It's the fifth day of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra Concert 2023 Tour, a travel day.

This morning's Iwate Nippo.

The article was in a prominent place next to the weather forecast on the social section. As Iwabuchi-san, a member of the group, said, "It was really good."

And after the show, we had a chance to hold a Wankosoba contest with the band members and the extras from the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra at the long- established Morioka restaurant "Azumaya," which was "really great." We used a coupon from the "Iwate Travel Support Project" for this tour group, so it was a luxurious event with zero cash out, which was great for a poor band.

It was probably the first time we all ate a meal and laughed together in four years, since our summer training camp at Lake Kawaguchi in the summer of 2019.

I, the teacher in charge, finished my bowl after 78 bowls, but a middle school girl had over 100 bowls, and Tokyo Philharmonic's talented stage manager Ota had the lowest record of 24 bowls. One of the things that makes TYO a good place to eat wankosoba is that everyone is able to communicate on an equal footing by the number of bowls they have consumed.

So today is a travel day.
Three buses were waiting at Ogaar Inn, where the group members were staying, from the morning.

The smooth check-out process for the members was ensured by the reliable staff of Otsuka Mari, a veteran of the Junior Orchestra management at the Fukushima office, Takeda Manabu, a lecturer at the Junior Orchestra, Suga Masako from the Tokyo office who joined us yesterday, and Miyagawa Hiroshi.

Whenever you point the camera at him, he always gives you a peace sign, and you can silently see that he is in good spirits.

At the Tsurusu Service Area where we took a break, there were contrails that seemed to represent the rapid improvement we had made since the previous training camp.

As expected, it was lunchtime at Kunimi Service Area, so I didn't see anyone eating soba.

Mr. Takeda, whose family home is nearby, told me that this is the "snow rabbit" of Mt. Azuma Kofuji, which can only be seen during this season. It is indeed a rabbit.

It is also known as the "Seed-sowing Rabbit", and the Fukushima City mascot character "Momorin" is a rabbit. "Momorin" is a combination of "peaches" and "apples", which are Fukushima specialties. It looks like the Dutch-born Mi○fie.

The bus got off the highway and headed for Koriyama. The local girls in the back of the bus were talking about love, which was so funny that I couldn't get any work done creating files, but when we got close to the kindergarten I used to go to, I heard everyone excited and said things like, "The indoor sandbox that was built because of the nuclear accident was so fun," and I realized that everyone had their own experiences with 3/11.

We checked into the hotel without any problems. What caught my eye was the knit cap shaped like a human face held by Ishikawa Keika (a third-year high school student from Fukushima Prefecture), who plays the flute and is on the far right.

None other than director Ryuichi Sakamoto!

The back side is

cat!

Apparently it was handmade by her mother.
This time, he will be taking part in the 2023 Concert Tour carrying director Ryuichi Sakamoto, who is currently undergoing treatment for an illness, and praying for his recovery.
That's the feeling of all the members.

Manager Hideki Kuriyama, who led Japan to a stunning victory in the WBC, is a man of faith who believes that "what you imagine becomes reality," and he defeated America, the birthplace of the philosophy of success that can be said to have originated with Napoleon Hill .

The members of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra also firmly believe that they will be able to perform on the same stage as director Ryuichi Sakamoto again, and will be heading to the performances starting tomorrow in Koriyama, the day after tomorrow in Natori, and the final day in Tokyo on the 26th.

Tickets will be sold on the day, so be sure to come and enjoy a live performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 5 by the confident orchestra members and "Time is Moving Forward," a piece written specifically for TYO by Director Sakamoto as a memorial to the 3/11 attacks!