{"id":4884,"date":"2017-05-14T14:19:13","date_gmt":"2017-05-14T05:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/?p=4884"},"modified":"2020-02-11T12:01:44","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T03:01:44","slug":"lake-biwa-rowing-song-mini-concert-in-imazu-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/2017\/05\/lake-biwa-rowing-song-mini-concert-in-imazu-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Lake Biwa Rowing Song mini concert in Imazu 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9G94IppUiiE?rel=0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nVideo link:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/9G94IppUiiE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/9G94IppUiiE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Shiga&#8217;s most famous and beloved song, <a href=\"https:\/\/photoguide.jp\/txt\/Lake_Biwa_Rowing_Song\"><em>Biwako Shuko no Uta<\/em><\/a> (\u7435\u7436\u6e56\u5468\u822a\u306e\u6b4c), shiga-ken.com&nbsp;held a special mini concert in Imazu on&nbsp;April 16, 2017 with the cooperation of the <a href=\"https:\/\/photoguide.jp\/txt\/Biwako_Shuko_no_Uta_Shiryokan\"><em>Biwako Shuko no Uta Shiryokan<\/em><\/a> song museum (\u7435\u7436\u6e56\u5468\u822a\u306e\u6b4c\u8cc7\u6599\u9928) and Imazu Port in <a href=\"https:\/\/photoguide.jp\/txt\/Takashima,_Shiga\">Takashima, Shiga Prefecture<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The highlight was twin sisters Jamie and Megan Thompson at Imazu Port&nbsp;singing <a href=\"https:\/\/photoguide.jp\/txt\/Lake_Biwa_Rowing_Song\"><em>Lake Biwa Rowing Song<\/em><\/a>&nbsp;(English version of <em>Biwako Shuko no Uta<\/em>) to the accompaniment of Lake Biwa reed flutes (<em>yoshibue<\/em>) played by Lake Reed&nbsp;(\u30ec\u30a4\u30af\u30ea\u30fc\u30c9), a duo consisting of Kikui Satoru (\u83ca\u4e95\u4e86) and Kondo Yumiko (\u8fd1\u85e4\u3086\u307f\u5b50). The result was stupendous and oh so pretty, both in sight and sound on a&nbsp;beautiful day&nbsp;in front of&nbsp;a blue Lake Biwa at Imazu Port. Watch the <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/9G94IppUiiE\">5-min. video<\/a> embedded above and see&nbsp;for yourself.<\/p>\n<p>It was only our second time to perform at Imazu Port. The last time was on June 3, 2006 when we first introduced and performed&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/photoguide.jp\/txt\/Lake_Biwa_Rowing_Song\"><em>Lake Biwa Rowing Song<\/em><\/a>&nbsp;in public. For this second time, I decided that instead of staging&nbsp;a repeat performance of what we did in 2006, we should do something different. Having Lake Biwa reed players join us was perfect. It turned out that it was the first time for Lake Reed to perform together with multiple singers.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PjnY67sIcqE?rel=0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nVideo link: <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/PjnY67sIcqE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/PjnY67sIcqE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>We also held an indoor mini concert at the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/photoguide.jp\/txt\/Biwako_Shuko_no_Uta_Shiryokan\"><em>Biwako Shuko no Uta Shiryokan<\/em><\/a> song museum. The performance of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/photoguide.jp\/txt\/Lake_Biwa_Rowing_Song\"><em>Lake Biwa Rowing Song<\/em><\/a>&nbsp;was repeated and followed by three pretty songs by Lake Reed. Watch&nbsp;the <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/PjnY67sIcqE\">23-min. video<\/a> embedded above.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4886\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4886\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4886\" src=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7244a.jpg\" alt=\"20170416_7244a\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7244a.jpg 500w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7244a-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7244a-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4886\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jamie &amp; Megan Thompson together in Japan for the first time in 8&nbsp;years.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Our mini concert&nbsp;turned out to be a media event with coverage by&nbsp;Asahi Shimbun, Chunichi Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun, Sankei Shimbun, and Yomiuri Shimbun newspapers. I came prepared for the media&nbsp;with these T-shirts I designed and gave to Jamie and Megan to wear. I also gave them&nbsp;Biwa pearl necklaces (closeup photo below).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4887\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4887\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4887\" src=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170404_6994.jpg\" alt=\"20170404_6994\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170404_6994.jpg 600w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170404_6994-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170404_6994-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170404_6994-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4887\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lake Biwa pearl necklaces.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I had these Lake Biwa pearl necklaces custom-made for this day. I found a&nbsp;freelance accessory maker in Otsu named&nbsp;&#8220;Malble&#8221; (pronounced like &#8220;Marble&#8221;) who was making earrings using this Lake Biwa-shaped, gold-colored accessory. It says, &#8220;Always With You.