| 30th.Nov."New bike" |
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Ojiichan gave Emily a present of new bicycle for her birthday. Silver shining mountain bike! Sean has got Emily's old red one. Both are so happy with their new toys! (HK) |
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| 28th.Nov., "New Baby" |
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Liz,Congratulations for the brand new big baby!!!! Good luck for all your family and very best wishes from us! (HK)
Liz - when you said you were not having twins this time, we did not expect you to produce one as big as the twins put together! Emily and Sean are delighted to have a new cousin, and we are all looking forward to meeting him.
Well done, many congratulations and love from all of us (KT) |
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| 27th.Nov., "Emily's Birthday Party" |
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| All the birthday clothes fit perfectly, and the videos & books were exactly what Emily wanted, thank you Ann chan, Grandpa, Aunty Sheena & Uncle Graham, & Auntly Liz. |
Emily`s school friends were peerfect guests, and a goiod time was had by all. |
Pass the Parcle was one of the most successful games, running a close second to balloon volley ball. |
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| 25th.Nov., "Homemade Icecrem!" |
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Sean made himself giant orange ice! He can't live without icecream...(HK) |
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| 24th.Nov., "Tea party" |
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Special garden tea party organised by Emily and Ikue-chan. All Men are invited!(HK)
A varied menu of drinks and delicacies, all made from the rich black earth of Ukishima. (KT) |
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| 23th.Nov., "Dr.Sakai's 30th Anniversary Party in Appi" |
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Dr Sakai held a wonderful party up at Appi ski resort for the 20th anniversary of the Sakai Clinic (where Emily was born 9 years ago).
A special childrens room set up with a mini fun fair complete with bouncy castle, shooting galleries, remote control cars, and a table laden with all the things children love to eat meant that all the adults could enjoy the music and video performances, good food, wine and company without the usual conflic of interests. (KT) |
| Dr Sakai closed the party by leading us all in a Conga round the room. |
Emily and Sean are keenly anticipating the 21st anniversary party!? |
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| 19,20th.Nov., "Albert Hettinger from Germany" |
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The Iwate Prefecture International section asked us to look after a German sculptor visiting Iwate for a few days. Albert turned out to be very good company, and Sean and Emily liked him so much they let him win occasionaly at Othello, etc.. (KT) |
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| 17th.Nov., "Lego is bad!" |
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My uncle told me that lego is apparently reducing the number and quality of budding young engineers as it is too easy to put things together without understanding structure, stress, etc.. But Sean still really enjoys making wierd and wonderful robots, and the imagination he applies to creating forms for amazing functions in fantastical machines is fascintaing to witness. (KT) |
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| 15th.Nov., "magazine Croissant" |
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'Croissant' magazine came to interview me on how foreign residents in Japan economise with the high cost of living in Japan.
Will be published on 25th December - so keep your eyes peeled for a fascintaing rendition of Kate making her own bread, jam, curtains, etc..!! (KT)
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| Sean helped to clean the house by beating the dust out of his carpet |
However many times I have to do this 'panda' peformance I never get used to photographers snapping away - would perhaps feel more comfortable if they were recording me sculpting. |
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| 14th.Nov., "First Snow" |
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Snowfall on the hills. Winter started. (HK)
- just a light dusting so Emily and her friends were still undeterred to play outside after school. (KT)
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| Snow on Mt.Okurisen;
photograghed by Sean Katagiri
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Emily, Chinatsu and Ikue-chan. |
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| 12th.Nov., "Crystal Tree" |
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This months science magazine is on the theme of crystals, Emily really enjoyed making up the solutions to grow her 'crystal tree' (KT) |
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| 11th.Nov., "Ukishima School 50th Anniversary" |
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| All the children performed their history of the school and a concert without a single slip. Emily 5th from left back row |
Grand mothers dance team performing the traditional Ukishima dance. While all the men watched the entertainment and enjoyed the feast, all us mothers were slaving away in the kitchen (where there was actually a rather more informal and fun party atmosphere)! (KT) |
Ms.Kawamura the previous Deputy Headmistress and Kate. |
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| 10th.Nov., "Chestnuts Tree in Ashiro" |
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I went to see the Wood for the trees. to find the chestnut tree for the Ichinohe project. With Inamura san and Nakagawara san from Ajiro, found a perfect one for the project. (HK) |
| Inamura |
Nakakawara and Inanmura |
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| 8th.Nov., "Filaria and the Japan Times" |
