The Voice of the Commuter Trains: A morning spent at Umekōji Park
Kyoto, in Sound, Episode 07. A podcast series that invites the residents of this city to talk about their favourite sounds.
Hi all, I hope your week has been a good one.
I’ve been spending quite a bit of time lately over at Umekōji Park. It’s a wide, green hub on the south side of the city, next to Kyoto Station and if you’ve been following the Kyoto, in Sound podcast since the beginning, you might remember it from the very first episode. That’s where Rumi took us on a walk through Suzaku Garden. I also made a short video about the place which can be found here.
A few weekends ago, I went back to record a conversation with my friend Charles. We sat on a bench with his dog, Lily, and just watched the trains for a little while.
There’s a comforting rhythm to Umekōji Park and Charles calls it the park’s ‘branding’ and I loved that idea! You’ve got the local commuter lines with their classic “clack-clack” sound as the wheels of the trains roll over the tracks and then right next to them, the Shinkansen whooshes past almost silently, hiding behind its sound-proofing barriers. It’s a strange contrast to hear. The old and the new butting up against each other.
We ended up talking a bit about “third spaces”. Those wonderful places like the rooftop garden at Kyoto Station, or The Barbican Centre in London, where you can just be without feeling the need to purchase anything.
Since episode five of the podcast, I’ve started putting videos together for each episode and you can find the video above. It’s a mix of our chat, some field recordings of the trains, and some footage I gathered around the park and the station.
To be honest, I’ve been getting a lot of enjoyment out of making these videos. It feels like a good way to show textures of the city that audio alone might miss out on. I’m actually thinking about making them a much more regular thing here on the Bear Blog.
I’d love to know what you think about that idea, though. Do these videos add something to the letters for you? Would you appreciate it if I started posting them more often? Please reply to this email — I’m still figuring out the best way to share these stories and I’d value your thoughts.
And if you’re planning a trip to Japan yourself, or know a friend who is, I’m leading small, quiet sound walks through some of my favourite corners of the city. We take things slowly and we try to really listen to the place. You can find all the details and book a spot over at kyotoinsound.com.
Thank you for noticing with me.
SJF
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