Hello! We are two musicians from Bristol who play collectively as The Hand, and separately as Rachael Dadd and Wig Smith. We have recently returned from Japan where we were touring to promote our new albums released on Angel’s Egg. In the spring we’ll be joined by Japanese solo artist Ichi, and together we’re looking for live dates across the UK (Mid April – Mid May) and Europe (Mid May – Mid June). We're happy to play in shops, cafes, galleries, and all sorts of music venues. If you are interested in booking us or know somebody that would be, and would like more information and cds please email: rachaeldadd@googlemail.com  or message me here at myspace, or call Wig on 07977 441848 Thank you!

THE HAND

I met Wig a few years ago working onBristol ferry boats. We shared a love of all sorts, Robert Wyatt, Joni Mitchell,Jolie Holland. Wig made me the best compilation cds, introducing me to wonderfully obscure and enchanting music. On quiet winter shifts I would bring my banjo to work and sit on the engine cover as Wig drove, and we’d sing Leonard Cohen & Sybille Baier songs to lone commuters. Wig had been in love with world music for a long time and so bought a kora and taught himself to play. Wanting to explore our shared love of music we started to write together. Using kora, banjo, guitar, ukulele, piano, harmonium, clarinet, autoharp and percussion, we began making music that was primarily instrumental. When we’d sing it was usually together and usually in harmony. We’d start with an idea and the idea seemed to take itself off on an adventure, and then we’d have a song that neither of us owned and it felt liberating. We named ourselves after one of Bristol’s ferry stops where stands a huge bronze cast of a hand, recorded a demo, played a live session and had track of the week on Brighton’s radio reverb, and went on a UK tour in autumn 2007.

Since this time we have played extensive gigs and  UK festivals including Camp Bestival and Truck Festival, made a self-recorded album titled Berries From the Rubble which has been released on Japanese label Angel’s Egg (along with all our solo albums), and have just returned from a 3 week  Japan tour. While in Japan we recorded as guest musicians for the forthcoming World Standard album. With new inspiration from our recent travels under our belt we want to continue playing to new audiences at home and overseas. We recently discovered that the banjo is a descendant of the kora. Our music is full of surprises, even for us!

“On we skip’ is typical of the album - English folk song cross-bred with desert campfire
blues to produce something that is at once gentle, dramatic and timeless….Against
the kora’s distinctive ring the duo harmonise, producing a sound that has the same
skein of beauty as Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares…It’s immediately beguiling, but
it also grows more impressive with each listen” Jumped Up Pantry Boy http://pantry.wordpress.com/....

“The hand do some indescribable things with their fingers: her banjo and his guitar nimbly
spin yarns, conversing about closing gaps in the music staff, and how romantic
everything seems up close, by the light of the candle” Venue magazine

ICHI

Ichi, from Nagoya in Japan, takes the notion of a one-man band to new limits - combining steel-drum with ping-pong balls, tape-loops with double bass and trumpet with xylophone, all in the space of one short set.Somehow there's an ancient, ritualistic feel to his performances. He's like the misplaced leader of a tribe and perhaps he will be - it's this kind of excellence and innovation which inspires a cult following. At the same time, his music is so playful and unusual - it gives you the feeling that you're witnessing something entirely
new. It's fun, it's danceable, it's exciting.

His album, Mono is released on the Japanese label Coup, and if you heard the CD before
you see him play, you'd never believe he reproduces it live, but he does (minus the mewing from his two cats, some atmospheric sound recordings and a few contributions
from some other friends).

Ichi is also a 20-year long member of the Nagoya New Wave band Nohshinto, and has toured extensively as a solo artist in Japan, and has played with Shugo Tokumaru and Asa-Chang & Junray.

RACHAEL DADD

Whether it be by handing out cake or percussive pots of rice to shake, Rachael puts her audience at ease - she's had plenty of practice, having toured England and Japan numerous times, and played festival slots since 2001 including an appearance on Glastonbury’s Acoustic Stage with one of her collaborative projects, Whalebone Polly (with Kate Stables of This is the Kit). She enjoys performing in intimate settings the most, but can adapt well, having proved this when she performed a series of shows in Japan, each to an audience of 3000.

