Having lessons roughly every Saturday, Monday and Wednesday does not leave much time to ease up. Today, I finally rendered Yamagoe in its entirety by memory to Kakizakai Sensei, I hestitate to say to his 'satisfaction' (that is probably not achieveable) but adequately to move on. That is the traditional Japanese way. You indicate to your teacher that you have memorised the piece by leaving the music face-down or in your bag. When you have been able to play it end-to-end memorised in as reasonable a fashion as you are currently capable of, he might suggest a different piece. Well, I have not yet achieved the same for San'ya (Mountain Valley version) so it was back to that but Yamagoe to the backburner and more time with 2.1 again (was playing Yamagoe on 1.8).
Today was also Richard Chenhall's last lesson as he heads back to Australia on the weekend after 15 months in Japan, recently specialising in 2.7. Kundan will also leave on Saturday back to Byron, leaving xmas likely very peaceful and very Japanese-sounding.
