Yoyogi Park, sun, cherry blossoms and tap dancing

Location
Yoyogi Park Tokyo
Equipment
Edirol R09
Aquarian H3

Today was one of the most beautiful days I have had since coming to Tokyo. The cherry blossoms are out everywhere and it is a clear and sunny day. I decided to go for a walk in Yoyogi Park which is famous for its blossoms. I also decided to take my hydrophone with me, and I’m not sure why. As it tuned out it was a good idea.

The park has a large pond in the middle with fountains that cycle between spraying and not spraying. When I dropped the hydrophone into the water I could clearly hear the pump operating and even hear when it was cycling up to spay the next jet of water. I recorded it with the mic in several different positions and got different sounds depending on my location in relation to the pump. This was interesting and boy did I get some strange looks from the locals.

Yoyogi Park

Next I walked over to a small wooden pier that protruded intot he pond. There was a Japanese guy practising tap dancing on the wood. I think he was getting ready for some talent competition show as the BS2 Japanese TV studio was right next to the park. The amazing thing was all his tap dancing was vibrating straight through the wood and down into the water so I was able to record all of it from underwater which was a very unusual effect. I am now going to claim to be the first person in the world to record tap dancing underwater, so until someone comes along and proves they did it before me; I have that claim to fame.

The rest of the afternoon was just enjoying Tokyo’s fantastic parks and lovely weather at this time of the year.