Rachael makes most of her music by telling everyone that she's going to bed, and then sneaking off to her trusty 8-track and plugging herself in. Her songs sparkle with a wide-eyed wonder and exhibit a fascination for the everyday magic of life. Soon after stepping foot in Bristol in 2003, Rachael gained the reputation by Venue Magazine as, “the author of a deft, charismatic brand of folk music". Since then she has turned the heads of Rob Da Bank, Bob Harris and Huw Stevens, as well as  those in other fields such as artist Yoshitomo Nara. Her last album The World Outside is in a Cupboard was described as “absolutely staggering” by Julian Peck of Sunday Best Recordings. She has been adopted as part of the Fence Collective’s extended family, and has been invited to be part of several compilation releases, the most recent being Little Things on Indy label Flau, from which The Wire Magazine picked out her contribution as one that “appeals most of all”

Her latest album After the Ant Fight, recorded with Ali Chant (who has worked with John Parish, Howe Gelb and PJ Harvey), is her third album to be released on Japanese label Angel’s Egg and is her most varied and exciting work to date. On it she invites her Bristol friends to play, leading her impromptu penguin café orchestra down a lyrical and melodic path. On the album, not only does Rachael turn her own hands to piano, banjo, guitar, clarinet and harmonium, but too turns them to the album’s sleeve, appropriately dressing it in exquisite ant-depicting needlework. In this way she maintains a certain D.I.Y ethos that has been apparent since her very first 4-track recordings complete with hand-drawn covers

“Rachael’s song writing is atypical – the obvious moves
are avoided in favor of the element of surprise. ‘Table’ in particular is
stunning…a Philip Glass-y piece of minimalism that rises to a peak on the back
of a just-so mix of piano, harmonium, clarinet and one-take drums, then falls
away again…the kind of freshness that draws you back for another listen, and
another.” Jumped Up Pantry Boy, http://pantry.wordpress.com/

"The true star of a stage positively brimming with quality.
Authentic, unpretentious and lightened by Ms Dadd's loveable persona, the bands
ethereal folk seduced an audience already spoilt with highlights. Sumptuous
harmonies, pastoral melodies and banana grins abound." Venue Magazine

"This LP will be filled with the same kind of magical, bewitching
tunes as Føroyar, with vocal hooks that send thrilling shivers sprinting across
your nerve endings and sink you into those hot joyful flushes that only come
with the experience of something quite unique." Stool Pigeon

WIG SMITH

Wig Smith, an extremely gifted solo musician, has achieved a great amount in the last 3 years. Having only played his first live gig three Augusts ago (supporting the darkly enchanting Diane Cluck), he has since clocked up an impressive list of achievements. In 2007 he played a 13 date UK tour, and in autumn 2008 he recorded a solo album which has since been released on Japanese label Angel's Egg. One of his greatest achievements in 2008 was to travel by train and boat across land and sea, kora and ukulele in tow, to arrive on Japanese shores where he teamed up with Rachael Dadd to play a 12 date tour of the country to eagerly awaiting ears.

Music has always been a huge part of his life, of his every day existence. This mould was set from the age of 10 when he began attending rigorous rehearsals and
performing with the Bristol Cathedral choir (though nowadays he is firmly agnostic). His interests in music were by no means channeled for him - as if piano, ukulele and guitar were not enough, he bought a kora from e-bay and set about teaching himself how to play it. Then, taking influences from many different genres, particularly his great loves: world music, new folk music, poetry and folk tales, he has been quietly and modestly forging his very own language (Wig also helps organise a monthly story-telling and music night in Bristol called Folk Tales).

