YAMATO REPORT


	September 1st The Fourth Day

Ms. Maiko Doi, training while waiting for the check of a short blackout

“Right in the Middle”

Right in the middle of the stage there is a giant taiko (traditional Japanese drum). When all of us concentrate on the taiko and our concentration makes big sound, it can move audience. Now I remember that a newspaper said about our performance at the festival in Stockholm, “The giant taiko right in the middle of the stage sounded as if it came from the core of the earth.” I know that we cannot make such a great sound yet and that we have a long way to go until we can make it.


	September 2nd　Last Performance in Frankfurt

Today’s matinee started at 2 a.m. Dipping with sweat we ate hot ramen for　early lunch.

“A Lot of Audience”
We’ve finished the concerts at Alte Oper.

We did seven performances in five days. We are glad that a great number of people came to our concerts. The auditorium can accommodate 2,400 people, so it means we met about 16,800 people in five days. I wonder if I was able to communicate with each of the audience. I wonder if my enthusiasm touched them.


	September 4th 　Performance in Braunschweig

This is the outside of the theater. Can you find “Yamato” in the poster?

“The Town”

We started a day with morning jogging as usual. It’s very interesting and pleasant to jog and look around the town we visited for the first time. Since we usually don’t have time for sightseeing, jogging around the town makes a good chance of sightseeing.


	September 5th 　Second Day in Branschweig

Mr. Takaoki Masui and Mr. Takahiro Mon’s solo practice. Dynamism is the most　important!

“Here We Go!”

We practiced shouting “Ikimasse! (Here we go!) The first piece of the second part is “Rakuda” (Merry Drumming). “Rakuda” begins with the shout “Ikimasse!” When the curtain opens, the stage becomes bright and we can see one another, we shout all at once, “Ikimasse!!”


	September 6th Performance in Munich

This is the entrance of the Circus Krone.

“The Circus Hut”
The venue of this time is a little different from the usual one. It is a circus hut! Do you know the Circus Krone? It is a big circus touring around Europe. Its home is in Munich and while they are touring away from home, they rent the hut for other concerts and so on. This is the third time for us “Yamato” to perform here in the hut. We are in the circus hut now. It looks like as if we were rare, fierce, wild animals performing in the circus.


	September 7th Second Day in Munich

We appeared on a live TV program. This is the scene of the sound check.

“Heat”
It’s cold in Munich, for it’s rainy today. I’ve heard from our senior members about the shows in the past. The first thing they said was “Hot!” No air conditioner, the stage close to the audience in the hut! As it got hotter with full audience and they moved vigorously in the hut, they couldn’t do without ice in the wings. What’s worse it was abnormally hot for May when they did performance here last time. This time I felt excitement of the audience, which made me feel hot like a heater. Our concert began with heated excitement of the audience.


	September 8th Third Day in Munich

This is a picture taken from the audience seats. It shows that the circus hut is oval as expected..

“What does a performer mean?”
We are drummers and want to be stage players and performers. It matters little whether our drumming is good or not but it matters more how great we are as human beings. The world on the stage is different from the one in the auditorium. I’d like to express myself and sometimes reveal my real self on the stage. I’d like to be such a performer.


	September 9th Fourth Day in Munich

A llama is at the back of the circus hut! It looks like one of the members, Daiki Mukai, doesn’t it?

“Senior Members”
Today’s performance was quite different from the ones until yesterday. Our senior members who had attended the Edinburgh Festival, joined us. Four of the senior members, Mr. Takeru Matsushita, Ms. Akiko Ogawa, Ms.Tomoko Kawauchi and Ms. Midori Tamai were on the stage with us today. I felt how reliable they were.


	September 10th Day Off

At the information of the underground. A poster of “Yamato” is behind the young man.

“The Aura of the Senior Members”
We watched yesterday’s performance on video and talked about it after dinner. I just sighed after watching the video. I cannot tell how I felt. The aura that the senior members have is different from that of the junior members. I think we, junior members should try hard to catch up with the senior members. First we need to train ourselves mentally.


	September 11th Fifth Day for the Concerts in Munich

This is Mr. Gen Hidaka putting the sticks in order. It looks like he is in the auditorium but actually he is in the backstage.

