Come Sit by a Snake-Dragon Lake Early in the Morn - binaural goodness! (Patreon)

Forty-eight minutes of lakeside bliss! 

I think you are going to absolutely LOVE this field recording. It's for those who just want to chill beside a small lake in the autumn as well as for those who are studying Japanese and want to get some listening practice in. 

First, you can hear songbirds in the trees, crows caw-caw-cawing, ducks quacking or shaking water off their wings, and even the koi/carp jumping up to slurp some unsuspecting bug on the surface of the lake. Also, you'll hear a bit of a Shinto ceremony in the background (drums). The day we went was Shichi-go-san / 7-5-3, a day that celebrates children ages 7, 5, and 3. The Shinto ceremony was a kind of blessing and praying for the health and prosperity of the child of the family that requested it. There's more, too!

Okay, let me backup a little. 

Sakuragaike Lake (pond?) is about an hour's drive from here, so my plan was to get up before dawn and make the trip. I figured we'd get better photos and sounds that way. Which would have happened, except I made the mistake of opening a bottle of Malbec the night before and since my body no longer handles booze very well, even a glass or two gives me a raging headache. There was no waking up before dawn, except to take some Advil, crawl back into bed, and try and sleep the pain off. 

But we did get up at eight and make it to the lake sometime around nine. Gorgeous day! Loads of ducks had flown in for a brief visit (The old guy raking the leaves told me this was the best time of year to see them, said they're more friendly than other ducks, too...I don't know about that, but anyway...)

We get there and find that a house nearby the lake was running some very obnoxious (and very loud) generator and I thought we might both cry. Richard went to check it out and after a couple glances over the hedges, the generator stopped. Wew. Thank you, Richard's scary face. 

We tried different places, but the recording here is when we set the whole microphone contraption on a stone right next to the water. Then we took off to the far sides of the lake to take photos or chill, so we wouldn't be recorded. But people did come and walk around, so you can hear them.

My absolute favorite was a mother and her young son who were walking around the edge of the lake. As they get closer you can hear the adorable little boy making comments about the fish and stuff. He's so excited. Around the 13 minute mark they are getting quite close to the microphones. 

At 14:38 the mother sees the microphone setup and says something like "Nanja, koreya?" /What the heck is this? The little boy offers his wary, "Nani?" / What is it? Then the mother says, "Nazo no." / It's a mystery or It's puzzling. Something like that. After that the boy comments that he thinks it's a dictionary (ojisho). I believe that's what he says. The thing the microphones are attached to is a big square beige thingy that could look like a book. The mom mumbles something about why is it left there and how it shouldn't just be left there. Good teaching moment. Son, don't leave your crap by a nice lake.  

I wanted to run over and explain, but also didn't want to ruin the recording. They walked around the recording device and kept on their little conversations, the mom desperately wanting to go home (Kaeroze / 帰ろうぜ), the boy thoroughly enjoying the lovely day. 

All that to say, I think this is the most 3-D recordings we've ever done. You can really hear the ducks at different places in the lake, fish right next to the microphones, crows randomly calling out, and I'm sure a lot of other nature goodness. 

I hope you like it! 

terrie

Some photos below.

Below is the Shrine where the ceremony was held. 

Hungry little critters.