Christmas Koto Jam Session – by Melissa

On Monday, I played Jingle Bells on the koto.  Mizutani-sensei tuned it on a traditional Western do-re-mi scale and sounded out the sheet music’s title in katakana.  “Jinguru Beru,” she said and beamed at me. I had been playing Sakura Sakura and other Japanese folk songs whose names in Kanji I could not read.  Jingle Bells seemed unsuited for the koto, but her eyes were excited, like we were in for big fun.  Even with the new tuning, I had to play in funky half notes. This was hard for me and I kept losing my place on the vertical sheet music.  I could tell I was disappointing her the same way I disappoint other Japanese people when I don’t know something about American pop culture.  Like when my supervisor was shocked to learn I haven’t seen Bad News Bears and that I don’t own any Police albums.