At about 18:00 on Saturday, I went over the hill and down into TomiSawa to attend a private BBQ party being held for an American guy, how used to live in Asahikawa for a long time, but now lives in Atlanta Georgia.
I haven't seen this guy for about 8 or 9 years, but when I saw him again today, it was like we had never been apart.
Some people just don't change no matter how long you know them.
This party was rather unusual for me, because there were no Japanese people at it.
Only non-Japanese. There were people from Canada, England, Holland, Sri Lanka and of course, the USA.
As such, the common language was English.
One thing I noticed, is that these people like to talk about other people a lot.
In other words, GOSSIP. Gossip is something which I don't like much and almost never do myself, so today I heard a lot of strange stories about some of the people who were at the party, and some other people who weren't at the party.
Stories I had never heard before, even though the events being described happened both recently, and many years ago.
As a result, I grew rather bored with most of the conversations, and went inside the house to play my bass guitar which I had brought along with me.
Fortunately, the owner of the house also likes to play live music so he soon joined me with his guitar and microphone, and we started making some groovy sounds.
The photo in today's blog shows one of my bass guitars and one of my six string electric guitars, sitting in my classroom, after being prepared for transport to the party.
I needed to do an equipment check before I left, and also put all new strings on the stratocaster.
The guy from Holland who was at the party, was also a very good guitar player and singer, and he knew a lot of good songs from memory.
So, I played along with him too on the bass guitar.
The party ended about midnight.
Because I was driving that day, I drank no alcohol at the party but I had a few beers when I got home.
I continued to play the bass guitar at very low volume, practicing the basics over and over again, until about 5:00 Sunday morning.
Music and languages are my specialty, and what I like to do most.
I haven't seen this guy for about 8 or 9 years, but when I saw him again today, it was like we had never been apart.
Some people just don't change no matter how long you know them.
This party was rather unusual for me, because there were no Japanese people at it.
Only non-Japanese. There were people from Canada, England, Holland, Sri Lanka and of course, the USA.
As such, the common language was English.
One thing I noticed, is that these people like to talk about other people a lot.
In other words, GOSSIP. Gossip is something which I don't like much and almost never do myself, so today I heard a lot of strange stories about some of the people who were at the party, and some other people who weren't at the party.
Stories I had never heard before, even though the events being described happened both recently, and many years ago.
As a result, I grew rather bored with most of the conversations, and went inside the house to play my bass guitar which I had brought along with me.
Fortunately, the owner of the house also likes to play live music so he soon joined me with his guitar and microphone, and we started making some groovy sounds.
The photo in today's blog shows one of my bass guitars and one of my six string electric guitars, sitting in my classroom, after being prepared for transport to the party.
I needed to do an equipment check before I left, and also put all new strings on the stratocaster.
The guy from Holland who was at the party, was also a very good guitar player and singer, and he knew a lot of good songs from memory.
So, I played along with him too on the bass guitar.
The party ended about midnight.
Because I was driving that day, I drank no alcohol at the party but I had a few beers when I got home.
I continued to play the bass guitar at very low volume, practicing the basics over and over again, until about 5:00 Sunday morning.
Music and languages are my specialty, and what I like to do most.
