Merry Christmas!!

Hello my friends!

How was your Christmas?

Japanese people celebrate Christmas even though Buddhists. 

That's unique, right?

But I work at Christmas every year...(-_-)

So I usually have a party with my coworkers.

Yesterday, I hung out with Rie who is a clarinet player in my orchestra and my best friend.

We ate big oysters!

These were fresh, beautiful and delicious!!! 

Young@Heart

Do you know this movie?

This is my favorite one.

It's a documentary about Young@Heart which is a chorus group consists of elderly whose average age is 80!

And they sing punk rock~~~~~!!!!

They are cool.

They are cute♪

Their life is beautiful.

I laughed a lot, I cried a lot and they inspired me.

Young@Heart Trailer

Kanazawa

The next day of Kyoto, we moved to kanazawa and had the last concert of this tour.

Kanazawa was a castle town, so many dead ends have been left in the town like a maze.

I had a little time before a rehearsal, so I walked around the old quiet town.

I felt Japan very much....

The structures were solemn.

Nice...

Kyoto

This is the Kyoto Concert Hall.

Kyoto is one of the famous tourist spots in Japan which has a lot of historical structure. 

But, unfortunately, we didn't have time to sightseeing this time (T_T)

We went to the concert hall directly and had a concert.

I want to come again someday just for sightseeing♪

Okonomiyaki (Hiroshima style)

Hiroshima is famous for Okonomiyaki.

A lot of shredded cabbage and noodle in the dough, and eat with sweet sauce.

That was great!!!!

I was happy~~~~:-)

Concert in Hiroshima

I was in Fukuyama Hiroshima last weekend.

I played in my previous orchestra as a extra player.

This is the view from my place on the stage.

Aaron Copland, George Gershwin..... That was a hard program for the trumpet players.hahaha

We are having two more concerts in Kyoto & Kanazawa from tomorrow♪

Off Stage Solo

I played the trumpet in the light control room on the second tier of the concert hall!

Our orchestra had a concert in Kakegawa Shizuoka and the second piece had an off stage trumpet solo.

There wasn't a monitor at the off stage, so I couldn't see the conductor.

that's why I played there.

It was dark and cold! So I used small light and wore a coat.

Nobody could see me, so I was doing gymnastics to warm myself while I waited to play .

good selection♪

Wow! There are a lot of new trumpet!!

I went to warehouse of SELMER JAPAN.

These Bach's trumpets were imported from USA.

Before they send them to music stores, I made some selections from them which have good sound, good intonation and good balance..

It's difficult to chose good instruments for amateur players, so every store wants to have instruments which were chosen by professional players. 

I was happy about there are some good trumpets♪ 

waiters→musicians

There were wonderful musicians in the waiters!

They stopped working a little while and played nice music.

Cool!!

Le Beaujolais Nouveau est Arrive 2008

My friend composer Mr. Mashima (playing the trombone in the photo) had a live in Cafe "Aux Bacchanales".

Every year he plays jazz in the cafe with his fellow musicians in the Beaujolais Nouveau's opening night.

I played "Lullaby of Birdland"!

There were a lot of people celebrating bland new fresh wine enjoyed the live.

I also enjoyed playing, listening and drinking♪

That was hot night.

This is the stage for "rakugo"which is traditional verbal entertainment.

The lone storyteller wearing Kimono sits on the stage and talk. 

I went to see the rakugo last Saturday with my colleague.

It was unusual because the rakugo was held in Izakaya restaurant (Japanese style bar) with dinner instead of in a theater. My friend works there and she invited us.

That was interesting and wonderful!

I'd like to see rakugo again♪

I got carried away.....

My colleague gave it to me.

Sorry... I've just turned to 34.......

A little old Minnie Mouse. Hahaha...

Tokyo Disney Sea

That was annual trip for our orchestra.

We had a recording in Urayasu which is near the Disney resort.

After the recording, we stayed a hotel in the Disney resort and had a party.

The next day, we went to the Disney Sea.

I didn't think I could enjoy it because I wasn't interested in Disney very much.

But....

I enjoyed very much~~~!

I'm 34 years old~~~~~!

November 10th was my birthday.

I had a recording that day and I was glad that my colleagues told me "Happy Birthday" 

And when I got home, my roommate had prepared cake for me♪

When I was in NY, I realized that I could make free time for myself even though I was busy. It's up to me.

And every experience I got from the free time made me open-minded.

I hope I enjoy my 34 years old. 

Yes, "No day but today"

Nice to get old, Yeah~~~~~~~~~~~!!!!

Chestnut Chips

My colleague gave me chestnut chips. 

He made it!!

peeling chestnut is very hard, but the taste is great!

I was impressed with the taste. I know some kind of chips. Potato, banana, vegetables... but I think this is the best chips I've ever eaten :-)

He told me the chips is good match for champagne or beer♪

Family Concert 2

One audience sent the picture to us.

We didn't know how we looked until we saw this picture.

We just played on the dark stage with small lights on the music stands.

A lot of families came to the concert♪

Thank you so much! 

Family Concert

All trumpet players played more than 2 kinds of trumpets in the concert.

I played 3!

B♭trumpet, cornet, flugel horn.

It seems a music shop:-)

The Tokyo Tower

I was walking to the subway station after the Siena's recording. And when I looked to right unconsciously,  the close-up of lighted tower was there.

Though I only had a cell phone camera, It looked beautiful!

Recording2

I had another recording in Siena Wind Orchestra as an extra player on another day. I used to play in this orchestra, so I was glad to play with them again.

recording1

Hi!

It's been a loooong time. How are you?

It's getting cold in Tokyo(>_<) I'm happy when I'm wrapped up in comforter in the morning. I like this feeling.

