Hello from Japan (By Caitlin Lacey)

Yellowknife folkies, Ceilidh Friends (Steve Goff, Dawn Lacey, Moira Cameron and Steve Lacey) and I (official photographer Caitlin Lacey) made it to Japan on June 20th for Expo 2005.  The plane ride was almost 10 hours long from Vancouver.  I felt the humidity even before I got off the plane.  It made the ends of my hair curl and the rest of it stick to my scalp.  Wow!  This heat, combined with the humidity, is something that I am just not conditioned to deal with! 

Ceilidh Friends played a very successful first gig at the Global Commons 2 stage, located in the Americas section of Expo.  The Japanese are an extremely appreciative and responsive audience,

In the evening, the group played a private concert at the France/Germany Pavilion for staff of all the pavilions.  They shared the stage with other musicians from Bulgaria, the Ukraine, France and Japan.

So far, this experience has been incredible.  I had heard that Japanese people always walk in tiny steps because of walking in crowds all the time.  I have discovered that this isn't true.  But I had also heard that the Japanese are friendly, respectful people, which I have discovered is very true.    The crowds ARE

The streets are incredibly clean and when you do come across a place to put your garbage, it is not just one garbage can, but SIX.  Everyone sorts the garbage so it can be recycled accordingly.  This happens inside each home as well.

In short, I think that the rest of the world could learn a lot from this culture!

First Day At EXPO 2005! (By Steve Goff, photo by Caitlin Lacey)

Still jet lagged from the ten hour flight from Vancouver, Yellowknife`s Ceilidh Friends played their first gig at EXPO 2005 in Nagoya, Japan, where countries from all over the globe present their culture, technology, arts and crafts to at least 100,000 visitors per day. After a quick sleep, then a tour of the Canadian Pavilion the next day, we did an afternoon performance on the open air stage at `Global Commons 2`, a street lined with colourful pavilions of the Americas, musicians and dancers from each country having a regular performance spot. Ceilidh Friends did their well known mixture of traditional and modern songs using a variety of instruments; Celtic to Renaissance, Country to Pop.

After the first of our daily open-air performances, we strolled through the huge EXPO site built with tasteful, predominantly wooden buildings set along separate streets, each grouping the pavilions of different countries of the world. Two huge Ferris wheels loom above the dome-like cocoon of the Japanese Pavilion - a structure built from bamboo. An elevated wooden
 

EXPO2005 - a musician's perspective (by Steve Goff, photo by Caitlin Lacey)

Music is an international language, and the fraternity that exists amongst musicians was emphasized again for me at Expo 2005. Just as each country’s language and economy varies, so does its music and dance – in astonishing variety – and yet a common thread links all.

While playing at the French/German Pavilion our first day at EXPO, Ceilidh Friends talked backstage with many musicians. I noted the intricate rhythms of a Japanese drummer, and how Bulgarian male singers stuck to a very old form of harmony rarely used now in the west. We formed close ties with a group of Ukrainian performers at that event, and later attended one of their performances at their pavilion, where we were invited on stage for a joint photo session.
 

Invited over to the Qatar Pavilion by its gracious host, Farouk al Mar, I sipped cardamom tea and listened to a virtuoso on the Arabic ‘Ud’, the beautifully

Expo2005 - a visitor's perspective (Story & photo by Steve Goff)

In a forested site just east of Nagoya, Japan, sits the splash of sound and colour that is EXPO 2005: an international fair in which countries throughout the world present their art, science and technology. EXPO runs from spring until September, and this year's theme is "Nature's Wisdom."

The site itself is a mixture of ecology and high-technology. Most pavilions are built of wood and are clustered along streets or "Global Commons", each for a specific part of the world. A wooden aerial walkway connects these streets and three-wheeled taxis and high-tech, futuristic buses swish by silently. Most of this site will be returned to nature after EXPO.

