The Beat cafe provided us with another musical and conversation delight during the summer holiday (I hate that I now call this a ‘vacation’)

Although we were tired and sitting on a wooden bench for three hours had its own challenge, we got to enjoy three musical acts as the sun set over Ayaragi beach.

Our favourite group were a Japanese A Capella group. They were a lot of fun and had great energy as they performed! One piece was in English and on conclusion they looked straight at us and asked ‘did you understand?’ The truth was yes, just…but we were saved from answering by another patron who clearly didn’t appreciate that the only Westerners in the room had been singled out in English! The group apologised and asked us again in Japanese. That recognition is not something that happens often…

From our experience, low-key music shows in Japan are very unique. They are about 50% music and 50% conversation and chat with the audience. It seems to sit at odds with a society where small talk is generally not engaged with (in fact, ‘small talk’ is a topic I often teach!) Nevertheless, between songs musicians will tell us all about themselves and their music (anything else and it went straight over our heads).

The sunset was another brilliant one and all in all it was a great way to spend another evening in our local community.

#Yamaguchi