Jazz

It's great to see comments from the ex-4E students too (even one from the Class of 2003). Yes, of course I remember you, Gabriel. I think about the video with great fondness. Three years down the road, technology has changed so much and the production seems primitive at best. But, still, it was a labour of love, yah?

We are doing alright here in Japan, except that the boys are still having a hard time with the colder seasons.

My husband wrote a blog entry a year ago about the piped-in music in Japan. He marvelled at how every mall, eatery, supermarket, etc played jazz over their stereo systems. I was surprised too, but not overly so (it was a pleasant sort of surprise since I enjoy this genre of music).

However, what I witnessed during an excursion recently really impressed me. We had decided to take the boys apple picking at an orchard. It wasn't a very fancy or well-maintained orchard but there were enough apples to keep the boys happy. What really took the cake (or in this case, apple pie) was that peaking out from between the branches were speakers playing, you guessed it, jazz. I'm not kidding.

There's more. After apple-picking, we headed over to a nearby farm cum children's playground and again there were speakers out in the open disguised as little crates and letter-boxes. Jazz again.

Even pharmacy visits have been made more pleasant for me because that's what they play over their systems as well. It's really hard for me to dish out hundreds of dollars each time the kids get sick but at least the music is good.

Maybe the Japanese have a great love for jazz or maybe they know something about the spending-effect jazz has on consumers that we don't. But whatever it is, it's great to be a jazz lover in this country.