THAT SOUND HAS TO BE...

I'd been walking around Duck Pond at the park when I thought I heard the plucking of strings I heard only in Okinawa. That's the sound that comes from a musical instrument I got used to hearing while growing up on the island. Wait...why am I hearing that sound...here in Saitama, mainland Japan, a land a thousand miles away?

I raised my eyes and turned my head around the park path. There, on a rock on the side of the pond, sat an elderly woman with a....I had to look several times to be sure...SAMISEN. She was playing it old traditional style, with a big black pick worn on the finger.

Samisen. The Okinawan three-stringed musical instrument. The mainland Japanese version has the squarish body covered in cat gut. The Okinawan instrument however, appears a bit more round and is covered by habu skin.

I had to say something to let the person know I so appreciated her playing the sounds of my childhood there at the park, so I did. But then I realized I didn't know a thing more about Okinawan music or Okinawan musical instruments so wouldn't be able to converse, maybe should've kept my big mouth shut.

I was glad when somebody else stopped by--it seems Okinawans ALWAYS comment whenever they hear samisen music, according to this woman playing her traditional instrument. I made a hasty exit before I could be asked something I wouldn't be able to answer and reveal my ignorance.

I love Okinawa and want to claim it as my own but know so little about it--I wonder how many others there are like me?