Mt. Takao's Inariyama Trail is quieter than its numbered partners and, although marred by traffic noise for the first kilometer or so, offers the most peaceful soundscape. Reaching the top of the 3.5km trail, I sat with a Takana Onigiri and set my recorder facing the trees away from the clearing. The sound of the birds across the valley and in amongst the trees were captured as well by the machine and by my own ears as I meditated the mountain clam. 
Coming down the mountain via the 6th trail, I stopped at Biwa Waterfall, with its golden topped shrine and rising sandal wood smoke. Access to the shrine and the fall itself was closed, perhaps due to the virus or perhaps due to the oncoming sundown, but I was able to capture the sounds of its waters as I took in the last moments of the day. 
I decided to mix the birdsong into the sounds of the waterfall to best capture the day as a whole and to get some practice in with most production. 

Hope you enjoy,

Max.

Nature in Tokyo: Biwa Waterfall & the Birds of Mt. Takao／東京の自然：琵琶の滝と高尾山の鳥のさえずり

Nothing beats finding a cozy restaurant to enjoy your own company in during heavy he rain storm. Phone off, earbuds out, enjoying the atmosphere of a 2 curry lunch set with the sound of Indian languages coming from the kitchen, jazz from the speakers and rain behind me. 

Enjoy,

M

T O K Y O R A I N Indian Restaurant Ambience to WFH /  Relax / Quarantine to 東京のインド料理店

For me, waking up after a night camping in the UK usually meant waking up to the sounds of a distant moo, bark or neigh and the pitta patter of rain on your pop up tent or campers stroke festival goers screaming with the pain of agonising hangovers. 
To my delight, after an incredibly stormy night camping Orange Mura, a campsite and citrus grove in the south east of Japan's Chiba peninsula, I was woken by a truly immersive dawn chorus of birdsong. The birds nested in the tall cedar trees above offered one sound, the bamboo forests lower in the valley another, and the citrus trees another still. Crows and hawks circled above the orchestra below, occasionally chiming in with their own unique sounds.

If the sounds of city life get too much and you need an audible escape to nature, I hope you enjoy.

Thanks,

M

Dawn Chorus from a Japanese Citrus Grove

Tokyo's Korea Town, Shin Okubo, is one of the most diverse and visually interesting areas of Tokyo. With the streets lined with Korean restaurants, street food vendors and futuristic neon fonts of Hangul  text, it could be easy to ignore the unique soundscape. A walk around this neighborhood on a Saturday evening offers all of the usual sounds of Saturday night life in Tokyo's other busy hubs like nearby Shinjuku, Shibuya or Akihabara but if you listen carefully, you will hear the neighborhood's diversity as well as see it. Korean, of course, but also a large amount of Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog and Vietnamese can be heard along the main drag of Shin Okubo Dori.

An accompanying video will be uploaded to You Tube with this recording. You can check that out at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9d9o-Oncv07N8lPcMLUHCA

Thanks,

M.

Night Walks: Shin Okubo, Tokyo's Korea Town

The story of Hoichi the Earless (耳なし芳一, Mimi-nashi Hōichi) is a classic Japanese ghost story put into to English by Irish-Greek author Lafcadio Hearn in 1904 in his brilliant collection of Japanese ghost stories Kwaidan (怪談).

in the hope of adding some atmosphere to the spookiness of the tale, I have included several of my own field recordings in the story including the sounds of the evening bugs in summer, the sounds of rain and the chants of a Buddhist ritual at Tokyo's Yakuo-in Temple on Mt. Takao. 

Thanks,

M

Outside Sounds Kwaidan

Japanese Horror: Hoichi the Earless by Lafcadio Hearn

7am at the famous Tsukiji Market in Tokyo's Chuo City. Previously home to the Tsukiji Inner Fish Market, the largest wholesale market on the planet for decades, it is now geared towards a growing tourism trade destroyed by the pandemic. As the sun rises on a cloudy January morning, the sound of market sellers setting up their stalls , finely slicing their product and creating wheeling around Styrofoam crates packed with ice creates a peaceful city ambience away from sounds of heavy traffic and light railways.

