Shijo and Kawabata dori.
I’ve been a regular there for a few years now, I used to do a guitar/vox set there on Thursday nights whenever I’m in kyoto but I don’t bring my guitar with me these days coz I bring the shamisen instead. When were you living in kyoto? Do you ever go back to visit?

#15

Hi Dave,
The “hippie shop” - that has to be the one!
I knew Tadgs bar, but didn’t know it had changed owners - it was a nice space.
I was in Kyoto from 1995-2001, and again in 2005. The last time I was there was 2010, but just for a couple of days.

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