“JUNE” Maiko Doi

For a week from today we are staying at an apartment house in Freiburg in Germany.
We have no performance during our stay there. Are we having holidays? No, this is a time for refreshment. We have a load of practice. We are reinforcing our power for resuming the tour.

“The First Day” Midori Tamai

The apartment house where we are staying is a quiet place with nothing special around There are a lot of places spacious enough for our practice around here. I guess we can practice here without annoying other people. This is the first day, so we spent the day tidying up our things and checking around the place. Tomorrow we start our training.

“The Second Day” Misato Sugiyama

We began the second day in Freiburg with running through the vineyard in the haze. We thought this was a suitable place for our practice as it is a roomy and quiet place surrounded by vineyards. But it was not long before we started our practice that we had a complaint about the volume of the syamisen ( three-stringed Japanese instrument). So we began sit-ups using a playground equipment at the back of our apartment. Then we had another complaint that adults should not use the equipment. We faced unexpected problems. Without any good idea to cope with them, we decided to eat a meal to cheer ourselves up. We had curry cooked by Midori Tamai, today’s chief cook and Marika Nito, an assistant cook. It tasted so great that even Indian people would be surprised, I suppose. We talked about the problems we had today over the delicious curry.

“Practice”  Marika Nito

We went to an open space a little far away from our place because we had a complaint around our apartment house. I like training under the blue sky with sunshine. I like to feel my skin getting a good tan. We did swinging sticks in the air, sit-ups, strengthening our backs, push-ups, etc. in two teams, sometimes competing with each other. After the training, we repeatedly practiced handling the sticks, timing and getting along well. Compared with the practice in a theater, we seemed to move more dynamically under the blue sky.

“ Dashing a steep slope”  Tetsuro Okubo

We’ve recently found a new training method. That is to dash up along a sharp slope. There is a terribly steep slope, about 300 meters long , about 500 meters away from our apartment house. When my brain almost says I can’t run up anymore, I like to go forward, retorting against the brain that I can keep running. When I finish climbing up the slope, my heart is beating so hard as to make me feel it will stop. I feel my heartbeat through whole my body, not by my ears. Yes!I feel the strong heart!

“Freiburg”  Saori Higashi

We practiced under the sun all day long, feeling our backs getting tan. We practiced for a TV show we are supposed to appear on three day later. After the hard practice we had hamburgers for dinner. We had dinner, thinking this was the last night here in Freiburg. Beautiful nature, practice, meals …., we had a nice week. I guess we are going to miss Freiburg.
We are resuming the tour soon! We’d like to show fully our refreshed performance.

“We had a lot for breakfast.”  Takaoki Masui

The scenery from the balcony was beautiful as usual on the last holiday morning. Today is our “packing day.” The kitchen is the first place to clean. Maiko, who played the role of a home maker cooked every food in the refrigerator perfectly for breakfast. After breakfast we cleaned our house to leave everything neat and clean behind us. We tried to clean as perfectly as possible to feel as if we were told no one could clean as well as we did. I guess we have been annoying people around us by moving around in a group every day, so we should take care to consider others at the moment we leave.

“Rehearsal”

We rehearsed for tomorrow’s TV show “VERSTEHEN SIE SPASS?” all day long. We are going to appear on TV for 4 minutes. We had several rehearsals including sound checks and camera checks. As we repeated them, we found the way of lighting and camera work fixed. Remembering the pictures we saw between the rehearsals, we’d like to prepare for tomorrow.

“Acting before the camera”

Today we are going to appear on TV. Yesterday while we were monitoring our performance, we cared about not our movement but our countenance zoomed up on the monitor screen. Needless to say that audience’s eyes are closer on TV than on a stage, our faces, especially eyes are watched the most closely, I think. What our eyes are watching while we are playing and what and how we want to convey to the audience is emotionally like what we can do for someone, I guess.

“To Rumania”

Rumania is famous for Dracula. That had been all we knew about Rumania before we came here last year. Now it reminds us of the unique Rumanian dish we had at a restaurant. It had such an impressive taste that it has become our greatest memory of Rumania. It was the most peculiar dish we’d ever had. Its taste is beyond description. If you are interested in that dish, please travel to Rumania.

“Rumanian people”

Six men of us bought six tank tops in different colors. They say that they are six rangers or Japanese animation heroes. They decided which to wear by lot. All of them looked wonderful in different colors though some of them were wearing unexpected colored tank tops.

