I love music, and so one of the things I do for fun here is host a radio show once a month on Tamba Public Radio, 80.5 FM. The show is called “Atarashi (new) Radio.” My wife and a couple of friends always join me as co-hosts, and for half an hour we play new releases, across many genres, and talk about the music and whatever else we feel like.
The building that houses the studio sits next to a rice field, and my show is at night, so I always approach the place in the dark. The way it’s lit up makes me feel welcome. My co-hosts and I try to make listeners feel the same way, as if they’re joining us in the studio.
In addition to the radio show, I satisfy my hunger for music by going to live shows. Even though I live in the countryside, there are plenty of venues if I’m willing to travel a bit. About a half an hour’s drive away there’s a new music club called Modi Jody, where my wife and I have become semi-regulars and befriended some of the musicians and fellow patrons.
The quality of the music is always very high, featuring professional musicians trained at top music schools in Japan and abroad. The club hosts bands that play jazz standards as well as original compositions across various genres.
A little further away, the cities of Kobe, Osaka, and Kyoto are each within a two hour drive or train ride of my home, and there’s plenty of live music happening in each of them all the time. We recently went to Kobe to hear our friend and jazz singer Taeko perform with a pianist and trombonist (Taeko had a twenty-year music career in New York before returning to Japan during the pandemic).
Two of our friends who live in Kobe joined us for the show. At one point they were moved to tears by the beauty of Taeko’s singing. That’s music. Like nothing else, it has the power to heal, to inspire, and to bring people together.
