Day 9

Hi. This is Rick. I'm posting from Jason's blog because I don't have my own.

These pictures are from Tokyo after arriving from our two concerts in Zushi.

Does Jason look like he just played two concerts in one day?

A few of us went to an English pub near the Tokyo Dome Hotel. Famous English food - isn't that why everyone comes to Japan?

Who's the mystery woman behind the camera?

Next two are Michele and Tess - they really look happy with that British food (wink wink).

The author. 'Nuff said.

The beautiful British food - fish and chips (we think - you never quite know in Japan)!

On the way back to the hotel, we met up with a few more Sonosians! Who woulda guessed - imagine that!

Then we went to the Finnish bakery; another obvious cuisine of Japan. Missy is hugging moomin, a well-known Finnish figure.

And who's the tall guy under the awning? Why, it's Jukka, our very own Finn! Bonus points if you can identify the two mystery arms of the height-challenged Sonosians beside him.

Finally, to prove to Kathie that they do sell peanut butter in Japan (yet another ancient Japanese tradition), Skippy!


And that was the end of a big day on tour with Sonos and its multi-ethnic Japanese food adventure. And what's on tap for tomorrow? How about some Belgian ale?? Sorry, I didn't bring a camera that time... You'll just have to imagine.

Day 6

This was a concert day in Osaka. We started out in the bus (as always). As we were forming up, we encountered this strange sight:

We assume that this is a bicycle tow truck for illegally-parked bicycles. Not sure though.

On the bus I decided to have fun with my new 50mm 1.8 USM III prime lens (Canon's "plastic marvel"). Following are a bunch of portrait shots of:

David:
Lois:
Diana:
Sunghee:
Jukka:
Missy:
Kathie:
Cheryl
Michele:
Tess:
Ruben:
Kat:
Kiyoshi Tamamura:
Moi:
Our dressing room was awesome! I love wall-to-wall mirrors. Here's me having fun:

I started playing clarinet last year around this time (I missed playing wind instruments) have been honored to play Jim's piece, "Christmas Tidings," which is a bluesy, jazzy diptych of "Mary Had a Baby" and "Go Tell It On the Mountain." It really is beyond me, and I struggle mightily to keep it under control. I'm thrilled to play it, but it kicks my butt. I've been practicing constantly here on tour, an hour a day or more - it's been great! Last few months I've been hanging on by my fingernails to complete two college courses (linear algebra and algorithm analysis & design) amongst all the Sonos, work, and family stuff, so it's been a pleasure to have so much time to practice.


That's it from day 6. If you have any other things you've heard in my posts or others' and want to see more of, let me know and I'll try post them.

Enjoy!

---Jason

A sample of our concerts

This is one of our encores, "Scherzo on Hyfrydol," arranged by Boude Moore. Players are me on sorpano, Missy on alto, and Michele (she of the red hair) on tenor. It's a great piece that a Southern California contingent (me, my wife, Diane, and Rick Hoffmeister) brought to Sonos when we joined 12 years ago (ack!). We've pretty much played it every concert season since. It's just too successful a piece to drop.



I hope you enjoy it.

---Jason

Random pics.

First concert Dec 9.

In front of the Osaka Aquarium Dec 12.

Jukka, Kathie and Missy at the local Starbucks near the Tokyo Dome Hotel.

Ruben at Akihabara electronics district in Tokyo.

Taiko, Ruben and Missy at dinner Friday Dec 14 in Tokyo.

Freight elevator at Concert Hall on Sunday Dec 16.

Tokyo Dome Hotel.

Penguins at the Osaka Aquarium Dec 11.

Santa at the Aquarium!

Osaka Aquarium Videos - Dec. 11, 2007

birthday in japan

If you have to have a birthday in December, a great place to celebrate it is in Japan. Especially when on tour with Sonosians! They have made me feel so welcome and then surprised me twice!

As Michele blogged, on Dec 12 we went to dinner at The Garlic, right beneath our hotel in this warren maze of little restaurants. It was delicious and at the end the waiter brought me a yummy dessert with a sparkler in it and everyone sang happy birthday. i thought that was the end of a wonderful day spent IMing with my honey Ian all morning, getting an email picture card from my kids, then braving the habitrail and observation deck at the floating gardens, wandering around speaking german in Japan at the Weihnachtsfest at the base of the gardens' building, having a creme brulee venti starbucks coffee looking out at the rain (yes, there are starbucks all over the world), finding a camera battery (much to the chagrin of my fellow sonosians, i take almost as many pics as jason!), and then having a fabulous dinner. BUT, that wasn't all. Back at the hotel i was going to be a good student and practice my challenge piece, Porgy and Bess, with Kathie and Missy. Nonchalantly I walked into Kathie's room ready to work, and was greeted by the whole group. Their ruse had worked and we all gobbled up yummy "Happy 39th" Cake and toasted with our cans of stout and coke zero. Rounding out the evening was an initiation round of snerd, a cutthroat competetive version of group solitaire.

Thinking this was one of my most memorable birthdays, I blithely ignored the conspiracy signs the next day. In the second half of the concert Jim stopped to speak in Japanese to the audience. As all good bell ensemble members know, we rarely listen to what the director is saying. I figured it was something about the next piece we were going to play and had completely tuned out. All of a sudden Sunghe played a bell and everyone was looking in my direction. I turned to see what they were looking at, and then heard the entire audience of 800 Japanese singing happy birthday. Wow.

Thank you guys! What am I going to do to top this for my next 39th birthday?

(I have lots of pics, but no card reader right now. Promise to post some pics later)

Day 7

This is just a collection of memories from our Friday in Tokyo. We arrived the evening before - we ate at Garlic, which Michele already posted about. Many of us chose to go to Asakusa, which is a shopping district wrapped around a Shinto temple. We also stopped by a percussion museum and store nearby the temple - way cool!

That night we met Taiko and Yoshimichi at a restaurant near our hotel, Mangia Mangia. The party included her little cuties (Gamon and Kantaro) and her husband, Michitaka. I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.