Okinawa, Japan 沖縄日本

ハイサイ! イチャリバチョデ! よろしくおねがいします。きょ-ねん那覇市にすんでいましたとにほんごちょっとべんきょしました。

In 2011-2012 I lived in Naha (那覇市), the main city of Okinawa Prefecture (沖縄県) in Japan (日本).

Nat da Hatt and I recorded a track for our duo album ネオン列車の風景 Neon Train Landscapes there – our version of a traditional shima uta (island song)

The Ryukyu Islands are a whole other world from mainland Japan – there’s no Mt Fuji, samurai, sumo wrestling, geisha or shinkansen. They have a different culture, food, climate and music – more tropical and laidback, the Hawaii of northeast Asia, with jungle, sugar cane, beautiful sea and coral – umi to sango wa totemo kirei desu ne – and wonderful people and tragic history.

Continue reading →

Kyushu, Japan 九州日本

Videos from a solo trip across Kyushu (in March 2012, on holiday from work in Okinawa). Accompanied by Japanese music such as koto, shakuhachi, yokagura and hip-hop, recorded live.

Four videos –

1) from sugi (Japanese cedar) forest with 3000-year-old trees on Yakushima Island,

2) heading north via Kumamoto and its castle, to

3) a yokagura dance performance reenacting the legend of how the sun goddess returned to the world in Takachiho,

4) to the city of Fukuoka (score by Dave Black & Nat da Hatt – free download)