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At long last we come to the end of a long tour and its time to go home. We left Tokyo after 9 days of rehearsals, concerts, sightseeing and shopping. In fact, several people seem to have purchased new, bigger suitcases simply to fit in all of the gifts. Fortunately my origami Christmas decorations (not a joke) don’t take up much room, so I am coming home with the same bag. We have a vast collection of luggage labels as well. There is the yellow LSO label, a Kajimoto management label, a bag number label, my own label with my name and phone number on it, a label from all of the hotels we stayed in which is about 6 I think and various bar code thingies from flights. My case has a serious identity crisis. Jo has a heavy label on his case, the identification tag of a serious shopper. We also get the labels from airports, those ones with the stickiest glue known to man which they wrap round your handle and you get paper cuts from when you try and remove them in the check in queue. I always like spotting them in airports as you can see where people are going. They usually have the name of the airport as three letters, Heathrow is HTW, Gatwick is LGW. The best ones though are funny foreign airports which then spell out words, my favourite is when we go to Madrid and the whole band is walking round with luggage labels which say MAD.
Yesterday we flew to Fukuoka, which is in the south and was warm enough to walk around in a t shirt in December. It is famous for its Ramen noodles which I can tell you are lovely. It was very pleasant wandering around the river in the sunshine before the rehearsal, but to be honest, I was packed and anxious to get on so that I can come home. Time can pass very slowly at the end of a tour, I’m sure my boys birthday cake is now finished and my wife has made a Christmas cake, and I know its a lot colder in England now.
The concert was a really good one, Valery was in one of his-lets try something different moods- and we all watched him like hawks because you simply cannot rely on the music being the same as the night before. Very exciting. The lack of soloist in the last two shows meant that Andrew Haveron looked a little more relaxed than the last concert in Tokyo. I wasn’t in the second half of the show,but when I heard the encore I made my way backstage to get my flute. As the orchestra was playing the march, I looked over and saw Valery standing off stage smiling from ear to ear! He had, it appeared started the orchestra and walked off ! I went over to him and said, “ There is a guy who looks just like you conducting in there.”
“Oh no there isn’t” he replied!
He went back on to stand the orchestra up for one final time.
Today we had a short flight across the mountains to Miyazaki. We looked at the mountains with some trepidation as after the show is over (the rest of the orchestra is playing No. 5 as I type) we have to get on buses back to the Hotel in Fukuoka, a journey of 3 and a half hours. We should get back to the hotel at 1.30 am ish and then we leave for the first of two flights home at 5.30 am. eventually we will arrive back at HTW at 1.30 pm on Thursday. Day off Friday and back to rehearse on Saturday at 9.30 am for six hours. Ouch, roll on Christmas.
This will be the last blog until the new year when we start a tour with John Eliot Gardiner and then more Prokofiev. I hope you have enjoyed it, I certainly have, but I’ll be very glad to see my (year older) children and my wife. I think the first thing we’ll do is buy a Christmas tree on Thursday night.
Every time I come to Japan I feel a little more at home than I did the time before. The people here are so helpful and kind and always make us feel so welcome. The Kajimoto team organise everything to the millisecond with an efficiency only the shark can get close to. I shall leave you with a little tale from Sharon which sums up a lot about this country.
Earlier on this week, she ventured out to an area of Tokyo that she hadn’t been to before. It said in her guide book that it was ultra trendy, so she simply had to go darling. Anyway, we got on the tube together as we were going in the same direction, we both bought tickets for 190 yen and parted somewhere on the Ginza line. I saw her later and asked how she got on. She had a lovely time being trendy and when it was time to go back to the hotel, she couldn’t understand the ticket prices, so she paid 190 yen again and got on the train. On the way back she got off a couple of stops earlier as she wanted to go to a shop that she had seen. She put her ticket in the barrier but it wouldn’t let her get through. She tried again but to no avail. The little man in the ticket booth came over and Sharon explained in her best smiley, shrugging, pointing way that the ticket didn’t work. The ticket inspector looked at the ticket and motioned that she should follow him to his office. There is a definite feeling here of civil order, people wait for the green man at traffic lights even if there isn’t a car in sight, so Sharon was a little worried. Lets face it, you can imagine the grief you’d get in London. Anyway, she went into his office and he took the ticket and tutted, he then wrote some things down and gave her back her ticket. He then reached into his till and gave her 30 yen. She had paid too much for her journey, and that is why her ticket didn’t let her through. Her ticket had a moral conscience. with that he motioned to the door, bowed very low and apologized for her inconvenience. Lovely.
Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year.
The LSO on Tour blog has hit the airwaves – Classic FM has interviewed our wordsmith Gareth for their daily podcast, and will feature more on the Japan tour in future podcasts. Listen, download or subscribe to it here: www.classicfm.co.uk/sectional.asp?id=17535
And while we’re on the subject of Gareth, you might want to pop on over to YouTube to check out the new YouTube Symphony Orchestra. The LSO is a major partner in this project, recording Tan Dun’s piece and recording video masterclasses. See what it’s all about here: www.youtube.com/symphony and watch Gareth’s flute masterclass here: uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uWkC7Aqztbo
This blogging business is funny you know. To be honest, on a long tour, when we repeat quite a lot of music I get to the point where I am running out of words to describe the same piece again and again. The reason that you get lots of information that has little to do with concert giving is because it would end up sounding like those dreary match reports on a Saturday
“Yes well, it started off well with Gergiev steaming onto the pitch and gesticulating wildly. I can tell you he’s working up quite a sweat. This provoked the strings to really dig in John, I’ve never seen anything like it! The crowd went wild after the soloist really dazzled with dexterity and at half time there was all to play for, back to you in the studio…”
You get the idea. I don’t want to read that, so I figure you don’t either. If you want post match diagnosis, go and buy a paper.
I’ve already told you about Prokofiev and about Valery many times, and there are only so many train journeys I can tell you about. Then all of a sudden something quite unexpected happens and I have something new to write about. Yesterday was that day.
The first half of the concert consisted of the 4th symphony (first version) and the second violin concerto (only version), Vadim Repin was the soloist. I like the symphony, it has lots of great tunes in it which if I’m honest, I enjoy so much because I get to play them! Repin got a thunderous reception for his interpretation and was called back on many times until at last he came back on clutching some sheet music. This isn’t something I had seen before and there was a very quick stage move as both the front desk of cellos and Andrew Haveron quickly put up their music stands for him. They were all so keen to help that he suddenly had two music stands for his piece. It was at this point, that Repin stood Andrew up as if he was introducing him and they both stood up in front of the music. Just as most of us were looking at each other wondering if perhaps Andrew had been at the sake, the two of them launched into the second movement of the Prokofiev sonata for two violins. If you don’t know the piece, and I didn’t, it is a fast and very difficult piece which sounded like they had been performing for years together. Once again, the entire audience and orchestra looked on in awe at was was going on in front of them. It really was a highlight of the tour. Sadly I don’t have any photos of the event as I was on stage and also find it difficult to take pictures with my mouth open.
At the reception, I asked Andrew when they had decided to do the encore, he told me that Repin had suggested it the day before at a party they went to, and they had put it together earlier in the day. It is typical of his modesty that he felt the need to point out that he had played it once before. But I’m guessing it wasn’t in front of an orchestra and audience in a major concert hall with a famous international soloist. Simply breathtaking.
As we didn’t have to get up early the next day, a group of us decided to try out another traditional Japanese leisure pursuit-Karaoke. We headed up to Roppongi, which is a lot like Soho and booked ourselves a room for 22 people, thats 25% of the orchestra-ish. Earlier on in the day, some of us had bumped into a guitarist from Britain who was also staying at our hotel. He was over here playing with Craig David (If you are over 35 just google him-he’s a pop star dad) and said that they would like to join us later. We were very excited about being joined by a proper singer for our Karaoke bash and so we all warmed our vocal chords with a pre performance drink and started.
