A week in sounds

Exploring the sense of hearing

Hello dear friends,

This week has been full of wonderful, warm temperate days. Lush and verdant green leaves are all around the mountains and forests of Kamikatsu. Newly sprouted plants glow them—their colour feels more alive, vivid, and bright. If sakura was the soft transition into a new season, the canopy of green is an arms-wide open welcome to a spring fully set.

Speckled among the sea of green are the purple blossoms of azami wild thistle. WOW! I did not grow up seeing these beautiful wildflowers, but my oh my are they lovely bursts of colour. They are also edible! I will need to do more research about how they can be enjoyed. I will report back soon.

The takenokos bamboo shoots that haven’t already been harvested are already quickly pulling towards the sky and growing beyond several feet tall. They are shedding their outer skin and becoming the pale green, hard bamboo that we most likely recognize.

Peas mame 豆 of all kinds are popping in the local farmer’s market. I am enjoying the heartiness of the sora mame そら豆, literally translated to sky beans, but known more commonly as fava beans. Their fuzzy outer shell can’t be eaten, but inside each bean is the size of a small pebble or a walnut.

A day in the life

One of my favourite weekly reads is Mari Andrew’s newsletter. Mari, an illustrator and author, recently wrote a post called A day in the life. She shared a collection of moments in her week; some of her moments were routine or scheduled, while others were spontaneous like a call with her mom.

Mari Andrew’s instagram

It’s impossible to know what a real-life connection would be like, but I’d like to imagine Mari and I would be wonderful friends! If there was such a chance to connect with her I like to think we’d muse at weeds on the edge of a sidewalk and have conversations that bask in our introverted and feelings-centric world.

In Mari’s post, I noticed that so many moments of her week had to do with music. I wondered if she realized that sounds played such an important part in her week. I commented and said that she should write a “week in music!!” and she replied, “What a joy that would be!!”

What happened, at first unconsciously, after commenting on her newsletter was heightened attention to the various moments in my day. The effort became more conscious as I grew genuinely curious (in particular with sound). I wanted to know what sounds made me happy and feel light, and what sounds made my body tense or feel irritated. How closely linked were the sounds around me with how I felt? The human body is something of a mystery and all I can do sometimes is let the awe wash over me.

A week in sounds

A gentle good morning, words of love, a passing hello; the timeless murmur of wind in the trees; the sound of an engine as a car starts; the tap of piano keys transforming into melodies—our sense of hearing connects us to the world we live in.

We interact with the world and our surroundings through hearing. We live in a world of motion and every sound that enters our ears reminds us of us that. So here are some of the sounds that are in my world right now.

Monday

6:30am: I hear my rooster’s first cock-a-doodle-doo. I don’t know if it’s precisely at the break of dawn, but it’s early enough that sunlight flows in with his sound. Roosters are built with internal clocks so they’re able to tell time with their circadian rhythm. In Japanese, the rooster says ko-ke-kok-koh コケコッコー. I remember the first time I said the English version to a Japanese friend, she found the doodle-doo part hilarious.

Tuesday

7:00 am: A town bell that echoes in the mountains through speakers can be heard everywhere in Kamikatsu. Every morning, every day, all year round, there is a bell that goes off at 7:00 am. Meant originally for farmers, these bells are markers of the day. There are a total of 5 daily bells (all different tones). The bells go off at 7:00 am, 10:00 am, 12:00 pm, 3:00 pm, and finally 5:00 pm.

I’m a pretty deep sleeper so I’m not bothered by the morning bell. I can sleep through most noises that others would find irritating.

10:00am: The sound of a panting dog. I go for a jog in the forest beside my home and take my dog, Pepe. It’s a beautiful mountain road that weaves through trees. Pepe spirits then suddenly halt to sniff a bush. Every time she stops, she’s huffing and the sound of her heavy breathing is loud. I can also hear the gentle chirring of birds in the forest. Sometimes I pass small waterfalls and hear the trickle of water.

Wednesday

1:00pm: The sound of rice and water bubbling in a donabe, a sturdy Japanese clay pot, over a crackling fire. Making lunch over a traditional hearth fireplace with Nakamura-san, a long-term resident of Kamikatsu. I learned how to listen to the donabe to tell when the rice is done cooking—a change in sound means a change in the readiness of the rice.

Nakamura-san’s kitchen

6:00pm: Cicadas have started their stirs. Their faint hums are whispers compared to the loud cry it will be in the summer. Cicadas are the quintessential background melody of a Japanese summer.

Thursday

8:30am: Almost every morning, I listen to podcasts or audiobooks. My go-to morning podcast is usually The Daily by NYT. The audiobook I’m listening to is Cooked by Michael Pollan. I love podcasts!!! I’m always taking recommendations!

3:00pm: Sound the town bell. For me, the 3:00pm bell means snack time! Recently I did some grocery shopping in the city so I could pick up a variety of snacks. Lately, I’m eating a lot of dried prunes.

Friday

5:00pm: An echo-y gymnasium filled with children laughing and screaming. I lead a bi-weekly after school program for Kamikatsu’s kids in English. We try to arrange games and lessons (but mostly it’s just the kids running in circles burning, what feels like, pent up energy from an entire day of sitting inside).

Saturday

11:00am: The sound of my voice. Linda and I sat down to edit episode 2 of our podcast Bancha Talks: in the Inaka. A podcast where we share about daily life in the countryside of Japan. We are listening to ourselves on repeat. I’m squirming in my chair with my sweater pulled over my eyes because I find it so uncomfortable to listen to myself. Isn’t that strange to find the sound of your own voice so foreign?

Check out episode two of our podcast—Linda and I share why we’re in Kamikatsu. We have some fun updates and recommendations at the end! Enjoy this ~audio~ experience.

Sunday

12:00pm: The sound of stories being told by Nitta-san. Lunch with a Kamikatus local who made a delicious meal for us. I brought korroke Japanese croquettes to share. She used to work for the Kamikatsu elementary school as the main chef to prepare the children’s lunches. After we finished eating, over coffee served in delicate cups that were made in England, she showed us photos of her wedding and a trip she took to Hungary over 15 years ago.

4:00 pm: The loud and blaring sound of a handheld grass cutter. Probably my least favorite sound this week.

My mom insisted that chores like mowing the grass and shoveling the snow were too much work. So for most of my life, I’ve lived in an apartment or a townhouse where all the landscaping was taken care of for us. I never cut grass or used a lawnmower growing up but I decided it was finally time to learn!

Cutting grass is an important part of this rural community. People in the village have many shared responsibilities and cutting grass to keep public areas (and areas around your home) clean is essential.

9:00 pm: The sound of my fingers tapping away at the keyboard to finish my weekly newsletter. Although I’m a person who deeply leans into doing things as and when I feel, I find a lot of grounding in having a couple of routines. Writing each week or sitting down to do so is deeply rewarding. I write with instrumental piano songs and acoustic covers like this one in the background.

Listen to the sound of your inhale, then your exhale. Find grounding in the sounds that bring you calm, peace, and joy. Tell me, what are the sounds around you that you love?

Maybe we can all close our eyes for a moment and linger in the sounds around us.

Have a lovely week ahead.

With love,
Kana