Audio postcard from Japan. I am just back from my trip, and instead of sending conventional postcards – or as a contemporary variation – sending pictures via socials, I made audio recordings with a small Zoom device.
Here, as an alternative, I am sending audio postcards to you. As I am going to all the files I have recorded, I will update this page with new audio postcards. Listen here or on SoundCloud.
Zen Garden in Koyasan
This is my favourite audio postcard: I had all the luck to be at the biggest stone garden, or Zen garden, in Japan when it was maintained. This is a rare moment when you can experience the worker drawing his wooden rake over the stones (or gravel) to make these straight, beautiful lines. It is hard work and in the beginning, you can hear that he stops for a moment and then goes further. The second time, he draws the whole line without stopping. As I gave him a thankful bow for his work, he answered with Arrigato (in the middle of the recording).
Sound walk through the streets of Kyoto during festival month, July
Shibuya Scramble Crossing, Tokyo
The famous Shibuya Scramble Crossing in Tokyo. It is like a party, people wait until there is a green light, and then they rush to the middle of the crossing to take selfies. Big tourist attraction. In the sound file, you can hear the green phase twice. Fun fact, the picture here is taken 100 meters to the right, where there is the same crossing, but no people there.
Outside of Ryoanji Temple, Tokyo
Audio postcard taken outside the famous Ryoanji Temple in Kyoto, with the fabulous stone garden with 15 rocks. I made a recording of a small water fountain, you hear in the background a car approaching, opening a gate, driving through the gate, closing the gate, and the driving away. At the end, you only hear the high-pitched cicadas and the running water.
Sound Walk through Garden of Fine Arts of Tadao Ando in Kyoto
This is a 10-minute sound walk through a hidden concrete brutalist creation of famous architect Tadao Ando. Within the concrete walls of the Garden, visitors can find huge ceramic reproductions of a wide range of European works of art. Classics such as Michelangelo’s “The Last Judgement” tower over the location in its entirety, standing almost as tall and wide as the original. Naturally, Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” is prominently displayed, along with select reproductions of Renoir and Van Gogh. But what struck me was the immense sound of the different waterfalls, water basins. I wandered through all the ways with my recorder in hand. Enjoy the white sounds of water, crescendo, decrescendo and even some people talking in the background. Use headphones; it is a trip. Even my tinnitus was quiet for the time being.
… more audio postcards will come, when I find the time to edit.
And I will do some special episodes about the Japan trip in The Power of Music Thinking podcast very soon, here is the first one:
By the way, good to mention, I heard the term audio postcard for the first time when my friend, poet, and sound designer Dennis, tipped me on Sam’s Japan Tapes.