&#8221; (Like Lake Biwa is always with you.) I had her make these necklaces strung together with a medium-size Lake Biwa pearl. They came out very nice at reasonable cost.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4888\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4888\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4888\" src=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7243.jpg\" alt=\"20170416_7243\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7243.jpg 500w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7243-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7243-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4888\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rehearsing inside the song museum&nbsp;before going to Imazu Port.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Since summer 2016, prominent people and organizations in Shiga and Kyoto announced plans to hold <em>Biwako Shuko no Uta<\/em> 100th anniversary events in 2017. I also wanted&nbsp;to take part in these events.<\/p>\n<p>So I asked Jamie and Megan (who sang <em>Lake Biwa Rowing Song<\/em>&nbsp;in English in 2006 while&nbsp;they were working in Japan as JET Program ALTs), if they could visit Japan in 2017 to participate in&nbsp;one<span class=\"text_exposed_show\"> of these anniversary events, especially in June (the song&#8217;s actual anniversary date) or November (Kyoto University&#8217;s main anniversary event).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It turned out that they both could make it to Japan only in April 2017. Since there were no anniversary events in April, we held our own commemorative mini concert on April 16. Couldn&#8217;t let such a rare trip to Japan by both sisters go to waste.<\/p>\n<p>The performance at Imazu Port started at around 1:30 pm after all the cruise boats left Imazu Port. It was mainly for me to shoot videos for a music video (embedded at the top). The media also took photos&nbsp;and interviewed us under a somewhat hot&nbsp;sun.&nbsp;We then moved to the nearby <a href=\"https:\/\/photoguide.jp\/txt\/Biwako_Shuko_no_Uta_Shiryokan\"><em>Biwako Shuko no Uta Shiryokan<\/em><\/a> song museum for&nbsp;an indoor mini concert and social gathering&nbsp;that lasted until about 4 pm.<\/p>\n<p>The ever so helpful and cooperative <a href=\"https:\/\/photoguide.jp\/txt\/Biwako_Shuko_no_Uta_Shiryokan\"><em>Biwako Shuko no Uta Shiryokan<\/em><\/a> song museum allowed us to use their room on the second floor for our indoor mini concert. They also secured permission for us to perform at Imazu Port.<\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t really publicize this event since it was intended for only friends and invited guests and the local media. However, during the 2.5 months of planning, the event started to&nbsp;take on a life of its own as it morphed into something more substantial. I knew&nbsp;things&nbsp;like this never&nbsp;go&nbsp;according to plan, so I&nbsp;remained&nbsp;flexible and played it by ear.<\/p>\n<p>As I expected, we ran behind schedule and were unable to do a few things that I had planned. But all-in-all, our event turned out very well with great weather, no accidents or&nbsp;illnesses, great videos and photos, and everyone having a fun time. Many&nbsp;people also went on the 3:30 pm Sakura cruise to Kaizu-Osaki afterward. I&#8217;m glad that it was&nbsp;worth coming to&nbsp;Imazu which is quite far for most&nbsp;of us.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4889\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4889\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4889\" src=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7302.jpg\" alt=\"20170416_7302\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7302.jpg 500w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7302-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7302-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4889\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jamie and Megan talk with the press. Back of the T-shirt is the CD cover and &#8220;Children of the Lake&#8221; below it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Talking to&nbsp;the press&nbsp;took longer than expected since so many of them showed up and they had lots of questions. They also kept asking for my age which I declined to say since it was&nbsp;irrelevant. (Japanese newspapers always like to state the age of the people they write about. It has never happened&nbsp;in my case though.)<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4890\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4890\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4890\" src=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20150513_0399.jpg\" alt=\"20150513_0399\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20150513_0399.jpg 600w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20150513_0399-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20150513_0399-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20150513_0399-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4890\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Biwako Shuko no Uta Shiryokan song museum, near Omi-Imazu Station. It has panel displays explaining the history and meaning of the song and a listening&nbsp;station where you can listen to many cover versions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4891\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4891\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4891\" src=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416JamieMeganKoryukai.jpg\" alt=\"20170416JamieMeganKoryukai\" width=\"600\" height=\"336\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416JamieMeganKoryukai.jpg 600w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416JamieMeganKoryukai-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416JamieMeganKoryukai-500x280.