シェミセンが好き  I used Google translate to write the words in Japanese. It says, "I love the shamisen." If it doesn't say this, I apologize profusely. 

I visited Japan in the summer of 2007, and I fell in love with the country. I went to visit my sister in Misawa. Her then-husband was stationed. He was in the Navy. I remember one day they took me to the towns around Misawa sightseeing. The countryside is beautiful. Unlike any other country, I have ever seen in the world. And I have traveled to many countries. We stopped for dinner in a restaurant, and there there was this young woman playing what looked like a very small guitar with three strings. She started to play, and I fell in love with the sound. I had never heard a sound so pure, but there was this older gentleman in the back, and he played an instrument that looked like a harp but laying down. And I was transported to heaven. I called the waitressed and asked about the instruments. The waitress talked a little English. She said the slick-looking instrument with the three strings was called a Shamisen. She told me that not many people played it in her community. She said the horizontal harp-looking instrument was called a Koto. And Apparently, the instrument was very old, and it was hard to find a new one.
I brought with me the love of the music. I would never forget the sound. Now many years have passed since my trip to Japan in 2007. While I was in the Army, I traveled to Korea, and I had to wait for a connecting flight in Japan for two hours. I wish it would have been eight. I would have taken a taxi and walk around Tokyo.  

The link above is a video of the Shamisen and the Koto together with an electric guitar. The sound is fantastic.