To this day I have been surrounded by music all my life. Since I was a little boy I played the piano and learned to read and write music before I learned to read or write the alphabet. After so many years of endless hours of practice there never seems to be an end of what I still have to learn.

There are lots of artists who have inspired me whose names are well known in the music world, but my admiration goes out to anyone who shows dedication to what he is passionate about. Have you ever taken a look a those groups of teenagers barely out of high school who perform out in the streets of Japan? Sure, you see cases like these in any country, and yes, some people say it all sounds like J-pop and it is all mainly the same. Whatever your opinion, I think it is worth stopping by and watch them play. Whether good or bad, they really do put the effort to perform in front of a rather difficult crowd.

I see these street artists almost on an everyday basis, but today was a bit different. I’m on my way home from the gym and all I have in my mind is what I am going to cook for dinner. Now there are tons of things that have caught me by surprise, or even throw off my western standards while here in Japan. Truth is that Japan is rather full of oddities as it is full of tradition. But it was different tonight. Something that may not really stand out as much, for once really did make me stop my bike to take a look and listen.

I could not believe my eyes and my ears when I heard really good Blues. Throughout the time that I’ve been in Japan when going from point A to point B, especially at night, I have seen young Japanese men and women performing in the streets. I’ve seen Japanese performing the streets from rap to rock and from classical to J-pop. Now some other types of performances that you may see out in the streets of Japan that may not be as usual but you may certainly witness here in Japan are flamenco, tap dancing, and even Australian aboriginal music. I am telling you, it’s true that I have seen Japanese perform traditional aboriginal Australian music, something I have never ever seen before anywhere else.

Now westerners tend to stereotype Japanese saying that they seem to take things from other countries and make an identical but japanized copy. I must admit that to a certain extent I believe such is true of the Japanese copying things from other countries, whether cuisine, fashion, dances, music, business ethics or standards or technology (on which case I must say their products are most times far better than the original from the foreign country). Whether copied or not, their attention to detail in anything they do, always striving for perfection in every single detail makes the natives of those countries even wonder how can they do it so well.

The blues music I heard tonight was just outstanding. So vivid, so colorful, perhaps a bit methodic and precise but I sure did enjoy listening to them. And not far from them there was a group of young guys and girls tap-dancing. I don’t know much about tap dancing but it did make me happy to see them do something so foreign in Japan.

Of course you see street performances out in the streets in any other country, but in most cases they do it to earn some kind of money. I have still not seen any of these performers do it for the money. Instead they just set their instruments and anything else they need out in the streets and simply perform for the enjoyment of the passersby. Most of them of course want to promote their bands or their groups and sometimes have pamphlets flyers or even CDs available. So the next time you’re walking down the streets and hear some music that catches your attention, stop for a moment and don’t worry about having to throw a coin into the guitar case. They’ll just be as happy if you stay there a bit and listen.