Throughout January, as students, staff and faculty adjust to the change in pace of J-term, the editorial staff of Middlebury Magazine will make its way around the campus to discover just what goes on during this month.

People love to whistle, says Yuki Takeda ’14. You don’t need an instrument or a practice room; you don’t even need to read music. An international musical whistling champion from Tokyo, Yuki is especially interested in non-instrumental music (though he is an accomplished saxophone player himself). This J-term, he’s studying his fifth language—French—and sharing his musical talents with fellow students in a workshop on hand whistling. He’s also prepping to defend his title at the International Whistler’s Convention competition in North Carolina this April.