“Interview”

We had an interview at a hotel lobby and appeared on a live TV program today. The TV program is “DOS DE SEARA”, which is a popular entertainment show. A consul said that our concert tickets were already sold out and that he’d like to get one by all means. He told us that last year he got a ticket from a ticket tout in front of the theater and this year he would do the same as last year. We are very happy to have audience wherever we go. Tomorrow we are going to have a concert for the first time in two weeks. We’d like to show our accumulated energy to our heart’s content.

“Mul umesc(Thank you)”

The linoleum on the stage was wrinkled under the big drum (Taiko), about 120 cm wide, every time we moved it. It took us a long time to fix it. Then we had focusing and a sound check. We had only a little time for practice. And here comes the time when we act before the audience. The theater was full. The audience gave us a big hand. It doesn’t happen so often at a usual concert, but as the concert went on, more and more audience began to sit down on the space between the stage and the front tier. It was like the space between the stage and the audience seats was running out. When we gave an encore, the players and the audience had unified.

“To Greece”

We left the hotel at 7 this morning and flew to Athens. Athens reminds you of the Olympics, the Parthenon and the streets called the White Carpet, doesn’t it? This is my first time to visit Greece but “Yamato” visited it three years ago. This is our second? visit. Greece has a lot of ancient theaters and almost all of the last performances here were open-air concerts, I hear. This time we are also starting open-air concerts tomorrow.

Today and Tomorrow’s venue is on the mountain from which we can see the whole town of Athens. The stage unusually has a ceiling and lights had been hung when we arrived.
Now we play before the audience! Thanks to the early sun set, lighting is very effective.
Thanks for the efforts of staff members!

“The Parthenon”

We visited the Parthenon before going to the theater. We climbed the long way up the hill under the flaming sun to find the Parthenon on the top. It was being repaired, surrounded by iron frames. We saw the whole town of Athens from the top of the hill. It was white and beautiful indeed. Under the blue sky, rows of white houses, glittering window panes under the sun; the scene was splendid. Just between us, the scenery was more impressive than the Parthenon.

“Midnight Arrangement”

We arrived at Patra from Athens.
We did placing and focusing late at night, for tomorrow’s venue is also an open-air stage.
To our surprise it is the vestige of a castle built in 160 B.C. The castle was discovered after being under the ground for as long as 2000 years, and its vestige became an open-air stage. It is a venerable stage so there is a strict rule that no one should touch the wall which has been preserved as it used to be.

“Under the Sun and the Stars”

It was terribly hot here in Greece today, too.
We were all pumped up for the performance and tried to tighten up the drum leather of the “Shimedaiko”. The moment we sat down on the linoleum, the heat made us jump up from it. We had forgotten the linoleum had got very hot under the flaming sun. We nearly got burned on the seat. In such a heat we streched the drum leather. We might look uncomfortably hot but actually we were comfortable and refreshed, doing what we needed to do.

“To Thessaloniki”

Finishing the performance in Pastra, we arrived at Thessaloniki, the last venue in Greece.
We were surprised to hear that there was blast notice to the theater yesterday. It turned out to be false but we could not help canceling going to the theater today. We have to start preparation for the concert tomorrow morning. We could change the schedule of preparation but could not change or cancel a concert. We will give a concert by all means. Blast notice …..Everyone has his or her own situation. I wonder if we could do anything with Taiko or traditional Japanese drums to change bad situations. If we share the same time and space, something might change. Believing so, we hope we will give a good concert tomorrow.

“The Last Night in Greece”

It was very HOT today, too!!!
We entered the theater around noon and started unpacking under the flaming sun. To protect the drums’ leather from the heat, we used just the drum stands for positioning.
I was afraid the position marker tape would melt in the heat, but we put it on the linoleum. When the sun began setting, we unpacked the drums at last. Then we had a problem. Blackout occurred. Without electricity we cannot use lighting or sound effect.
We didn’t finish focus check yet and didn’t even begin sound check. What a pinch! We used flashlights for practice in the dark, expecting the recovery of power. The opening time was 9:30. As the sun was setting, our worry was growing. Then we heard a voice saying the power had been recovered! We would be able to prepare barely in time for the opening. It was completely dark and began cooling down in the wind when our concert started. Contrary to in Pastra, there was a lot of space between us and the audience. In spite of that, we were able to feel the warm heart of the audience. We, drummers and the audience shared the same moment and space. I felt as if we were living together in a festival. The encore finished and we deeply bowed in the big applause. In this way our last festival in Greece was over.

“Bulgaria”

We’ve flown from Thessaloniki in Greece to Sophia, the capital of Bulgaria. As you know, Bulgaria is famous for yoghurt. That’s all we know about Bulgaria, which we’ve never visited before. We are very glad to come here because we love yoghurt. When we entered our hotel room, we were surprised and happy to find some yoghurt in the room. Bulgaria is worthy of visiting!!