The pavilion of each country expresses "Nature's Wisdom" in its own way. The Canadian Pavilion - choosing "Wisdom of Diversity" as its sub-theme - uses sound, video and multiple-projections on giant fabric

The only overtly political message I saw was in the Disneyesque U.S. Pavilion, whose show piece was a screen Benjamin Franklin telling his audience that a better world would come now that his ideas of 'liberty' were spreading throughout the world. In my view, the U.K. Pavilion best captured the EXPO theme with interactive displays of technology inspired by nature:  fabrics which breathe based on the pine cone structure; low resistance surfaces based on shark skin; and adhesive surfaces based on the structure of a gecko's foot. Alternative energy is also a big theme with the Nordic, Russian, and U.K. displays of tidal power generators, and fuel cell shuttle buses cruising the EXPO site.

The centrepiece of EXPO, however, is the awesome Japanese area, where several companies have their own grant pavilions. Robot orchestras, mag-lev and futuristic concept vehicles, alternative universe displays, and other delights are possible to experience if you brave the hour-plus line-ups.

Being a working musician here on site, I have not yet found time for that - but here's hoping.

Hiroshima, A Place of Remembering (Story & photo by Moira Cameron)

above this building, killing everyone working in it instantly.  I was standing at ground zero. 

I felt a tremendous quietness wash over me as I walked around the A-bomb Dome building and through the Park.  At every turn, my eyes welled up with tears.  The Park was filled with statues and memorials.  Because of the impending anniversary, many statues were covered with thousands of multi-coloured origami cranes made by people across the country as a tribute to the hundreds of thousands who died.

I entered the Memorial Hall, a database of names and heart-wrenching testimonials built for the A-bomb victims.  I have always believed in the power of telling stories, but I have never heard stories more potent than those told by these survivors. Many were reluctant to relive such tales of horror, but in the end their determination that there be “no more Hiroshimas” convinced them to record their experiences.

Nowhere is the plea for Peace made clearer than at the Peace Memorial Museum.  Making its debut less than ten years after the bomb was dropped, the

museum reveals the decision-making process behind the dropping of the bomb, and the terrible and long lasting after effects felt by the survivors. 

I took my time, letting each exhibit imprint itself on my memory:  a child’s tricycle – twisted from the heat; a workman’s lunchbox – its contents turned to ashes; a student’s uniform – burned and tattered.  Some artifacts, like the correspondence between US officials leading up to the bombing, made me feel angry at the senselessness of it all.  Other exhibits, like the hundreds of telegrams sent by each Mayor of Hiroshima protesting the testing of nuclear weapons, gave me hope.

I left Hiroshima with a mixture of reactions: anger at the political posturing that created this evil; sadness for the people who had to live through it; and awe at what the citizens of Hiroshima have since accomplished.  I am grateful the survivors were longsighted enough to recognize that from their pain a lesson could be learned.

You can visit the ‘virtual’ museum on line:  http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/

Hiroshima-60th Anniversary (Story & Photos by Caitlin Lacey)

At 8:15 am, August 6, 1945, the world changed forever.  The first atomic bomb (the A-bomb) was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.  A few days later, on August 9^th, the H-bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.

This year marks the 60^th anniversary of these devastating events.  I was lucky enough to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and Museum on July 6^th.  It was a life-altering trip for me.  I have read and heard about the museum ever since I was probably about ten years old, and never really thought I would have

an opportunity to see it for myself.

Certainly the part of the museum that effected me the most was the special exhibition of drawings by A-bomb survivors (who are called “hibakusha“).  The terrible reality of the injuries, deaths and losses was brought into sharp focus by the memories of real individuals, many of whom were just children at the time of the bombing.  These drawings are available to the public and arrangements can be made to have them displayed anywhere in the world to help spread the message of peace.

Although the museum and park are specifically about the devastation of the 1945 bombings, they are also a call for peace to the whole world.  The monuments

and displays beg an end to all war, human suffering, genocide.  And as the John Lennon song says, “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.”

No matter what your stand is on these controversial events of  WWII, the pain and suffering caused to people by people would touch you.  Although you may not ever have the opportunity to physically be at the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima, you can visit the website at www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/ (click on “English” when you get there.)   You can also visit the Nagasaki website at http://www.city.nagasaki.lg.jp/peace/japanese/abm/