“Dinner Party”

“Concluding Festivities”
Today is the last day of the “Shin On” tour. Since this morning, we began to feel a bit of nervousness as we made our way over to the theater. We arrived, prepared for the performance, began the concert and when we finished, the “Shin On” tour had also finished. We felt a little sad. But this is not really an ending. From now, we are starting the next project.

“Champagne”

Yamato’s plans for today: Harvesting rice!
This year, as a favor, a citizen of Asukamura has lent us a rice paddy and we have tried our hand at planting rice. Now, those rice seedlings we planted are finally ripe for the harvest.

Thanks to the watchful and courteous help of Mr. Terashita, a farmer from the neighborhood, we were able to grow a splendid crop of rice, in spite of being gone on tour for part of the time.

Anyhow, even though we are not the ones who put in the most work, we are still excited about harvesting the rice. These days, just about everywhere you go, people use large, mechanical harvesting equipment, but Mr. Terashita had prepared scythes for us to use. Right from the planting of the rice paddy, Mr. Terashita’s favorite phrase was: “You guys need to do this by hand.” We had no choice, but to harvest the rice with scythes. We watched in mute amazement at the skill and speed with which Mr. Terashita demonstrated the harvesting technique.　Immediately, we tried to imitate his technique…
“Man! This is hard!”

Unable to match Mr. Terashita’s harvesting efficiency, we struggled pushing and twisting the teeth of our scythes up against the roots of the rice stalks. “What’s wrong with you guys? You’re too slow!” said Mr. Terashita. Ignoring his disappointment we continued harvesting the rice. This is actually pretty enjoyable work.

After a little practice, we started to get used to the work and even began to work a little faster. With a large group of people, we spent several hours happily harvesting the rice plants.  You must continuously bend over for this type of work and it actually a good deal of stamina. It is quite strenuous work to be sure. And when we lifted our faces from working in our own little rice paddy and looked around, there are rice paddies as far as we can see… Long ago, all of this was harvested by hand. The people who lived in those days, they must have been really hard workers!

This year marks our 11th year to hold the Tenkyosai festival. Since 1997 we have been putting on this taiko and music festival in Asukamura. We are glad to report that everything went went smoothly, as planned. In total, 5000 people gathered at Asukamura’s Ishibutai stage for the concert. It was a huge success. Thank you to all who attended the concert!!!

As we approached 3 PM, more and more guests arrived, and the performers got more and more nervous, until the curtain finally rose and the amateur portion of Tenkyosai, “Daichi no Kodo” (meaning “Beat of the Earth”) was underway. Altogether 11 groups performed. Finally, all these different groups, with all different types of styles, gathered on the stage as one, and performed the piece, “Hyuga” as an encore. It was really quite exciting.

After that, Yamato, BBBB (Black Bottom Brass Band) and the singer, Nokko, performed as part of the Guest Concert. For the encore, all the guests gathered on stage and at the climatic point of the performance, we began a countdown: “10, 9, 8, … 1, 0!”

BOOOOM

With loud “booms” and “bangs”, the evening sky was lit up with sparkling fireworks. Even the Yamato members, who had spent the last two days and nights setting up the stage, watched the fireworks display in awe with bloodshot eyes. Our exhaustion just disappeared. As all those present enjoyed the feeling of togetherness, culminating in the fireworks against the evening sky, the curtain was closed on the 11th Tenkyosai Festival.

Dubai Concert Report　 by Tamai Midori

On October 24th, 7 members of Yamato left Japan and flew to Dubai to perform at an event there. We would spend 3 nights and four days altogether in Dubai, making this a short tour.

Before arriving in Dubai, my only knowledge of the country was that it is really hot and has a strong economy. Knowing nothing more than that, I left for Dubai.
After a layover in Hong Kong, we arrived in Dubai. When I got off the plane, my first impression was “it’s hot!” We arrived on the morning of October 25th at 5 AM. Even though it was only 5 AM, the temperature in Dubai was already very hot. My first impulse was to want to change into a tank top, but this country has fairly strict religious regulations and showing a lot of skin is frowned upon, so I did my best to endure the heat. This is a tough country.

We waited at the airport for the hotel car. Eventually a very expensive car arrived and picked us up. Inside the car, the air conditioning was on full blast. Furthermore, when we got to the hotel lobby, the air con there was also on full power.
Even though the outdoors was intensely hot, with the AC on, the indoors actually felt cold. It made me feel that this country must have a good economy. And that is how our short stay in Dubai began.

Although we arrived in the early morning on the 25th, we didn’t neglect to go running before breakfast. We immediately set out for the town, and then we could really feel the hotness of Dubai. Under the risen sun, Dubai was extremely hot. You feel as if the sun is so close, that you can reach out and touch it.

Our rehearsal wasn’t until evening, but following breakfast, we traveled to the concert venue with our staff to have a look around. For the Dubai concert, there are 7 of us here from Japan, and 2 staff members from Holland. The venue is a special stage constructed in the middle of a university campus. We had a quick look around the place, noted that our taiko had arrived safely and then returned to the hotel. Later, we all returned to the venue, unpacked the drums and arranged them on the stage, performed a sound-check, and that was the end of our first day in Dubai.

From the morning of the 26th, we spent time practicing the songs we would perform for this event. This time, they are a little bit different than usual. We will not only perform Yamato’s songs, but will also be performing along with video footage and music.

From what we have been told, this ceremony is a very important event for Dubai. The President and a large number of VIPs will be in attendance. We definitely cannot screw up…

With a fresh feeling we turned our efforts to practicing and rehearsal. We practiced performing over and over with the videos and music. Our performance was following a local police band and preceding a bugle corp. The rehearsal lasted from 5 pm to 10 pm. The heat of the midday was gone by then and there was a cool breeze blowing.
October 27th. Finally it is the day of the performance. The venue opens to guests at 4 PM. The sun is still shining brightly. After psyching ourselves up for the performance, we headed over to the event site. The atmosphere of the venue had changed since yesterday. It had become extravagant and gorgeous.

In front of the stage, dining tables had been beautifully lined up, beautiful flowers had been placed by all the entry ways, and a red carpet was spread from the entrance to the middle of the venue. In the midst of all the excitement, we had one more rehearsal.
The level of intensity among the staff members has increased since yesterday. At 6 PM we changed into our costumes and moved to “standby” behind the stage. From somewhere we heard the sound of a helicopter. At first we thought it was just passing overhead, but then it seemed to be landing somewhere nearby. When we asked one of the staff about it, he told us that the President was on board. The President got off the helicopter and entered the concert venue. Now the intensity and excitement in the air was steadily increasing. Finally, the ceremony began.

After speeches from several of the special guests, images and videos began to be projected onto the large screen behind us, and the music we had heard so many times in rehearsal began to play. We walked out onto the stage. Quietly, the sound of our taiko joined the music. Gradually, the taiko, the music and our feelings become one. Extravagant lighting, moving pictures, music and “Yamato”.

At the end of the program, fountains of sparks launched fireworks for a finale of pyro-technics which nearly covered the whole sky. In Dubai’s dry, evening sky rumbled the thunderous sounds of taiko and bursting fireworks. Slowly everything faded out. As the performance ended, we exited the stage amidst applause and calls for an encore.

And that is how we successfully completed our Dubai concert. Later, when I saw the pictures, I was surprised and felt how spectacular this event had really been.