“Standing on our hands”

We often stand on our hands. When we have a wall to lean against, it’s easy to stand on our hands, but we are afraid to do it without a wall. It requires not only strong arm muscles but also a good sense of balance. However, once we learn how to do it, our fears are gone and we want to stand on our hands anywhere even though it’s a dangerous place.

“The Last Day of Performances in Paris”

We have finished the last performance in these three weeks in Paris!
We are thankful to the audience of about twenty thousand for coming to our concerts and thankful to the staff members for supporting us. And we’d like to say, “Thank you.” to everyone cheering us around the world.
The applause didn’t stop until the forth encore at the last concert. The audience shouted, “Nippon, Nippon, Nippon…!”, asking for an encore. It sounded to us that they were shouting, “Nippon” though we didn’t know what they were actually saying. Anyway their big cheers moved us and reminded us of the three weeks in Paris.

“Talk Show”

Today’s schedule is as follows. We have two interviews and then a work shop with a TV camera in the afternoon. At night we appear in a popular TV talk show which has the top audience share. However, it will be broadcast at ten tomorrow night, when our concert will have been finished.

“Blagodria (Thank you in Bulgarian)“

We had a large audience of 3600 at today’s concert! All the tickets were sold out! The concert started in much tension and excitement! The applause and shout of 3600 people was terrific!

“Skillful Movement of Fingers”

Today we saw something amazing! Four musicians appeared at the restaurant where we had Bulgarian dishes for dinner. We were amazed to see them play the accordions so skillfully with their fingers moving rapidly. They used their left fingers to press so many buttons on the accordions.

“McDonald”

First food is very convenient during the tour. We had McDonald food for lunch in a bus. Roads in Eastern Europe are rather bumpy and whenever the bus jolted, we nearly spilt cola and scattered French fries. What a thrilling lunch!

“Arena”

We are in Hungary, our second country to visit on this tour in Eastern Europe.
The venue of this time, an arena in Budapest is so huge! We will look like peas or grains of rice from the seats in the back. I even wonder if they can see us. An arena reminds you of concerts of rock stars like Stones, Madonna and so on, doesn’t it? It’s so cool! All we can do is to have willing spirit. We feel as if we were rock stars!

“In the Local Language”

We usually begin our number “Rakuda” with the Japanese word “Ikimasse! (Here we go!)” We were told to greet in the local language and we said to the audience in Hungarian, “Sziastok! (Hi!)” Then a big shout burst from the audience, “Hurray!”

“Surprise”

While we were getting changed for the second part of the show, we heard a familiar voice. We turned around to find a Dutch lady, Michella, who was our old sound assistant. We realized she had come here on business and that she still works in a show business.
What a coincidence! What a small world this is!

“Training”

The world Judo match is now held in Budapest. The match venue is just in front of our hotel across the street. What amazed me the most was a tiny lady doing the chin-ups very quickly in a gym. I felt we should train ourselves harder.

“Spirit of Service”

We went to an interesting restaurant today. They let us try on folk costumes. Mr. Midori Tamai was in a costume of a sheepherder, surrounded by the Dutch crew of “Yamato” in sheep skin. He looked like a Hungarian version of a famous Japanese TV character, Mitokohmon, Deputy Shogun in Edo period. (Please look at the photo.) We are thankful to the master and his wife of the restaurant for amusing us.

“In Debrecen”

We are in Debrecen, our second city in Hungary. Debrecen reminds us of Japanese food!
Whenever we visit the city, we have lunch delivery service from a Japanese restaurant, “Wasabi”. Sure enough, Japanese food makes us happy. We love rice! It gives us strength.

“Japanese Taste?”

We’ve found it!
We were all surprised to find “Fanta Japan (a kind of soft drink made in Japan)” here in Slovakia. We had seen “Fanta Jamaica” and “Fanta Tanzania” before but we didn’t know there is “Fanta Japan”. “What? It has the flavor of a watermelon? Why, watermelon flavor…?“ It had unexpected taste. I wonder if it will be sold in Japan in future.

“Ice Hokey Stadium”

We’ve arrived in the third country of Eastern Europe. We thought we’re going to perform at a huge arena today but in fact today’s venue is an ice hokey stadium! What? On the ice! But we are not surprised like this. To tell the truth we came here last year, too. I remember the taiko sounded very well. Just one beat of the taiko sounded for a great distance for a long while.

“Practice and Practice”

Today is a day off but we do practice and practice as usual. We practice beating on anything like a futon mat, the floor, a chair and our laps. We even beat the other members’ laps when our own laps begin to hurt. There are various rhythms in our numbers and they become numerous during a two-hour show. We strain to master each of the rhythms.

“A Curling…”

Today is another day off. We found a bakery, where they didn’t sell ordinary bread but sold pastries which were in the shape of cylinders. They looked so delicious with sugar, vanilla powder, cocoa powder, coconut powder around them. We bought one of them. It was crispy outside and soft inside.

“Starting a Performance”

The time has come at last when we put on a show in Oberhausen!
We were nervous and excited, facing the first performance here. The audience’s shouts were explosive! The theater was crammed with people and we received a standing ovation! We are happy when we are performing! Danke schon! Yes! We’ll keep going for six days!

“Guest”

I’d like to introduce today’s guests! They are members of a local taiko drummers’ group, “Amaterasu Taiko”. “Bang, bang, bang, thump, thump.” They appeared in the same T-shirts! A German lady who has more than ten years’ experience of the taiko writes music and teaches them how to beat the taiko. they showed us their play. They looked cheerful and were very powerful! Both of the young and the old can enjoy the taiko! We realized again how good the taiko is!

Today I will tell you about the catering room before opening. I hear something noisy. We practice even in this room. When the practice gets heated, we tap the table strongly with our hands. We don’t care if we drop chopsticks and knock down glasses and we keep practicing just before the opening.

“What’s coming?”

We were exhausted after the hard practice and the exciting show. When we were about to go to sleep, we heard the sound “Spatter, spatter!” “What’s that? What prevents us from sleeping?” It was rain. The sudden downpour was like water rushing out of the tip of a hose when it is pinched with fingers. We looked out of the window with surprise only to find the rain water coming up to our feet. The rain drenched the floor, coming through the windowsill and running down the wall. We had never heavy downpour!