Musicians in Amsterdam

Today I visited Ayumi’s house.

She is a  recorder player and teach it in an international school.

She also organize a concert in a church.

I accidentally met Marten,  Ayumi’s fiend there.

He is a pianist and come to go throw a rehearsals with Ayumi

for the next concert on 19th April in the church.

They played Bach with a cembalo and recorder, it was just amazing.

Kids are very happy to grow up in her music.

He talked about when he played organ with choir from Ghana.

“When I finished playing, I was asked ‘Are you from Ghana?’ ”

He say with laughing.

“At first they were not very friendly, but once I played a organ,

We got to be friends quickly,

Music has no borders”

“Same flower” I said it.

Ayumi send me a message at the night.

“I believe that I can sweep away borders between age or culture or position

with this small recorder

It will be beautiful if we can share the same happiness simply with art ”

They invited me to arrange flowers on the next concert!

We Japanese has created a lot of rules for flower in ikebana.

There is no meaning to explain the rule to the world ,

But I also believe it can sweep away borders

that we have confirmed what is beautiful  again and again in the long history.

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1st step to the flower exhibition

I visited a volunteer community with Hannie today

to ask for some help to work out our flower exhibition in a canal.

They clean rubbish in a canal once a month.

It was lucky that they were very cooperative for us!

 

They offered to us to join the cleaning with a “free boat”!

It was the first time I was on a canal.

The city looked more beautiful than I always see on the ground.

But, I was sorry, there were so many rubbishes in the canal

I didn’t see from the ground…

It is the same as my city Kyoto.

Some people leave them at the beautiful city,

then some people clean it to keep the city beautiful.

 

Anyway,  we get the possibility to use this wood framed plants box!

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My first Dutch lesson

At first, let me describe my apartment.

The house next to my place is a Japanese stuff shop ” ‘t Japanse winkeltje” on the ground floor,

and a Japanese culture center  ” ‘t Japnase cultureel centrum” on the first floor.

Emiko is the manager of the center.

She’s already suggested me to join a lot of events there! (Thank you Emiko)

 

Today, I joined a Dutch lesson.

Our teacher is Carolien.

She is pretty and fun and speaks fluent Japanese!

And students are Masaki and Kyusan and me.

They are both artists and have already lived in Holland a few years.

They are calm people but have energy and love to their art.

It was very nice to see them and I’m looking forward to the next lesson!

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Doe maar gewoon

日本語

Somehow, I don’t feel being a stranger in this city, Amsterdam.

Almost all Dutch people (also non Dutch people) talk to me naturally

in English while I just studied Dutch language a little.

I can hear many accented English in the whole city where

nobody care about my Japanese accent and broken grammar.

That makes me easier to speak English for me.

 

Today, my friend Martha walked around the city with me.

She went along with me and told me more.

Dutch culture is working out differences between

where they were born or their position or their age.

And she continuted telling that one idea will be at the bottom of

Holland, especially Amsterdam.

“Doe maar gewoon”

It’s a little tough for me to translate Dutch into English,

“Be natural ” or “Go to your natural way” .

 

Now, the city is  filled of the air that they have thought so for hundreds years in Amsterdam.

If I call the air, it would be “freedom”

 

In this Evening, I went to her place and she cooked me “Martha dish”.

I loved it.

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A talk about bee with Hannie

日本語;http://florist-westvillage.com/archives/5844/

Groede morgen!

This is the very first day in Amsterdam!

I was just unpacking my bags when she visited me.

I actually can’t start talking about my Amsterdam life without her.

 

She is Hannie van den Bergh, the support member of this

‘deshima AIR’.

We talked about how we manage our flower exhibition,

and the schedule of appointments to see people who will help us.

 

Then, she invited me to a talk about “bee in the city”.

“Why are bees so important?” I asked,

Flowers won’t bloom without bees.

When bee is fine, the natural circumstance is fine.

“That’s why People here have interest about bee in these days”

We Japanese wouldn’t think that much.

We think making a effort to protect our nature but

our discussion doesn’t reach to the Amsterdam level, I feel.

 

This is the only first day in Amsterdam.

I’m really excited what’s going to happen tomorrow.

 

★My Japanese friend in Kyoto city office told me the bee project in Kyoto

http://www.miyako328.org/

 

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Ryoko Nishimura

Hoi!

I am Ryoko Nishimura, an ikebana artist. from Kyoto, Japan.

I’ve come to Amsterdam to see how Dutch people love flowers and live with them.

I will stay here for 3 months then I hold a flower exhibition in the last terms of my stay.

 

Ikebana is a Japanese tradition,

but I don’t think it’s only a tradition.

Ikebana has many rules we created in the long history.

But I think the rules and traditional shapes aren’t the most important thing.

I say, ikebana is,  trying to image something unvisiable on the flower.

Or, arranging flowers to make something visiable.

Blowing wind, seasonal changes, someone’s heart, attractions of the place, history of the city…

Even Japanese people will say “ikebana is complicated” but

If you just can feel those things on flower whether you can’t arrange flowers in the traditional way,

ikebana is your side.

Ikebana is imagination.

 

I’d like to tell that to Dutch people, and Japanese people.

Hannie (8)

 

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Ryoko Nishimura
Website; http://florist-westvillage.com/
Email;westvillagegoodgirl@gmail.com

BIMHUIS

Hello!

I went to BIMHUIS to see the dance performance on December 1st.

I was so touched!

The performance to attracts is great.

BIMHUIS is big and beautiful 🙂

こんにちは!

12月1日にビムハウスという所でダンスパフォーマンスを見に行きました。

感動しました!引き付けるパフォーマンスはすごいです。

ビムハウスは大きくてきれかったです(^^)

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PERFORMANCE

I went to dance performance at Overtoom on November 27th.

I was really touched!

The space world was amazing.

I learned a lot from that.

Thank you .

11月27日にOvertoomでダンスパフォーマンスがありました。

すごく感動しました!

その空間の世界がすごかったです。

とても勉強になりました。ありがとうございたした。

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