His music comes from an inner strength and self assuredness, and possesses an outer beauty and fragility. Maybe it is something that lies in the intricacies - the relationship between vocal melody and the kora's phrasing, or maybe it's the sentiment of such lyrics: "The lines have appeared to itch since I learnt their language", and "Our hearts are folded - it takes two to make a full frame", (both of which reflect his other life as a harbor man, along with one of his side projects 'a boat a boat' which is music made from recorded boat sounds and blowing over the necks of beer bottles); It's hard to put a finger on what it is exactly, but there is certainly something about Wig Smith's mysterious music, that for those who give it their time, will magically get under the skin.

“Wig’s as skilful a picker as a Spanish flamenco master, generating and altering the rhythm of his songs in a way which makes it appealingly difficult to predict where they will go next.” Jumped Up Pantry Boy.

“Wig Smith plays a fiendishly complex 21-stringed kora like a dulcimer mutedin velvet with fragile and charming songs about snow and toes.” Venue Magazine

Konban Wa and good evening!

The birds nest tour has begun and Naoto and I have been flapping about in North Japan this last week. I have had some truley Japanese experiences, making me feel very far from home. And too, I have come across some nice familiarities that have made me feel the closest to home I've felt since I've been in Japan.

As we took on miles and miles of motorway putting Tokyo far behind us, the temperature dropped from the high teens to 4degrees C, and the mountains curved and fell in long gentle slopes, rather than the jagged rock and sharp inclines of Japan's younger South Alps. There was still a lot of snow in the mountains which somehow felt confusing. What with the blossom in bloom too, (the last of which was blown from Tokyo's cherry trees over 2 weeks ago), my seasons felt all shuffled about.

We arrived at an Onsen resort in the mountains on our way to Akita quite late on our first night. (I'm sorry I have no names to direct you there...it was a pretty hidden away place...I will try and remember to give clues to the secret map in my next blog.) A little confused and a little chilly on arrival, I was very happy to console myself in the natural hot spring onsen, which was white with minerals, and so gives the area a name meaning nipple! I enjoyed my night time soak so much that I went again in the morning to get some more of those good hot minerals before we had to leave.

Here in Japan the onsen experience is like nothing in England and so it's one of the things I'll miss most about Japan. Everyone goes into the onsen naked. It's nearly always the sexes separate, women go through the red curtain, men go through the blue. I was slightly self-concious when I stepped all bare into my first onsen, but realised quickly how relaxed everyone here is about bare bodies, and it very quickly felt like an overdue liberation. It's so nice to see mothers with their grown daughters, friends together, the young, the very old, sitting about relaxing in their bare skins, chatting, washing, and soaking. There's no embarrasment. And I wish we english weren't so prudish!

The first gig of the birds nest tour was as refreshing as the onsen. We arrived at Aoitoro no Restaurant in Akita as the sun was dropping in the sky and streaming in the windows lighting up the plants, paintings, rocking chair, and shelves covered in antique nick nacks (which I spent a long time sifting through, happy to stumble upon some Czech buttons!)

Everybody was so friendly and there was an atmosphere that got me thinking of Bristol. The boy behind the bar complained about plastic bags which is the first utterance of such a thing I've heard here. (It's depressing how quickly, and often before you can stop it, any bought item, however small and ready wrapped, gets rewrapped and rewrapped in layers like a pass the parcel). Someone else let me play with their kaliedoscope. And the audience were very relaxed and singing and clapping along. Maybe it was these things that made me feel closer to home.

The following day even more Bristol similarities became apparent when we visited friends of Aoitori no Restaurant who ran a cafe, book shop, and textiles shop near by. Such a lovely sense of community!

We then travelled east to Morioka to play at the cosy, wooden, modest cafe, Carta. It was another really enjoyable live experience and some of the audience even brought me presents. A girl made me a bag. I couldn't believe it! I love the Japanese!

Aftarwards Naoto and I went to stay with friends of the cafe. They are from a family of carpenters who have built their own house. It was the most impressive Japanese house I've seen, with huge open plan wood floors, and the traditional fireplace and a grand piano. They even put on concerts there. The acoustics were amazing too (of course I couldn't resist and didn't hesitate when after much ume shou I was asked to play).