“Laugh”

Today’s practice was “laugh.” First we stood in a line in front of the stage and laughed. Next we practiced drumming not with smile but with laugh. When I burst into laughter, I didn’t know what I was beating and when I concentrated on drumming, laughter was gone. It was difficult for me to do the two things at the same time but sometimes I was able to feel myself open when I could manage to beat and laugh.


	September 12th　Sixth Day in Munich

We are practicing the number “Garakuta”

“Not Pretence”

I think that “Yamato” ‘s performance is not so much a drums concert as a show which has a story. Each of the performers has a character and each piece of music has a story and that makes a two-hour-long show. We should not forget that it’s not important for us to improve our acting skills but it is the most important to identify with the character. We cannot convey the story unless we identify the whole of our bodies and mind with the characters.


	September 13th　Seventh Day in Munich

We’ve found our three-year-old autograph on the wall of the room.

“For What?”

The members of Chanbara Project have gone to Holland. They stayed with us just for a short time but I learned a lot from them, the senior members. I feel that “Yamato” is not just a group of Taiko players or traditional Japanese drummers. It’s not that we only have to beat the taiko well but that we should beat the taiko powerfully. We cannot complete our drumming technique and acting ability however hard we try. We should consider what we are beating the taiko, or the drums for. Today we are having a concert, which a lot of audience will come to see. We will beat the taiko for the audience, for the people cheering us up, for our family or for whomever we think of. I’ve reconsidered what I beat the taiko for.


	September 14th Eighth Day in Munich

Practice of our number, “Hayate” The background drumming makes the shamisen sound outstanding.

“Garakuta”

“Garakuta” is one of our numbers. Three male members of us play it with the chappa (small, cymbal-like instrument). Today all the members practiced “Garakuta.” Though we didn’t play the chappa, we made the scene of “Garakuta”, standing around the chappa players, Mr. Tetsuro Okubo, Mr. Takaoki Masui and Mr. Gen Hidaka. It’s important to play second string to the main players.


	September 15th Ninth Day in Munich

The topknot cut Ms. Marika Nito is about to cut Mr. Midori Tamai’s too long topknot.

“Living Performance”

I’ve recently thought that a performance is a living thing. We don’t want to show a prepared show but want to show a thing which we are making on the stage. I want to feel that we are making each show on each day.


	September 16th Last Day in Munich

We took a picture to commemorate the last entrance into the theater.

“Leave everything neat and clean behind you.”

We are touring all around the world and we can stay at a comfortable place in each town. Today one of our members found that we had made the kitchen unclean suggested we should clean it. Then I remembered hearing that when our senior members visited a school in Japan, they cleaned the school gymnasium to appreciate the place for the performance. I think it’s natural that we should clean the place we used.


	September 17th Move to the next venue

At the supermarket near the hotel, Mr, Midori Tamai is waiting in a line.

“To the last venue of the Europe tour”

We have just one city left on this tour of Europe which began in February in 2007. The city where we are going to stay for the last week is Bregenz in Austria, which we will visit for the first time. I recall that we have visited various places since February. Some of them were our first places which we left our mark on. I feel the marks are different according to the time and the members. I’d like to leave a good mark on each venue.


	September 18th First Day in Brengenza.

We ran through our performance. It was like we had a matinee.

“Starting to count down”

We have just six days to go! Just seven shows left! It’s time to count down.


	September 19th Second Day in Bregenz

Finally we do this as usual!

“To Enjoy”

We had a workshop today. Mr. Tetsuro Okubo managed it as usual. He used to be so nervous in leading a workshop before, but today he seemed to be enjoying the workshop itself. I also enjoyed it while taking some pictures. I think it important for performers to enjoy performing to make audience enjoy the concert. I suppose the more we enjoy it on the stage, the more excited the audience become. That will unify the performers and the audience


	September 20th Third Day in Bregenz

A huge open-air stage was just behind our venue! Some members of us took a look at it. An opera “TOSCA” was being played on the stage.

“What Is Important”

We practiced one of our numbers, “Rekka (Intense Fire).” At the beginning one of us is supposed to exchange handclaps with audience. Mr. Gen Hidaka tried to play the part but he could not do it well. Our leader, Mr. Ogawa suggested that he should stamp his feet steadily and that we should be conscious of standing on the earth whatever part we might play.


