Finding contentment in repetition.

Contentment is found by noticing subtle differences in comforting repetitive cycles. The wind never blows exactly the same way.

A new station on the Yamanote Line, the Takanawa Gateway station, has a station piano that anyone can play. I decided to get off to complete this year’s unfinished work.

The Takanawa Gateway station, with its cleaning robots and futuristic touchless convenience store, is sparsely populated. From the wooden-grained platform, an escalator leads up to the high-ceilinged, liberating premises. The atrium has a large glass wall from which visitors can look out over the surrounding area. It is like the atmosphere of an airport somewhere.
Near the middle of the station was an upright piano, no one was playing it! The piano has human hand stickers in a radiating pattern, which gives it a somewhat warm welcoming feeling. I set my iPhone on the edge of the piano. The background was a scene of urban buildings seen through a glass window. I started playing “Gymnopédies”.

The sparsely populated atrium is filled with the noise of station announcements. The piano here seems to be newer and the keys slightly stiffer. So my fingers didn’t slip and I could press the keys calmly. I was a little nervous, but the noise around me helped and gradually I became so relaxed that it was like playing at home.

I saw a young man in line behind me and I finished my recital. I will continue to play the piano whenever it appears in front of me.

Back on the platform, I listened to the piano, and to my surprise, I heard “Gymnopédies”.

Now, how was the sound recorded by video on my iPhone? When I checked the recording, It was beautiful that the plain chords of the Gymnopédies matched the ennui of the white buildings and cloudy sky. It is as if the white buildings and white clouds behind the glass walls were playing Gymnopédies together.

The piano sound was well picked out, and the collaboration with the station announcements made it sound like a scene from a film. And I happened to be wearing a retro jumper, which seemed to blend in with the picture. As if the sound of the piano was helped by the background.

I like the Gymnopédies melody, with its quietly changing chords in an unfussy way. Because it is such an unobtrusive piece of music, I can also sense in a sensitive way my changes by playing it repeatedly.
It’s like everyday life. It is this sensitivity to change within the same situation that leads to the sensitivity to find small happiness and to find the nice things in other people. I think that leads to happiness in life. And I want to see a world that can only be reached through continuity.