While I was fixing the broken weathercock, doing an aerial act on top of a ladder leaning against the steep roof, my son flew his drone.

The ridge of the roof, by the way, was about twenty feet above the ground, and the ladder was actually three shorter ladders tied together in order to extend the length to reach the tip of the roof– naturally very unstable, and of course it was so scary to climb up to the top of it. Well, somebody gotta do it, anyway.

Through with the weathercock mending, I moved on to a painting job of the roof. I had to put the long, swinging ladder on a gable side, and the ladder was even more unstable, but I had no choice to use it for painting the gable edge in white.

Thanks to my effort the white trims of the gables looked good, and the entire roof turned out very nice. The weathercock certainly added an air to the house as well.

DiDi: one of my favorite curry restaurants in Kyoto.

I had a vegetable curry, my son korma curry, tonight, after a tedious painting job all day up in the mountain.

In Japan, fireworks are supposed to be appreciated mainly in summertime. The cherry blossom season here in Kyoto is over but it is not summer yet, and the air temperature had dropped down to 4 degree Celsius even before sunset. So, when I happened to bump into the unexpected and untimely fireworks over Takaragaike pond this evening, I thought I was seeing things.

A music-story-telling unit called “Nocanan” (my friend Haruhiko Saga and his wife Takako) will perform at the former Tea House in the Nishijin district, Kyoto, on April 21.

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To compensate the audience for the expensive ticket, I am going to give away everyone of the audience a music CD containing Saga’s Morin Khuur tunes.

He played the “Oshirasama Morin Khuur” I made while traveling in the Tohoku and Hokkaido regions one and a half years ago. I was so happy that he liked my work and its sound. I almost cried out when he played the rough and rustic instrument just for me in a dark midnight park where no one else is around.
“Making of Oshirasama Morin Khuur”

In the morning of my departure to complete the last leg of my Tohoku-Hokkaido jurney, Saga kindly recorded five pieces of music, which are in the CD above-mentioned. The CDs have been burned with the labels and jackets printed, and packaged already.

Aside from the CD, I have set up the stage in the former Tea House. It is so small and can accommodate only 15 people as the audience. That was the reason for the high entrance fee. Although small, the stage has the wooden floor made of hinoki planks that are considered to be the best material for the stage board. thus the term “hinoki butai (hinoki stage)” = on the first-class stage, or more metaphorically, be in the limelight.

Now that the show biz stuff is ready, only thing yet to be done is to tidy my place. The house is now full of mess! (and of course no photo of it here). I have been busy fixing my another house in Hanase and neglected the house in Haradani, which the Sagas are going to stay in. However, I am not necessarily good at putting things away… and the time is running out…
phew!

野花南の入場料を高く設定したので、お詫びにおみやげCD作成し、ライブに来た人に無料であげちゃう。

札幌を発つ日の朝、嵯峨さんが演奏、録音し、自ら調整までしてくれた５曲入。

西陣茶店跡のステージ設営完了。台所の板襖取っ払って板の間が舞台になる。床はヒノキ張りなので当に「檜舞台」。

客席は何とか１５人のキャパを確保した。極小のハコであるために高額入場料となってしまった。（3,000円を高額というと嵯峨さんに失礼だけど。。。僕の財布感覚ではそういうことになる）

まあ、ショー売の話はさておき、まだやることがある。花背の家の修理にかまけて、原谷の家が放ったらかしになり、物やゴミの散らかり具合のエゲツナイこと！（当然、写真はナシ）。嵯峨さん一家が泊まりにくる前に何とかしないと。。。（でも僕は掃除、嫌いなんだよねえ、、、と言ってるうちに時間が迫る！　ふう〜）

The mountain village where I used to live had a small ski slope. It was closed down long time ago and no one visits any more– I doubt even local villagers ever remember this place.

There is a big cherry tree right in the middle of the skiing course. That is rather an unusual  thing for a ski slope, but I like it very much, though.

When I was living in the village, I would go on a picnic under the cherry tree in spring and fall. Today, having had the day’s work done, I walked up the slope to the old cherry tree, which had already started to bloom.