Do shakuhachi break in?

 I got 15 things ready to list and I had to keep doing more to them, cleaning them up, putting back in package neatly (tons of little connectors) and so on so I didn't list them. But they're cued up ready to go. 

I practiced and, as a change, got out the fancy "hot rodded" shakuhachi I'd paid Monty Levinson $700 for, to compare to my "stock" Yuu that honestly I think Monty "leaned on" a little before sending it out. 

The fancy shak' was quieter and not any easier to blow. I went back to my stock one that I've been playing enough that the place where I rest my chin is highly polished. I was right back to, by comparison, a "booming" tone. 

Do shakuhachi "break in" or "wear in"? I know with violins, it's considered to be a big factor and a fiddle that's been stored a while is said to sound "dead" until it's played a good amount. This is a huge reason why the remaining Stradivari's and Guerneri's are loaned out and played, because if they were just kept in museums they'd just be dead pieces of wood. 

But these shakuhachi are plastic! This is all very strange and I'm embarrassed to ask Monty about it; to say that I found his finely tuned Yuu for which I paid $700, seems dead and dull. 

I will have to play both, and see. On YouTube I've seen some amazing playing on a dead stock Yuu. 

I woke up at about 4:30. It was dry out. FedEx closes at 6 on weekends so I really wasn't going to get any packages out today but that was actually not the plan I formulated last night. 

Rather, I headed out at about 5:30 (now that I'm an old guy it always takes me an hour to get moving at the start of my day and although I can if I have to, deploy in 10 or 15 minutes, I generally don't have to so I don't). I'd done the routine of washing my head with hot water and soap, then ears with Dettol, then rubbing tea tree oil into my ears, first thing. 

My first stop was the FedEx dumpster where I got rid of a lot of trash, and found a box of veggies someone had dumped into the recycling can. I pulled it out, and got about 6 onions and two cucumbers, the kind you have to peel. As a way of payment, I balanced the rest of the box, holding potatoes, apples, pears, etc. and took it over to the very end of Junction where bums and all sorts of people hang out. 

Then I went straight to 99 Ranch, where I got two tea eggs (you pay cash for those) and then went into the main store and got a Mr. Brown black coffee and a couple of cans of pate' just so I'm buying something. I ate the tea eggs and washed them down with the coffee at one of the boba places' tables. I thought it was funny, Chinese people going by, contemplating which of the two boba places to get their $7 or $8 cup of fancy tea, while I, a non-Chinese, sit with the cheapest can of coffee ($1.50) I could get and tea eggs, a traditional Chinese snack especially for the working class.

I paid for my stuff and got $100 back to put into savings. That was kind of the reason for the trip.  

I then went to H Mart with the $60 I already had on me that I'll allow myself to spend, and went through the whole store looking for things I want to buy. I spent $30 of my $60, and even that was with, somehow, someone's little package of grape gummies ending up in my bag and my paying $2 for them. I found them when I got back here. 

Packing materials were a big fat zero except for, on the other side of this complex here, some bubble wrap that wet but I have it hanging up to dry in the loft. 

How different this place is than a lot of places in Hawaii. I have 400-500 square feet of "my" space (office and loft) plus a huge parking lot if I ever want to do huge parking lot things, can come and go any time, can be as noisy as I like, etc. *Most* places in Hawaii are a bit more restrictive. 

I am perfectly well prepared, though, to live in a small room where it's peaceful and I can have my books and can walk over to the University of Hawaii campus to do my practice and to "wherever" to play, maybe in Waikiki of course, but perhaps in any of a number of other places where the shakuhachi would be welcome where the trumpet is not. 

Then to Eggs & Things or some night-time spot for some dinner, and back home to my books and ideally my tatami mats and some tea... 

Aaaaaand it's gone - I mean, yep, good old Etsy was banking with Silicon Valley Bank and guess who can't pay their artists/crafters now? https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/11osepf/etsy_warns_sellers_of_payments_delays_due_to/

This is why I'm getting bigger and bigger on the underground/undocumented economy. My collecting those onions and cucumbers is actually part of that economy. I was considering whether to buy another onion or two until I found that box. In return, I put the rest of the stuff where other people will find it and use it. I put things out all the time, and pick things up fairly often. 

My dribs and drabs of cash from busking are another example. My giving the phone to the bum is an example. Now they don't have to buy a phone, and the $100 or $150 I'd have gotten for it from Craig's List is money off of the documented economy onto the undocumented one. 

By the way I saw the bum today, walking past as I locked my bike, called their name and they turned around and came back. I asked if the phone was working out OK and they said a dull "Yes", and that was it. I said there's a building on Monterey downtown where there are services for homeless youth, and maybe this person will start hooking up with some of them. 

If I depend on anything on-line, like Etsy or any thing "tech", it's only a matter of time before I'm let down. The boom-and-crash cycle guarantees it. 

I got into a jag packing things - everything - not just the FedEx things to take to FedEx assuming I can wake up in time. I had to move my wall clock forward an hour. So, I wanted things ready to just grab and go. I don't know how wet things will be but at least traffic is much more relaxed on a Sunday.