The Mysterious Drumming Noise

Anyone who has Skyped with me knows that right behind where I live is a densely wooded area through which the trains run. This makes for lovely and safe scenery for the train, and lots of bird calls, songs, and noises for me. Now that the warmer weather is coming, I've been leaving on of the smaller windows open so that my room gets fresh air, but not so many train sounds (especially when I'm sleeping). 

However, there has been a new auditory treat recently. For a few days straight, during the late afternoon while I was making dinner or checking emails, I heard a drumming song. They were simple rhythyms played over and over again. Not annoying, all very happy, to be sure, but they were very consistant. Sometimes there were low "booms" and other times it was only high "tap tap tappitty taps". The first two days, I was far too tired from bad sleep at night to go venture out, but my mind wandered. It could be a group of taiko and kodaiko (traditional Japanese drums and little drums) practicing for the Ise Shrimp festival in two weeks. Maybe they are a local group who does performances and would let me join. They (whoever they were) sounded very close and could be practicing on a regular schedule. I decided that the next day, if I still heard them, I would find out who was playing the music.

Sure enough, on the third day I heard the "tappitty tap boom tap tap". I facebooked: This marks the third day of the mysterious taiko music. I shall now go on a quest for the source. This was more to keep a definite time marker than a status update. I had guessed that they were practicing in the park, but that could have been completely wrong. Anyone exposed to any drum knows that they are loud and can be heard several blocks away. For all I knew, they were practicing inside a building and the sound was just escaping through the windows. In case my first guess was wrong, I was curious how long my quest would last. 

Luckily, not that long.

The source was a Japanese construction worker in the park playing his djembe! The instrument can make three distinct sounds, which is why I thought it was a group of kodaiko before. When I walked under the shrubbery tunnel, I could see him practicing at the picnic table. He and I had a lovely chat about his interest in music, how long he's been playing, and how similar his djembe is to my father's derbake. He doesn't have a group, he doesn't have concerts; he just plays for the love of music. I'd like to bring my friends around sometime to meet him, too. Bridgette especially would like his playing, I think. But for now, I can just enjoy listening to drum music from my apartment while the weather is nice.