Our orchestra had a recording. We recorded some film musics and Japanese pop musics.

We usually use recording studios when we record pop music, and play with head phones. But this time we recorded in the concert hall. It was a little difficult to make a good ensemble in the concert hall when we record with drum set. We had time lag even though the drum set was set at the center of the orchestra. 

But we are used to that kind of situation, so everything went smoothly.

The recording engineer was really good and he lives in my neighborhood. We drink every time when we work together, so we drank till next morning after the recording.....

River fish!

We took a break and had lunch at the Myojin Pond which is on the way to the parking lot.

We ate japanese noodle and river fish [Iwana (chars)] which were caught from the river flowing right over there.

There was a fire place to grill the fish.

Lunch time for monkeys!!

We ran into a lot of monkeys when we came back to Kamikochi area!

An endless stream of monkeys came from somewhere and they started eating.

They didn't care about climbers as if nobody there, because they know no one feed the monkeys. That's a important climber's manner for nature.

 

Frozen rocks and plants!

Next morning, all of rocks were frozen, and we had to climb down on the slippy way. That was dangerous!

You can't walk without sticks!

Colored leaves

Beautiful trees, Byobu-Iwa (a wall of rock) , and Hodaka mountains.

Karasawa hut

That was heard to climb up and down!

But we can't see such a beautiful view unless effort.

A mountain cottage and the views from there.

A morning glow and the morning moon. 

Mountaineering

Autumn!

It's time to go out!

My uncle and aunt took me to Kamikochi which is one of the most scenic spot in Japan.

There are many beautiful mountains, and the whole mountains is ablaze with autumn leaves.

My uncle and I climbed from Kamikochi to Karasawa (2200m) and stayed there(my aunt went back home without climbing).

That was amazing!!

A conductor and I

I'm having a regular concert of our orchestra tomorrow, and I'm playing J. francaix's solo piece.

We took a picture after the rehearsal♪

He is a wonderful conductor Kazumasa Watanabe.

I'm looking forward to playing with him, but a little bit nervous~~~.fufufu...

memory of my parents's shop

I used to go back to our fancy goods store [Andy] after finished elementally school everyday, instead of my house. 

Sometimes I helped my parents displaying merchandise and cleaning in the store, sometimes I did my homework there and part time workers helped me. I could choose anything I want when my birthday and christmas day every year. I liked Andy and I liked spending time there.

After my mother passed away, my father closed the store and he changed his job. That was 26 years ago. And my father passed away 4 years ago. 

Today, I went to the place after 26 years. I've known there is a beauty parlor there, so I had my hair cut. There was a big stuffed snoopy here,  there were hello kitty goods and Disney goods there, there was a counter over there..... I was remembering about our store while I was cut my hair.

Who is thi~~~~s!!??

I was walking behind him, and noticed....
Arms and legs grow from Tuba~~~!!

That's funny!

Quintet♪

We'll have a brass quintet concert next morning, start at 9:20 am !!

It's very early because we'll play for elementally school students. 

I hope I can wake up next morning.....

Sukiyaki~♪

Her name is Ayako.  A flute player in my orchestra and good cook♪

A clarinet player Ayako(same name as flutist!!) and I went to her house to talk about points of our next regular concert. We are soloists of the concert, also we are editors of our orchestra's mail magazine. so we talked and made article about that by ourselves.  After we finished work, we ate Sukiyaki which is Ayako's original.

That was unique, because she put tomato, olive oil, basil and garlic in it.

Though It looked like Italian food, taste was Sukiyaki. And that was good! 

play outside

Our orchestra played outside yesterday.

That was a memorial service of those who were killed in the war in the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery.

We played with chorus.

It was beautiful day though it had been rain so far. 

Respect for the Aged Day

It was holiday the day before yesterday.

So many families were taking Toneri liner.

There is a nice path along a creek near the last stop. I walked there and saw many kids playing with their parents.

Some fathers tried to show off for their children by catching crawfish. Un fortunately, some of them failed.....

Toneri liner

Wednesday is ladies day for movie in Japan. I don't know if there is gentlemen's day... Maybe not.

Anyway, you can see any movies almost for half price if you are a lady! That's great!!! I saw two movies this morning.

"Nim's Island" and "Hancock"

By the way, some new railways were opened recently in Tokyo. I can see one of them from my apartment's veranda. That line is the Toneri liner which connects Nippori and Toneri. I took the Toneri liner for fun the day before yesterday.

I was very surprised when I arrived at Nippori(Right), because it's changed very much!!

There is a new station building and some high-rise apartments are being built.

I used to go there often when I was a university student, and it wasn't developed at all.

I was just standing for a little while, and reminiscing about what was there before. 

Toneri liner is an elevated line(Left), and it takes only 20 minutes one way. I looked outside from the very front of the front car among kids. I enjoyed seeing  my neighborhood from the train.

Required Musics

We've just finished our recording!!!

Yesterday and today we recorded 5 required musics for next year's school band competition.

These will be sample CDs and DVDs, and the school bands which participate the competition chose a piece from them.

 

The conductor was a famous French clarinet player Paul Meyer. He is known as a good conductor, too. I like his music which is rich and delicate sense.

There are a lot of (14,000) schools participating the competition in Japan. I'm happy that they listen to our playing same as my school days. I used to listened to TKWO's sample CDs when I was a member of junior high school band. 

Thank you Jonathan Larson...

Today is the last day of broadway musical RENT.

RENT was the first musical I saw in NY right after I moved there in last summer.

I was excited and a little nervous about 1 year NY life at the time, and I heard the cast of RENT was singing ♪I live this moment as my last....  ♪No day but today....

Though I could understand only a little story, I was so impressed. So I studied English hard reading the script until almost memorize every word.

RENT is my favorite musical.