I went out to dinner last week with Keita (AirB&B host) and his two chums Yuki and Masahiro to this restaurant.  The main dish was udon.  You could say it's a Japanese version of tapas in as much as you choose a variety of bits and pieces, but then they arrive in a big bowl of broth not at all like tapas.  I was happy to let them do the choosing.  Included were big lumps of giant white radish, a pickled egg, orange and white striped half moon shaped something or others and what looked like spring rolls but I was told were fish cakes.  Frankly they all tasted much the same to me and not very tasty at that.

However there was a wide variety of other dishes outside the broth; some delicious little squid, deep fried chicken, asparagus, sardines and some very smoky bits of an unknown fish.  All of that was lovely.  We washed it down with beer and sake.

It was a lively evening and it went on after the meal.   Yuki (84 year old lady) went off for a taxi home bidding me farewell with one of her few English phrases "hansum boi" while Keita steered Masahiro in his wheelchair through the streets to the Jigger Bar St Louis.  It was only a few streets away.  No Atlantic crossing was required.

There we sank a few drinks, in my case the cheapest Suntory whisky on the drinks list which tasted just fine.  Amongst the staff was an Englishman.  I think he may have been the head barman.  His backstory was of coming to Japan to help his brother in a bar 12 years ago, the business went broke, he did various jobs then came to Kanazawa marrying a Japanese girl who spoke no English on the way.  The true and tested way throughout history of learning the local lingo with the least pain.  My thoughts turned to Yuki.  Perhaps not.

I walked home around 11.

You may have noticed in the picture in this post that there is a parcel shelf above the counter for people to put their bags on.  This is quite normal and in cafes and restaurants you frequently find a bin beside your table in which you can dump your shopping bag etc.  The best version I've come across was in Tokyo where Momo and I had bench seats in a booth.  You could lift the seat to reveal enough space to store your folding bike let alone your shopping.

Those of you in receipt of WhatsApp pics from me may remember one of a gents urinal with an umbrella hook beside it.  I had an opportunity to use one of those today with a so called rented umbrella.  I was taking a trip into the country and didn't have an umbrella because I'd looked at the forecast for the wrong place and it was going to rain in my place.  So Ishimura explained to me that because it rains a lot in Kanazawa they have developed what they called umbrella rental.  No money changes hands.  In lots of shops and public places like the station there are umbrellas to which you can help yourself on the understanding that when you no longer need it you'll return it.  I picked one up when I caught my bus to Shirakawa-go and since it was raining when I got back I still have it.

Neat is it not.   

I eventually felt peckish and looked around for a restaurant and spotted the Caffe Ponte by this bridge.  It's name suggested Italy but I like Italian food and what is pasta but noodles by another name.  The place was full so I put my name on the waiting list and after a while was admitted.  The meal was definitely cross cultural.  It had a magnificent contribution from Italy that they called focaccia but it wasn't like any bread of that name that I've had before.  It was an air-filled ellipsoid of the most delicate and delicious rosemary flecked bread sitting on a small rectangular snow white plate that accommodated a circular depression filled with pesto sauce.   It was gorgeous as was the soup and the seafood pasta, which was not in the soup thus declaring itself more Italian than Japanese.  Though where does chicken noodle soup fit in, or some versions of minestrone?  I'm sure there was a tasty pudding as well but I've forgotten.

One of the waitresses was clearly not Japanese and I heard her speak accented English and thought she most probably was Italian although her accent didn't really fit that hypothesis.  It turned out she was Polish married to a Japanese.  You have to wonder where they met.

The rain continued to be a nuisance but the next day dawned bright and warm so I set off with tens of thousands of other people to Miya Jima which is an island famous for its shrine and its deer and its general delightfulness.  You take a train that heads off through the western suburbs of Hiroshima to Miyajimaguchi.  Here we are making our way out of the station.

You then saunter down to the ferry terminal where your crowd merges with the people already there and you embark on the ten minute crossing, first noting the whereabouts of the lifejackets as instructed by the tannoy.

This is what you see as you approach and it's that red torii that you fight to get a decent picture of on land. 

Here's my best one, remarkably free of tourists and other nuisances.

It's a gateway to the shrine but not terribly practical if you are not in a canoe.  Instead you can pass through this one.

There are deer wandering about all over the place very popular with the kids as you might imagine but they are not fussy about what they eat so you warned to keep a tight hold on your chips or even your oysters which are currently in season on Misha jima and selling like hotcakes.  On the few occasions I've had oysters I haven't been too impressed so I settled for a nice noodle dish in a quiet restaurant away from the main drag behind the pagoda and had a chat with an American who had just taken up employment in Japan.

