Today was my youngest daughter’s 御琴 (O-koto) concert.
(O)-koto is a traditional Japanese musical instrument sometimes called, in English, a Japanese harp…although it sounds nothing like a harp—but it has many strings like one.
Here’s a video I took of a group of 御琴 (O-koto) players at the concert…(my videos of my daughter’s performance aren’t online):
This morning the panda, named “Ling Ling”, at Ueno Zoo died.
It was on the news. He was 22 years old.
There are eight other pandas in zoos in Japan…but Ling Ling was the only “Japanese” panda. I mean he was the only panda that Japan owned…the others are on loan from China.
Many people went to the zoo to leave condolence messages.
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A couple people have expressed difficulty in finding particular Guest Comments on my site…so I added “Most Recent Comments” links to the column on the right (click on the name of the post (ie: the word after “on“)).
Does that help?
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Yesterday my youngest daughter played in a お琴 (O-koto) concert at a local festival.
The “Koto” is a traditional Japanese stringed instrument that my daughter studies. She’s pretty good…actually, the leader in her class!
She wants to stop taking Koto lessons and start taking piano lessons like her older sister, though. So, yesterday’s concert was her final Koto concert, it seems.
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Just an observation…
Anytime that they show Americans on TV (here in Tokyo), they seem to be dressed in a Polo style shirt tucked into Chino style pants. And have their cellular-phone in a case clipped to their belt.
Is that accurate?
I ask because it’s quite different than the way people dress in Japan.
Tokyo Five 
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