You’ll recognise the following phenomenon if you’ve ever been to Karaoke before. At first nobody much wanted to sing except for Neil and Tom, who were actually very good, and Helen was the biggest surprise of the night, she can really sing. But apart form that, everyone else had to be persuaded at first, but by the end of the evening there was a queue! Even Chaz from LSO live was there, blimey, underneath his professional veneer lies the dark heart of a rock god. Led Zep will never sound the same….well after a patching session anyway Chaz.
Every so often a ripple of excitement would go round the room,
“Craig David has arrived”
We all waited but he didn’t come, so we sang some of his songs instead. The duets were flowing as fast as the wine and I even had a go myself, we all seemed to be getting typecast, I was made to sing Delilah, th unofficial Welsh national anthem. Laurent sang La Vie en Rose and Miriam sang 99 Luftballon.
“Craig David is here”
No, still not here, just his guitarist. To be honest, I knew he wasn’t going to come, but we were having fun anyway. I stepped up to the mike for one last duet with Helen, who because she is a lot younger than me, didn’t know most of the songs that I knew. We eventually found that we both knew a Westlife song-don’t ask.
We were in full flight singing in harmony and everything when I’m told that Craig David did actually appear in the foyer. I discovered this when Mike came running into the room shouting “He’s here” over and over like a 12 year old girl.
We reached the climax of the song, I think we sounded great, well you do don’t you. Craig came into the back of the room and stood at looked at the cream of the LSO in full flight.
Then he turned around and went home. He didn’t even drink his drink.
As I finally lay my head on the pillow that night, I came to the logical conclusion that he was intimidated by my singing and felt it better to leave than show himself up.
Some people crumble when faced with joining in with great performers.
Thank goodness we had Andrew Haveron.
We have now reached the half way point of our tour and it feels a little calmer now we are staying in Tokyo for a few days. It gives the orchestra a chance to stretch its legs, unpack its suitcases and most importantly, not spend every waking hour in each others pockets. Today is the first day off we have had on tour. In fact, I can’t remember when the last day off we had was, as the band was playing in the Barbican the day before we left.
Back home at Chateau Davies in sunny Surrey it is the birthday of my two boys. We had the party before I left for Japan, and very late last night we all marveled at the brilliant invention that is Skype. I chatted to them for two hours and we could see each other on the webcam too. We all agreed that it was fabulous and almost the same as being there.
But it wasn’t. I would give up a lifetime of days off in Tokyo to be at home today.
Still, there is no point in sitting around being miserable and it is the most beautiful day outside, so I caught the tube to Ginza and started wandering around to see what I could find. The main road is a bit like Regent Street in London except every spare bit of space is used. What looks like a department store is often about six shops piled on top of one another selling anything from musical instruments to womens underwear, apparently. I went into a cd store which also sells musical instruments, to have a look for anything different to the stuff we have back home. When you walk into a shop anywhere in Japan, the staff all bow and say, or more often shout a greeting which translates as “You are here!”. Its a greeting which you get in all shops and restaurants from the smallest corner shop to the largest department store. On this occasion, I was spotted as I walked in and the staff all shouted at me in unison like a chorus from a Greek tragedy. It made me jump, but their ensemble was excellent, you could tell it was a music shop. I went up to the third floor (more shouting), and found the cds. There were posters for our concerts, and seemingly hundreds of posters of Lang Lang, and quite a lot for Sarah Brightman (which we did the backing for funnily enough). I was looking for some old Rampal recordings which he made for the Japanese market years ago. Jean Pierre Rampal if you don’t know, was a great flautist from last century and he loved Japan. In fact Sharon has a guide to sushi in Tokyo which has a foreword by the great man himself. Bizarre! She is vegetarian.
