The tofu seller’s bugle
Comments: 9
Recently a new sound has been added to the neighbourhood — the tofu seller’s bugle. It’s not really a bugle but more of a little party horn type thing (albeit a nice brass one), but the graphic design on their jackets shows a bugle and that’s what I’m calling it.
Tofu Seller
(240K mp3, 1 min.)
The tofu seller walks around pulling a wagon with various kinds of tofu and blowing the Pavlovian tofu-call. You run outside and buy some tofu. It’s a wonderful sound to have drifting through winter neighbourhoods: the plaintiveness gives you a little chill and makes you wish for some nice hot comfort food (with tofu). Generally heard late-afternoon as people start preparing dinner.
P.S. That link ought to work now. ;-) Thanks Peter & Richie for letting me know.
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Posted to Audio • 2004.01.11 (Sun) • 11:24
Comments
Posted by Ethan 2004.01.11, 14:42
Extremely weird, yet subtly entertaining.
Posted by Richie 2004.01.11, 15:41
You can just hear him saying “to-fu” with each call. Reminds me of the many sounds I became accustomed to when I lived in Japan like the garbage truck, the piano played for each morning’s calisthenics, the music played when it’s okay to cross the street, the crows in Tokyo, and the imo seller’s call.
Posted by Keith Fox 2004.01.12, 13:04
I love hearing sounds like this in cities. When I was a little kid growing up in Toronto, I would hear a guy going through the neighborhood ringing a bell. His business? He sharpened knives and scissors. Then of course there are the ice cream trucks in summer with their amplified music box. Later, I lived in Taiwan for a few years and the first time I heard the garbage trucks I thought, ice cream!!! (Some garbage trucks even play Beethoven’s Für Elise.)
Posted by DJ SUBg 2004.01.12, 13:35
just curious. what hardware do you use to make these recordings? I was interested in doing something similar but don’t know what type of recording device to purchase.
Posted by lil 2004.01.12, 16:10
Interesting…and here I was thinking all Japan tofu sellers’ calls sound the same….your recording proved this isn’t the case. Just a few km away from you in Daita 6-chome, also in Setagaya-ku, my local tofu seller actually blows a special little horn that sounds eerily like a prolonged duck call—the kind used by duck hunters, I think—while he rides along the darkened alleys of my neighbourhood after 5:30pm once a week. He’s quite a sight as he holds the horn with his mouth only, using both hands on the handle bars. It took me months to work out what the sound was!! I’ve become quite accustomed to the other lcoal neighbourhood sounds but would prefer the ‘terebi, mini compo, raji-case’ [TV, mini stereo, radio/cassette player] junk collectors to delay their early Sunday morning drive around to a later hour!!!
Posted by jh 2004.01.12, 20:58
> what hardware do you use
I don’t have decent audio equipment at all. If away from home, I use a really crappy old cassette recorder that my wife bought ages ago to record lectures (about all it’s really good for).
For the sounds I hear outside my window, though, I use an Apple PlainTalk microphone attached to my computer (I just open the window and put it on the sill —- the mic, not the computer). I use Sound Studio to both record and edit.
Posted by Ryan 2004.01.13, 03:41
Great recording. Field recordings are great, but the minimalism of this one is extra special… I love it. I wouldn’t mind hearing a “full version” of this (a complete recording — “An Evening With the Tofu Seller,” if you will).
Out of curiosity, have you purchased from him? Is there a big difference between fresh tofu and store-bought tofu? I eat a fair amount of tofu, but have never had the pleasure of tasting the freshly made variety.
Posted by Gem Stevens 2004.01.14, 11:23
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Posted by Tim 2004.01.21, 10:24
Personally loved this. Thanks. Reminds me of the little yaki imo van with a steam-powered whistle that used to circle my old neighbourhood in Shizuoka. Sounds like this are just so much a part of the aural landscape of Japan. Another favourite is the sound of the frogs singing at night in the freshly flooded rice fields after the rainy season. Don’t suppose your PlainTalk mic can stretch that far though. Shame.
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