“April Fools’ Day”

This is the only day in a year when we are allowed to tell lies. I don’t know why this strange custom began. Anyway we like to take advantage of this kind of opportunity. We, all the members focused on a new comer to deceive.

“Wales”

The United Kingdom is made up of four countries, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. We’ve visited three cities in Wales in these three days. I hear that some races and countries were united into the United Kingdom in the long history. It seems that each of their cultures has been inherited.

“New Sit-Ups”

We are back in England again. Six-hour-bus drive brought us to ….. the sea! The SEA!
We tried to dash into the sea as soon as we put our bags down! But we didn’t reach the water but had our legs caught in the sand while walking. The tide had gone out. Then one of us began sit-ups and the other members followed him. Oh, this is a new way of sit-ups!

“Yamato Returns to Nottingham”

Today’s venue is in Nottingham.
What caught our eyes first at the entrance of the dressing room was clippings about us on the board. We are drumming the taiko with our mouths wide open in the articles.

We always think what we should do to give a good performance. What we believe a good show requires some important points. Other than improvement of drumming skill, unification is more important than anything else in our performance. I think “conversation or communication” is inevitable to feel united.

“To know ourselves”

Some of you, readers of this report, are taiko drummers and others are not. Then I’d like to ask taiko drummers if you have seen yourselves in the mirror when you are beating the taiko. Actually, the other day I heard one drummer say that the surfaces of the taiko are like mirrors. Our big taiko is in fact a kind of the Genius for “Yamato.” We face the big taiko with our spirits and bodies prepared as fully as possible. We should polish ourselves reflected on its surface.

“COOK!”

This is our fourth time to visit this city. Mr. Midori Tamai, Mr. Tetsuro Okubo and Ms. Tomoko Kawauchi, who took part in the last UK tour in 2003, were talking at a super- market.
“This is the place of “COOK”, isn’t it?”
“The place of “COOK” ?”
They are talking about the incident of five years ago. They went shopping at this supermarket five years ago. One of the members noticed unfamiliar food, “Rhubarb”
They wondered if that was a fruit or a vegetable and bought some to find the answer.

On getting out of the supermarket, they began to champ the strange food. Then they noticed a gaze from inside the bus which stopped just in front of them. A woman was waving her hand, trying to tell something to them.
“What? What is she trying to tell us?”
Ah, the bus began to move slowly! When the bus was about to speed up, she moved her finger on the window.
“C”
─“C?”
“O”
─“O?”
“O”
─“Another O?”
“K”
─“K?”
“Umm…? COOK?. Oh, she is trying to say, “COOK! Oh, COOK, COOK!” They shouted at her. Then she nodded with a smile.

“COOK, COOK!”
“YES, YES!”
It was an incident of only a moment. They communicated with the woman through the word, “COOK” on the street in Scotland. They had a kind of a sense of solidarity and achievement. They saw the bus going away without saying, “Thank you!”
When they remembered the scene, they found she was writing the word in reverse so that they could read easily. The supermarket reminded them of the quick-witted woman.

“The Sea!”

Swimming in the cold weather; this habit of ours has become a kind of test of our guts.

“Finish!”
After the concert we have another work to do. That is loading which is directed by the driver of the trailer truck. We load all the stuff into the trailer. The trailer is full up with all the instruments, stage settings and so on. There is only a little space left in it; just a few centimeters to the trailer door. The loading staff has to stack the luggage neatly into the trailer. Besides they seem to try to do the work as fast as possible every time. The trailer door was closed and we are going to drive for eight hours to the next destination during the night.

“Intensive Practice”

We slept well enough last night to make up for the lack of sleep the night before last. We are high-spirited today. We have to do everything in a hurry because we need to do preparation, practice and performance on the day of arrival. It’s a fight against time. We practice intensively in a short time.

[Which is No. 1?  Mr. Midori Tamai Version]

“No. 1”
I can assure that Mr. Midori Tamai is No. 1 curry fan in “Yamato”. We tried “Extremely Hot” curry today. It was extremely hot as its name showed. Mr. Midori Tamai was delighted to eat it while everyone except him shouted, “Hoooot!” He said, “It’s profoundly spicy. No one could beat him.

[Which is No. 1?  Mr. Tetsuro Okubo Version]

“No. 1”
I can assure that Mr. Ttsuro Okubo has No. 1 metabolism in “Yamato”. Taking Indian curry delivery service is a recent fad among us. We tried “Extremely Hot” curry. It was extremely hot as its name showed. Mr. Tetsuro Okubo sweated all over as he was eating the hot curry. He looked as if he was giving out all the water from his body.

“Decided to Appear on TV”

Here is a piece of information. We “Yamato” members are going to appear on BBC music show tomorrow. We are looking forward to it. All we have to do is to give a great performance. We are excited to think that pictures of “Yamato” will be on TV screen all around Britain. We have to mind what we are about. We’ve already started to feel the strain. It makes us feel we need all the more practice.

“A Stroll”

After yesterday’s strain of TV recording, we’ve arrived at Northampton, two-hour bus ride away to the north from London. It’s very fine, which is unusual in England in this season. We feel refreshed in the sunlight. We went for a stroll at the nearby market after lunch. We just rambled without buying anything. It was a little relaxing time for us.

“Visitors”

Today we had three visitors who play the taiko drums here in Norwich. They didn’t want to beat the taiko but asked us a lot of questions about the structure of the taiko. It was because they are planning to make Okedo-taiko or a barrel-shaped taiko. We were surprised to hear that they had already made a long-shell taiko. They measured the size of the taiko and the taiko stand and took notes in deatail. We were glad to meet the people who are very interested in the Japanese traditional drums. We feel that we should be as enthusiastic as them.

“Last Travel on the UK tour”

It’s time for a spurt at the end of the UK tour!
After tomorrow’s final concert, we are going to leave at 5 on the next morning. Probably we will be too busy to talk. Today in mid-course of the tour in 2008 we had time to talk about and to reflect on what we had been doing these three months. We also talked about the tour which we will resume this summer. Tomorrow we are giving the last performance of the UK tour. We’d like to put on the best performance tomorrow!