Anyway, I found the instrumental recital section and started to look, there was a problem however. If you go into your local cd retailer in the West, all the cds are facing outward so that you can see the picture on the front. Now, in Japan they file them on the shelves like books in a library with the spines facing outward. All of the writing is in Japanese of course and so its a bit like lucky dip, I didn’t even know where the flute section was. I picked some out at random and came up with Orchestral Organ Fanfares, Japanese folksongs for the clavichord and a guitar cd of a German composer who I have never heard of. I never did find any flute cd’s and it was getting embarrassing so I left. More shouting.
Out into the bright sunshine once again, I was getting a little hungry, so I went to the Tokyo beer hall, a place I had passed many times but never been in. It was built in 1934, which makes it a very old building in Tokyo, and the inside is covered in mosaics of Japanese interpretations of German scenes. The ceilings are huge vaulted wooden structures which do bear a resemblance to the German beer halls it is supposed to resemble. The menu is a strange mix of Asian and Bavarian cuisine (Wurst and Wasabe with Miso soup on the side for instance) and about 20 types of locally produced beer. Most of the Japanese people in there seemed to be drinking a very dark stout, so I ordered one too. It was a bit like Guinness but sweeter and very nice indeed, especially when my seafood noodles arrived. There was German music playing, you know the kind of stuff, lots of accordions and oompah band stuff, except all of the singing was in Japanese. As my German isn’t much better than my Japanese, I still had no idea what they were singing about. All in all, it was a bit like when you have a surreal dream and wake up unsure whether it was real or not. I left to some more shouts, uncoordinated this time and stepped from the darkness of the beer hall into the bright sunshine.
I went to the Tokyo toyshop which at the moment is full of kitsch Christmas stuff-you can’t get away from it, even this far away-and bought a few bits and pieces for the kids. They always like it when I bring things back from Japan as I always manage to find something really weird. Today was no exception, although I can’t tell you what I bought as they do read this blog!
I ended the day wandering round Akhibara, which is known as the electronic district. In the daytime it doesn’t look too impressive, but at night it is a sea of neon, it makes Piccadilly circus look like 10 watt eco friendly bulb. The funny thing is that most of the signs are adverts, but apart from the obvious electric companies signs, the rest are in Japanese and consequently are rather beautiful as they can’t sell me something if I don’t know what it is. Probably. I spent a couple of hours just walking and watching until my feet started to hurt and I went back to the hotel.
By the time I got back from dinner, it was time to phone home again and see how the birthday boys were. Of course, by this time it was the afternoon in Surrey, and they had eaten cake and generally been spoiled. My inlaws were round, my parents had gone round and my brother was going round later. They all said how fantastic it was to be able to see me on the computer screen and how it was almost like being there.
But it wasn’t.
A day off in an exciting far away city, lavish receptions, the best concerts of my life. But today what I really want is some birthday cake.
Happy Birthday boys, see you soon xx
All photographs Gareth Davies except Fuji by Chi Yu Mo
Japanese shop, but what does it sell?
Good Morning everyone. Its nearly 10am in London, but 7pm here. Thanks for all your comments, keep them coming in, its good to know what you think. Important matters now.
So I expect you are all wondering what the shop sells and who has won the complete set of LSO live CDs ?
Well, I can tell you that the shop in question doesn’t sell sushi, or golf clubs, or hip hop records.
It sells the winning combination of stringed instruments and vegetables!
Yep, I guess the owner saw the genetic link between the two.
Surprisingly nobody got the correct answer, I am shocked at your lack of imagination.
You can still buy the cds though or download them off iTunes. I’m listening to the new Sibelius with Colin at the moment, Marvellous.
More blogs later today-find out what I did on my day off.
Go to go, I have a concert to play in.