They were also the owners of an incredibly clever and incredibly fussy dog, who sat in the middle of the circle while we ate, turning his nose up at fish, waiting to get his bacon, summing up each and every individual!

The next morning after I'd had my jog about the Japanese lanes beneath the mountains, we drove north to Hirosaki for the final gig of the north leg of the tour. I found the same familiarities here. The same sense of community between shops, galleries, cafes and restaurants. Such lovely welcoming people. Thank you all, especially Fumi who organised all three gigs. So Thank you Fumi, and Happy Birthday!

I immediately felt at home in the Stables, where we were to play to an audience of fifty, sitting, shoes off, on rugs on the floor. Standing in my Victorian-esque outfit beneath the clock on the wall in that big old square room, with the exercise books and pens for sale on the tables, and the attentive rows of people, well I felt like an old fashioned school teacher! So later I posed for this photo!

We stuck around the following day and were shown about by Roderick, a very friendly boy from California. He took us to see the remaining turret of the castle, the park with it's final flourish of blossom, and cafes and restaurants, and we were even lucky enough to time our visit with the Spring carnival! It was quite spectacular, all the fleets of brightly lit tissue paper floats and their accompaniaments of many banging drums, many crashing hand cymballs, and many flutes!

Finally in the evening, after much unidentifiable raw sea food washed down with much saki, I exclaimed, in my strongest Bristol accent I could muster, that I though I was most probably Japanese, but that I wasn't entirely certain. Errrrrrrrrrrr!

Good day and Konnichi wa!

Oh goodness, I have what I think might be a chicken hangover! Last night I went out to see music (a lot of which was sickly sweet and over emotional), and to eat food. I was invited by a new aquaintance, Dain from America, who came to my workshop and sewed considerably well. Here's the proof: him and his girlfriend both wearing their creations.

To the gig I took along with me another new aquaintance, John from Ireland, whos constant witty sarcasm I find very refreshing, and too it reminds me of certain friends from home who I'm missing.

I was stuck between the two, Dain nodding his head in approval, John aghast and muttering sarcastic remarks.

Needless to say they hated each other. So at dinner, they stopped eating, stone-faced, long before me, and I was left with 3 peoples portions of chicken. Of course I ate them all. Hence what I think can only be described as a chicken hangover!

It's really quite interesting to realise that maybe there are bigger communication barriers then the language you speak. Last night we all spoke the same language, but there were some pretty vast cultural differences in place. But despite the awkwardness I was actually quite entertained and feel I have made some friends.

As well as suffering from the effects of too much chicken, I am, and have been, suffering from the effects of Spring. The sun is shining considerably hotter, the leaves on the trees are sprouting all transparent and green, the sparrows are hopping about shaking their tail feathers at one another on the telegraph wires, and I am seeking any kind of romantic encounter however small or insignificant!

On Sunday night I spied a very fair of face Japanese boy at the Flau Compliation launch that I played at. He was manning the cd stall. Unfortunately he didn't seem to speak any english, and all I could manage at the time was tori (bird), neko (cat), happa (leaves) etc., but I was happy to give him a bagde in return for a cd from him and a split second of eye contact. That was enough for me! I got to shake my tail feathers a little bit!

The launch night was really enjoyable for the people I met rather than my performing experience. Little old me has got quite used to playing in small huts with no amplification, warm lighting, and audiences with faces. However, this was a bigger affair, big stage, loud PA, bright lights, and a black faceless audience. It's jolly hard not being able to see the people you're supposed to be singing your heart out to. And then there was the dress. Oh why I went against my better judgement and wore it I can't say. The night was all female acts and in the end I succumed to being one of the girlier ones, donning on my dress (the one I sewed all manner of things onto: teapot, gramaphone etc.), and I got my come-upance when the dress restricted my breathing across my chest so that I had to strain to sing the long notes. It'll be a tracksuit next time I swear it. That way as well as being able to breath, I will also ward off all the Kawai (cute) comments which I am developing an aversion to!

