Greetings! We're happy to announce that the Rhône Valley Rogues' new single "Delinquent Flair" is now available worldwide:

SPOTIFY
YOUTUBE

The artwork was done by the very talented Malthus Wolf:
ARTSTATION / DEVIANTART

I'd be ever so grateful if you'd add it to your playlists on Spotify, and leave a like and a comment on YouTube. And please share it with your friends, post it to any relevant music groups, visual-kei-adjacent pages, etc. that you frequent. (Please don't spam it, but do share the song if you're a…

In this video, I talk about what my day-to-day life was like after moving to Japan, some differences between the two main schools of traditional koto music, my experience staying at a “lodging facility” when I got Covid, and more. I also answer some viewer questions about the cost of living in Japan and travel.

I've started a casual video series called "Diary of an American Koto Musician in Japan" where I talk about my life here in Japan. I'll be uploading these every couple of weeks, doing a short Q&A at the end of each video. Please give it a watch and a like. And submit your questions about Japan and music in the comments.

The reason I moved from the US to Japan four years ago was to was to study the koto, a traditional Japanese stringed instrument, and eventually earn my junshihan koto degree.

Last weekend, I boarded the shinkansen to Nagano city to finally take my junshihan exam. Nagano was an especially fitting location for the test since it's the birthplace of my koto school, Seiha. Even on the train, I was squeezing in some last minute review.

The exam took place over two days. The first day, Friday, was a series of…

In wine, there's a concept called "terroir" - letting the soil speak. All of the minute environmental factors, from the soil composition to the slope of the hill to how much sunlight that particular plot of land gets - they all influence the grapes and therefore the wine. The winemaker isn't simply making red wine, or Grenache or Pinot Noir (the grapes) - they're making Chateauneuf-du-Pape or Cornas or Volnay. Those are the areas, the land. And oftentimes the bottle will even specify the particular vineyard…