I’m SJF, living in Kyoto and sharing the sounds and small details of this city — from rivers and temple gardens to local festivals. These letters follow my life here, my podcast Kyoto, in Sound, and the Sound Walks I guide, all with the hope of noticing what might otherwise be missed.
Hello from a Kyoto on the cusp of summer. No cicadas just yet though.
I haven’t posted an episode of the Kyoto, in Sound podcast in a while have I? Last time we visited Kyoto Station and talked about the trains with Charles. This next episode was born out of a chat with my good friend Ash.
I asked him the question I ask everyone for this podcast: what’s your favourite sound? And he didn’t really need to think about it. “The sound of Ryoko doing one of her arrangements,” he said. Ryoko is his wife. She runs flower arranging classes here in Kyoto, under the name HanaYou. I’ve taken one of her classes myself, and they’re genuinely lovely.
So we spent a morning together. We started at Rokkaku-do, the supposed birthplace of Ikebana, then walked over to Hanamasa, her favourite flower shop in the city, to choose what she’d use for the arrangement. Then back to her studio, where she put it all together while I recorded as close as I could get: the scissors, the kenzan taking each stem, her hands, and the quiet in between whilst she decides what comes next.
The whole thing is in this episode.
If you’re looking for something to do whilst in Kyoto, I can’t recommend her classes enough. Please check out www.hanayou.studio
A big thank you to Ash for helping with the filming, and to Ryoko for taking the morning out to spend time with me. And to their daughter Kaja, for the help with recording sound!
I’m not really doing the whole social media thing at the moment, so if you enjoyed this and feel like a friend would too, please share it with them. It helps a ton.
And until next time, thank you for noticing with me.
SJF
