Foreign Musicians in Japan

This group of musicians from Chile play at Hashimoto train station at least once a week. They are full-time “professional-amateurs,” I call them, because there is no way that they will ever get a break here, and make it into “stardom.” But they are good… Excellent. There are four members, each of them play all sorts of wooden and stringed instruments that I don’t know the name of.  I am a loser in that department, the instruments are all well-known in their country, but I am clueless. All I know is that these boys have “great ears,” always on the money in-tune with each other, very rich and soothing harmonies coming out…I was particularly touched the other day, because they played a 45-minute non-stop medley of great music that stopped me in my tracks. There was no walking past this. The crowd gathered slowly, and after about a half hour there were at least two- hundred folks standing and listening to this band. The kicker for me, and so many others, I noticed, was when a young boy (with downs syndrome) started dancing. He was by himself, the music was flowing through his body, uncaring about what anyone else thought. He danced. And danced. He was enjoying that music and his life, at the moment, carefree as all. He was rejoicing the power of music, arms held high in the air, smiling, not a care in the world, dancing in front of two- hundred people all by himself, for about twenty minutes. Touched me beyond belief. I was seriously fighting the tears, but there was no walking away from this. This kid was teaching me something…