I didn't hear any Westminster chimes this morning, but just in case I've left the impression that I have something against Westminster chimes, I certainly do not. When I'm walking through Trafalgar Square I LOVE the sound of Westminster chimes. I even love them coming from the grandfather clock in my own house.
But on Goishigahama beach??
(I just had to clarify that for all my English friends who undoubtedly took offense at my prior post. The English are very sensitive, you know, around all of this stuff having to do with empire. It seems, however, that their hands are clean in Japan.) :)
I raced to get to the beach by sunrise this morning, missing it by seconds. It was still spectacular. I lingered on the beach for some time.
On the climb back up the long hill to our place there is a tunnel about 200 meters in length. It's the perfect echo chamber -- over five seconds. And since there were no other pedestrians in it with me, and no cars racing by at this hour of the morning, I let loose with my finest chant of the sursum corda and the preface to the Eucharist, followed by Healy Willan's setting of the Rite I Sanctus -- exactly 200 meters' worth of a cool, dark echo chamber -- on a beautiful Goishigahama vernal equinox -- in the land of the rising sun.
Doesn't get much better than this.
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