June 29th, 2003 in Tsukiyono
Yesterday my host family took me to a park for a picnic, and then we went shopping at this huge department store (kind of like Target). The concert that day was probably the best of my life. We got to play all of our encore pieces and the audience wouldn’t stop applauding! The orchestra probably stood up 6 or 7 times. Yair finally pulled me offstage by the arm (cute).
Today Yuko took Gary and I to a high school to watch the kendo team practice for about 20 or so minutes. It was so cool! The kendo teacher also taught English so he could communicate very well. Afterwards we walked to Yuko’s parents’ house where we ate lunch. Yuko’s dad was really funny. He took out this sword thing and pretended to be this warrior guy.
The performance that day was a joint concert with four or so Japanese groups of young musicians. I made lots of friends with the Japanese people, wahoo! This one girl named Megume (Meh-GU-Meh) was my best buddy that day. I think she was 14 or 15. Anyways she was sitting behind me during one of the joint rehearsals (and for the performance as well. So whenever I had a question I would turn around and look at her music. The next time I saw her I gave her a really friendly wave so when it was time for a group picture she gestured for me to sit next to her. I also met a 14 year old guy named Joshoru. He was the percussionist for the junior orchestra. Before I walked out, I gestured to him “ready?” and he copied my gesture! Figures that he’s Zimardi’s homestay brother. After the concert I was looking for Megume for a picture so I asked a bunch of girls from her school where she was so I could take a picture. Then all the girls wentt hysterical and orchestra people thought I was being the mad pimp! HAHA how funny.
After the performance and changing into nice casual clothes, everyone went to this restaurant for a cool party (with lots of food, but I didn’t eat cause I wasn’t hungry). They had drumming and music so it was noisy (but cool). I hung out with Megume and Joshoru the whole time so it was really fun. I took a lot of pictures with people. On the way out I knocked an ashtray on one of the homestay mothers. Dang that sucked.
July 2nd, Chofu
The orchestra nearly missed the bullet train today. A lot of us had to wait from 20 to 30 minutes for the morning elevators to get our stuff to the bus. We probably made the train within 2-3 minutes of departure. It was really cool because we got a whole section of the train for our group. I got to sit with people like Nicole, Judy, Christina. Judy was pretty funky. Maybe it was the train ride. Anyways, I ate dinner with people like Amy Kuo and Dan Wang (There were also a lot more people). Amy and I were getting kind of uncomfortable because our group was getting really annoying and noisy in the restaurant.
July 2nd,
I went shopping yesterday (the 1st) morning; there was a Totoro store!!! Outside of the store I said “Look, a Totoro. Wait… is this a Totoro store?” When we realized it was a Miyazaki themed store we were so excited!! I bought a lot of Hello Kitty towels and a necklace for Leslie. My towel purchases got a lot of towely jokes, hehe. In every store Vincy was like “Tim! Towels!” For lunch Vincy, Eva, Grace, and I got lunch at from a nearby grocery store.
Later in the day we had a rehearsal, and before our concert Yair told us he had a bad feeling about the nights performance. He said that after our great performance in Tsukiyono, it would be a crime to not play our best. Everyone was so nervous that we had a pretty bad performance. All the solos were pretty screwy, and by the intermission everyone was feeling really depressed and sad. I gave some encouragement during tuning, and later a few people told me that it helped. I’m glad that we all pulled through OK. After the concert Yair was extremely pissed. I went out to find the Japanese friends I made at the exchange the night before. I didn’t see my friends but Yair passed me by without saying anything. I think he was walking off his anger or something. So I went back behind stage and guess who pops though the doors? Yup, my Japanese friends. They gave me flowers and this weird eraser stuff (a white pencil with a brush and the eraser end?!), and I took some pictures with them. They had this pretty girl with them to help translate for them. On the bright side Caitlyn, Amy and I got a newspaper interview with the local newspaper. That was pretty cool. Anyways, when we got to the hotel Yair had a meeting with us. He said that it was the worst performance of his life. Yikes!
