The Keyboard Saga

You may or may not have noted a few stray posts about trying to send my keyboard home. Well, with much help from Yoshie, I was able to pack it up in bubble wrap inside of a soft case and lug it over to the post office across the street. And man was it a pain, weighing 29 kg and no usable handles on the case. It cost about 39,000 34,000 yen to send back...steep, almost what I originally paid for it. But considering this model costs $800 in the States and this was my cheapest option, I suppose it was acceptable. I hope it survives the trip, but at least the 40,000 of insurance barely cost anything.

Closing thought: If the keyboard doesn't make the trip, do I get back the 40,000 plus the cost of shipping or just the 40,000? If the latter, then I would have been better off just leaving it here.

Edit: Sorry, somehow mis-remembered the shipping price. Corrected.

The Witching Hour: An original composition

I've always considered myself to be somewhat artistic - I used to love to draw, I write short stories from time to time, and I've played piano on and off for years. But I've never really dedicated myself to anything...perhaps that's why I'm capable at so many things but not really outstanding at any one thing (in my mind, anyway). Well, here's another dabblance: my first original song.

Some months ago I bought this keyboard and mentioned I may upload a video or two in the future to let you know how it's going. Pretty well, I think. This short piece is called "The Witching Hour" or "真夜中". I hope you enjoy it.

A thing of beauty

A pleasant surprise - I had ordered this new (and expensive) keyboard a couple weeks ago. The vendor send me this email afterwards that they were out of stock and probably wouldn't send it to me until the end of April. Well, it came early. I just finished setting it up and playing around with it a little bit. It's a Korg SP-250, and man is it nice - weighted keys, beautiful sound quality, a damper pedal...makes me wish I had played more over the past few years. I took lessons for 7 years when I was a kid, then quit around high school and just kind of played every now and then with no real regularity (although I had a pretty nice keyboard in college that is waiting for me back home). Anyway, time to make up for lost time. If I get any good I'll try to post a recording or two!

ナイスサプライズだよ。二週間ぐらい前にこのキーボードを注文したんだ。その後でお店は品切れしてたから4月末に到着だってお知らせしました。さあ、早く来たよ！

僕は子供の時に七年間レッソン取って高校進学したとやめてしまった。あのところからただ所々弾いた。じゃあ、失った時間を取り戻す時だな。よっしゃ！もし十分に弾けたら、いつかブログで録音とか貼るね。