Bliss, another train journey on tour uninterrupted by Sue, although Michael and Siobhan sitting across the aisle are getting quite noisy and competitive playing bubble breaker on her laptop. We are currently on the Shinkansen train to Tokyo traveling unbelievably smoothly and quickly. You probably know it best as the Bullet train, and it certainly lives up to its name. The front of it is aerodynamically shaped so that it looks like the lovechild of a train, a space shuttle and a mutant duck, and when they shoot through the station at full speed the sense of harnessed power is awesome.
Today, we are on the 9.26 train. Now any similarity between a train journey in Britain ends at this point. It glides into the station and the doors open for around one minute. If you don’t get on in the allotted time you get left behind, because of this our cases have gone on in a lorry so that we can get on quicker. The carriages today are double deckers and we are of course on the lower deck, the eye level in your seat is level with the platform. It is incredibly clean, all the toilets work and the staff are polite, as I said, no similarity with British trains. As we pull out of the station we accelerate at incredible speed and the only thing that isn’t a blur is the mountain ranges and Mount Fuji in the distance.
Every time I come to Japan (this is my 6th time) I am astonished by the efficiency with which it is run. I know it is a cliché but everything here really does run like clockwork. All the trains run on time, everything is clean, the concert halls, even in out of the way places are spectacular and put most of the halls in Britain to shame. When I was lost at the station earlier in the week, a young lady from the railway company asked me if I needed help in perfect English and then proceeded to help buy the correct ticket, and took me to the platform and made sure I was sitting in the right seat. As someone who is used to the begrudging monosyllabic grunting that passes for customer service in Britain, I was quite astonished. The people who shepherd us round Japan are from the Kajimoto Concert management company, if they were allowed to run countries I am convinced that they would end world hunger in a flash, although they would be less vague than I, they would probably end it on Monday at 9.23 am GMT. From the moment we arrived here and were greeted by a smiling face and an LSO sign pointing us in the right direction, we have been looked after like royalty. When were in Sapporo earlier this week, we actually had to walk from the hotel to the concert hall unaided! They were obviously worried us getting lost on the way, so one of our guides sat in the hotel foyer and showed us which door to go out of to get to the concert hall-there are two doors you see. I walked a few yards to the edge of the hotel grounds and found an LSO logo on the lamppost with an arrow pointing left. I turned left. As I did so I could see the next LSO sign on the next lamppost, it said straight on. I went straight on. When I reached this sign I began to panic, it was a pedestrian crossing which I had to negotiate on my own, fortunately I could see another LSO logo on the other side of the crossing. I crossed. Now this next sign had the logo, and two arrows, one which pointed left and the other pointed straight ahead saying, “Slippery way”. Faced with this sudden test of initiative, I decided to live dangerously and go the slippery way. It was indeed slippery. At the end of this road was-you get the idea-a sign with the logo, it told me to turn left, I could see the hall now. I turned left and was greeted with another sign telling me to cross the road followed by another one to tell me to go straight ahead. When I reached the stage door there was another sign telling me to go in and even more signs inside showing me where the dressing rooms, stage and toilets were. By the time I had finished my walk to the hall, my eyes were exhausted.
The journey took 3 minutes. Brilliant. Funnily enough, I saw them taking all of the signs down later on that night once we were all safely back so as not to leave a mess in town. Don’t think I am poking fun at this, well, not too much, they really are wonderful and I know that there will be times when I will be very thankful for one of their signs when I go out of the wrong door!
When we went on a train earlier this week, one of my friends left their mobile phone on his seat. Back home, you would have simply cancelled the number and replaced the handset as the chances of it being recovered were slim. On our return journey we went to the information office and filled in a form not really convinced that we were even filling in the right form or not. It took us an hour to get back to the hotel and on our return there was a message for us at reception. The phone had been picked up, handed in and would be delivered to the hotel at 10.30 the following morning unless we needed it earlier in which case they could bring it over tonight. Incredible. I expect they’d topped up his credit too.