After a few hours I set off back to Hiroshima and arrived just in time to catch an outburst of rain in which to make my sodden way to my hotel.  It cleared up later and I took a walk by the river.  There are actually half a dozen rivers running through the city into Hiroshima bay and form to my mind one of the delights of the place.

 

This is Hiroshima a few months after the atomic bomb was dropped on it.  The building on the right which partly survived the blast has been kept in that state as a memorial and a reminder of the enormous threat posed by nuclear weapons.  It sits at the top of a park that contains a cenotaph, an eternal flame and a museum all devoted to confirming that message.

This picture shows the cenotaph in the foreground, the eternal flame in the middle distance and the genbaku dome. which is what they called the bombed remains, in the far distance.  Here's a close up of it.

It was a very dreich day when I was there which I suppose adds to the feelings of gloom invoked by the town's history but it didn't seem to be a gloomy place.  I'm sure the people who live there are as happy as the rest of us.

The city has of course been rebuilt, including the reconstruction of Hiroshima Castle which dates from 1589.  It's set in pleasant gardens and no doubt inside there are jolly things to look at but there were too many tourists for my liking so I admired it from outside.

I admired the museum in the memorial park from outside as well when I saw the queue.

Shortly after I left the castle I came across a shrine where judging by the number of taxis and other vehicles something important was going on.  I think it was probably just a wedding but perhaps a wedding of bigshots who wanted something more traditional than the Gothic Cathedral theme park.  Here's what I assume to be the happy couple being titivated for the camera.  Although not for mine, my pics, gained paparazzi style from a distance, no doubt benefited. 

One intriguing activity that I watched seemed to involve the blessing of a vehicle.  The person in this picture, who is unfortunately mostly hidden by a another person went round the vehicle waving that white feather duster into every orifice.

You can see the person, who I take to be a priestly sort of being more clearly in the next picture but unfortunately the white duster is largely masked by a black umbrella.  I suppose the real paparazzi have problems like that all the time.

I'm not quite finished with Hiroshima but I have to go out now and I'm going to Tokyo after class so it will be a day or three till I am free to continue.

There are elections going on at the moment.  The recent pipe bomb thrown at the prime minister had something to do with them.  In Kanazawa it's loudspeaker violence that assaults the public.  I passed this lady one morning on my way to class.  Of course I've no idea what her speaker is being loud about but the phrase meaning "thankyou very much" which I can pick out gets a lot of airtime.  If she doesn't get the votes will she take to the streets to shout insults for her wasted thanks?

In the old days wealth and martial skills got you power and Kanazawa was a samurai city with money, hence the beautiful castle and a number of well preserved historic neighbourhoods. Those were spared from WWII bombing and are now the haunt of tourists snapping away and eating gold leaf ice-cream.  

Kanazawa has been working gold leaf for centuries having had small gold deposits.  The kanji characters for its name,  金沢, literally mean gold swamp.  My teacher tells me that as a child he used to go gold panning in a stream near his home. It was a game more than anything.

I've wandered round those neighbourhoods and taken a few snaps.

Inside the Samurai house in Nagamachi Buke-Yashiki district

A corner of the garden

The samurai himself safely behind glass

Houses in Higashi Chaya district

Girls in their Sunday best in Higashi Chaya

The gold leaf ice-cream they've probably just enjoyed

Back in the centre of town in the castle grounds there is an absolutely delightful garden which was laid out in 1634, fell into disrepair around 1900 but has since been reconstructed starting in 2013 after five years excavation and study of ancient drawings and literature.  Just one picture to show you its glory.

Goykusen'inmaru garden

As I write this I'm listening to a French saxophonist that I'd never heard of until I had lunch one day in a bar called Jazz Bokunen where curry lunches and music are the menu du jour. You can have a dose of Lagavulin on the side as one of these pictures shows.

The music available

 

Fancy a dram with your jazz?

The record being played. The big B tells you which side.

 I went to Hiroshima at the weekend. It takes between four and five hours by train depending on how long you have to wait for a connection at Shin-Osaka.  Of the 50 busiest railway stations in the world 46 are in Japan and Shin-Osaka is one of those.  Not only is it busy but it's big.  Thanks to the app I had used to scope the journey I'd accepted in good faith its connection time of 9 minutes which given the reputation of Japanese trains for punctuality could have been OK, although if I'd understood what the ticket office chappie was saying I'd have realised that he was pointing out that it was a bit tight.  

It's one of the features of using a foreign language that having worked out and rehearsed in your head what you want to say understanding the response is not always very easy.  And believe me when the responder is wearing a face-mask it's orders of magnitude more difficult and 99% of the Japanese are wearing them.  That rises to 100% in shops, restaurants, railway ticket offices and so forth.