Here I am in my stupid old tight dress

As for the nice people I met, here are the Popoyans who look like sisters but aren..t and sing lovely songs together.

And here's me with Florecia Ruiz, who's from Argentina.

I particularly liked the songs she played at the end of her set with a band. Her chords and rhythms are so different and the Argentinian influence is really apparent. And she's beautiful in a very nice natural way. Her hair is greying but she has the fresh face of a 20 year old.

I also befriended Serafina Steer who's set I enjoyed the most, mostly for her very english accent. She played harp with one hand and organ with the other and sung about quite sureal things such as a rotten peach heart being made into a girl, but seemed always to come back to something that twanged your heart strings and made you feel empathy. We chatted before hand about lots of things including the difficulties faced by being english and alone in Japan. We also talked about the difficulties of expressing your enjoyment of a persons performance. So for this reason I was happy to see her having to leave for her plane half way through my set. Anyway for all I know she had no enjoyment to express about the girl singing songs in a dress too tight! But I hope she can read this and know how much I liked her music.

A performance that I did enjoy doing was on Saturday in Kamakura out of Tokyo by the sea, in a tiny record shop called Ost. I even got given a hand made candle that smells of apricots and ginger. Arigatoo!

It was a lovely warm day and I got to spend it with Naoki, Miwako and Leon which was so nice. We went for tea at Cafe Goatee. I made friends with the owners 2 year old son over a shared interest in Thomas the Tank Engine. I also bought a hand sewed squeeky goat. There was a photo of Martha Wainwright on the wall. Many international artists play gigs there. So I'm pretty excited about the prospect of playing there in September. They have a piano too.

So a very enjoyable day and I even got to go and dip my feet in the sea at dusk. And it was surprisingly warm. Must get a swim in before the jelly fish come in August. So it will be a birthday swim in May for me then!

To finish here are some nice photos of mother and daughter, Miwako and Leon...

Right I'm off to see if I can't walk off my chicken hangover!

Konban Wa!

Well many days have past in a whirlwind of cotton and cloth and crows and ink. And at times I thought I was well on my way to going mad. So when it was all over I took myself off to see what Hakone looked like and sounded like and smelt like. Far from the jostling, screetching, man-made sprawling metropolis of Tokyo. Here I am above having a little rest after many strides. I had just happily stumbled across a tree in the shape of a U just right for a comfy bed for 5 minutes!

I took a ferry over Lake Ashi, a tele cabin up the mountains, and then I walked, unpeterbed by impractacle footwear, up steep mountain sides, through trees and thick bamboo, over rocky rivers, through much mud, to reach the other telecabin about 10 miles away to take me back down again.

As I walked I felt like I was the only person in the world at times. There really was not another soul about, (well... unless you count the 4 people I met at the summit who I exchanged photo taking duties with). Yes, other than them not a soul...just me and the mountain side, the sky, the sun, and the sound of birds and the smell of volcanic sulphur! The perfect antidote to the stimuli of Tokyo.

And here..s a beautiful mound of bamboo I passed on the way

I felt pretty smug on the way down, mud up to my knees, crammed into the telecabin with people and their clean shoes who..d popped up for a quick snapshot of mount Fuji!

The view was pretty spectacular. Here..s the supreme Mount Fuji in it..s sunny snowy glory!

Unfortunately I didn..t get to stay in Hakone for long enough to completely relax. The hostel was full as it..s holiday season and many people gravitate to the Hakone region which is not far from Tokyo.

But the blossom is out and the sun is getting warmer everyday, so I think I am now managing to unwind and leave the Crow behind. I think I am begining to stop having my waking visions at night of that dark morbid creature flapping above my head while I wait and wait for him to come and pick me up on his black feathery back and carry me into the land of sleep. I have become a little bit more like an owl in that respect!

