Cold Snow, Warm Hearts

Our performance day in Uonuma started out with a bang and ended with a zzzzzzz...

It was snowing badly at the performance location and the highway was blocked... so we had to leave an hour-and-a-half early to ensure we made it for the rehearsal.  And, indeed, it was snowing.  We made a pitstop at a small store:

Yes, the carving above is provided by the Rotary Club.  There are Rotary and Lions clubs all over Japan!  While in the store, we came across some odd stuff:

My wife just loves fish, and the second thing... well...

We made it on time, and the concert was fabulous.  Although sparsely attended, the audience was wonderful and enthusiastic.  Afterwards we invited them to come up on stage to see the bells.  We used to do this more often, but for some reason this is happening less this tour than in the past:

People love to see and touch and hear the bells!

This woman was fascinated by the harmonics and how she perceived them:

Four-in-hand is always a fun concept and people are fascinated by the fine control we have over the bells:

 

Singing bell, the technique that Sonos reintroduced to the handbell world, is also an audience pleaser:

It can be hard to get at first, but once somebody figures out the technique and makes the bell "sing," their eyes just light up with joy.  It's a great honor to bring that experience to people the world over.

Getting back was a bit of a challenge.  We hopped in the bus around 10 PM.  And we moved 30 feet or so and... sat.  And sat.  And sat.  Turns out that the highway was being reopened, but a snow plow had broken down and needed to be towed!  The irony!

We'd move a few feet.  Then we'd sit.  And sit.  And sit a lot more.  We finally got home around 2AM.  Yeah, it was a long night.  We thought we might go back to the hall and sleep on our foam. ;)  But, our intrepid bus driver persevered and we made it back!

The next day, before we left, we wandered around Itami a bit, so I'll leave you with a few impressions:

(See if you can see the weirdness in the picture of the building above!!)

Then it was off to Morioka, but that's for another post.

---Jason

Still Cold in Morioka

Our hotel was very close to the river.

Had a little time to walk around the city with Cheryl and Jan. Emil joined us for the trip to the old castle grounds where the embankments have been made into a park.

It took a while to walk through lots of snow, slush and water but we found the city lake.

Snowed in bicycle, dried fish, bushes tied up to prevent snow damage, all signs of daily life in this northern cold climate.

Always nice to see bells, silent though they may be!

Concert hall, another fine acoustic and 700 in the very receptive audience. At all the concerts so far the introduction to Smirti was read aloud as we quietly set up for the performance. Here they had printed it in the program. Not what I wanted since many of the audience might not read it and the intent of the work is very specific. Our agent assured us that all of the remaining performances will have it read.

Sonics rehearsal.

Casual group photo.

Now on to Sendai, a city which saw much destruction by the tsunami last year.

A "Day Off"

It started as an early morning after a very fun (but long!) day at Disney Sea. I was grateful to wake up without the very sore back and feet I acquired yesterday! Several of us had volunteered to play our quartet piece, "Sakura," for two nursing home facilites in Kamakura yesterday. Many of the rest of us joined in for sight-seeing along the way. We started out on our one hour train trip to Kamakura, leaving through Shinjuku Station, the busiest train station in the world. As the train emptied from stop to stop, we found seats and settled in for the rest of the ride.

When we arrived in Kamakura, we walked under the large gate and up the middle of the street toward Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū, a Shinto shrine.

It was built in 1063. We took some pictures and video and when we had our fill, walked back another way to find lunch. Tamamura-san (our agent here) led us into a restaurant specializing in soba, a buckwheat noodle shaped like spaghetti, where we slipped off our shoes at the door and each ordered our topping...mine, tempura (shrimp and vegetables). After lunch we shopped down a narrow alley of businesses, each stopping in shops that interested us, some with beautiful and ornate chopsticks, stationery, clothing, and of course, cell phone charms (VERY popular here!).

After lunch and shopping, the small group split off to go to the nursing homes. The people there were so appreciative of our coming, the residents sang along with our playing, and we all had "warm fuzzies" in sharing this traditional Japanese melody together. At the second home, the eldest resident, 102 years old, presented each of us with packages of special ornate Japanese paper (I feel some origami and scrapbooking coming on here!). She seemed not a day over 75! This visit was really a highlight for me.

