The first tea of the season

I went to Hamamatsu yesterday.

My grand mother who lives there bought green tea for me.

Tea shop 'Maruien' which we always buy green tea shows tea leaves. It's interesting.

They made tea for us while we were waiting.

This muddiness is the proof of the first tea of the season.

I look forward to enjoying these fresh tastes every year!

Flute Concerto

She is Ayako Maeda. A member of TKWO.

She played Concerto for Flute and Orchestra by L. Liebermann in TKWO regular concert.

It was wonderful piece but veryyyyyyy difficult!!

She was amazing! I was so impressed.

Actually, I was more nervous than her....

There were many solos and we had to play always [pppppp] even though [f].

Though the trumpet part was hard, I was happy to play this beautiful piece with Ayako san!

Orchestra pit in Fumon Hall

Hi friends!

It was warm today♪

We played on the pit today.

The pit go up and down leave we sit on there.

It's a little thrilling.

Kurosawa

When I was in NY, I was always told

"Why haven't you seen Kurosawa movies though you are Japanese??? He is great!!"

from many of my friends.

And also I was said same thing from my English teacher in Tokyo after I came back.

Foreigners admire him even though they are young.

Luckily TOHO Cinemas Chanter has been showing

30 Kurosawa movies for hundredth anniversary of his birth

since March 27th.

Once I saw [The Quiet Duel] in the theater, I was really into his movies!!

I've seen 6 of his movies so far.

I'll go to see his movie as many as possible.

Beginning of this event, most of the audience are elderly.

Recently I've seen some young people.

I saw [Seven Samurai] today.

The seats were sold out, and it was fantastic!!

SAKURA

Though we can see sakura only for 1-2weeks, the weather always change a lot while the sakura's best time...

Luckily, it was clear yesterday in Tokyo and cherry blossoms were at their best!

flowers withstood the rainstorm the previous day.

I thought the flowers are gone.

So it was impressive.

We saw cute and beautiful sakura in Nippori and Ueno.

The tallest tower in Japan!

I took this photo from my room.

Sky Tree which will be a new broadcasting tower became taller than the Tokyo Tower (333m) today!

It is going to be 634 meters high.

Kamakura2

There is a huge Daibutsu sama (statue of Buddha) in Kamakura.

I was impressed and felt a great peace of mind.

Kamakura

Hi! It's very cold like winter today...

My body already expect warm spring, so I can't stand such a cold weather anymoreeeeee!!!!

Though spring moved back, cherry blossoms are start blooming♪

I drove to Kamakura yesterday.

It was not so cold and very beautiful day yesterday!

Tsurugaoka Hachimangu is a big, beautiful shrine built in 1063.

The fortune I drew predicted bad luck :(

So I drove carefully the way back.

Hi Elvis!

Happy New Year my friends!

I was lazy.. sorry

SO, I went to USA last week.

CBDNA(College Band Directors National Association)

was held in the University of Mississippi.

A Japanese college band was invited for the concert,

and I played with them as a extra player.

I flew to Memphis after visited NY for a few days.

Elvis greeted us at a souvenir shop♪

Christmas Tree made from dolls

How was your Christmas?

I went to see a movie with my friend in Roppongi.

There was a cute Christmas Tree made from small many Santa Clauses!

It's been warm recently in Tokyo.

Take care friends♪

Mother's Watch

On November 10th 2009, I surpassed my mother's age.

I never can imagine finishing my life so early...

Now, my mother in my memory is younger than me.

I read an article in a newspaper before my birthday,

The article introduced about an old broken watch story.

Before a few month of the article, a watch repairer read an article about the watch coincidentally.

The article said the owner of the watch had wanted to fix it, but no one could so far.

The watch repairer Mr. Shimizu called the newspaper company,

and said "Could you tell the owner to show me the watch? "

Mr. Shimizu fixed the watch!

Then, the newspaper introduced this whole story. And I read it.

I've wanted to fix an old watch which is a keepsake from my mother for a long time.

The watch is over 30 years old and It has not worked for about 15 years.

So I went to Mr. Shimizu's shop (fortunately, the shop is in Tokyo!!).

He was an old gentle man. And he promised me that he would fix the watch.