But all my hard work is not all in vain as I am pleased with my exhibition. It..s all a brilliant opportunity, and even if things aren..t selling much, well I am still a happy owl. So freinds and relatives you know what to expect for birthdays! But today I did sell 2 coasters and quite a few badges so patted myself on the back! Here are some pictures of my work up in the gallery:

I made 16 framed stiched and printed pictured depicting a crow..s journey through an open window, out of a gramaphone...the crow preceded to look about in the teapot, a shoe, and the sewing draw amoung other places...and then the cat...and I wont give the ending away yet! I plan to put the story on my site soon...

And I made aprons, bags, coasters and badges, all depicting things from the story...

And here..s Eri drying the ink on the tickets half an hour before the doors opened!

Eri and the others at Mayfair Gallery did a brilliant job at organising the night and making food for all the guests. It was a very lovely evening. I played some songs and wore the dress I made with the Crow..s story sewn all over it. At times it did all feel a bit self indulgent but no one seemed to mind. It..s nice the things you can get away with in Japan!

Afterwards I partook in some night time fun with some other owls. As it is Cherry Blossom season, it is the time of much celebration. Haname is the very old tradition of celebrating underneath the blossoms. These days it..s an excuse for staying up and drinking! So we went and did just that and it felt a bit like a festival what with the sound systems and the hoards, and the drunkards dancing in very little clothing! I drank down ume-shou which is plum spirit. Very sweet and sour and tasty - it..s my ichiban suki - my favourite!

And here is a day time blossoming tree. You can..t see the full glory of the blossom. It is far more spectacular than our modest english bloom.

And now I will say Oyasumi Nasai! I am off to bed to see what that crow..s up to!

Konban wa!

Today I went swimming, and the pool, as most things in Tokyo, was very crowded. Because of these conditions I accidentally kicked a man in the stomach! It was a perculiar experience, being the first form of physical contact I’ve had with someone in a fair while. I was embarassed, but luckily he seemed alright when I asked him, and gave me the international OK hand signal with thumb and first finger. Not an entirely horrible experience!

This week I have been getting very well aquainted with the sewing machine and the crow. I am preparing for my exhibition at Mayfair Studio Gallery, in Tokyo. I am making a story all about a crow’s journey to find a friend.

Here are just a few of the adventures he gets up to along the way:

I’m going to be playing some songs at the opening night on Saturday the 29th March. There will be food included in the ticket price of 3000 Yen. And on Saturday 6th April, I will be running a workshop in the gallery, and will do another small live performance. This also includes food for the ticket price of 3000 yen, and children are welcome for free. Tickets are available from:

MAY FAIR STUDIO GALLERY
mail : info@mayfairstudio.jp
http://www.mayfairstudio.jp

Now that I’ve got that self promotion bit out of the way, (sumimasen, sorry), I can tell you about a few more of my experiences back in Tokyo.

One outing that got me up early and out in the drizzle, but that was ultimately very worthwhile, was a trip around the corner to go and see Leon being a monkey at her nursery school performance. Blearey eyed I stood on tip toes to get a view over the heads of all the eager parents holding up their vidoe cameras at the ready. And then they came hence forth onto the stage, the little monkeys filed in, or rather, emerged in little gaggles, skipping and jumping, and calling ’dada’, all of them dressed in their best brown clothes and each one adorned in a little monkey ear cap! I don’t like to use this word too much, but I think right now it is in order, Kawaii!

An outing of a very different nature, one that got me staying out late and sleeping through the whole of the following morning, was a night at a club with DJ sets from ’The Bristol Massive’ - DJ Die, and Rob Smith, who has releases on Angel..s Egg. So I got to make some friends from my home soil. Thank you Rob Smith for your Bristol accent, it was like celestial harps to my ears!

Yes, it was a pleasure chatting to you, you perked me up no end, just when I was on the brink of sleep! Just after taking this photo!

I did dance hard first though, so don..t feel too bad for flopping.

