1st Nov in USA

“Photosynthesis”

When we have a performance, we spend the whole day in a theater but unusually we had lunch outside today. It was such a fine and clear day today that we’d never been that happy. We felt as if we were doing photosynthesis.

“Addition to a Journal”

There happens an event wherever we go. I wonder if we draw it. The event this time is … “blackout.” The moment we arrived at the hotel after nine-hour long travel, blackout occurred. We got into the black. An employee of the hotel managed to bring a candle to us. We’ve been used to various events but this time we were very surprised.

“Coming back to Erie!”

This is the forth time for us to perform in Erie in these six years.
The scenery of Lake Erie reminds us that we swam in the lake last time. When we entered the theater, we remembered that we had drawn our mascot mark, “Yamato-kun” on the board. There might be a staunch repeater who will have come to our concert for the fourth time. We’ve come back! Let’s have fun together!

“Matinee”

We are having a matinee.
Today’s tickets are sold out too! We are thankful for that.

“Hand-made Drums”

We saw strange taiko (drums) today. They were hand-made taiko made of tires with masking tapes spread on them. High school students who came to our school concert today made them by themselves and they play them in their club activity. Tires are sometimes used as drums for practice. They have made them perfect musical instruments. They produce musical scales by the size of the tires and the tension of the tapes.

“22 M”

What do you think this length is? The answer is the full length of the trailer truck which carries our taiko, acoustic instruments and stage lighting equipment.

“Discovery!”

“Leave everything neat and tidy when you go!” “Keep everything cleaner than before!” These are our mottoes. We make it a rule to take the marking tape off the stage when we leave the theater. But this time we’ve found the marking tape we had put two years ago. It was the marking for the “samisen“ (three-stringed Japanese banjos). This is the proof of the “Yamato”’s coming. Proof? No, no, it’s just that we forgot to peel it off. We are so sorry.

“What shall we eat?”

Today we have a day off for the first time in three weeks. We are in a suburb of New York. Autumn leaves are so beautiful here. The autumn is the best season for reading, art and above all for eating. We looked for a good restaurant, walking on the fallen leaves.

“Trainee ”

We have a trainee who is a maniac of the “taiko”. I’d like to introduce him to you. His name is Takahiro Mon, 20 years old. He is a novice drummer. Before joining us, he was an office worker. That’s probably one of the reasons why he looks older than he really is.
I suppose his working experience makes him look a little dignified. He worked as a precision instrument processor and is clever with his hands. He is helpful in fixing the stage setting. He is just a beginner as a drummer, but crazy about the “taiko".

“Sleeping Face”

Can you sleep soundly in a car? We sometimes travel by bus through night after performance. Today we did so. We traveled 410 kilo meters for 4 hours and a half. Few of us find it difficult to have a sound sleep in a bus. Most of us fall asleep easily even in a bus. Once we get to sleep, how slovenly we look! While sleeping in a bus, we look quite different from us on a stage. We would be embarrassed if you should see us sleeping.

“Appearance of another great senior member”

Before dawn we arrived in Washington D.C. We got together for breakfast, being half asleep after the night bus travel. Then what made our eyes wide open was our great senior, Ms.Tomoko Kawauchi. Her sudden appearance before us was another surprise to us after Mr. Ogawa’s sudden appearance last month as we thought she was in Japan. She will be with us to the end of the U.S. tour. Her mere presence gives us courage. We hope she will give us severe and sincere advice.

“Necessary Provisions”

I’m going to tell you about our original meal. That is “instant noodles and rice.” When we have no restaurant around our hotel, we cook this meal. I’ll tell you how to cook it. First we cook rice with a rice cooker which we always carry with us. Next we cook instant noodles with the rice cooker after removing cooked rice into a plastic container. Then we eat noodles and rice. When we are lucky, we have some eggs in the noodles. Then we are so happy that we feel like being grateful to everything. We are thankful to our senior members for thinking out this recipe. If a hotel hall smells of instant noodles,
we cook “instant noodles and rice.”

“Competing with Students in Shout”

Today we visited an elementary school in the morning. What we saw there was students and teachers beating various sizes of the djembe and dancing frantically. “Where are we? Are they doing a club activity?” As soon as we entered the classroom, they burst into shout. “Wah! Yieee! Grr!” How excited they were even in the morning! We shouted back to them, ”Ahhhh!” and played our number “Rakuda.” The students danced naturally to the sound of the taiko. Their powerful reaction gave us a lot of energy.

“Good by, Our Tour Bus”

The day has come when we say “Good by” to our tour bus which has been carrying us around the vast land of the U.S. for about one month. For us the bus has been a place for practice, meeting, studying and sometimes for sleeping. It has been like a warm home which welcomes us every day. Thank you very much. Good by!

“Unusual Trouble”

How many times have we told you about incidents during our U.S. tour? A happening took place again. It was an unreasonable incident. We arrived at an airport in Philadelphia at 10:00 to take 11:45 flight. But to our surprise we found the flight had already flown. “…???” We couldn’t understand why it had happened. Anyway we changed the flight and arrived in Florida 6 hours later than the schedule. We are supposed to give three shows in Florida. Nothing could stop us. Here we go for tomorrow!

“The Sea”

When we see the sea, we feel as if adrenaline were welling out. We had been traveling in a bus and the day for meeting with the sea has come again at last. We are on the Florida Peninsula and see the Atlantic Ocean. “Here we see the sea-------!” First we shout. Then we practice swinging drum sticks toward the sea, do exercise toward the sea and paint by the sea. We enjoy doing various things outside.

“Bodakeshi!”