Anyway when my teacher sucked his breath in and winced I realised the error of my ways and practised my queuing skills to change the ticket.  The ticket in question was actually for a seat rather than a journey but that's something I may return to.

En route to and from Hiroshima I took a few pictures through the window.  Not the best situation in which to take pics and most are destined for the bin but I did capture a couple of interesting things.  This big statue for instance

My teacher is a Bhuddist so I thought he might be able to enlighten me although it's obviously not Bhudda himself.  Well he tells me that in the period known as the "bubble economy" round about the mid 80s people had money to burn and liked to show off by putting up statues and other follies.  He says it's a big problem now because no-one has either the money or the inclination to maintain them.

The other snap I took shows what seems to be a large Christian church, a cathedral even.  This interested me because historically Christians had a raw deal in Japan, like being tortured and put to death over a period of about 280 years.  A stone's throw from where I have my lessons there's a catholic church associated with a feudal lord who refused to renounce his Christian faith some time in the 17th century.  He's regarded as a martyr and was beatified 2017.  There's a lovely stained glass window featuring him which I must get around to photographing. 

Getting back to this building I saw from the train.

I asked Ishimura (teacher) about it.  He was intrigued and did a bit of googling.  It turns out to be a fake.  It's described as a Gothic Cathedral Theme Park and is a venue for weddings.  There's a bridal fair on there at the moment.   

I'll get round to talking about Hiroshima next time but I'm now ready for bed.

 

Readers may remember that thanks to a Christmas present from Ewan I have been for two years an adopter of the Japanese macaques at the Highland Wildlife Park.  Clearly I had to visit the originals in Japan.  These are the animals that bathe in a hot pool just like their human counterparts.  Originally it was the same pool apparently but as I overheard one visitor say "I don't want monkey shit in my bath water", so they built a separate pool for the monkeys.  It's really only in cold weather that they bathe and even though there was some sleet while I was there only one animal ventured into the water.

To visit the park I went to Nagano for the weekend.  It was pouring rain and getting dark when I arrived.  I'd booked a hotel that was cheap and near the station but was damned if I could find it.  I staggered about the streets for a while wiping the rain from my eyes and my phone screen and eventually stuck my head into a restaurant and asked a waitress where the hotel was.  She pulled a phone out of her pocket, looked it up and asked me to wait.  She ran to the back of the restaurant, came back with an umbrella and proceeded to lead me through the streets.  Now it wasn't terribly far but it was across a couple of roads and round a corner or two so I class that as ginormous kindness to a stranger.  Not just from her but from the boss who let her leave her job to do it.

On the Saturday morning I joined a small group for a day tour that included visiting the monkeys.  First we went to the amazing Zenkoji Temple.  The place was packed with tourists and I guess there were a few worshippers thrown in.  It's very beautiful and colourful.

Approaching the main temple, hat concealing guide

Monks arriving for some ceremony or other

Don't know who these chaps are but must be important

After the temple visit we went off to lunch and here's my meal.

Beautifully presented as seems always to be the case.  The thing that looks suspiciously like a toffee apple is a small ladle used to take liquid from the white paper bowl in which meat and vegetables are cooking.  All very tasty.

Lunch over we travelled for about an hour to get to our take off point.  From there we walked through a forest for half an hour or so till we came to the park.  The monkeys, of which there were zillions, completely ignored the visitors, even brushing against us as they went about their business.  That consisted 99.9% of the time in scrabbling about for food.  Just like Scotland's troop they had a penchant for keeping their heads down and their backs to those of us trying to take pictures but I got quite a few.

The following day I headed out of town.  Nagano is surrounded by mountains, the highest of which is about 2,300 metres.  It hosted the winter olympics in 1998 and as will undoubtedly be the case in 2026 at Milan/Cortina (which I hope to attend) events like ice hockey were held in town and the skiing in the mountains.

I saw a party of skiers arrive in Nagano when I did and subsequently saw the odd person carrying a snowboard so the season was not quite over but these people must have gone pretty high up given what I saw or didn't see.   The Hakuba express bus lists Iwatake Mountain Resort amongst its stops.  That sounded just the place where I could potter about, have lunch and then catch the bus back to town.

The best laid plans and all that.  The journey there was lovely; pretty countryside, Japan's longest river, glimpses of snow-covered peaks.  But the resort!  Deserted.  Not a soul in sight.

No snow, not open for business

So I set off downhill and had a splendid walk for about an hour to Hakuba station.  I could have done it in much less time but I was in no hurry and took quite a few pictures.  It's not that easy to get good landscape pictures because the place is festooned with electricity cables, distribution being all above ground.  But here's a couple of shots.