July 4th, Anagasaki
Yesterday we performed at the girls catholic school. We had a really good performance, and the girls were all over Scott and Chris! Lucky white guys (just kidding)! The girls were going nuts and screaming after the performance. After only our first piece there were all these gasps and oos in the silence before the applause (cooool!)
Today was the joint performance in Okayama. I met two cool guys; Shogo and Satosh(i). Shogo is 14 but really good at the violin. The girls (Vicki, Lydia, etc) were all over him (he is pretty good looking)! I can’t wait for the exchange party tomorrow!!
Hahahaha Cindy is so funny. *holding a disposable camera *“Tim, do you think this is rip off?” I also got my eyes curled by Christine! It looked really weird.
three cello girls and one violinist (to the right).
July 7-8th , Anagasaki
Wahoo! The final concert is all over! Gary and I stayed at a homestay last night. Besides eating, we basically just watched TV and played Time Crisis II on the PS2.
Some dude eating as many wasabi sandwiches possible in one minute
So after the concert we went to the hotel for a little party (more food) and then we were free to do whatever we wanted with no curfew!! I went with a bunch of people (like Sarah, Joseph, Cindy, Ihui, Shawn, George, Cheryl, Derrik, etc.) and we took a Ferris wheel that went over the city for a cool view. It was kind of unpleasant for Joseph because he didn’t really like heights. We also did an hour of karaoke in this really ghetto karaoke place. It was dark and dirty and there were screaming drunks on the floor above us. It was still really fun though! After that we went to play a game of bowling. It’s so cool how you get your bowling shoes; there are machines sorted by shoe sizes, and you hit the button on the machine of your size and your bowling shoes pop out. After bowling people slowly began to leave back to the hotel. Everyone was getting pretty sleepy. I got back to the hotel at around 3:30. I showered, brushed my teeth, changed into clothes for the next day, and then took a quick 1 hour nap.
touring on the very last night very late at night
Yesterday my host family took me to a park for a picnic, and then we went shopping at this huge department store (kind of like Target). The concert that day was probably the best of my life. We got to play all of our encore pieces and the audience wouldn’t stop applauding! The orchestra probably stood up 6 or 7 times. Yair finally pulled me offstage by the arm (cute).
Today Yuko took Gary and I to a high school to watch the kendo team practice for about 20 or so minutes. It was so cool! The kendo teacher also taught English so he could communicate very well. Afterwards we walked to Yuko’s parents’ house where we ate lunch. Yuko’s dad was really funny. He took out this sword thing and pretended to be this warrior guy.
The performance that day was a joint concert with four or so Japanese groups of young musicians. I made lots of friends with the Japanese people, wahoo! This one girl named Megume (Meh-GU-Meh) was my best buddy that day. I think she was 14 or 15. Anyways she was sitting behind me during one of the joint rehearsals (and for the performance as well. So whenever I had a question I would turn around and look at her music. The next time I saw her I gave her a really friendly wave so when it was time for a group picture she gestured for me to sit next to her. I also met a 14 year old guy named Joshoru. He was the percussionist for the junior orchestra. Before I walked out, I gestured to him “ready?” and he copied my gesture! Figures that he’s Zimardi’s homestay brother. After the concert I was looking for Megume for a picture so I asked a bunch of girls from her school where she was so I could take a picture. Then all the girls wentt hysterical and orchestra people thought I was being the mad pimp! HAHA how funny.
After the performance and changing into nice casual clothes, everyone went to this restaurant for a cool party (with lots of food, but I didn’t eat cause I wasn’t hungry). They had drumming and music so it was noisy (but cool). I hung out with Megume and Joshoru the whole time so it was really fun. I took a lot of pictures with people. On the way out I knocked an ashtray on one of the homestay mothers. Dang that sucked.