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Well thank you Kata - the day my first article as the 'Japan Times'' Tohoku arts correapondent is published Kata decides to make the theme for the diary the fact that Cinnamon has Filaria! But if you want to see what I wrote about the new Iwate Museum of Art have a look at the link below (KT)
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fa20011107a2.htm
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| 7th.Nov., "Frost" |
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First frost this morning - the most incredible crystals growing 5 cm off the ground. Dusting of snow on Iwate san, cold but so beautiful! (KT) |
| Sean still in pyjamas raced out to investigate the frost. |
5cm blooms of ice. |
Snow on Mt.Iwate |
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| 6th.Nov., "Sean's New Robot" |
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Sean has rediscovered recycled polystyrene trays as a medium. The great game of the day is to see if you can hit the robot with one of his newspaper planes. Sean's planes fly fantastically well so it is entirely your own fault if you miss. (KT) |
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| 5th.Nov.,"Getting Ready for the Show" |
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My exhibition at Morioka Crystal Gallery opens on 8th December, the stone yard very generously trusted me to use their machines to core drill the rough blocks so that I can fit the lighting inside. (KT) |
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| 3rd Nov."Back Beat" |
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Went to see "Back Beat" in Mizusawa. Great!!!(HK)
Our lovely friend Rikimaru sensei visited us to introduce his ballet dancer daughter, German son in law and grandson who have recently moved to Iwate. We were so busy having a lovely time with them that we only just made the 90 minute drive to Mizusawa in time to catch the beginning of the concert.
One of the most stunning concerts I have ever been to - see below for review (KT) |
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Back Beat who formed in 1995 were the first percussion group to win the Royal Overseas Ensemble Competition in 1997, and have been winning prizes ever since including the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York this year. Back Beat are in Japan on a 16 concert tour as part of their prize for winning the 1999 Yehudi Menuhin Gold Medal in the Festa section of the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition. (The Osaka International Music festa is a world-wide competition with the aim of nurturing appreciation of a wide variety of chamber music, the next one will be in May 2002, please see http://www.jcmf.or.jp/ ).
The four members Simone Rebello, Damien Harron, Richard Charles, and Christopher Bastock used their wide ranging talents and knowledge of an enormous range of instruments from around the world to entertain us playing everything from marimbas to basketballs, 'wind-wands' (elastic bands stretched around a frame which are whirled in the air) and sticks to a variety of drums, and many more, in a visual and aural extravaganza - I had to really hold myself back from bopping to the infectious rhythms, in order not to miss any of the musical subtlety and theatrical spectacle.
But we 'played' the car all the way home, and have been experimenting with the percussion possibilities of everything from the children`s lego to any household object in use at the time ever since.
As it says in their CD notes "Since our earliest days human beings have banged, shaken and scraped various objects because we love the sounds they make; Back Beat are proud to continue this tradition. They are still on their quest to find out what a percussions quartet can sound like; and are having a lot of fun along the way.
The programme opens with a piece by Damien Harron 'Okavango' (which means 'bringer of life' and is river running from Angola to the Kalahari desert in Nambia), an exhilarating fanfare for four African djembe drums inspired by the huge variety of African drumming traditions; followed by 'Switchback' by Jim Pywell, which totally cured me of my prejudice against the modern instrument the marimba with a virtuoso performance of 3 movements with two of the four players having to view the notes in reversal (apparently like lying upside down ontop of a piano to play the keyboard).
All the peices are very visual theatre but 'Hand Luggage Only' for four suitcases filled with small percussion instruments and toys, is almost slapstick humour which made us all roar with laughter, a firm favorite with Emily and Sean (6 and 8), these lovely people obviously cannot stop enjoying making music even when struggling with the practical problems of how to get to their international gigs.
While we all agreed that 'Bangiza' a traditional Zimbabwean piece with mbira (thumb pianos) and hosho (gourd rattles) is one of the most beautiful melodies we have ever heard.
The finale 'Rebounds' is best described by its composer Damien Harron "Without bounce percussionists would have great difficulty making music. This piece explores this idea in a very literal way, using two basketballs alongside more conventional bongos".
I very much hope that next time they come to Japan they will also be able to do some workshops - we were all dying to go up on stage and try some of their instruments and ideas for ourselves.
Go and see them - Back Beat`s musical skill and wonderful sense of humour should not be missed, but remember to take enough cash to buy one of their CDs as you will want to remember the experience (1,500 yen, or 3,000 yen).
They will still be giving 14 performances across Japan from Sapporo to Osaka - check out their web site for more information, performance dates in Japan, UK and around the world, and samples of the CDs at www.backbeat.co.uk
(KT) |