Pathway to perversion;

Yet again, reality bends to the will of the wicked.

Forest in Narita.

A little something I put together. They're all me.

Sakura Showdown.

The glorious view outside the sliding door of our ryokan room. I love it.

Hirosaki park during the day. Amazing.

I can't get enough of this...

Indescribable... pictures cannot capture it.

I'm awestruck. Promise.

Oh hello Mr. Ancient Samurai Castle, I didn't see you there. How are you?

Judgement Day.

We rise up from our tenacious slumber early in the morn.

Grabbing only the essentials, we load up the van (which is only equipped with one bench seat, so I opt to lay out a futon in the back), and begin the voyage towards Hirosaki!

We are spoiled with the sight of many small mountains, rural towns, and apple orchards, which are common vistas while driving through the north of Japan.

Kyle decided to take this time to interrupt our peaceful drive with some Shamisen warm-up.

.

As we get closer to Hirosaki park (our end destination), we encounter more and more traffic, until finally, we are at a dead stop for over 10 minutes. This is what we get for coming there duing "Golden Week" (when all of the Sakura are blooming, and there are many festivals going on).

Once we finally breach the car barricade preventing us from moving forward, we encounter yet another issue: parking.

When we arrive at the Amphitheater parking lot where the tournament is held, the entrance is blocked, and it says that there is no more room. We begin to brainstorm on what we will have to do next, however in the meantime, Masahiro pulls the vehicle over and hops out.

This leads to a few moments of confusion, but once he comes back, the barrier is pulled aside, and we drive right in.

(This would be an appropriate time for me to explain that Masahiro Nitta is extremely well respected among the Tsugaru Shamisen community, and is quite famous as a result... Hell yeah.) He did the same thing last year -- sooo clutch.

(Kevin and I decide to grab some hiru-gohan.)

We go inside the theater to get ourselves signed in, and begin warming up/practicing on the outside of the building (because it is just too damn loud inside to even hear yourself think).

Kyle and I hammer out our pieces at least 10 or 15 times each (with no shortage of Japanese onlookers and their cameras), and in no time flat, it's almost time for Kyle to go up on stage!

-GASP-

In order to prepare for the ordeal, Kyle breaks out his secret weapon:

WHISKEY (tequila when available)

We accompany Kyle to his place backstage, wish him luck, and then head inside to cheer him on/video his first Tournament performance!

There is little to be said, without going into immense detail, other than that Kyle did an amazing job, and I am super proud of him.. (I can tell the whiskey helped). People even clapped while he was playing during one of the very dramatic points (that's when you know you're legit).

A few hours later... it's my turn. I swig down some "Four Roses" as we call it, (because Kyle says it's "tradition") and I mosey on backstage.

This year feels the best yet; my nerves are at an all time low, my resolve is tempered into hardened musical steel, and my energy is strong and centered. I'm ready to kick some ass.

Grant Reimer - Hirosaki 2010

Of course it could always be better in my opinion, but that's what next year is for!...

After I hit the final notes, I exit the stage with my hands shaking. However it feels great to be finished, and I am struck with a warm fuzzy feeling of resolution.

At this point, I exit the backstage area, and am greeted by everybody in the hallway. Kevin tells me that it sounded great.. (I want to believe him) and assures me I did way better this year.

I gingerly pack up my instrument, glad to be rid of it at this point, and the gang assembles in the main lobby, where we await the posting of the day's results.

A crowd begins to gather. The air is thick with anticipation, and the room goes quiet as the folded sheath of paper is brought out. As the C class winners are posted on the wall, various gasps and shouts emerge (and a girly Japanese squeal here and there). Interestingly enough, we take a moment to notice--wait a second..

KYLE WON! Lord almighty! He did it! We all jump up and down with joy and congratulate him! What an amazing feat! Looks like all that practice paid off!

A few minutes later, my moment has arrived, and the winners of B class are brought out...

BETTER MAKE ROOM FOR TWO IN THE WINNER'S CIRCLE! Hell yeah! We both did it! Looks like "Four Roses" delivered.

Of course the only proper way to celebrate this outlandish occassion, is to gather up all of our fell Shamisen comrades, and head over to Bikkuri Donki!, , everyone's favorite family restaurant!

Masahiro, Gerry, and a few others hop in the van, but Kevin, Myself, and Kyle opt out for a nice walk through Hirosaki Park (which is absolutely gorgeous with Sakura in full bloom).

We end up taking the "slightly longer route" as I describe it, and get to enjoy the wondrous sights as the rest of our gang wait at the restaurant. I don't feel too bad though, since they did drive.

So anyway, every year we go to this "American Style" restaurant that serves steak patties with curry or gravy on top. It's sort of like an Japanese Applebee's or something. (They've got a lot of seating and it's cheap, sue me).

They have these delicious yogurt drinks (pictured here) and ice cream parfaits that always keep me coming back though..

After filling up and going our separate ways with a few Shamrades, we hop into the van and roll on over to small town of Kanagi, where we will be staying the night in preparation for the next tournament.

The place we are staying is called "Fujimirando", and it's a Japanese Ryokan, which makes it more fun than just any normal old hotel. Personally, I am a hardcore fan of their particular onsen.

