Chopsticks, Hangman and Bill Evans

 

Both freestyle rappers and comedy improv. folks often ask the audience for two or three words and then proceed to spontaneously improvise a rap or sketch around them. I’ve always been astonished by their ability to do so. At a slower pace, an English teacher might do the same. “Using the title above, write a short piece incorporating and connecting these themes. Go!” You’re welcome to try it! Meanwhile, here’s my little piece based on my actual day yesterday. 

 

To catch up, I should start with the day before. Knowing I was going to Tokyo, I discovered that a teacher who is coming to study with me in Level III Orff training this summer is teaching at an International School here. I didn’t know her, though it turns out that she took Level II in Memphis at the same time I taught my Jazz Course there last summer and was inspired to finish her training with me. So she agreed to my proposal that I do a morning of teaching at her school—ASIJ, The American School in Japan—and set aside three classes for me. I thought it could be sweet for Zadie to watch me teach a bit, see an International School and maybe do some of the homework from her school (she’s missing a week of classes) that I imagined her teachers would assign her. 

 

But when I discovered that ASIJ was 90-minute commute three train rides away and that my first class began at 8:30 and would require a 6:00 am wake-up, I imagined Zadie would not be thrilled. I was right. So I let her sleep in and stay alone in our place until I returned in the early afternoon. The three classes were delightful and for one of them, I needed the kids to guess my middle name that begins with M. Some answers include “Mozart? Music-man? Magician?” before one actually hit upon “Mark.” (This was my introduction to the Slovenian song “Marko Skace.”) I was happy to be with kids yet again and enjoyed the challenge of figuring out the three trains and seeing a new neighborhood on the edge of Tokyo.

 

My homework for Zadie in my absence was to look up things to do and be my tour guide for the afternoon. When I finally returned back at 2:00, I was eager and ready to set off, only to discover that she had done nothing of the sort. Grrr! So I looked in the guidebook and saw something about a boat ride on the river in Shinigawa and off we went. To use Google Maps, you need Wi-fi and often Tokyo can connect you anywhere out on the streets. But in reality, it’s hit and miss, and so we spent time around the train station trying to figure out which way to walk and were feeling frustrated. After a little while of confused wandering, Zadie asked when we were going back home. 

 

So I calmly made it clear to me that this was a hard trip for me because I love being a tour guide in places I know, but even though I had been in Tokyo four other times, I didn’t know it that well and was dependent on all these suggestions on the Internet. I needed her help. We needed to research as a team so that each day had some kind of destination. She listened and seemed to understand my point. On we wandered and we did find the river and bridge pictured in the guidebook, but there was no boat cruising around. Still, it was nice to walk by the riverside and at one point, she spontaneously took my arm as she sometimes does as we walked side by side. A gesture always deeply appreciated by this grandfather walking with his teenage granddaughter. 

 

We did manage to find a Soba noodle place that also had great tempura. I love that the restaurants we’ve gone to either have some shamisen music playing or more often, some good jazz. Not a thumping disco beat in sight. Heaven. 

Coming back home, we had time to play some Rummy 500, one of our go-to card games and it reminded me that playing games together is the best way to connect, a thousand times more satisfying than attempting serious face-to-face conversations where I ask her questions about her life and she responds with typical teen one-word answers. Before turning in for the night, we agreed that we would look at tomorrow’s options together and decide on some options.

 

And so in the midst of a leisurely morning yesterday, I came upon two possible options and she was up for trying them both. One was a Chopstick-Making Class. That sounded different! We returned to the Times Square/ Las Vegas neighborhood of Shinjuku and it was Zadie’s turn to navigate us to a room on the 10^th floor of an obscure building. We got there and alongside some 20 other people, proceeded to make our first pair of chopsticks. For the first time, we (well, I) conversed with some fellow travelers, like the couple sitting across from us from Michigan and the mixed-race African-Japanese young man who was our teacher. A fun, convivial atmosphere and at the end, lo and behold, we each had made a working pair of chopsticks!

 

From there, it was back through the maze of the fabulous subway system, so user-friendly and well-marked with different colors for the lines, numbers for the stations, Japanese and English signs and announcements naming both the stops and the lines you can transfer to at the stop. We’re becoming experts and it’s fun to feel confidence in your ability to navigate a city like that. 

 

The evening activity was a dinner show with a little theater piece about a famous samurai. We arrived at the site, Kanda Shrine, an hour early and Zadie suggested sitting somewhere for a coffee or tea while waiting for the doors to open. We found the loveliest little spot nearby and when our drinks came, I suggested that neither of us take out our phones and just talk. So I starting asking those direct questions that inspire those curt one-word answers and then got the idea of playing hangman on a piece of paper I found in my pocket. 

Brilliant! The energy shifted immediately and we had so much fun in the way that works best for her—and me! And the icing on the cake? The café was playing some background jazz and it was —The Bill Evans Trio!!! So there you have it—chopsticks, Hangman and Bill Evans.

 

After an hour there, we went on to the dinner place and played a bit more Hangman and other word games waiting for the show and then at 8:15, it finally began. I didn’t have high expectations, but I hoped it might have some live music, fantastic costumes, intriguing story line. In fact, it was 0 for 3 and one of the most dismal entertainments I’ve sat through (for way too much money!) with a non-stop high-decibel recorded rock soundtrack and an hour of people grunting and fighting and crying and fighting and shouting and fighting and… well, you get the idea. 

 

But no matter. Zadie wasn’t judging the show like me with my high-browed artistic lens and thought it was mildly entertaining. At the end, they had audience members come up to get their photo taken with the troupe and when I looked at Zadie with a quizzical “Shall we?” she shook her head emphatically “No!!!” And then five minutes later, decided on her own that we should—and we did! Sweet! We walked back to the subway only to find the entrance closed and that precipitated a little adventure. Found another entrance, also closed! I asked for help at a 7-11 store and finally found the one that was open. And so ended Day 4. 

 

Today is a trip to Yokohama where we’ll meet up with an Orff teacher I’ve trained who is also a jazz singer. (And also one of two other triplet-sisters! One time I met them all!) Arranging our rendezvous, it came out that she’s the sister-in-law of a fabulous jazz singer I’ve heard and admired. I couldn’t believe it when she told me, but then —duh!— they do share the same name! Her name is Sheryl Bridgewater and the singer—Dee Dee Bridgewater! 

To be continued.