From Hakuba station there are trains to various places but not to Nagano so I had to wait for a bus.  I used  the wait to have something to eat in a tiny restaurant.  It was a sort of vegetable fritter cake with noodles in a broth.  Totally delicious.  I've forgotten what it was called but my Japanese teacher decried that as incorrect.  I've now also forgotten what he declared it should have been called.

A last word about Nagano.  I was struck by the legend on the side of the buses and even more so by

the tune that is played when the zebra crossing lights turn to green.  

The arrivals area in Tokyo airport was a sea of chaos.  As we made our way towards passport control etc there were a number of young people waving placards at the stream of arriving passengers and calling out instructions.  The placards bore red and blue images and the instructions were to follow the “fast track route” or not.  On one of the Japanese tourism/government sites you can fill in various forms and upload documents which allegedly results in a set of QR codes being sent to your phone and which will speed you through arrivals.  I’d tried that before I left but couldn’t get it to do anything useful for me.

So I became part of the melee that constituted the non fast track crowd, and it really was a crowd.  I joined a group around a young Japanese girl who was holding up a transparent plastic folder of the type you stick into an A4 ring binder.  It was a trifle crumpled but you could see there was a sheet of paper inside that bore a QR code.  She urged us to aim our phones at this code.  If you can imagine half a dozen fractious tourists waving their smart phones at this wee girl’s upheld arm amidst a crowd of tens if not hundreds of people, because she was not the only person charged with this task.

Unsurprisingly my phone did nothing.  So I was ushered /dragged through the crowd to a little laptop where the girl and I filled in a form of vital information – my name etc.  All of these readily available from my machine readable passport and from the landing card I had filled in on the plane but let’s pass on.  Having filled in the form a button was clicked and a sheet of paper issued from an adjacent printer bearing a QR code.

I was then directed to a line of desks where the QR code sheet was processed in some way and I presented my PCR report.  No question of vaccination certificates or apps thank God.  The PCR reigned supreme.  £65 well spent.

Next it was passport control where photos and fingerprints were taken.  Just as in Miami the camera needed a few attempts to get my likeness.  I was relieved of my landing card, my passport was swiped and stamped and I was through to the baggage hall.

My bag appeared promptly and I headed for customs.  My heart sank when I saw a number of people whose luggage was in a state of undress but the man took my passport and the customs declaration I’d filled in on the plane, glanced at them, handed the passport back, smiled at me and said “finished”.

Next it was domestic transfers where they tore up the boarding card I’d been given in Edinburgh and gave me a new one. I was told to take the shuttle to terminal 1 which I did.  It was a long way.  The boarding card said Gate 21.  I couldn’t see any signs with gate numbers so I asked one of the various official looking fellows who directed me upstairs.  Here there was a long corridor.  It appeared to be split into sections A to G and a bank of numbers above those sections I assumed were the gate numbers.  21 was at the rightmost end of this bank so I set off for the far end of the corridor and headed through the security control.  But I was turned back.  Here the airport does not provide the security screening.  Each airline does its own.  So I had to go back to an earlier section, go through their security control, turn right and head again for gate 21 at the far end of the corridor.  

It was straightforward thereafter.  Flight to Komatsu, airport bus to Kanazawa.  Queuing for a taxi I chuckled at the funny accents of a couple of French Canadians in the queue.  Who’d you think you are Neill?  Modern taxi drivers the world over seem to have abandoned learning the names and locations of hotels in favour of keying them into a GPS system.  He got me there.  The guides tell you there is no need to tip taxi drivers in Japan.  Some suggest it’s likely to be taken as an insult.  Maybe, but this chap didn’t raise any objection when I told him to keep the change.

The hotel was fine.  Lots of stuff you wouldn’t expect to find in a cheap hotel room in the UK.  An actual alarm clock, slippers, a shoehorn and polishing cloths, a multi connection phone charger, a LAN cable and a garment which may have been a dressing gown or a sleeping coat.

Given that I hadn’t had much sleep for a couple of nights I didn’t stay up too late and didn’t get up too early on the Friday.  I had a good wander around town, took lots of picture, had a pleasant lunch of what I think was minced raw tuna and rice. I washed it down with a nice Japanese draught beer.  I was still pretty tired in the evening so I didn’t go out.

I’d been in touch with my AirB&B host about getting into the apartment on the Saturday.  We agreed he’d pick me up about 12 so I had a leisurely breakfast and sat in a park enjoying the sunshine till then.

