The other day we traveled to Kagawa and unloaded our drums. Yamato likes to produce our own concerts completely, so we have much more to take care of than just setting up taiko.
First we have to spread out black linoleum over the stage. Then the sub-stage, curtains, panels and all the large props must be carried and prepared. Of course, we hang all the lights ourselves and Yamato members also input the lighting data into the computers as well. Even our stage platforms, taiko stands and the clothing we wear on stage were all made by members of Yamato.
The set up took a long time, but that is they way we do things.
Right now, Japan is excited about the world cup. Although we lost to Paraguay, the Japanese players showed tremendous teamwork and the people of Japan are very happy for them.

Before the performance, our leader, Mr. Ogawa said to us: “Don’t let the emotion of those soccer players show you up!”
Like a group of athletes we gathered together for a group “Yossha!” and went out on stage full of energy. We don’t know if the audience had watched the soccer games or not, but the Kagawa audience was very lively. They welcomed us with enthusiastic applause, which made us happy and wrapped us up in a warm feeling.
Our performance doesn’t have winners and losers, but we don`t want to forget the dedication the Japanese soccer players showed. The feeling of being one with the audience.

At 8 this morning we got into the theater, unloaded quickly and set up. We have no time today and we have to play as soon as the stage is set.
We planned a detailed schedule in advance and very quickly prepared for our show. It looked like we were on fast forward.
The phrase “there’s no time” was deeply embedded into all our minds. We moved very efficiently.
Everything went according to schedule, setting the lights, sound check and then the performance. Wow!
And from tomorrow, Yamato will depart for the Asia Tour.
We will play in Manila, Philippines three times, then twice in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.

The evening of the sixth during our always exciting Japan tour we get on board a plane at Kansai airport. After a four hour flight we arrived at Manila airport around 11 PM.
We didn’t get to the hotel until around midnight, but there was no food service on the flight, so we are hungry. So we went out in the middle of the night to look for dinner.
We got back to the hotel around 2 AM. Oh no, we are supposed to leave at 5 AM for an appearance on a morning TV program!

We are tired. We left the hotel at 5 AM to take part in a live TV broadcast. We knew we were supposed to perform somewhere, sometime between 6 and 8 AM (a little ambiguous…) but the truck carrying our drums didn’t even arrive at the studio until past 7 AM. They pushed back our performance time. We quickly unloaded the drums, set up and performed. And for all that trouble, we actually only played for two minutes. TV is always so quick.
We returned to our hotel and had a nap. We ate lunch at 2 PM and from 3:30 we had a press conference. We had to get the taiko ready again. We introduced Yamato to many reporters. After many questions, we performed two songs and then made a quick exit.
Because we had an invitation to dinner.

For today’s concert we are at a theater called the Center Stage at SM Mall of Asia.
We got into the theater at noon and began our daily tour routine of unpacking and then marking the placement of all the drums on the stage. At the same time we are also setting the lights and doing sound checks preparing for the show. The theater is completely full.

Today we are at the same venue as yesterday, the SM Mall of Asia. It’s not a theater, but rather a semi-outdoor stage.
SM Mall is one of five large shopping centers in Asia. Right in the middle of that mall there is a stage with seating for the audience.

The temperature in the Philippines is so high, the heat clings to your body and you feel as if you cannot get rid of it. In spite the heat the shouts and applause of encouragement by the audience give us power, and with physical strength and sweat we finish the concert.

Today we are giving a concert in a different part of the MS mall. We are in a hall called SKY HALL. The show was supposed to be sold out, but an additional 500 people showed up still hoping to get tickets at the door. The place is bursting!
We gave a Filipino style performance in the midst of deafening cheers and applause. The audience was really into it all the way through our final encore.

We finished our three days of concerts in Manila and today we moved to Malaysia by plane.
Our plane didn’t leave until evening so during the day we could do a little sightseeing and shopping.

We are in a Malaysian city called Kuala Lumpur. Today we are at a large shopping mall called One Utama, where they have set up a special stage for a one hour concert. We worried about whether or not people would show, but 2000 people suddenly gathered around the stage.
We are hardly over our exhaustion from the Philippines and are already catapulted into this.
On the way home we ate Malaysian food.

It seems that the chicken is famous. The chicken was good, but the lime juice was really tasty.

It’s our Kuala Lumpur concert. It is at a venue named DBKL Hall. This is the last concert of our Asia Tour 2010. Of course it motivates us! Right from the crack of dawn we arrived and began unloading and were busy with the concert preparations. Again, although the concert was sold out, there were still people who showed up to see the show, so there were people even in the aisles. All of our members were simultaneously moved by the shouts and cheers during the standing ovation before our encore. The concert in Yamato’s 49th country, Malaysia, was also a big success!

Start: Yamato EU Tour 2010 – 2nd Period!

We are guests at the 15th Japan Festival (Japanfest) in Munich. Today four of us must perform for 30 minutes. There is no time to fool around so we wanted to practice our performance piece a little, but as soon as we lined up the drums, people began to gather immediately. Oh man, I guess there is nothing to do but play… and we energetically performed three songs.

Many journalists from all over Germany come to see our shows. They ask, “Please give us an interview after the show.”