I have just been in Poland. This was a new country for me. I loved it – as I do with most places. I had a great time. I also had the most wonderful and also wondrous concert experience there. 4 mics were put out and picked environmental sounds and my shakuhachi sounds too of course. So I walked between the mics and played with the environmental sounds. We all had headphones on in order to be immersed in the sounds surrounding us. I had a great time imitating environmental sounds, go against it, and just be in dialogue with it.

I was impressed by the creativity and the arts – as least what I sensed in my short stay. I went to a sound installation only with breath sounds in a bomb shelter.

I was shown around very well by Rafal Mazur in the Nowa Huta area of Krakow. Nowa Huta is a very interesting example of socialist realist urban planning where each area of housing was a kind of microcosm with everything one needed in everyday life: kindergarden, school, medical care, shops etc. It was green and it was calm and very nice. It was built for the workers of a steel factory, which no longer operates as that.

I met 2 shakuhachi players, Pawel and Pietr. I hope I will see them again. Here with Pawel

In Waszawa (Warsaw) Katarina showed me around. We went into a small museum where it was shown how the city had been rebuilt after WWII. We went to an outdoor concert of Chopin piano music. I even saw where Frédéric Chopin (or Fryderyk Chopin) had literally left his heart in Warszawa. I also left a little pice of my heart in Poland – but not as literally as Chopin. I hope I will be back again soon