Keita is a really nice guy whose broken English is a great deal better than my broken Japanese.  The apartment is pristine.  It’s furnished in Japanese style.  Those chairs without legs are a challenge.  The floor level bed is not so bad though the work of getting up confirms my decision to give up skiing on the basis that when I fell over (as one does) it would take a miracle to get me upright again.

He's taken pity on me since and added a western style chair and a small worktable of a reasonable height.  

On Saturday night I walked up to Kenrokuen Gardens, deemed one of the three finest gardens in Japan, which in honour of the season was lit up and open late into the evening.  It was absolutely packed with enthusiastic cheerful crowds.  Various food stalls lined the entrance road and were doing roaring business.  The castle grounds opposite were also open and the castle was floodlit.  All very lovely.

Keita took me out with a couple of his friends on Sunday for a picnic and some cherry blossom viewing.  We went to Noto, a town not far away where he comes from.  It was an interesting day with a drive along a beach and a visit to a place where a local building company had developed a little cherry tree park.

On the way back we drove along a 10 kilometre stretch of road bordered on both sides by cherry trees in full bloom.  

On Monday I started my language classes.  It's hard work and a trifle overwhelming at the moment but I'm sure it will be worth it.  It's a very pleasant 20 minute walk from the apartment to the class between the gardens and the castle and through a large park.  Serendipity of course.

I haven't done very much other than wander about and try to get a feel for the place and the people.  There are lots of museums and historic whatsits to investigate and I'll do my best to fit some of them in and report here.
 

Helsinki airport, snow on the ground and in the distance.  Cold but cosy enough inside.

Searching iPlayer for something to watch on the tele on Saturday evening I came across "This is going to hurt".  I had a vague recollection that the book had been well received so I clicked on it.  I didn't realise it was a seven part series but it was super and kept me up till after British Summer Time had rolled in.  Very funny with a satisfying leaven of tragedy and schmaltz.

My own recent medical exposures have had their amusing side.  I'm writing this en route to Japan which is very hot on drug control, even innocent prescription drugs like the stuff I take.  To enter Japan with prescription drugs you need an import licence if you want to take more than one month's supply and even then there are various restrictions.  No Vick's inhaler for example.  You just have to put up with a blocked nose.

Both the Japanese tourist guide and the British Foreign Office say you should carry with you a copy of your prescription and a letter from your doctor saying why you have been prescribed these medicines and the drugs themselves must be in their original wrapping.

So I popped into my surgery on Monday 6th March and explained my requirements to the receptionist.  She ran off a copy of  my prescription and told me I'd have to put the request for a letter in writing.  She gave me a sheet of paper and I wrote the letter.  This would be dealt with at the practice meeting on the coming Thursday I was told.  That was visit 1.

A week later, Monday 13th.  I went in to be told that unfortunately due to some staff sickness the matter had not been dealt with but would undoubtedly feature at the next meeting.  That was visit 2.

Monday 20th I'm back again.  No letter.  No explanation.  This Thursday for sure.  I gently explained that there was only that Thursday left before my departure for Japan so there was a degree of urgency. That was visit 3.

When I got home I got a text asking me to ring the surgery about a letter.  I dialed the number. The answering system told me first that if I were dying I should ring off and try 999.  I was also asked to think about whether a pharmasist or other such professional might not be more appropriate for my circumstances. Then there was the message about recording for training purposes and the reminder that staff should be treated with respect.  Was there a veiled threat that if they weren't then the sh*t would be beaten out of me or is that my overactive imagination.

Next we got down to my options.  If my call is about X then press 1 etc until "If you are ringing about a non NHS letter press 6".  That's me so I hit the key.  The system advised me that I should put my request in writing and give two weeks notice. Then it rang off.

I started again, skipped over option 6, hit the 7 and at last got a human being.  I don't know who she was but I repeated my tale.  "You'll have to pay."  "I realise that."  It seems they want the  dosh up front.  I'm offered the choice of paying into their bank online or in cash at the surgery.  I say that I live only five minutes away and will pop round there and then with the cash.  It's £45. I proffer £50.  They have no change.  I say "keep the change, if I can't get into Japan much more than that will have gone down the swanee.  Thus ended visit 4.

Monday 27th.  Two days to lift-off.  "It's with the doctor."  But not with me I point out and time is short. A reminder is despatched electronically to the doc.  I go home.  Visit 5 is over.

Tuesday 28th.  It's still with the doctor.  "Have I paid?"  "Yes"  "I can't see it on the system." Now unusually precient, in running over in my head what could go wrong I had envisaged this sort of scenario so not only had I kept the receipt I had it with me.  "I'll wait" I said.  A low key conversation between receptionist and doctor shortly afterwards when he was free from a consultation.  I caught my name and sensed that she was telling him that I was clearly pissed off but manfully controlling my impulse to wreak havok.  "No point in waiting, he'll definitely have it by the end of the day."  That's 6 o'clock and we agree I'll come back at 5.30.  Thus ends visit  6.

