Day 5 of the tour: from Morioka to Sendai.

Thanks to you all, we were able to complete our Iwate performance on Wednesday the 22nd without any problems and with a great response.
The Iwate Nippo newspaper has finally given him a photo on the front page of today's paper, surpassing Shohei Ohtani's first appearance in an exhibition game.

This is the digital version of the article .

As a guest, she performed a poetry reading that captivated not only the audience but also the performers. She was also introduced on the official blog of actress and creative artist Non.

We'll post a backstage report from the Iwate performance at a later date.

Anyway, thank you very much to everyone who came!

The next day, the 23rd (Wednesday), we traveled to Sendai by bus in the morning. I was in charge of car number 3.

The rate of deep sleep was over 90%.
The three-day training camp was a travel day on the first day due to an unexpected major earthquake, so they had only two days to cram in the brilliant performance that was met with such acclaim the day before, so they must be exhausted.
Let's sleep with our chests held high.

On the way, at the Chojagahara Service Area in Miyagi Prefecture, a member from Fukushima seemed to have found a mysterious local product and asked a member from Miyagi about it.

When I got back on the bus, I found horn player Kikuno Kanade (a second-year high school student from Fukushima City) and trombone player Kaizu Kota (a third-year high school student from Shirakawa City) sitting next to me, chatting in hushed voices while eating snacks.
Kanade asked me, "Tanaka-san, do you know what"Ganzuki" is?"
It seems to be a specialty of Miyagi that was talked about at the service area earlier.
"What's that?"
"Well, there's nothing like that in Fukushima either."
"Even though we group the Tohoku region together, each region is different."
"Even when we're talking normally, suddenly we come across a dialect that we don't understand. For example, the members from Sendai say "izui" or "mu-tsukeru ."
"Yes, actually everyone speaks different languages."
"The great thing about Tohoku Youth is that you can learn things like that."
As expected, he is a native member who joined the group in its first term when he was in fifth grade and has never taken a break!

While we were talking like this, we arrived at our destination.

Today's Miyagi performance was cancelled due to the earthquake, so we were able to practice at the Hitachi Systems Hall in Sendai. If we miss today, we won't have a chance to practice together until the Tokyo performance.

Members of the Tsunagaru Choir also arrived for a practice session without any rehearsals.

First of all, before entering the concert hall where the practice will be held,

Everyone is gradually getting used to it, and it's time for the antigen test.

While I was waiting for the test results, I was looking for someone who was wearing "bold clothing" today, and someone called out to me.

Abe Himeno is a violinist and first-year student at a university in Koriyama City, but at first glance she doesn't seem to make a strong statement.

But the shoes made a statement.
"Isn't it cute?"
There are many prefectures that call themselves fruit kingdoms, and Fukushima is one of them. With the intention of supporting Fukushima, we have certified the person who wears the boldest clothes by combining the two.

Among the people waiting in line for antibody tests on the side of the "Tsunagari Choir," who are isolated from other choir members, we spotted a potential "person wearing bold clothing."

Joining us from Fukuoka Prefecture was Bae Yong-jung, a Korean resident of Japan who said, "People don't mistake my face for Bae Yong-jun, but they get my name wrong."

I was curious about the mask so I went closer and

It was the flag!

moreover,

They created original mizuhiki badges in Ukrainian colors.

All nine people from Kyushu will be wearing this badge and singing the 9th Symphony. When I asked Hideko Hirako, who is in charge of the chorus, later, she told me that she was the leader of the choir that Pee is connected to.

Of course, I was certified as someone who "wears bold clothing."
Without a doubt, he is the best "person who wears statement clothes" to date.

In fact, I recently bought a PC case in a color similar to this one to make a statement.

Looking at the group waiting for the antigen test, I spotted Saki and Masako Torii, mother and daughter oboists from the first batch of alumni who are members of the choir from Miyako City, Iwate Prefecture.
They do look alike, so I couldn't help but ask them for a commemorative photo.

I'm sorry, even the way you close your eyes is similar.
Please let me take the photo again next time.

It's lunchtime today.

Lunchtime is served side-by-side to prevent infection.
The Pease sign is silent.

Today's practice venue is a magnificent hall that serves as the home of the Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra.

A surprise guest from Sendai arrived at the venue.
This is Aya Nishina, who composed the Tohoku Youth Orchestra's first commissioned work, "Kugui no Sora" in 2019. She had actually attended the Iwate performance the day before.