This night in particular, our Shamisen player homeboy, "Jack", and I hang out there. We chat in Japanese and English, and talk about our cultural differences, and why us Americans like playing Shamisen.

Finishing our bath, we walk down the long corridors to the lounging area near our rooms. Masahiro and his student, Yuta, are hanging out watching TV. We decide to join them, and spend the rest of our waking hours there.

I go to bed with the smug feeling that I finally got myself an award this year! Woohoo! (too bad the awards ceremony isn't actually until the next day..)

Preparations...

Ate breakfast with everyone at a "Thai" Ramen shop. We always go there every year and it's really good.

After we pick up Masahiro's student, from the train station, we're all pretty tired of sitting around and practicing all day; so what do we do? We go to the movies!

Some are Japanese...

And some are "Foreign Films"...

They actually reserve your seats for you when you buy your tickets.

I can't believe it.

After going to the movie (Clash of the Titans.. which was bad... [I didn't choose it]) we held a mock tournament to test ourselves and prepare for the anxiety of being on stage.

We drew numbers from a hat to see who had to go first... of course... it was me.

Nitta Sensei, being the past tournament Champion that he is, was the judge. He gave us all advice, and a clearer picture of what the real judges are listening for.

With that in our minds, we pack our bags, and do our best to get a good night's rest before The Big Day.

Yokouso Masahiro!

Mashiro's arrival in Misawa!

In preparation, Kevin begins cooking curry (as per tradition), and we also scramble to the 100yen Shop and gather supplies to make him a "Welcome Banner". Once everything is assembled back at the home base, we string up our hard work and get ready to surprise him.

Some time in the afternoon, we drive over to the train station to pick him up. We're all excited to see one another, and after friendly greetings are exchanged, we quickly head back home.

We go on ahead into the house; Nitta follows soon behind. Little does he know, Kyle, Kevin, and Myself lie in wait, party poppers in hand!

As soon as he enters the room, we allow him no time to gather himself, and begin our assault!

The rest of the night is spent rejoicing and merrymaking.

One point that I am particularly pleased about, were the gifts that I gave him: Many months ago I bought a cool cowboy shirt in San Francisco and some time after that, a western style leather cigarette case; both of which I thought would be good to give Masahiro, but wasn't sure if they would fit. Well, it turns out that the shirt fits perfectly, and he still smokes, so they were a success!

We ate the curry Kevin made.

Later on we went over to the Wood Company "Live House" again and performed for a much bigger audience this time (.. but only after sitting through an hour of Japanese"blues" guitar playing).

(Also, Masahiro bought a fake cigarette that you charge with a USB in the wall... it's pretty hilarious)

TRAIN! TRAIN! TRAIN!

Trained Shamisen for at least 6 hours.

Cooked food in Kevin's grandmother's kitchen.

Rode bikes to supermarket. It was so windy that other bikes were falling over outside the supermarket we went to.

Ate an octopus shaped pastry, named Tako-san.

We made YouTube videos. Cooked some more lunch.

Walked the dogs.

Went to the beach. There's lots of concrete... maybe to protect against Mothra?

Had ice cream cake, since it was Kevin's birthday.

Went to Shimoda mall. Saw a crappy Shamisen. Looked for gloves -- they don't have any in spring aparently.

Got chinese food. There were tons of whities eating there with us.

Kyle and I bought groceries, then cookied some stir-fry.

Praticed shamisen a lot more.

[This took place over a few days.. the pictures are out of order. I'm tired. There are more than usual though. So yay! right?]

Mountains, Minyou, and Kyle on Taiko.

Woke up early. Met up with Kyle. Put on my gi, and headed to the park to train.

People were playing golf, so we decided to go to different, smaller park with no one in it.

At one point, I decided to practice my stealth, and actually managed to sneak around the perimeter (with Kyle in the middle) without him zeroing in on my movements. That was cool, since it was the first time I actually tried to apply any of that particular area of my martial arts training.

We go home. Kevin gets off work and has a friend with him; Gerry: A Tsugaru Shamisen player, writer, and historian. He is Canadian first of all, so you know right off the bat that you're in for some trouble.

We decide to all go out and practice. Kevin knows a good place out in the "Misawa Citizen's Forest". We go there, split up, and begin our training for the Shamisen Tournament in 9 days.

After what seems like a couple hours of solitude, we all meet back up and go get some dinner.

Later on, we decide to go check out some Minou, which is traditional folk singing, almost always accompanied by Shamisen and a small taiko drum.

The funny thing about it, was that the performance was inside of a resort. So we sort of snuck in as if we were staying there and sat down with the rest of the audience. However, we did buy a couple things at the giftshop, so we weren't completely freeloading.

>

At one point, during a break between songs, the woman singer asked if anyone would like to volunteer and play taiko. Kyle immediately jumped up and started briskly shuffling towards the stage. Needless to say, he got the part.

He also offered to play Shamisen too, but the woman just brushed him off. (we have this theory that most Japanese people tend to ignore us at first when we tell them things like "I play Shamisen" or "I built my own Shamisen", because it's just too outside of their norm and they can't even conceive of those things being true without seeing proof).

The night pretty much ended on that note.