The others in our group had gone on without us, so our small group, with Tamamura-san's help, visited the Kamakura Daibutsu (Amida Buddha). I had the opportunity to "sing" a bell under a lovely tree on the grounds and Patti took this great picture of me in one of those moments a person never forgets.

We ended our amazing day of history and service with a little Japanese culture. We slipped into a tiny restaurant (seating maybe 16 people) for a hot drink and warm sweet, little rice cakes and chestnuts in a warm sweet bean sauce. A sweet older woman worked alone to prepare and serve our treat. When we were all warmed up, we headed for the train station to make our way back to Tokyo.

There is NOTHING like Shinjuku Station at rush hour! The massive numbers of people stream through the station as fast as the trains! With only two minutes to get off and on, there is a huge adreline rush and a fight or flight response that kicks in as you fear you make not get on or off the platform on time! I now know first hand the videos on youtube of station workers "stuffing" trains is absolutely true! I cringed as it appeared one girl's toes were not all the way inside the doors! She managed to pull them back another inch as the doors met them in the middle and off she went.

Sonos Receives Icy Reception

Sonos Handbell Ensemble received an icy reception by Mother Nature on our way to the second concert in Uonoma on our 7th tour to Japan last night. 

Heavy snow from a formidable blizzard accompanied us on the bus trip from Niigata to Uonoma, a city known for its premier rice situated amidst a winter vacation area with hot springs and ski resorts. Over 6 feet of snow lined the icy roads as the snow fell heavily at a 20 degree angle. The trip which normally would take an hour and a half took well over three. (Coming back was even worse with a 2-hour park on the road waiting for snow to be cleared.)

 

Cellist Emil Miland's 19th century cello, "Nestor", took the frigid weather in stride and had no complaints after warming up in the 1000-seat concert venue. Again, the hall had amazingly wonderful acoustics. Built in 1998, the sound was brilliant and alive at every point in the room. I don't know why the Japanese can get it so right time after time in their many halls and in America we have such consistent acoustical problems with the few halls we do have. 

Mother Nature might have provided an icy reception outside, but inside the people inside were warm and unusually demonstrative for the typical Japanese audience. It's not that they are not feeling it but their culture reserves large displays of emotion for the TV soap opera series and game shows.

They especially appreciate "Smirti" (Sanskrit for "Remembrance"), the work that I wrote for Emil in honor of 9/11. A spoken preface to the work explains:

The composer speaks -  

After the terrorist attack on New York's Twin Towers I felt a need to respond musically as a composer. It took 3 years before what I was feeling became strong enough to be able to write it down in the material world. It would have been easy to write something that reflected the surface tragedy, but that would tie the piece to just this one event.

I felt there was a deeper and more universal lesson to learn from that and all other catastrophic events. At the deepest level of human life we are all connected. So whatever happens to one of us happens to all of us - we are not isolated in the world. If we only understood this completely we would not do what we sometimes do to each other, because we do it to ourselves. 

Despite the tragic events that have occurred in your country with so much loss of life and property, the Japanese people have responded with great courage and strength. These qualities we all have, we just need to remember them. 

A single cellist enters the stage quietly and sits with his eyes closed. A community of people sits around him. He begins with music from another world, a world where spirits who have lost their life are trying to understand what just happened to them. 

A deep low song comes from the cello as the other players bring the support of the whole community and recount the events that have just happened. The cello reflects these events in a very strong, agitated section which eventually returns to the deep consoling song that brings strength and courage. 

Sonos offers Smirti, which means "remembrance," to all Japanese people in honor of their deep strength and courage.

Uonuma experienced a severe earthquake 6 years ago so this sentiment was especially meaningful to them. The manager pulled me aside after the concert and said that many top ensembles come and perform in this hall, they play beautiful melodies expertly, but that they do not touch his "bliss" (his word), they do not touch his heart. The joy of music making that Sonos displays did. You can't hope for any better reaction than that. That's why we do what we do and it appears to be working!

The next day we played in Morioka Civic Culture Hall (1400 seats). We were last there in 2005.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Kiriku Concert...

...we came across the Japanese Empress!!

But... back up...