The following day, after a quickety-split rush to get ready after discovering that my clock had stopped, I went, banjo-on-wheels, to the A-Z cafe for my sound check. 

The A-Z cafe is owned by the artist Yoshitomo Nara. This above is a photo of his little studio, built right in the middle of his cafe out of reused old wood and old windows. All the details of the cafe kept me amused and distracted from my sound check. I especially liked the alphabet cushions made from old fabric. It was a very lovely place indeed.

Also playing on the night was Tate Takako who played piano and sung in Japanese. I enjoyed her songs very much. Yes, they were songs of great strength and beauty. And I found her very interesting, partly because she had shaved her hair. And she was beautiful.

When I played I got to look over the audience and out of the big windows from up high, down onto Tokyo blinking in the night time.

Everything about the evening was very magical.

Arigatoo Gozaimas Yoshitomo Nara. And I haven’t forgotten drunkenly asking you if you’d do a drawing for my next album cover. And I think you said Yes! I hope to get the chance to remind you when I’m sober!

Konnichi wa!

I am back in Tokyo. Back to my former routine of tea and cereal in the morning (sometimes afternoon!), cycling about, buying rice balls for lunch, going for coffee, stitching stitching stitching, by myself. Yes Tokyo time is much time alone. Tour time was little time alone. Actually I like both, it just always takes some adjusting!

Since my last blog I have been having some technology difficulties and in my frustration I wished a bit too hard for the age of the lettuce, a simple wooden hut and rows of vegetables, and in doing so my computer died it..s final death. And so I have been reduced back to the good old method of paper and ink for communication with my friends and loved ones in England. And so it..s been a while since my last blog, and now I have much to write about!

So I am alone now but occupied by many thoughts and memories of the last month of touring. All the places, all the people, the food, the yama (mountains), all the scenery from the car window, the snow giving way to the spring sunshine, the blosssoming of the plum, the ume saki (plum saki).... yes I can still see and taste it all!

My mum wanted to follow my movements in her atlas but I realise that I haven..t been very efficient at writing place names in my blogs. So here you are Mum, and anyone else who would like to see the route we took.

As we travelled south the snow melted and began to give way to sping. The first days of spring were felt in the Southern Island of Kyu-shu, and with it came the familiar spring smells that spring in England brings, and with those the usual nostalgia. But my pining for English counrtyside and past times was mixed with my excitement for travelling in Japan and all the newness that it was bringing me.

It was during this time that I was dressed in a kimono, by Rie, Keigo..s mother who we stayed with for two nights in Kokura. This day was Ohinisama which is Girls.. Day. Here in Japan they have so many Days. My birthday falls on Childrens.. Day! Not sure how I feel about having to share my birthday with all the children of Japan! 

The kimono is a very complex matter indeed. Much folding and tucking and wrapping and tugging. Much to Rie..s amusement, my feet were far to large for the special socks to be worn with the special shoes. I had to wear her husbands. They were too large and looked a bit rediculous with the very feminine kimono!

Much was squeezed in! Me into the Kimono, and much seeing of the sights of Japan during this month. 

One visit that I want to talk about is our visit to Hiroshima, and to the Peace Memorial Museum. It is hard to talk about such things. Naoto and I walked for a long time in silence after our hours spent in the museum reading about the atom bomb attack, seeing the devastation to bodies and buildings in photographs and models and artefects. Some of them you could touch. Such as the melted roof tiles. Roof tiles melt at 2000 degrees celcius. My knees buckled and I thought I might faint when I ran my fingers over their deformed surfaces.

Here is a watch that stopped at the time of the bomb: 8.15 August 6th 1945

And here is the A Bomb building that has been left standing as a memorial. Everything around was flattened. The reason that this building stands is because the bomb exploded almost directly above it, so the pressure pushed down, instead of sideways. The copper roof melted away and all inside died imediately.