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4891\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mini concert inside the song museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Our indoor mini concert started with Jamie and Megan singing <em>Lake Biwa Rowing Song<\/em> with Lake Reed playing Lake Biwa reed flutes.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4892\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4892\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4892\" src=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7406.jpg\" alt=\"20170416_7406\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7406.jpg 500w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7406-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7406-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4892\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lake Reed playing Lake Biwa reed flutes. They even brought a bundle&nbsp;of reeds (left) as a prop.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Lake Reed then performed&nbsp;three songs: <em>Furusato<\/em> (Hometown),&nbsp;<em>Miyagete-goran Yoru no Hoshi wo<\/em> (Look Up at the Night Stars), and <em>Umi no Koe<\/em> (Voice of the Sea). (Watch the video to hear them play.) They were brilliant. So pretty. Omi-Hachman resident Kikui Satoru was the person who actually invented the Lake Biwa reed flute in 2000. So he&#8217;s been playing it longer than anyone else in the world. We were so lucky to have him and his partner Kondo Yumiko perform for us. Everyone performed on a voluntary basis, no one got paid.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4893\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4893\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4893\" src=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7335.jpg\" alt=\"20170416_7335\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7335.jpg 500w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7335-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7335-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4893\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Over 50 people attended our mini concert inside the song museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Mr. Kikui&nbsp;was also generous enough to bring 15 reed flutes to hold&nbsp;a sample lesson mainly&nbsp;for the kids who came. Unfortunately, we didn&#8217;t have time for it. Sounds like I have to plan a follow-up&nbsp;event to make it happen.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4894\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4894\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4894\" src=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7520.jpg\" alt=\"20170416_7520\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7520.jpg 500w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7520-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7520-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4894\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kiyora playing the shamisen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Our third performer was Kiyora, a third grader from Moriyama. She played the famous cherry blossom song, &#8220;Sakura, Sakura&#8221; with her shamisen. As&nbsp;a beginner, she&nbsp;played quite well.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4895\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4895\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4895\" src=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7561a.jpg\" alt=\"20170416_7561a\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7561a.jpg 500w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7561a-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7561a-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4895\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Shiga Governor Yukiko Kada talks about the upcoming music festival&nbsp;in Otsu. Holding up the PR poster is Kitagawa Akihiro of ~Lefa~.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We were also honored to have&nbsp;former Shiga Governor Kada Yukiko attending our event. Being&nbsp;the&nbsp;president of Biwako Seikei Sport College&nbsp;in Omi-Maiko, she&#8217;s very busy. And yet, she made the time to hear us sing. We thank her for coming.<\/p>\n<p>She and singer Kato Tokiko (who made <em>Biwako Shuko no Uta<\/em> a national hit in 1971) are organizing&nbsp;the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biwako-hall.or.jp\/performance\/2017\/03\/15\/100-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">1st Biwako Music Festival<\/a> (\u7b2c\u4e00\u56de\u3073\u308f\u6e56\u97f3\u697d\u796d) at Biwako Hall in Otsu on June 30, 2017. Tickets are still available as of this writing.