2024's Midnight Temple Bell Ringing (binaural sounds) (Patreon)

On New Year's Eve we went again to a local temple (Rinsōin) to ring out the old year and ring in the new one.  I didn't take many photos. The one at the bottom is one of them though. 

This year was quite warm, maybe one of the warmest I've experienced on New Year's Eve while living here. So warm was it that there were lots of people -- which you'll hear in the recording. 

We had to wait in line forty minutes to climb up and ring it, too. So it's a nice long recording with lots of inaka chatter. I really, really love listening to people talk amongst themselves in Japanese. Not to be a creep, but to learn how to say certain things and I love hearing how people use the language, if they're humbling theirselves or raising someone up or being a jerk. 

There were some friends (college-aged, I'm guessing) in front of us that I got quite the joy from listening to. One guy and three girls. He was very nice making conversation with everyone and telling really lame jokes. One repeatedly because it got laughs. I think even Richard said it was so nice to get out and hear people laugh and be happy. We get too much into our news and state of the world most times, I suppose.

I thought the high schoolers were an interesting lot. Usually they don't come. It's only old sorts. But the nice weather must have empowered them. Noisy and I'd go as far as to say rude (but, hey, high schoolers). They were in line early and made a huge deal of recording each other posing and striking the bell, no wait, let's do another...etc. etc. etc *yawn* But as soon as they got down from the little tower, they all clustered together, every single one on their phones, blue screens on faces, looking at what they'd taken, no doubt sharing it on social media and with friends. That was a little cute. I just listened a bit to the recording and I heard someone say: Manna ga warui or bad manners. I'm guessing that's about them. Heck, it could have been me who said it. 😅

And finally, Richard does record all the way to the time we ring the bell. I think you can hear me speaking to him in Japanese (I switch to Japanese when around Japanese, I guess) and asking if he wanted to ring it with me. He took a photo, I think, instead. My favorite thing and you can hear it there in the last few minutes, is the huge bell swinging Vwooom Vwooom! You'll know it when you hear it. It's pretty awesome.

I'm not sure the recording is meditative enough for sitting quietly and stilling the mind or sleeping even, but absolutely a slice of Japanese small town life at New Years. 

Oh, and when it starts you'll hear fireworks echoing in the background. It had just struck midnight when Richard started recording. So that's what that is. 

P.S. Chad! No annoying guy on loud speaker this year!! 🙌

P.P.S. Lots I want to talk about and write about here, but we're super focused on recording the book. I'll get more up soon. 

XOXO, 

t