First Concert in the History Books

Just got back from a wonderful first concert at Aiphonic Hall in Itami City, outside of Osaka.  The audience was warm and very enthusiastic, which is rare for a Japanese audience - they're usually more reserved than demonstrative.  Our good friend Kaz was there, and she brought the well-known conductor and arranger Nozomu Abe of the Kobe YMCA along with her!  It was a great pleasure to meet him and chat about bells.  He's been there for 30 years now!!

Here's what the Aiphonic looks like from stage right (the first one is with flash, the others aren't):

Isn't that lovely??

Our stuff is being transported tonight by van to our next venue.  We're flying, but it's far cheaper to send a van ahead with our stuff than it is to pay the exorbitant luggage fees on domestic Japanese flights.  To get everything down, they had a handy loading dock which could be accessed from lift in the stage floor. Here's what it looked like:

 

Very, very handy!  Shoulda done this on the way in!  Instead we took a very small elevator four or five times to get everything in. ;)

Our Japan newbies, Barbara, Joe, and Gretchen, did great today!  They're now part of the select crew! :D Congratulations, you guys!!

Now we're off to Niigata, which is in North Honshu (main island).  Here's a google map:

http://goo.gl/maps/B5T8u

Ack!  It's snowing!!  Brrrrrr!

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=37.916192,139.036413


Wish us luck.  Domestic flying in japan is always so much fun...

---Jason