Half past five on the dot I am there.  We exchange smiles and chit chat.  Time passes. More smiles.  At five to six Sam, for that is the doctor's name, enters reception.  I remember him from the years before Covid when surgery visits could be made at what seems now like a moment's notice.  He's wearing those lovely blue scrubs from "This is going to hurt."  He hands her a letter.  She passes it to me.  Visit 7 is topped out with success.

The other little medical story is about Covid.  Japan is still not quite done with restrictions.  The fully vaccinated can enter freely.  I've had five jabs so that is surely me.  But!  To prove this fully vaccinated status you are asked to present a certificate showing three vaccinations using one of a range of acceptable vaccines.  Now NHS Scotland provides a certificate saying you've had X but showing details of only the last two.  The app on my phone has details of all five but it's not a certificate is it?

I decide to take the unvaccinated route, a negative PCR test taken no more than 72 hours before departure. Booked and paid for (what's £65 these days) online on Sunday, up to Frederick Street on Monday, throat and nose swabbed, test result received a few hours later and uploaded during online check-in on Tuesday.

I should board the Tokyo flight in about an hour, all ready to sail through Japanese immigration - deo volente. 

The RSA's "New Contemporaries" gives full rein to the skills and extraordinary imagination of the young artists coming out of Scotland's art schools.  It's breathtaking in its range and variety.

When I saw this particular work I asked myself why I'd never thought of doing something with the supermarket trolleys and traffic cones that are occasionally dumped in Dicksonfield other than getting rid of them.

I went to the exhibition by accident in a sense.  I set out to get a bus to Cramond to have a nice healthy walk up the river Almond and lunch at what used to be the Cramond Brig Hotel but is now a chain steak house.  But when I got to Princes St I found I'd have to wait nearly half an hour for a bus, something I can't abide so I went into the RSA and afterwards walked down to Piggs in the Canongate where I had quite a tasty tapas or three and a very satisfying tinto or two then tottered home.  So I did get a walk.

The Grads held an AGM this month which I attended only to find that I wasn't actually a paid-up member, a situation I have since rectified.  There was a series of party pieces after the business bit which was fun.  A short play that explored why Godot didn't turn up was I thought super.  It's an obvious question I'd never asked myself.  Martin Foreman's answer was satisfyingly Beckettian in style.

The NGS billed a talk entitled Photography in Japan and these being two of my current interests I had to go.  Paradoxically photography in Japan was at one and the same time central and peripheral to the subject matter.  It was really about Scottish painters Edward Atkinson Hornel and Rose Hill Burton, the visionary urban planner Patrick Geddes and the social networks they moved in during the late 19th century.  

Hornel visited Japan and based much of his painting on photographs taken there either by himself or Japanese photographers including one of the most prolific amongst them, Ogawa Kazumasa who visited Hornel in Scotland.  Hornel's large collection of those photographs are housed in Broughton House in Kirkcudbright where he lived.

Rose's brother William K Burton was an engineer working in Japan. He was a keen amateur photographer, one of the founding members of the Photographic Society of Japan and its first secretary.   Rose visited him there and on her return to Scotland used photographs taken there as models for her paintings and for the murals that she was commissioned to paint for Patrick Geddes's flat in Ramsay Gardens.

The talk was given by Antonia Laurence Allen from the National Trust for Scotland which looks after both Hornel's house and Geddes' flat.

I consumed only a little of the glass of wine to which I was entitled after the talk because I had to get to the Usher Hall.  Frankly it wasn't tasty enough to detain me.

The SCO were playing Handel and I went because I really enjoy his large scale choral works.  The concert had a royal focus.  It opened and closed with anthems written for the coronation of George II, Zadoc the Priest,  and The King Shall Rejoice.  Both are stonkingly rousing pieces that I enjoyed hearing.  No doubt we'll hear Zadoc when Charles III is crowned since it's been played at every coronation since 1727.

In between we had some Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks, neither of which involved the choir and Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne which did.  The latter also involved three soloists and I thought it was terrific.  The interplay between the counter-tenor and a solo trumpet was just liquid gold.  Magic.