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4932\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4932\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4932\" src=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/20170416_7578.jpg\" alt=\"20170416_7578\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/20170416_7578.jpg 500w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/20170416_7578-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/20170416_7578-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4932\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kitagawa Akihiro sings with Jamie and Megan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Another special guest was Kitagawa Akihiro, vocalist and one half of the Nagahama-based duo <a href=\"http:\/\/lefa-heart.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">~Lefa~<\/a>. Akihiro once studied in Canada, so he does have an interest in singing in English. He sang in English with Jamie and Megan&nbsp;impromptu.&nbsp;He has a very good voice, so I see great&nbsp;potential in him singing in English after I coach his&nbsp;pronunciation. It was the first time for me to meet Akihiro.&nbsp;I saw former Governor&nbsp;Kada&#8217;s Facebook&nbsp;video of him singing <em>Lake Biwa Rowing Song<\/em> in English so I invited him to our event. ~Lefa~ was formed in 2010 and they&nbsp;play all around Japan at shopping malls, local events, etc., and sing <em>Biwako Shuko no Uta.&nbsp;<\/em>They also often hold mini concerts at&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/photoguide.jp\/txt\/Biwako_Shuko_no_Uta_Shiryokan\">Biwako Shuko no Uta Shiryokan<\/a><\/em> song museum. The other half of&nbsp;~Lefa~ is guitarist and keyboard player&nbsp;Kono Hiroyuki.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4897\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4897\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4897\" src=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7743.jpg\" alt=\"20170416_7743\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7743.jpg 500w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7743-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/20170416_7743-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4897\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the end, the few&nbsp;of us who didn&#8217;t go on the cherry blossom cruise to Kaizu-Osaki&nbsp;remained to sing&nbsp;<em>Biwako Shuko no Uta<\/em> in a circle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We were running an hour late. Most of the audience left&nbsp;at around 3:20 pm to catch the Cherry Blossom Cruise for Kaizu-Osaki departing Imazu Port at 3:30 pm. So only about 15 of us remained until we ended at around 4 pm. Everyone burst into smiles and started clapping after we finished singing&nbsp;the song in Japanese. It&#8217;s such a heartwarming song, and being from Hawaii where we have&nbsp;many, many renown hometown songs, I&#8217;m so glad Shiga has such a song. It&#8217;s been 11 years since we announced the English version, but slowly and surely, I see it catching on.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4903\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4903\" style=\"width: 700px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4903\" src=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/SongPostcards2017s.jpg\" alt=\"SongPostcards2017s\" width=\"700\" height=\"653\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/SongPostcards2017s.jpg 700w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/SongPostcards2017s-150x140.jpg 150w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/SongPostcards2017s-500x466.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4903\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Set of six&nbsp;Lake Biwa Rowing Song postcards given as a free memento to all attendees.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4929\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4929\" style=\"width: 700px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4929\" src=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/20170417_7874s2.jpg\" alt=\"20170417_7874s2\" width=\"700\" height=\"636\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/20170417_7874s2.jpg 700w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/20170417_7874s2-150x136.jpg 150w, https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/20170417_7874s2-500x454.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4929\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chunichi Shimbun newspaper was one of <a href=\"https:\/\/photoguide.jp\/pix\/thumbnails.php?album=587\">five papers that covered us<\/a> (April 17, 2017 issue).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Video link:&nbsp;https:\/\/youtu.be\/9G94IppUiiE To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Shiga&#8217;s most famous and beloved song, Biwako Shuko no Uta (\u7435\u7436\u6e56\u5468\u822a\u306e\u6b4c), shiga-ken.com&nbsp;held a special mini concert in Imazu on&nbsp;April 16, 2017 with the cooperation of the Biwako Shuko no Uta Shiryokan song&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4932,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,3,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-of-shiga-prefecture","category-biwakosong","category-takashima"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4884"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6980,"href":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4884\/revisions\/6980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiga-ken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}