When the borders open and the tourists flood the market once more, I hope to record here again for comparison. Until then, eat some raw fish and enjoy the sounds of Tokyo's Tsukiji Fish Market.

Tokyo Walks: Tsukiji Market Morning Walk

While many cities around the world may have quieter soundscapes in early 2021, there is little sign of Japan's second state of emergency when walking around Shinjuku this January. 
As we exit the Shinjuku JR Station, we are greeted first by English language announcements, usually meant for the ears of foreign tourists and then by the sound of an activist from Japan's far-right. The sound of his moaning soon gives way to the song and guitar strings of a young busker, who plays to a crowd of 3 or 4 crowed passersby who were kind enough to briefly stop and listen. 
As I walk down a flight of concrete stairs, the sound of skateboards clap before the quintessentially obnoxious sound of Tokyoite advertising takes centrestage.

Tokyo By Night: Sounds of Shinjuku

The coming in of the Lunar New Year from the Masobyo Chinese Temple in Yokohama, Japan. Intentionally loud, the music accompanies dancing lions across Asia as they bless shrines, temples, homes and businesses before the new year.

Lunar New Year Lion Dance

Closing in on 5pm on a warm Saturday afternoon during Tokyo's second state of emergency of the Covid era. At the Toshogu Shinto Shrine in Ueno Park, loudspeakers ask us to leave in polite English, Mandarin and Japanese while the tune of a familiar Scottish poem plays softly in the background. What better way to commemorate the historical military leader enshrined here than the tune of a Scottish folk song.

Closing Time At Ueno Toshogu

Quiet backstreets open up to busy underpass dining in Tokyo's Ueno District.

Tokyo By Night: Ueno Evening Walk

If you take time to stop an observe to the everydayness of everyday life, you will notice patterns where you'd only assumed disorder. Watching and listening to the sounds of Ueno Park as went down, I noticed that the crowds tended to leave the park in waves. From one or two young couples awkwardly holding hands  one moment to the quiet stampede of hundreds of feet the next. Have a listen and perhaps you'll notice this rhythm too. 

Either way, I hope you enjoy.

Park Life: Exodus in Ueno

When its in a different language, having every possible sensual orifice blasted with obnoxious capitalism can actually be pretty cool. I often consider the idea of Japan being world's only real life incarnation of the cyberpunk fever dream as misplaced with the honour best bestowed on 90's Kowloon or present day Chongqing. However, watching a 20 foot tall LDC of neon Polar Bears peddling corporate propaganda while loud speakers preach social distancing measures to crowds thousands of masked commuters is, I suppose, pretty much in line with that dystopian dream.

Best enjoyed with headphones.

Let me know what you think!

Tokyo Nights: Shibuya Crossing 渋谷スクランブル

Hello and welcome to Outside Sounds, a library of the sounds of the outside world I hope to remember and share in the hope of promoting more active listening as we travel through the daily life and wonders of our world.

My generation has had the good fortune to travel the world at increasing convenience and decreasing cost but I fear we have missed something I'm only now realising. We have neglected truly listening to the beauty of our surroundings.  Big travel vlogger you find online will rarely give time to the sounds around them but more likely  fill their videos with voice overs and inappropriate music. I'm guilty of this myself in the real world as I'm sure many of us are. Hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2013, a daily priority was to plug in the playlist of the day. For this reason and only myself to blame, I have no memories of the sound of Kilimanjaro, it's wildlife, its winds or the myriad of local languages spoken by our guides. This is true of many of the amazing places I've seen but never bothered to hear. 

Inspired in part by Japan's 100 Soundscapes of Japan whose mission is to "promote the rediscovery of the sounds of daily life", I hope this can become a collection of sounds I can revisit with the same excitement of flicking through an old photo album.

Thanks,

M

Outside Sounds

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