Yin and Yang

Yesterday was a very interesting day. I had a very elatedly happy morning but shattered by a mere twist of fate.

As I sometimes do, yesterday morning I took a few hours off work for a bit of 'treatment' from the Doctor.
Partly because I will be away this Sunday - so I can't go, and because I am not so busy at work - thus this presents as good a time as any to pull a flex time, and most importantly because it was going to be my friend MirPir's first class at the taiko drumming. I always like to be in a newbie's first class, particularly when I brought the newbie into the troupe. I somewhat feel the responsibility to keep them entertained with the class, so they would come back for more.

Anyways, the class was excellent. An unusual Thursday class indeed. We had me, the great Tazawa-san, the chirpy Sato-san, Kiyomi, lovely Lena, Arianne, Hattori-san and of course the eager MirPir.
The class was divided into two shifts, the beginner and the advance. Sensei put me on both, so I could help MirPir out with some of the tricky pieces. Let me tell you, drumming for 2 solid hours with no break was quite a workout.
We played so many arrangements and spent sometime with MirPir so she could pick up the rythm and join in with the pieces. Such a happy morning, everybody was actually taking the time to re-study some of the pieces that we have taken for granted. Very energizing.

A professional musician, MirPir* picked up really quickly, she remembered the pieces very quickly and absorbed everything in, even the tricky movement. Normally sensei does not teach the movement so early in the class, but he did yesterday.
It was amazing to experience the energy, she was so happy to be banging on the drums, and I was so happy because she was so happy, and our teacher was so happy because everyone were giving their everything. Given the variety of levels in the players yesterday, the pieces were not perfect, but it did not matter. The class was so alive, the taiko drums even seemed to be giving out more energy than usual. And I couldn't stop laughing because I was ecstatic. This is one of the best class that I've ever attended.

Everybody stayed back, while I had to leave at noon and go back to my corporate live. I took the train to Yoyogi station and was ready to hop on my bicycle and discovered that my bicycle disappeared.
It was gone. Missing. GONE.

I thought... WHAT? Did some jerk steal my bicycle?

I was about to stomp my feet to the nearby police box, when I took a deep breath and looked around and I saw something really strange. There was no bicycle in sight. Not a single one. Only then it downed on me, I guess they're really doing it now. On that fateful morning, my beautiful bicycle was swept and being discarded at the bicycle graveyard because it was considered to be illegally parked.

Damn.

Not in the mood for the police to be preaching me about bicycle parking, I decided to just go ahead to work anyway and deal with it in the evening after work.

The bicycle was finally collected at the bicycle 'graveyard' not so far from my house. I had to pay 2,000 yen (about 20 USD) to bail it. At the graveyard I saw at least 300 other bicycle, which means if all owners go and collect their bicycles and pay the bail fee, in just one day's work, the government of Shibuya district has just made 600,000 yen (approx 6,000 USD) in one go.

Maybe I should consider a service I could provide for the district administration. hehehe. It seems like easy money.

All that happened yesterday made me wonder though... I think I was scarily happy yesterday morning at drumming, it almost consumed me. Then I got to the station and had the disastrous experience with the bicycle.
Something tells me it might have something to do with the universe trying to keep my feet on the ground. Do you belive in this kind of stuff? I'm beginning to.



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*MirPir is a musician performing for the much celebrated Cirque du Soleil. Throughout 2007 and 2008, Dralion will be performing in various locations in Japan.