Bachi-Do

 280th day sober. I woke up kind of in time to hop on the bike and go over to the Mitsuwa Marketplace and do the things I'd planned to do. I was going to really thoroughly shop the market and especially look at what they have for coffee filters, probably pick up some neat stuff like dried conger eel, and of course first thing off, have a bento. 

Then with the shopping done and things stashed away in the bike bags, I'd go to Kinokuniya and look at their fountain pens. I've decided I want to try using a fountain pen, and there's a "beginner" pen, the Pilot Metropolitan, that's recommended for, well, beginners and only about $10. I figured I'd doodle with a few and see which has a nice feel. Since finding out that traditionally, manga artists used dip or fountain pens, I've been interested. But at the rate things are going, I might as well get the pen from Amazon and the coffee filters also.  

But I could not get enthusiastic enough and went back to bed and slept until 5. Well, that was a productive use of the day. I should mention that after listing Ebay stuff I stayed up all night taking things apart. Mainly some stupid fluidics stuff, three charge amplifiers, and a big "treasure box" microwave device, with tons of goodies in it. 

So here I was up at 5 in the afternoon. I got an envelope and put in the little monthly tickets for January and February, and the $60 pledge for those two months. Times have got to be harder than usual for the temple, with no in-person services. It's just felt like I was being a fair-weather friend. And the more people they can say they have as members, the more matching funds they get so just being a member helps them. 

After that I went to Nijiya and they had one of my favorite things, chirashi bowl. So I got one of those, one of those weird Japanese near-beers (it tastes not like beer but like the idea of beer by someone who's never had beer) to wash it down with, and a couple of grocery things. 

I went over to the Issei building to eat, and it was nice since it wasn't that cold. My mind wandered to when things were normal and there were street festivals, and the shamisen people used to set up to let people try it. When I was done eating, I peeked in the window at the notice board to see if there was anything new, and found out the name, bachido, of the shamisen group. 

My next stop was to the Amazon place to pick up the Koga shakuhachi book I'd ordered, plus a few bubble mailers. 

Then I just rode around. I rode up 2nd street and Dai Thanh was still open so I went in and got coffee and peanuts and such things, then I rode up to Williams street which is sort of the "student ghetto" and saw some interesting things. One was a store called "CONVENIENCE STORE" that's in this weirdly-shaped building.  I really need to either upgrade my phone to one with a decent camera, or get a small camera I can devote to taking pictures of these weird houses and buildings I find. I get a real kick out of them. 

I rode around a bit and doubled back and rode up 1st. Cafe Stritch is so dead it's about fossilized. I stopped by the opera house to drink a can of Doutor coffee I'd bought, and had to move up the sidewalk when a group of people stopped to talk near me because they were wearing perfume and it made my coffee taste like perfume. There was a gal with a notebook or sketch pad, I could not tell, and her phone, working on something. 

It was pretty sad, really, riding around town constantly seeing where there used to be this and used to be that. I rode on home. I looked up bachido and it's a big, like worldwide, shamisen online group that holds lessons and camps and things, that was started by a guy from Santa Cruz who started playing shamisen at something like age 14. So I'm in a hot spot for shamisen playing, it seems. 

I do not want to play the shamisen, for one thing, how would I carry one on my bike? Not easily. But the shamisen, koto, and shakuhachi are often played together. So if there are shamisen players around, they'd probably appreciate a shakuhachi player being around too. 

By the way, Amazon says my shakuhachi might arrive by Thursday now.  Late tonight, past midnight actually, I got an email from Money Levinson, detailing what he does when he makes an "enhanced" Shakuhachi Yuu. It's a fair amount of work and I'm convinced well worth the money but I replied that I want to stick with the standard Yuu until I'm sure I'll get somewhere, then I'll get the Enhanced one. 

At the rate things are going, I'll have the Yuu in my hands before the Jim Johnson one comes from Amazon, if it comes. 

I think I will follow this equation: Buy the enhanced Yuu = Have made enough progress to go out busking at least once and made money + have an extra $750 above "base level" saved up in the bank.

Today's freebies: "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston in softcover, "God Is Not Great" by Christopher Hitchins in hardcover, 3 "Bankers Box" type boxes, the big long ones, with lids.