Magic too was Radio Scotland's Jazz Nights on Sunday.  Unfortunately that was its last edition since BBC Scotland despite petitions from the public and remonstrances from eminent musicians have axed the show.  On Sunday we heard music from four bright young Scottish players.  Entire tracks from Fergus McCready, Rachel Duns and Matt Carmichael and a trombone flourish from Anoushka Nanguy on tour with Soweto Kinch in Australia.  Radio Scotland offered them and others a large public platform that could be a springboard for career development.  Where can that come from now?

 

It's taken just under 59 years but I've at last got around to walking across the Forth Road Bridge.  From the east walkway you get great views towards the railbridge and further downriver and if the walkway on the west side were open you'd get great views upriver, but it isn't.  From the north end of the bridge though I did get quite decent views of all three bridges.

I've been cajoled into rejoining the Dicksonfield Owners and Residents Association committee with no specific responsibility except to help chair meetings because our chairman is a bit deaf.  I've successfully carried out that task once so far and pinned minutes onto noticeboards, minutes that I'm heartily glad I didn't have to write as I would have done in my previous incarnation.  

There was a fascinating talk at the National Gallery about its activities during WWII.  They had lots of quite avant-garde exhibitions under the leadership of Stanley Cursiter, but it seems that the chap who took over after the war was of a much more conservative disposition and blunted their cutting edge.

Straight from the National Gallery I went down to Leith Arches to see the off-line continuation of Claire's frisson.  This bar is a great venue for a play like this about people meeting friends and potential friends.  The playing was excellent and well deserved the four stars that Joyce Macmillan gave it in The Scotsman.  Joyce is essentially our arbiter of what's good and what's bad in theatre in Scotland so Claire was naturally very happy.  All Edinburgh Theatre gave it a good write-up as well.

Having said what I have said about Joyce I feel I have to bow to her judgement of You Bury Me at The Lyceum.  Four stars and then five from All Edinburgh Theatre.  Their review says inter alia "A looming danger – that the characters and their storylines could come across as formulaic, almost soap opera-ish – is prevented by the verve and commitment of the cast."

It wasn't prevented for me I'm afraid.  I thought it was cliche ridden and  while I agree with Joyce that young Egyptians "had to watch the ecstatic high hopes of February 2011 collapse into a military regime far more repressive than anything they had known before" I did not feel that tragedy came over to me in this production.  My insensitivity I guess.

I've been to two contrasting musical events.  The SCO under the engaging Pekka Kuusisto played Sibelious's 5th Symphony which draws significantly on Finnish folk music. Appalachian folk music featured much more directly with the guitar and banjo playing of the American singer/songwriter Sam Amidon within an orchestral setting.  How different was The Buddy Holly Story.  Poor Buddy had very few years of fame and glory before he was killed in an air accident aged 22.  But those years happened to be during my teens when I paid some degree of attention to pop music which I don't do today, and it was great to hear songs that I remember pretty well.

I should have said three musical events because I spent another enjoyable saxophone weekend at The Burn.

Now that I remember it's four events.  Elim Chan's farewell appearance as principal guest conductor (whatever that is) with the RSNO.  Not quite as waif like as when she first appeared with them but still a diminutive figure whose command of a large orchestra continues to impress.  Pity about the skirt though.  The programme: Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony, a satisfyingly rousing crash bang wallop of a piece, one of Mozart's many concertos and a piece by Anna Clyne called The Midnight Hour.  As befits its title this was dark and ominous.  I enjoyed it very much. 

I took a walk through the Dean village to Stockbridge after a photography class session at St Mary's in Palmerston Place.  There's some modern development going on on the road down from the Belford Bridge but since the place is a bit of a hodge-podge of styles already I expect it will merge in happily.

Merging in happily would be one way of describing some of Bernat Klein's choices of colour combinations in his textiles.  The musuem has been holding a small exhibition of his work celebrating the 100th anniversary of his birth.  All his work to my mind is beautiful and the exhibition does it justice.  The museum itself is beautiful (nice coffee too).  I should go more often.

I should also get into the habit of going to the National Galleries more often now that Modern Two has reopened and their new galleries displaying Scottish art are promised for this summer.  Coupled with the trams running on Leith Walk this will be a summer to remember.  

Scottish art was the subject of a talk I went to at the NGS the other week.  Lachlan Goudie, no mean artist himself, ran through centuries of our art in his lively and engaging style.  I didn't buy his book though, despite the event's 15% discount.

In the dramatic arts I've enjoyed Frisson online, Happy Valley on TV and Macbeth (an undoing) on stage.  Frisson is Claire's most recent venture into play-writing.  It's in two parts, the first online which I've seen and enjoyed and the second in real life in a bar which I've yet to see.  All Edinburgh Theatre gave it a sympathetic review.  I understand others were not so enamoured but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I had heard ecstatic noise about Happy Valley but had seen none of it so determined to remedy that via iPlayer.  I think it was one of the best police dramas I've seen.  It kept me up late on a couple of occasions when I couldn't bear to go to bed without knowing what came next.  The fact that it was set in an area that I have some acquaintance with added interest.