When we arrived at the hotel yesterday, Miriam was presented with a letter from the previous hotel which consisted of a list of items left by mistake by members of the orchestra. I won’t bore you with the entire list but the summary really shows you the attention to detail in this country.
Left Articles in LSO Rooms
1. 1 Jacket
2. 5 Coins
3. 1 Eurostar ticket (Used)
4. 1 Paper cup
5. 1 cleaning cloth
6. 1 nightgown from unknown room cleared up with sheets by mistake
What a brilliant place this is!
By the way, we did a concert last night as well. I took some pictures for you. Hope you enjoy them.
Lost in Translation
There is a prize of a complete set of LSO live cd’s if you can guess what this shop was selling. Leave your answers in the comment form by Tuesday 3pm GMT and the first correct answer wins! Many thanks to the horn section for this one!
Shop in Japan
So today is already Saturday in Japan, but you may in fact read this yesterday, which is of course today for you. Possibly. I’m staying up late to speak to my family as my son has his guitar grade 1 in the morning, er, later today or tomorrow for you. Possibly.
So until they get back from school in about an hour, you shall have the benefit of my early night and maybe even read this before I’ve written it.
Possibly.
Today (Friday) was another day when we took at least two modes of transport to get to the concert. I have been sleeping quite well, except this morning, I awoke at 4am. I watched CNN cycle the same film a few times and at 6am I went for a run around the park. It was -2 degrees on the thermometer, so I was astonished to see about 30 locals and their dogs doing Tai Chi. Actually the dogs mainly watched. When I go running back home in the Surrey Hills, I always avoid dogs, their owners always shout “Don’t worry, he’s just playing, he wouldn’t hurt a fly”-just as the dog nips at my ankles. On this occasion, the dogs were mainly asleep trying to keep warm, I was more concerned with a flock of very territorial ravens who lived in the park. They dive bombed me every time I ran past. I don’t know what they feed them on over here, but some of them were bigger than the dogs.
Anyway, after this bracing exercise, we all clambered aboard a bus. Here is the schedule
7.50 Collect boarding card in foyer from Miriam (Sue is in London!)
8.00 Leave on buses to airport
9.30 Arrive airport -buy packed lunch
10.30 Depart Sapporo on aeroplane
12.45 Arrive Osaka
13.46 Leave Osaka on train -eat packed lunch
15.02 Arrive Kyoto-walk to hotel
16.15 Leave hotel and catch tube to hall
17.30-18.15 Rehearsal
19.00 concert
I thought about hiring a car and going on a boat cruise just to complete the journey. Michael Palin would be proud.
As I said, Sue was in London, just as well as sharks are a delicacy here, so I was looking forward to a really quiet train ride with no clipboards. I did get a fright when Miriam appeared. Like a true henchman, she was wearing black trousers and a black leather jacket to intimidate me, but she was just giving me a ticket for the tube or plane, I forget which. Kyoto, I’m told is an incredibly beautiful place, but as you can see from the schedule, I had no time to see anything!
And so to the concert. It was the same programme as last night, I was in Romeo. Tonight was one of those nights that I love being in this orchestra. As soon as Valery walked onto the stage, I could see the look in his eye, I knew it was going to be fun. I often think that the orchestra has a collective extra sensory perception. With some conductors, who shall remain nameless, it is the same every night, so much so that you can almost switch off when you are playing the same music over and over again. That simply isn’t an option with Valery. I don’t think I have ever played Romeo in exactly the same way twice with him. I don’t know any conductor who shapes the music and the sound of the LSO more than he does. He puts slightly longer pauses in to increase the tension, he takes some languorous tunes slower and gives you hours to linger over every note and some nights he pushes the strings like a roman chariot driver whipping his horses until I think they can’t get any faster. Then they do. The sound he gets from them at the end brings a lump to my throat every night, and to be honest, the nice romantic tunes I get to play are easy to tug at the heartstrings when my wife is thousands of miles away.