There were some particularly moving stories that stick in my mind from all the desperately sad tales. There was a recent photograph of a mother caring for her mentally handicapped daughter of 50. The daughter was just a foetus at the time of the bomb. She suffered the same fate of many other atom bomb foetuses.

The other story was of a girl who was very young at the time of the bomb. She was in a wooden house far enough away not to be injured. She became strong as she grew up and was part of the athletics team at her school. But she fell ill with Lukemia, a direct after effect of the nuclear exposure. In hospital she made 1000 paper cranes after reading somewhere that if she did this she would live. Some of the cranes were in the museum. They got tinier and tinier leading up to her death. They were so small and fragile and beautiful.

There was a section of the museum that explained the nuclear situation in the world today. England is one of 7 nations to have nuclear weapons. The others are USA, Russia, France, China, India and Pakistan. There are enough nuclear weapons to erradicate all life on earth. Those to survive the initial impact of the bombs, would later die of starvation brought about by a nuclear winter. The sun would be blocked out due to nuclear fall out. The largest nuclear warhead to have been tested so far was (I think I remember correctly) just over 3000 times more powerful than the bomb over Hiroshima. It was tested by Russia.

Everytime there is a nuclear test planned, the Mayor of Hiroshima writes a letter of protest. Here is a letter of protest written to Britain.

It was extremely disturbing how many letters have so far been written to England, let alone all the other nuclear countries. They covered 8 walls.

And then we had to walk through the section of the exhibition with all the photos of the burnt and melted skin. All those people destroyed. All those lives destroyed.

And then back to our apparently cosy secure lives in the 20th century...

All the live shows that we played from the 28th March onwards went better than we could have hoped for. They had been organised really well and many people came along. Also from this point on we managed to get a projector at each gig so I was very happy indeed to get to play along to my siter Betsy’s animation of tap-dancing fish, and my friend Elliot Dear’s animation of riding on the backs of animals through snow.

We also started to project some of our photos from the tour. Naoto’s favourite was a rickety tumble down house. I agreed that this complemented his music very much.

My favourite was a mouse type creature fashioned out of a rice ball and carrot and renkon (lotus flower), made one long car journey!

All of the venues, from cafes to galleries, to hairdressers to trains, have given way, without fail, to very enjoyable experiences. The two places that I felt very attached to were Yugue and Pinon Pinon. They both proved their worth to me, largely on the basis that the evenings spent in each were mood changing experiences. I was feeling quite sad before both of the performances, but the atmosphere and warmth that I felt from those places cured me of my woes! Both were places I could quite happily live out my days in...both had very similar qualities. Modest but beautiful in their homely details, and somehow I felt a warm cosiness from all their bare wood and white washed concrete. And too, of course, great warmth from their owners: Di Chan of Yugue and Jan of Pinon Pinon.

Here is cafe Yugue on waking up the morning after the gig (the second time we played there, as we played here twice):

And here is me and Naoto performing together at Pinion Pinion:

And now I want to say Doomo Arigatoo Gozaimas to everyone who has helped us on this leg of the tour. Toshiro for organising and beautiful ukelele playing and the fermented soya beans, chicken liver and salmon eggs for breakfast! And Hidemi for kindness when I was sad and for the missing bird! And Keigo and his lovely mother Rie. And Di Chan for letting us live in cafe Yugue and letting me sew while you had customers! And all at Sample arigatoo, and Jan and Tomota for feeding us much delicious food and wine and umeshu after the very last performance of the tour.

And finally I would like to thank every person in every audience at every venue. In England sometimes you get talkers, but no talkers in Japan! And you all have such attentive ears! And such good singing from you all. Arigatoo for joining in singing in the song about the goose. Arigatoo for laughing along with me at my japanese/english! Arigatoo Gozaimas! Matane!

And of course thank you, many thank yous, to you Naoto, you have been so brilliantly organised and patient with me going off for walks at the worst times! It was a good fight wasn..t it?! And we did it! And it has been so much fun! I look forward to the Bird..s Nest tour in May when we’ll get to flap our little wings about!