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. 

Japanese Sweets

Kuri-Kinton is popular autumn sweets in Japan.

It's made by mashed chestnuts. 

There are famous shops of Kuri-Kinton in Gifu prefecture which is near my unkle's house.

Green tea and Kuri-Kinton.... Fabulous!!!!

I feel autumn when I eat them♪

How is the taste???

Mushrooms (with poison~~~!!!)

@Miroku Mountain

Mountain Climbing

I stayed my uncle's house in Kasugai, Aichi after finish a concert there.

There is a nice place to enjoy nature near his house.

I climbed Miroku mountain with my aunt today.

It wasn't so high  but it was hard to climb to me!

We brought lunch and ate at the top. That was soooo nice!!!

Autumn is season for chestnuts. We saw young them in the mountain.

Chunichi Dragons

This is Jingu Stadium which is home of Yakurt Swallows.

I went there to watch baseball game Swallows vs Dragons yesterday.

I'm a fan of Dragons!

Although I cheered a lot, Dragons lost the game....

But my favorite player Tatsunami got a hit as a pinch hitter!!

I love Tatsunami~~~~~~~!!