“Interview”

We had an interview at the hotel lobby and another three interviews concerning our appearance on TV. We heard the interview would be shown on TV, so we had TV on, waiting to watch it …Here it came! The main part of the interview was the scene that Maiko Toi was showing her muscle. (Ha, ha)

“Vigor”

After the concert and cleaning up, we went out for dinner. Walking to a restaurant, we came across the interpreter at yesterday’s interview. She saw today’s concert and excitedly told us how she felt about our performance. She said that our concert had made her vigorous. We became more vigorous to hear that. We were really happy to hear our drumming made someone happy. She made us realize that we were able to give heart to the audience..

“To Graz”

We’ve arrived at Graz in Austria.
We associate the name of Graz with kebab, and the name of kebab with Graz. We eat kebab several times a week in Europe. I have no idea how many kinds of kebab in how many countries we have eaten and the kebab in Gras is the best of all. Our Kebab King, Kennmei Matsushita has given a stamp of approval. Since this is my first visit to Graz, I’ve been looking forward to eating kebab here. We took a tram to the kebab shop. Its name is “EURO KEBAP.” In front of the small shop opposite the station there were some people buying some kebab. It has exquisite balance of buns just baked, chicken with a little burnt crispy skin just grilled and a little vegetable with plenty of source. I understand why all the members say this is the best. I wonder how many times I will come to eat this during the stay in Graz. I might come every day.

“Starting a Training Camp”

As the title of the report says, we are having a training camp here in Graz for six days from today. We have rented a room for drumming practice. We’ll go there from the hotel every day. We can hardly have such a good opportunity for practice during the tour. The trailer loaded with the drums is heading for Graz passing across the three borders from Bulgaria and is getting to Graz tonight. We, the players can fly to the next venue but the trailer truck travels over many hours or many days. Praying for its safe arrival, we spent the first day of the training camp doing some basic training.

“Unloading”

The second training day has begun. It’s rainy on the day of unloading. When we were having breakfast, we heard from the driver of the trailer truck that he had not crossed the border to Austria yet. Worrying about the truck, we went to the practice place so that we could meet the truck at any time. When we were practicing some Japanese musical instruments, the truck arrived at last. The trailer was loaded with lighting and sound effect instruments beside drums. Drums were at the back of the trailer. We had to unload a lot of instruments to reach drums. We were very glad to see the familiar cases of drums. The truck driver is essential for us. He drove all the way alone, crossing three borders. We owe our performance to all the staff members.

“Clapping”

We cleaned the practice place at first. There was a lot of dust on the floor which had fallen from the ceiling by the vibration of yesterday’s drumming practice. We were so devoted to practice that we didn’t notice it yesterday. After cleaning we meditated and then we started today’s practice.

“Taiko sounding to anywhere”

We went to practice with considerable spirit this morning. When we were practicing in each part, we heard a slight knock on the door. We opened the door to find a stranger, who said that the noise we made interrupted his rest. He lives about 1.5 kilometers away from here. His neighbors wondered what the sound was and searched for its source by car. We were surprised at the fact that the sound of taiko traveled so far. We apologized to him. According to him there is a rule in this town that they should not make a noise from noon to 2 p.m. and after 6 p.m. We didn’t know that. He kindly said that we could make sound from 9 to 12 a.m. and 2 to 6 p.m. and we promised that we would follow him.

“Little Concert”

To tell the truth, on the first day of the practice, a mother and her son came to see us because they wondered what the sound was. They got interested in taiko and watched our practice. She even promised us that she would make us a cake. Today her whole family including his father, brother and sister visited us with some sweets in her hands! The home-made raspberry Danish pastry was the best of all. We were very pleased with the sweets after we got tired from practice. We were really thankful for their kindness in spite of our annoying them with the big sound. So we gave them a little concert in return. We performed three pieces of music, “Kizashi”, “Garakuta” and “Rakuda” with our gratitude to them.

“Clearing the Practice Place”

This is the last day of June and of our training camp. The rain let up and we saw the blue sky. We finished the practice with going over the whole music of the program. We began packing feeling we would miss the place. When we got to the trailer, we found a few more people besides us. Three strange boys who happened to pass by were helping us. They worked as hard as the male members of us and even helped us clean the place.
During this training camp we got a lot of things; not only a good chance of practice but also a good memory with neighbors. We met kind neighbors, made a promise about the practice time and gave a mini- concert. We must have been incredibly noisy because our sound was caught at the place 1.5 kilometers away. In spite of that all the people were very generous and kind. We were so thankful for everything.