Celebrating 10 years! So, I’m going to continue the Violin Memories series. This time, I would like to talk about the purchase of the instrument.
Ten years ago, at the time, of course, I had never played the violin at all. That’s when I decided to buy it on the spur of the moment…
That’s all well and good, but how on earth do I buy one? There is no way to know. It’s not like I can go to a music store and try it out, and I don’t have any knowledge at all.
そこで、当時一番中のよかったヴァイオリンの友人に相談して見ることにしました。そんな彼が薦めたのはなんと通販！
I couldn’t believe my ears at first…
They recommended this company to me.
He told me that I could buy an instrument of the same grade for about half or a third of the price I would pay in Japan. Anyway, I decided to trust him and buy from him because he said the quality and support are very good.
If you’re going to buy one, you’re going to need a good one. As a result of consideration, I decided to buy this instrument. (I didn’t know you still deal with them.)
So I got up the courage to place an order immediately.
However, although I was half-convinced at first, when I actually ordered, I came to understand that this was not just a mail order site through the fact that the making of the site was polite and easy to understand, and that I was politely asked several questions according to the tone of my preference, etc.
Well, I could understand why he (my friend) recommended it. (By the way, he was a returnee who had lived in the U.S. for several years.
But even so, at that time, shopping via the Internet was not as popular as it is now, and moreover, it was a high-priced instrument, so I was anxious about it.
So I decided to get support from a friend of my father’s company who was living in the US. Specifically, I emailed him directly at sharmusic.com and asked him how to pack, how to mail, etc.
I was very anxious, especially about the mailing. At first, I thought I would ask a friend of his father to bring it to me when he returned to Japan.
But they replied
「我々は、これまで多くの楽器を実際に航空便で送ったノウハウがある。数多くのオーケストラの楽器を運搬したこともあるからご安心ください。むしろ一般の方が機内に持ち込んで運ぶほうがリスクがあります。」
Those were very powerful words. That’s why I decided to trust them completely and leave everything to them.
And a few days later, it was sent to Japan by airmail on schedule and I was able to receive it safely.
In the end, I still use this instrument to this day.
他にいろいろ弾き比べをしたことがないのでよくわかりませんが、自分はこの楽器が好きなので、しばらくは買い換えるつもりはありません。