Sitting as I do in the middle of the stage, Valery is right in front of me and whenever I have an exposed solo or melody to play, he always does something to encourage me to do it in a particular way. I find this so exciting and I think it shows in the electric way the band plays with him at the front. When he pauses slightly or slows down unexpectedly in a solo, and you follow him, he always grins at you and has a glint in his eye. There really is a sense of making music together as a team. He asks, and we deliver, simple as that. The Kyoto audience roared their approval and we played the March from the Love of three oranges, although how oranges are supposed to march is beyond me. Crazy Russian humour I guess.
If I had a million pounds for every time somebody asked me how we follow Valey’s famously fluttering hands, I would be a millionaire. The answer is simple.
You may all be watching his hands, we however are watching his eyes.
Iwaki and then Tokyo next.
Sayonara
I think someone has moved Japan since I was last here.
Seriously, its taken us such a long time to get here, its the only explanation that I can come up with. I left my house at midday on Monday and I finally got into bed at Midnight in Sapporo on Wednesday. Now even taking into account that Japan is 9 hours ahead of London that is one hell of a long time. I think its about 28 hours of travelling. If that isn’t right, please don’t write and tell me, I’m jet lagged and really couldn’t care less. For those of you who travel business class and sit on 12 hour flights in business class, well if you carry on walking for another 50 metres, you’ll reach economy class where all of us (and hedge fund managers) sit. Its a bit cramped to be honest, and even someone as short as me finds it a bit of a squeeze for that long. However, on this occasion, after the 12 hour flight, we arrived at Osaka airport. The efficiency of the staff there meant that, unlike at Heathrow, we were through immigration and baggage in about 20 minutes. This would normally be great except we had to wait for our next plane to Sapporo for 6 hours.
I have never been so bored in my life. It was Chi’s birthday as well, but no matter how many times we wished him many happy returns, no matter how many free drinks he was given, no matter how many cards he received, we couldn’t get away from the fact that today, his birthday was a crap day. To make matters worse, the orchestra had been split into 2 groups, the other group left after us and arrived before us. There was a secret ballot, so I’m told, so secret in fact that nobody knows who did it…maybe I should start being nice to Sue again.
So when we finally arrived at Sapporo airport we had an hour and a half bus journey to get to the hotel. I could resist sleep no longer and finally drifted off. When we pulled up outside the hotel I could see the other half of the orchestra in the bar opposite eating and drinking and trying really hard not to look smug. They were not successful at all. I pied straight in for some food and beer until I lost the ability to talk which made some people very happy, I collapsed into bed and slept very heavily indeed.
We had a free day, very generous, on Wednesday where I went to a volcano. It hasn’t erupted for a while and indeed didn’t when we went, but it was free to get in so I didn’t complain. It was very nice to walk around after being stuck on public transport for a few days. So once again, I slept well last night, unusually for me in Japan.
Today, we started the musical part of our tour. o be honest, at the rehearsal, the band and Valery sounded and looked a little sleepy. He asked us to save our energy for the concert, which we did. The people I work with never cease to amaze me, we all got changed, Gergiev walked on stage and the orchestra played like its life depended on it. I was only in Romeo in the second half, but the audience demanded an encore. We played the march from 3 oranges, an excellent encore, loud and short!
Tomorrow the tour starts in earnest, we leave early and go hell for leather for the next week,with a concert every day. We have to fly from the North island to the south island. lets hope they haven’t moved that too, I’m sick of travelling and we have only just started…
As a new feature of the blog on this trip I will be uploading photos of fabulous English translations from menus and signs. This was inspired by a department store today which wanted to get us all into the Christmas spirit with a sign outside that said
“Lets punch Xmos”
I have no idea either. This shall be called Lost in Translation. Here is the first.
See you soon
Japanese surrealist menu
We are off to Japan on Monday. Read all about the highs and lows of life on the road.
Make sure you visit regularly to get all the latest on whats happening in the far east.
Sayonara!
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