nostalgic

There is a interesting restaurant under elevated railroads of Yurakucho Tokyo.

It seems Japan which right after the war.

There are many old movie posters and signs on the wall.

I ate lunch there and that was good♪

Wow! It's thundering now!! Tokyo was flooded last night. A lot of trains were stopped and the houses were also flooded. However, my neighborhood was OK in spite of heavy rain.

Although I saw beautiful sky today, it began to rain again...

Rain

It's been raining for many days.... But I was lucky today. I forgot to take my umbrella but I didn't needed it. It rained while I was inside. when I went to and went back from rehearsal, gym, shopping, The rain was stopping♪

Now,Tokyo is under a heavy rain warning. I wonder when I can see beautiful sky like this picture...

It was took from my apartment before and my favorite one.

Korea town in Tokyo

I'm a teacher of music school in Shin-Okubo Tokyo. I went there today to make a comeback.

Shin-Okubo is close to Shinjuku and there are a lot of Korean restaurants. People who are walking on the street are speaking Korean and you can see signs of Hangul everywhere.

I like Korean food so I like Shin-Okubo♪ 

I'm a member of TKWO!!

I had a concert today.That was my first concert of Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra after I came back.

Today's concert was so hard especially to brass players. We kept playing playing playing from the beginning piece Aaron Copland's fanfare to the end of the concert!!

I played 4 kinds of trumpets. C and B♭trumpets, cornet, and flugelhorn. I used to play them alternately but I felt difficult to control them today. Because I hadn't played in my orchestra for one year.

I was nervous. But I feel great now!

I was so happy to play with my fellows and hear "Well come back to TKWO Mamiko" from them.

mug

This design remind me of NY.

It's not paper cup but pottery.

I drink coffee every morning use this mug to remember NY and brace myself.

Mr.Kameyama

He is a famous trumpet technician! A lot of trumpet players in the world order original mouthpieces to him.

His atelier is only 3 minutes away from my grandma's house.

I ordered my cornet's mouthpiece.

He can make mouthpieces what you want. I like his mouthpieces.

eel

We finished the 9th concert!!!

Every year we have a party in my grandma's house and eat eels after the concert.

I intended to take pictures of our party, but the moment I saw grilled eels, I forgot about that and started to eat!! hahaha.... So I took this picture from website.

Eels are a special product of Hamamatsu.

We were happy~~~~~~.

I really thank my friend musicians who played in the concert and every people who supported me.

encore

We wore [happi coat] and played signal trumpets which are played in Hamamatsu Festival by residents of Hamamatsu every year.

They have original melody and every people who lives in Hamamatsu know the melody.

We played with a trumpet group of this town.

That was exciting!!!

concert

I'm playing with sax player Mr.Nobuya Sugawa♪

concert

I'm talking♪

Concert

We played in front of an old stationery shop.

This is my grandma's shop!!

Yes, the mall people have known me since I was a baby!!!

That's why I have concerts there. This annual concerts are my gratitude to my grandma and the mall people. 

preparation

Storekeepers in the mall prepared chairs and audio equipments for our concert.

They always support me!! I really appreciate it.

Rehearsal

I've organized annual free concert in the mall in Hamamatsu for 9 years.

My friends musicians who participate or teach in the Hamamatsu International Wind Instrument Academy & Festival play in the concert.

We play trumpet ensembles.

Nobuya Sugawa who is the concert master of Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra and the sax teacher in the academy also play in my concert every year.

We had a rehearsal after finished his lessons. We played [O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion] from Messiah. That was fun! Sax played alto solo part, and the piano and the piccolo trumpet played orchestra part.

Hamamatsu

I've just returned from Hamamatsu.

[The 14th Hamamatsu International Wind Instrument Academy & Festival] was held there, and my grand mother's house is also in Hamamatsu.I saw my grandma after a long time and I was glad to see her fine.

I saw some great lessons and participated the farewell party  in the beer hall.

Every teacher played in the party!!!

Mr. David Krauss(Metropolitan Opera) and Mr. Peter Sullivan(Pittsburgh Symphony)are playing in this picture.

We had a great time!

By the way, I took Mr. Mark Gould's lesson in this academy when I was a university student.

That was loooong time ago.hahaha...