The Myōan shakuhachi player Eric Genpū Strong inviter me to Winnipeg. I am grateful for him to want to use time and effort to apply for a grant and organising all the events and hosting me in his home. Eric and Jessica were great hosts and I enjoyed it very much.
I did one lecture about the shakuhachi at the Japanese Cultural Association of Manitoba. It is always so nice todo lektures. I love talking about the shakuhachi.
I also did – in collaboration with Eric – 2 workshops where many tried to play the shakuhachi for the first time. We had around 20 people who joined the workshops. It was great. Also great to be teaching together with Eric.
I have never had such a large audience for a solo concert. There were 110 people, which is amazing. Such a great interest and curiousity to hear something different. Eric joined me playing Choshi in unison and then the Myōan version of Shika no Tone. The rest were both Myōan and Zensabo honkyoku and new compositions. I enjoyed very much playing in Winnipeg. I really hope I can go there again.
Canada was also nice to visit. The first day I was there, Eric and I did a 30 km Bicycle tour around. It was nice and warm and the trees were turning yellow.
As a surprise, I met an ethnomgsicologie Colleague Matthew, whom I had not et since the ICTM conference in Kazakhstan in 2015. So I met Matthew and his wife Yok and his daughters Rosa and Leah. Wonderful family. I really really enjoyed seeing them agaain.