Bonzer Words!: Cicadas In Japan
...The cicadas of Yokohama were unlike any I had heard in Australia. They seemed to produce definite tunes and sounds ranging from 'keck-keck-keck' to a 'clicka-clicka' sounds.
Peggy Mitchell caused giggles while recording the sounds of cicadas in Japan.
Peggy writes for Bonzer! magazine. Please visit www.bonzer.org.au
About 30 years ago I was living in Yokohama near Tokyo, Japan, with my family, as my husband was employed with the American Coca-Cola Company.
His work meant that he was away from home for long periods of time so my three daughters and myself were left in Yokohama.
I was working as a freelance writer for several Australian magazines and also the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and often recorded short talks for them. This is my account of one such endeavour.
August in Tokyo was mid-summer and cicada time. The first sunlight would set them off shrilling and by noon the noise was deafening.
The cicadas of Yokohama were unlike any I had heard in Australia. They seemed to produce definite tunes and sounds ranging from 'keck-keck-keck' to a 'clicka-clicka' sounds.
This could be an interesting talk to record for the ABC I thought, so set off with my tape recorder to the Geigin (Foreigners') cemetery near my house.
I wriggled under some bushes, set up my recorder and microphone and prepared to capture the sounds of the cicadas around me in the long grass.
I managed to catch one in my hand and tickled it until it sang into the microphone. I was trying to catch different sounds and as I caught and recorded each one I would let it go, re-winding the tape to make sure I'd caught the sound.
I was so engrossed in my work that I didn't notice three little children on their way home from school observing me in grave silence.
'What are you doing?' they asked me in Japanese.
I replied (in Japanese) 'I am trying to record the songs of the cicadas for my friends in Australia.'
They nodded and smiled and ran off giggling. I can imagine the stories they told their mothers about the mad Geigin lady wriggling around in the dirt catching cicadas.
I recorded the sounds of at least a dozen cicadas; wrote a five minute script and posted the lot off to the ABC in Sydney, Australia.
To my disappointment the sound was not good enough to be broadcast so it was suggested by the producer of the program that I catch a few cicadas and take them to the ABC studio in Tokyo and do my talk live with the help of the insects!
I could just imagine myself trying to carry a box of chirping cicadas on a crowded commuter train from Yokohama to Tokyo and then catching a taxi to the ABC office.
Regretfully I had to inform the ABC that I couldn't do it.
To my delight they bought my talk anyway and used my interpretation of the sounds to illustrate the difference between Australian cicadas and Japanese ones and finished off the talk with the sounds of some Australian cicadas.
My short talk was broadcast not only on Australian radio but on the 'Radio Australia' overseas network as well and I received two payments and a complimentary copy of my talk.
About this time a Tokyo pop music group called Pinky And The Killers released a single disc titled 'The Eccentric Lady of Yokohama'. The lyrics told about an eccentric lady who wore a funny hat, carried a camera and tape recorder and spent her days trying to photograph people and situations in Yokohama.
'That song is written about you,' my friendly shopkeeper at the local vegetable markets told me. He insisted that the lyrics described me perfectly—right down to my strange pull-on crochet cap.
Perhaps it was true. If so, I hadn't realised I had been observed so closely. Anyway it was a good story to tell at Company dinner parties in Sydney, Australia.
©Peggy Mitchell