Macbeth is undone in Shakespeare's play and he comes out dead in this version as well but the undoing in the title refers more to how Zinnie Harris has picked the play apart and put it together again with, among many other changes, Lady Macbeth taking over.  To the extent that courtiers begin to address her as "king".  I wasn't altogether convinced that much of the reworking added to the play but I thought the production was super if a bit long.  Most reviews that I've read liked it but The Guardian/Observer managed to give it four stars from Mark Fisher but only two from Clare Brennan. Other voices worth hearing speak here and here.  There are lots more if you can be bothered to look for them.

Georgia Cecile appeared with the SNJO and showed us what a powerful and expressive singer she is.  Loved the voice but didn't care for the dress said one friend. I agreed.  Another would have liked to hear how she handled some standards rather than just her own songs.  I agreed.  The band were great as usual and although the focus was obviously on Georgia there were some great solos.  I especially enjoyed the pairing of Tommy Smith and Helena Kay. 

Both of them are great jazz saxophonists and it was a treat to have a great classical saxophonist at the Usher Hall with the RSNO.  Jess Gillam played the Glazunov Saxophone Concerto and Milhaud's Scaramouche.  The other orchestral works on the programme made use of saxophones.  They were An American in Paris by Gershwin and Pictures at an Exhibition in Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky.

Gershwin's piece features street noises including motor car's hooting but the concert began with three percussionists playing actual car horns, one for each hand and one for each foot.  The two minute piece is a prelude to an opera by Ligeti and was absolutely brilliant fun. I imagine the whole opera is.

Great fun also was the addition of real pictures to Pictures at an Exhibition.  The painter James Mayhew was on stage with an easel and paints. He worked while the orchestra played and his activity was projected onto a large screen above the organ console.  His paintings illustrated the sections of the work echoing the paintings by Hartmann that inspired the music in the first place.  You can argue about whether this added to the pleasure gained from listening to the music or was just a distracting gimmick.  The jury's probably out on that one.

Peaky Blinders is another TV show I've been aware of and aware of its popularity but ignorant of its content so when Ballet Rambert turned it into a dance show I thought I'd check it out.  Claire is my usual dance show companion so we met for something to eat and then trundled into the Festival Theatre burdened by a couple of bicycle paniers (she was), found that the promise of an open cloakroom was false, fought our way through the crowds of interval drink orderers only to be turned away as service stopped and the first act bell sounded.  Now we'd got round pretty late to deciding to go and the place was well booked out when we did so we were up in the Gods.  We staggered down steep steps and thanks to me went the wrong way along our destination row.  To avoid disturbing the punters we went up and over and down more steps, all the time with those paniers, only to find we were in a cul-de-sac.  We could see our seats a few rows below but I didn't fancy our chances of getting to them before the curtain rose so we plonked ourselves down where we were.

The first half of the show was excellent in terms of music, movement, lighting and so on.  I thought I could follow a storyline from first world war horror through heavy industrial working conditions to fairground roustabouting, then racecourse gambling, confrontations between gangs and finally a romeo and juliet wedding that ended tragically as the juliet was shot dead.

I've still no idea if I followed the story correctly or not but we went off to the bar with our paniers, got some drinks and headed back in to get to our proper seats.  We found them amongst a certain amount of hilarity and they were better positioned but mini disaster struck when my wine was upset.  No tragedy but some of it fell on the jacket of a young woman in the row in front.  She and her mum were not happy, quite miffed in fact.  The proffering of apologies and cash to get it cleaned etc were huffily turned down.  As far as I could tell it was not a garment that would have suffered much from a dollop of white wine.  High steet rather than haute couture but hey.

Now the second half is where I couldn't work out what was happening.  There was a very good sequence where the cast pranced around in their undies.  Why?  I haven't a clue. There was a lot of fighting.  Why?  Vengeance being sought for the bride killing perhaps.  It was brilliant stuff, terribly well choreographed but I couldn't tell who was fighting who and it went on just too long.

Eventually it finished.  It was a great show well up to Rambert's high standards but the Peaky Blinders mystery remains unsolved. 

As I said we were a bit behind schedule getting tickets for this show but I'm well ahead of the game for next year's Olympics.  I've booked three days watching the sailing in Marseille.  It's standing room in the marina at only 24 euros a pop.  Hopefully they'll have a big screen or two otherwise I won't see much of what's happening on the water but I'm looking forward to the buzz.