The other day we said goodbye to the tour bus. We travel around in a rental car here in Florida. Our drivers are a technical coordinator, Jim, who works with us for the second time and an assistant, Emily. They have been increasing their Japanese vocabulary day by day. “Otsukaresama-desita”(meaning “Thank you for your work.” or “Well done. Take a rest.”, etc.)” Tetsudaouka?” (“Shall I help you?”) “Abunaaai” (“Watch out!” “Danger!”)”Aho-chau” (“You are idiot, aren’t you?”) And their pronunciation is very good.
They told us some of their words. “Bodakeshi” is one of them. It is a word in Quebec, Canada, which means “You are kidding!” Have you remembered it? Now you can point out the inconsistencies in a talk of a Canadian. Try to say, “Badakeshi!”

“Oranges in Florida”

We head for the venue, running through town and along the seashore in Florida.
Oranges are famous fruit in Florida. On our way there, we dropped in at a shop which sold a heap of oranges. Oranges which are rich in vitamin are our favorite. We tried as many oranges as we liked. Some were sweet, others were sour but all of them were refreshing. Now we felt refreshed and drove on to the theater again.

“Manliness”

One of our numbers, “Masurao” is a powerful piece played by the male members.
Last year Ms. Maiko Toi was selected for the center position of the number. All of us including her admit that she has manliness. Having a chef license, she is our food manager. Her muscle attracts interviewers at a press conference and she never forgets to show her muscle to them. Male members, be competitive!

“Incomparably Larger!?”

“The number of the participants of today’s workshop is 1,400.” “What? 1,400? Not 14?” It is two digits larger than usual. We won’t be able to teach them in a usual way. We’ve changed the plan. All of the members will deal with the participants though usually three of us do that.

“Beach Marathon”

Today is a day off. We are in West Palm Beach! We have no reason not to go to the sea!
Which way should we go to get to the sea?
“Huh? Ten miles away from here? Let’s see… It means… 16 km?”
I’ll say it again. “We are members of “Yamato” and we love the sea.”
We have no reason not to go to the sea.
We changed into sweat suits and started to run to the sea.
16km is nothing! For there is a beach 16 miles ahead of here!

“Nice Sense of naming!”

We happened to find a sign “yamato” on the road out of the window. We were surprised to know there exists a road “yamato” in Florida. They have a good sense of naming! Applause!

“A Memory”

We’ve arrived in Canada.
Today we went to the restaurant of Mr. Gen Hidaka’s memory.
He studied in Canada for four years. This is the Chinese restaurant which he went to with his mother for the memory of his graduation. Then he talked about his life in Canada, his future and “Yamato.” Two years later, now he is sitting at the same restaurant as a member of “Yamato.” The language he learned has helped him a lot and he has taken a firm step to his dream that he had two years ago. Mr. Gen Hidaka, what are you aiming for now? Don’t be satisfied with the present situation but make your way forward!

“Okedo-taiko (tub-shell drums) Plus our Body and Mind”

About half of our taiko are “okedo-taiko”(tub-shell drums). Today we are going to tighten the strings of these taiko. First we carefully loosen the strings of all sizes of taiko; from about -40cm-shoulder-tub-shell drums to 1.4m-big-tub-shell drums. The only sound we hear is “Shhht, Shhht”:the sound of pulling strings. We do the work with gratitude to the drums for going through the tight schedule. In this tensed atmosphere what we have tightened is not only “okedo-taiko”(tub-shell drums) but also our body and mind. Now we are ready for tomorrow’s performance.

“Sandwich”

In some hotels they don’t serve breakfast or in some rural motels they serve very colorful doughnuts, which we’d rather not have for breakfast. Then we make sandwich by ourselves. Today we bought some bread, vegetables and fruit at a nearby market and make sandwiches with cheese in them. Though they are simple, they taste good. We eat them together in a hotel room.

“Travel by Train”

Today we are traveling by train, which we rarely experience. I remember we took a train in Russia. This time leaving Toronto, the train passes by Lake Ontario. We’ll be able to enjoy the changing scenery or reading a book during the train travel. We are going to travel for 8 hours with one transfer. We feel as if we were tourists. I wonder what I will do on a train.

“A Present of Food”

“It smells. Don’t you smell it?” The smell is…Kimchi!!??” Today we received a present of home-made kimchi. “Toshiro”, a supporter of “Yamato”, who lives in Canada, sent it to us. We had rice balls and kimchi before performance. Nothing could beat the taste of rice balls with kimchi! We love the hot taste of kimchi! We ate a lot and got charged with sufficient energy before performance. Now we are full of drive!

“School Cafeteria”

The average age of the U.S. tour members is 24 years old. It seems that we look young to foreign people. All of us might look like high school students. (Is it a little too much to say “All of us”?) Today’s venue is a theater at a college, so we had lunch at the school cafeteria. A group of Japanese in red sweat suits must look strange among Canadian college students. We had a lovely time for a while, feeling like college students.

“Merci!”

We’ve had five performances in five cities in a week during the Canada tour. The last venue is in Montreal. This is a hometown of the crew of USA “Yamato.” Their motivation is naturally rising. Our motivation is also very high. The theater has 3000 audience seats and four floors. The tickets have been sold out! Wow! We are proud of ourselves!

“Back to USA”

“Oh! How wonderful the snow is!” Mr. Tetsuro and Ms. Maiko Toi, who are from snowy district, often admired snow outside during the stay in Canada. They say the cold suits them and that it’s easy for them to breathe in this cold. We are going back to USA now.
We have ten days left for the US tour. It’s time to put on a final spurt!