Good ol' Pepto

 Well, I guess you can't have an American home without a bottle of Pepto-Bismol in it. I wonder if this is worldwide, or if there are similar salicylic nostrums in other nations? 

I practiced the shakuhachi last night, long tones and a few songs, then got the glass flute out and did a bit of practice but felt frustrated with it. Frankly I can get a louder, nicer tone out of the shakuhachi and I really wonder how much I'd wow 'em when out busking, holding what's really a relatively small, non-eye-catching piece of glass? 

In the shakuhachi club we're learning gathas which are Jodo Shinshu/Buddhist Churches of America songs which is all well and fine but they're not necessarily shakuhachi songs. There are definitely shakuhachi songs, the more advanced of which show off the capabilities of the shakuhachi that make it such a unique instrument. 

There are also tons of "minyo" which are folk/children's songs, often played on smaller, higher-pitched shakuhachi. Those are neat. 

But I can also make stuff up on the fly, bending notes and doing little filigrees like that that sound cool. 

So I really wonder if I should work on "dressing up" my shakuhachi by painting it to look more like a bamboo one and putting some bindings on, and just getting out there with it? 

I can't say I really regret spending $120 or so on the glass flute, it's kind of a neat thing and I might change my mind but I'm beginning to think that if I'm going to be a shakuhachi player, the "shakuhachi universe" is huge and there's no need for me to venture beyond it. 

I packed a ton of things last night, leaving 7 large/large-ish things for today. I woke up around 3 and my stomach hurt like hell. It hurt worse with some food and coffee and finally, while packing things, I got out the Pepto. Here I was thinking that on a low carb diet I'd not need it, but there it was in my medicine drawer and am I glad it was. 

I was able to get 7 boxes packed and get out of here on time, do the post office and FedEx. Behind H Mart  I found a friendly bum going through their dumpster and we had fun digging around and talking about the things we'd found. I got a bottle of almond milk and 6-7 wrapped mochi with black bean fillings. All stuff that's not on my diet, but Tom should like. 

I'd run into H Mart not only to use the loo but buy some celery and that was *my* treat. 

I went right over to Tom's and he was out so I left the bag with the almond milk and mochi on the table out front - he'll get 'em. 

I went around by Sanmina and this other place that throws out stuff. I picked out a Nalgene bottle that looked interesting, was going to keep it, then decided it had something inside that was greenish .... opened it and took a good sniff - Strong chlorine! Greenish, duh! I put it back and now my nose feels like when I was a kid and would swim in some neighbor's pool that was heavily chlorinated. 

I picked up a good load of packing stuff and got back in here. I eventually settled down and had a soup with shoyu tonkotsu base I had around here, snow peas, pork, ginger, and garlic. It was really good.