	September 21st Fourth Day in Bregenz

We played “Rakuda (Merry Drumming)” at the party after the show

“An Eye”

I’ll tell you about the huge stage behind our venue. The huge open-air stage is not a normal stage but it looks floating on the lake. The floor waves and a huge eye juts out from the wall and it moves too. It is one of the tourist attractions. We had a chance to see its back stage. That’s a stage for the opera, “TOSCA” and it has as many as 7000 audience seats. We were allowed to stand on the stage too and were surprised at the big size of the eye. We hear that it has two meanings; one is to keep an eye on everyone and the other is to guard everyone. I wonder how wonderful the opera will be on such a great stage. I cannot imagine that but I felt as if it was appealing something


	September 22nd Fifth Day in Bregenz

We raced on pedaling boats for training as well as for fun. The victory went to the　team of Midori, Saori and Marika.

“A Song”

We’ve been performing the program “Shin-on (Heartbeat)” this year. We sing a song in the last piece “Shin-on.” Today we practiced singing the song. What impresses me the most in the song is the last phrase of the lyrics “ikiteru kyou, inoru ashita o (living today, I pray for tomorrow).” The lyrics are Japanese and I don’t think that foreign people understand the meanings. What counts is how sincerely we sing to convey the meanings. When we sing with a strong feeling that we are living, we must be able to convey it to the audience. We sing not with words but with hearts. We feel our hearts pound while singing and we’d like the audience to feel their hearts pulse, too while listening to us.


	September 23rd Final Day in Bregenz

Big drum!!

“The Last Day of The Performances”

The last day of this year’s Europe tour has come. We’ve been to a lot of towns in various countries and have met a lot of people at the concerts.
We feel thankful for everything now. We have always had someone to help us and we owe what we are to them. I think we should train ourselves more both mentally and physically and give better shows to express our gratitude. Dear readers of this report, thank you for your support! I hope to see more of you. We are going back to Japan tomorrow. See you again in the tour report!


	September 26th Departure

We found this poster at Monterrey Airport in Mexico. We are participating in a festival here.

“Start of USA Tour”

Hello, readers!
We’ve arrived in Mexico. Finishing the Europe tour on 23rd, we left Europe on 24th and arrived in Japan on 25th. As we had feared, our baggage was delayed, so we flew to Mexico with the wardrobe of the last tour. Now we are in Mexico. As for the delayed baggage, it arrived at Kansai Airport in Japan only this evening.


	September 27th Preparation

We are focusing. We can see buildings and mountains from the stage.

“Tropical Mexico”

We are participating in the festival “Forum universal de las culturas Monterrey 2007.”
Today we prepared for it. We are performing on the open air stage in the middle of the town museum. Lights were hung over the stage and we began preparation with making a sub-stage. It was hard work under the hot sunshine, especially for the newcomers as they were not used to it. When we began unpacking, a lot of people came to see us. They gave us clapping and cheers as they watching us positioning and focusing on the stage. Anyway it’s so hot in Mexico. We will tan again even in late September.


	September 28th

This is a picture taken from the auditorium

“Performance at The Festival”

This was the first performance in Mexico. It was raining. They said we would not have to worry about rain and it didn’t appear to start raining at all, but it began raining just before the performance. It rained hard for a short while but after we played the piece “Yakara (The gentry)”, the rain stopped. We were able to finish the show. On an open-air stage accidents or happenings are likely to occur and it’s real enjoyment to cope with those accidents and happenings.


	September 29th Second Day at the Performance

A tremendous number of people!

“15,000!”

To our surprise, the number of yesterday’s audience was 12,000! We could not see the audience in the distance from the stage but when they were lit up, calling for an encore, we found a great number of people in the distance, which gave us goose flesh. Partly because some newspapers carried our performance of yesterday, today some of the audience began to wait for the opening two hours earlier. Even though it began raining before opening, they didn’t seem to mind it. After all we had a larger audience today than yesterday. The number amounted to 15,000, they say. Even after the concert, they didn’t go back home soon. We were a little shy to get cheers in a shrill voice.


	September 30th Day off

Mr. Takaoki Masui is trying a game. He is very good at it

“Practice & Amusement Arcade”

This is the last day of September.We practiced all through morning and went for fun in the afternoon. After lunch we hung around for a while and went into an amusement arcade. We were surprised to find almost all the game machines were made in Japan and instructions remained in Japanese. As we had never thought of seeing something Japanese here in Mexico, we were so excited as to forget we’ve been on tour now.