We just got back from a fantastic day of recording in Shiba Rikyu, a lush oasis in the middle of Tokyo’s urban sprawl. As we wended our way along the pristine paths of this beautifully maintained garden, we sometimes forgot that we were in fact still in downtown Tokyo. However the surrounding sky scrapers peeking down through the trees (and the elevated train that dodged between them) reminded us of where in fact we were.

The musician we worked with began the session with an upbeat traditional song. Then he demonstrated his versatiliity by improvising along the pentatonic scale in the keys of our new Songs Around the World. He added a unique sound to each track we recorded, and by the end of the day we were all very pleased with how the session had gone.

We are nearing the end of our stay here in Japan. We will not be recording tomorrow, instead we will be participating in a couple of amazing cultural experiences. Our crew has been invited to Togoshi Shrine to celebrate their Matsuri, an annual harvest festival. Before heading to Togoshi, we will be going to an exhibition that we feel will be very profound. It is called “Dialogue in the Dark,” and offers small groups of people the opportunity to spend an afternoon in complete darkness. Visitors are led through a building by a staff of guides that are all blind. The crew are all very excited about this amazing opportunity. I know I often take my sight for granted, and I hope to gain a deeper understanding of how I can relate to the world more consciously without the use of my eyes.

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