One of the parks in tsukiyono
July 2nd, Chofu
The orchestra nearly missed the bullet train today. A lot of us had to wait from 20 to 30 minutes for the morning elevators to get our stuff to the bus. We probably made the train within 2-3 minutes of departure. It was really cool because we got a whole section of the train for our group. I got to sit with people like Nicole, Judy, Christina. Judy was pretty funky. Maybe it was the train ride. Anyways, I ate dinner with people like Amy Kuo and Dan Wang (There were also a lot more people). Amy and I were getting kind of uncomfortable because our group was getting really annoying and noisy in the restaurant.
July 2nd,
I went shopping yesterday (the 1st) morning; there was a Totoro store!!! Outside of the store I said “Look, a Totoro. Wait… is this a Totoro store?” When we realized it was a Miyazaki themed store we were so excited!! I bought a lot of Hello Kitty towels and a necklace for Leslie. My towel purchases got a lot of towely jokes, hehe. In every store Vincy was like “Tim! Towels!” For lunch Vincy, Eva, Grace, and I got lunch at from a nearby grocery store.
Later in the day we had a rehearsal, and before our concert Yair told us he had a bad feeling about the nights performance. He said that after our great performance in Tsukiyono, it would be a crime to not play our best. Everyone was so nervous that we had a pretty bad performance. All the solos were pretty screwy, and by the intermission everyone was feeling really depressed and sad. I gave some encouragement during tuning, and later a few people told me that it helped. I’m glad that we all pulled through OK. After the concert Yair was extremely pissed. I went out to find the Japanese friends I made at the exchange the night before. I didn’t see my friends but Yair passed me by without saying anything. I think he was walking off his anger or something. So I went back behind stage and guess who pops though the doors? Yup, my Japanese friends. They gave me flowers and this weird eraser stuff (a white pencil with a brush and the eraser end?!), and I took some pictures with them. They had this pretty girl with them to help translate for them. On the bright side Caitlyn, Amy and I got a newspaper interview with the local newspaper. That was pretty cool. Anyways, when we got to the hotel Yair had a meeting with us. He said that it was the worst performance of his life. Yikes!
July 4th, Anagasaki
Yesterday we performed at the girls catholic school. We had a really good performance, and the girls were all over Scott and Chris! Lucky white guys (just kidding)! The girls were going nuts and screaming after the performance. After only our first piece there were all these gasps and oos in the silence before the applause (cooool!)
Today was the joint performance in Okayama. I met two cool guys; Shogo and Satosh(i). Shogo is 14 but really good at the violin. The girls (Vicki, Lydia, etc) were all over him (he is pretty good looking)! I can’t wait for the exchange party tomorrow!!
Hahahaha Cindy is so funny. *holding a disposable camera *“Tim, do you think this is rip off?” I also got my eyes curled by Christine! It looked really weird.
three cello girls and one violinist (to the right).
Shogo and his friends saying bye
July 7-8th , Anagasaki
Wahoo! The final concert is all over! Gary and I stayed at a homestay last night. Besides eating, we basically just watched TV and played Time Crisis II on the PS2.
Some dude eating as many wasabi sandwiches possible in one minuteSo after the concert we went to the hotel for a little party (more food) and then we were free to do whatever we wanted with no curfew!! I went with a bunch of people (like Sarah, Joseph, Cindy, Ihui, Shawn, George, Cheryl, Derrik, etc.) and we took a Ferris wheel that went over the city for a cool view. It was kind of unpleasant for Joseph because he didn’t really like heights. We also did an hour of karaoke in this really ghetto karaoke place. It was dark and dirty and there were screaming drunks on the floor above us. It was still really fun though! After that we went to play a game of bowling. It’s so cool how you get your bowling shoes; there are machines sorted by shoe sizes, and you hit the button on the machine of your size and your bowling shoes pop out. After bowling people slowly began to leave back to the hotel. Everyone was getting pretty sleepy. I got back to the hotel at around 3:30. I showered, brushed my teeth, changed into clothes for the next day, and then took a quick 1 hour nap.
touring on the very last night very late at night
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