Today we took the train from Sendai to Tokyo, where we'll be staying for the next few days.  Specifically, we're at the wonderful Keio Plaza Hotel in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo.  It's an awesome place!  Outside in the lobby is this monstrosity:

OH, and the crass banner hung above the sign was put there by some soccer fans of the Corinthians Paulista football (soccer) team.  Apparently they have a big world championship against FC Chelsea (English club).  Soccer fans are the most rabid of all and follow their teams all over the world - and they all seem to be staying at the Keio Plaza hotel. ;)

We were quickly met by a dear friend of Jim's (and all of us), Tomoko.  She's a sweety!

Tomoko will be showing us around Tokyo tomorrow - hopefully we'll hit the new Sun Tower, supposedly now the tallest in Asia.


Many of us are good friends with members of the Kiriku Handbell Ensemble based in Tokyo with Taiko Otsubo as its artistic director and leading light.  Taiko played with Sonos in the early 2000s as she was getting past her previous ensemble, Chamber Ringing Soloists, and starting up another group which would become Kiriku.  Kiriku is definitely a spiritual relation to Sonos.

Sometimes our schedules conflict so that we don't get to see them when we're in Tokyo, but this year we could!  Yay!  So, we all (most of us) packed up and headed out to the train station.  Kiriku played at the Marikyu-Asahi hall, where Sonos has also played.  It was 10 stops away from Tochomae, which is very close to our hotel.

The Tokyo subway is about as pleasurable an experience as you're going to get for such an efficient and effective mode of transportation.  The system is extensive - you can literally get *everywhere* in Tokyo on the subway.  People are courteous and quiet while on the train.  (We are always the most boisterous riders!  Go figure!)  Here's a shot down one train.

 

 And here's Jim:
 

We got off and tried to find the concert hall.  We weren't so lucky at first and had to walk around the block a few times... but we did finally get there!  Good thing we left early. ;)  On the way up, we saw a concert poster of our friends!  Yay!

We made our way up to the hall, which is in a non-descript office buliding.  They put concert halls EVERYWHERE in Japan!!

Marquise managed all the logistics and got us a block of seats on the lower level.  4000 yen a piece (about $50).  Here're a bunch of Sonosians camped out waiting for the concert to begin:

I took the opportunity to wander around and get some pictures of Kiriku's layout:

Beautiful hall, huh?  It really is nice - great sound, good sightlines for the audience, and really intimate on stage - love it!!

As I was upstairs, there was a guy in an official-looking suit doing the whole "secret service" thing, talking into his wrist, touching an earpiece - I thought he was just an usher or something.  Boy, was I wrong!

The first half was fabulout, as always.  They played Mozart, Piazzolla, Bach, a Garee arrangement... all good stuff.  Then, as we were lounging around getting ready for the second half to start, the audience turns around and starts to mutter and point.  We had no idea what was going on.  We look up, and there's a very nice elderly Japanese lady sitting down in the balcony.  The audience starts to clap!

We thought she had to be a patron or a sponsor or something.  We were all looking puzzled at each other trying to figure out what was going on.  Jim asks a nearby audience member, who replies: "Empress!"

Yes, the EMPRESS OF JAPAN was at our friends' handbell concert. :)

The audience was all a-twitter, and we were feeling pretty special, too. :)  Some of us have been able to visit the Emperor's castle on the day they celebrate his birthday (Dec. 23rd), but I don't think we've had the pleasure of making his acquaintance. ;)  We didn't exactly get to meet the Empress, but we were 30 feet away or so!!

The rest of the concert was fabulous, as expected, with raucous cheers (not all from us!) and three encores.  Taiko has forged a marvelous instrument in Kiriku, and it seems like they can do anything they want with the bells, effortlessly.  I'm proud to know them!

We weren't sure we could meet Kiriku afterwards, being as they were probably greeting the EMPRESS OF JAPAN.  But, Taiko came out and we had a group hug and joyful reminiscing.  Her three children are beautiful, and her husband, Michitaka, looked as dapper as ever.

In the end, we had to settle for a group photo before heading back to the train station and on home to our hotel.

Tomorrow we'll be exploring Tokyo and recharging our batteries getting ready for the final onslaught of concerts that will start in a few days and take us to the end of the tour.  What a happy day today was!  Thank you, Kiriku, and thank you, Taiko-san!

 
---Jason