He was impressed by the improvement in the performance of the orchestra members from the pre-concert before the show, and said that he was moved to tears when I, an unworthy person, began speaking as substitute MC at the start of the show (this was a relief for me, as I had been feeling down since appearing on stage and starting to speak when I heard a noise from the speakers and realized I had gone on stage with my mask on, and was so shocked that my glasses almost fell off when I removed my mask).

We were grateful to hear the rave reviews from music professionals who said they were moved by the wonderful performance and how everyone listened intently to the music as they played. We even received 150 brown sugar buns as a gift to celebrate the performance.
Nishina-san moved back to his hometown this spring to teach music at a certain university in Sendai. We look forward to working with him again in the future. Thank you very much.

Mr. Manabu Takeda from the Fukushima office introduced us to the Tohoku Youth Orchestra's usual lost items at the training camp. He lives in Kunimi Town, where the earthquake recorded a magnitude 6 last week. He participated in this tour despite the roof tiles having been blown off his house and the leaks being covered with blue tarpaulins borrowed from the town office. Thank you very much. Once again, I would like to express my sympathy.

As Toshio Yanagisawa began to review and rehearsal the performance in Morioka last night, backstage, Mari Otsuka from the Fukushima office reminisced, "It's nice to be able to practice in such a great hall. In the first year, we practiced in the cold in the atrium at the entrance where the shoe lockers of the high school were lined up." She is a veteran of the office of the junior orchestra and youth orchestra following the FTV Junior Orchestra. We are deeply grateful for her support this time as well, such as collecting and carrying the lost items that increase day by day.

Some of you may have been wondering about the last few photos. Today we're looking at the third person wearing bold clothing.

The hoodie worn by Yu Miyagawa, a junior colleague at the Tokyo office (who has participated in the chorus of the Ninth Symphony), was a bold statement. He is shy, so he posed with his back to the camera.

Another guest came to the stage entrance to take an antibody test.

Akane Hatakeyama is an alumna and violinist who served as captain for the second and third terms. She currently works at the Miyagi Prefecture headquarters of JA Kyosai, which has been a long-time supporter of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra. She had applied for a day off from work for the Sendai performance scheduled for today, so she came to the hall in Sendai. The chocolate in her hand was a gift from her and her fellow classmate at TYO, Miyu Sato (from Fukushima Prefecture, currently a nursery teacher in Chiba Prefecture).

During the break, the group members who had found each other surrounded them and were filled with joy at being reunited, saying things they had missed so much. It feels like things that we couldn't do during the COVID pandemic are starting to return.

Before practice started, the members of the band greeted us. They had finally finished paying the compensation for the earthquake a year ago, but last week's earthquake meant that 100% of the compensation was still outstanding. I felt their dignity as adults.

Along the way, Yanagisawa went to the practice venue for the Tsunagaru Choir, where Kiba Yoshinori is the instructor.

Even though it's only the fourth day since we connected from all over the country, there is a strange sense of solidarity.

Another guest who came was a local resident.

The trombone player is Maon Fukuzumi, a second-year high school student who is currently taking a break from the trombone group to study for university entrance exams. He was happy to be reunited with Kaizu, a senior in the same section.

Mao-kun said, "The thing that shocked me the most today was when he compared his height with Souta-kun (who was 5 years old at the time and is now a viola player in the 6th period), who accompanied Watanabe Yutaka from the Fukushima secretariat to the Miyakojima training camp in the summer of their first year.

A dejected Mao is surrounded by his classmates from his second year of high school, so they take a commemorative photo to celebrate their reunion.

Starting in April, you will be a "high school senior." Maon-kun, I hope you pass the entrance exam to the Department of Physics in the Faculty of Science and return to the Tohoku Youth Orchestra as its leader.

On this day, we had about three hours of practice before splitting into three buses and heading to a hotel in Sendai.

For the first time in a long time, I was in charge of bus number three.
As we entered the city, Kaizu-kun from Shirakawa City was impressed, saying, "There are a lot of people in Sendai, after all." Horn Sousuke, who was sitting nearby, said, "When I was in junior high school before COVID, I often went to Sendai to hang out with my friends." Even though we're both in Fukushima Prefecture, it's quite different.

It took more than an hour just to get off the bus, carry out three suitcases and our musical instruments, take the elevator from the first to the third floor of the hotel, and hand out room keys to everyone...

Anyway, everyone is doing well!