One week later, the watch started ticking again when I surpassed my mother's age!!

I never thought there was such a big difference in my feeling between it works and doesn't work.

Now I'm very happy.

I really thank Mr. Shimizu and Sankei news paper.

Hakkeijima sea paradise

We went on an annual trip of our orchestra.

There were cute "white" dolphins in the aquarium.

We were healed by these dolphins, penguins, sea otters and a lot of fish.

The Second Tokyo Tower

The second tokyo tower is being built now.

I can see the tower from my living room and it's growing up a little by little!

So I've been taking pictures of it from a same point.

Can you see the change?

Mt.Fuji from my apt.

I've lived this apartment for 4 years.

I didn't know I can see the Fuji-San from here~~~~~!!!

Though I've looked for the Fuji-San many times, I couldn't find it.

I was sure that was because of buildings between my apartment and the Fuji-San, but it was wrong.

I knew the front door side faces north west. But it was more north than I thought.

So I should've seen left side more than I did so far.

Then I noticed that my apartment's stairs was hiding the Fuji-San!

When I looked for it from a little right side of my front door,

the Fuji-San appeared in my sight!

Welcome my friends!

These children's mother is one of my best friends Sono

who studied music together when we were university students ♪
They came from Kochi prefectur because her husband conducted a high school band

in a competition held in Tokyo.
While he was working, we hung out in Ikebukuro.
Sono is not only wonderful musician but great mother,

I really respect her. And her kids are so cute! !

We spent a wonderful time.

TOKYO DOME!

After a rehearsal, I came to TOKYO DOME to see a baseball game.
I'm surrounded by Giants fans even if in the 3rd base side area(-_-;)
But I'm sure that CHUNICHI will win!!
The game is starting soon!

Hibiya

It was beautiful and warm day today!
I didn't need to wear a jacket.

Today was my day off. And Wednesday is "Ladies Day" !!
You can see movies for only 1000 yen if you are a lady. Fufufu...

There is a famous statue near the movie theatre in Hibiya.
It's not "Hachi" but "Godzilla". Small cute Godzilla♪

After I saw Villon's Wife, I took a walk in the Hibiya Park.
It was beautiful, but the park was filled with smell of "Ginnan
(ginkgo nut)"....
I like eating Ginnan very much, but it was too warm to smell Ginnan.

Long time no see!

My Australian friend Adam is traveling Japan with his Japanese wife Megumi now.
They came to Tokyo today and stay a few days.

I saw him after 3 years and had a wonderful time with them!
Adam used to play in the police band in Sydney, and now he's been teaching kids trumpet and conducting some wind bands.

BTW, I didn't know that It took about 10 hours to flight from Australia to Japan. That was longer than I thought...
But there is no time difference, so it's easier♪
I've never been to Australia. I really want to go there.

He's coming to see our orchestra's rehearsal on Monday, and having
lunch together!

Thank you Mr.Tatsunami.

It was the last game of this season in the Nagoya Dome (the home stadium of Chunichi Dragons) today.

And also, it was the last game for Mr. Tatsunami who is my favorite player.

He announced he would retire after this season.

The reason he said was the decline of his strength.

Although he's not been in a starting lineup recently, he's been playing an active part in the team as a pinch hitter (He always get hit in important scenes even though he only has one chance to step to the plate in one game).

However, he thinks that baseball players should be able to make hits, run, and defend.
So he thinks he can't continue playing only as a pinch hitter.

Today, he was in a starting lineup after 3 years, and he got 3 hits!!
That was amazing.

His uniform number [3] might be retired. This number is his number forever.

He's played in Chunichi Dragons for 22 years since he graduated high school!!

Thank you Mr. Tatsunami.

You are my hero.

comedy show@Osaka

We finally finished this year's Japan tour the day before yesterday!!
The final place of the tour was Osaka.

Yesterday, I went sightseeing before I came back to Tokyo.
Osaka is a interesting place. The culture is very different from other
prefectures.
For example, most of funny Japanese comedians came from Osaka.
Osaka is a mecca for Japanese comedy.

I went to "Nanba Grand Kagetsu" to see a comedy show.
I burst out laughing at their 'Manzai'