The world was in the midst of "Silver Week". Should we say it became established without any notice, or should we say it became established precisely because of this year? The consecutive holidays leading up to the autumn equinox in September were named to rival "Golden Week," a term that is never uttered on NHK because it was created for the promotion of the film industry. After 2015, when this new term became a common word, it seems that we won't see another five-day holiday in the same order until 2026. Let's leave aside the topic of this fickle, comet-like "Silver Week."

The last day of the holidays was the first day of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra's joint practice in Fukushima City. I, who work at the Tokyo office, must not be late for this memorable day, so I got up several times in the middle of the night, but I got up a little too early in the morning at 5:30. I headed to Tokyo Station. For some reason, there were a lot of young women in the Tohoku Shinkansen station in the morning. Or, to be precise, a pair of women in their teens and twenties caught my eye. I was in a daze, stuffing my cheeks with rice balls I had bought to kill time in the waiting room, when I realized. This is Arashi! Everyone had "ARASHI" on something they were wearing. They were heading to a stadium live performance in Miyagi that Arashi was holding to support the reconstruction efforts. Before long, I realized that the purpose of the group of women who were about to board the Tohoku Shinkansen that morning was Arashi. The three women, who seemed to be in their 50s, had "ARASHI" written on the chest of their matching black T-shirts. A woman who looked to be about the same age as me, a 46-year-old man, had an "ARASHI" in her bag, and next to her she opened an ekiben and gulped down a can of chuhai, right in the morning. I arrived at Fukushima Station with the realization that this must be the economic impact that is said to be worth 10 billion yen.

When we arrived at the practice venue at a school in the city, the classroom was already full of band members waiting.

In front of the more than 100 members, I explained the purpose of the Tohoku Youth Orchestra. I couldn't help but say, "The Tohoku Youth Orchestra is also Arashi. To date, Arashi has been performing live in Miyagi Prefecture, attracting more than 200,000 people from all over the country, but I heard that their purpose is to support reconstruction efforts. We are in the same boat as Arashi in terms of our will, awareness and actions to support reconstruction efforts in the areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake, so please practice with confidence, knowing that you are doing the same thing as Arashi." I came up with this metaphor for Arashi on the Shinkansen train, but I was left with a lot of doubt as to whether it was easy to understand.

Four members of the Tokyo Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra came to teach us at the first joint practice session. The string section was cellist Shozo Kurokawa, the woodwind section was oboeist Fumiyoshi Arakawa, the brass section was horn player Yasuhiko Isobe, and the percussion section was percussionist Yuko Funasako. They all kindly came all the way to Fukushima during their busy schedules over the holidays.

Since each practice session will be in a separate classroom, just preparing for practice takes a considerable amount of time and effort, as we have to move desks and chairs, carry in music stands and large instruments such as double basses and tubas, etc.

Under the guidance of each teacher, from 11:00 to 15:30, we practiced Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 (I recently learned that it is commonly known as "Tchaigo" in the orchestra world) and Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue," which will be performed at the concert in March next year. On a September holiday afternoon, listening to the slightly awkward melody of "Rhapsody in Blue" in the long corridor of the school building dyed in gold was bittersweet and beautiful.

We reflected on today's joint practice session, and then disbanded after confirming security precautions, wearing indoor shoes, and bringing music stands.

For the Miyagi group and Fukushima Station, we were assisted by Miyagi Kotsu, where one of the group members' mothers works. On the day of the trip, there were no large buses available in the neighboring prefectures of Miyagi Prefecture due to the effects of the storm, but they managed to arrange one for us.

Thank you, thank you. The Tohoku Youth Orchestra is somehow supported by the generosity of individuals and companies like this. We would like to continue our activities with the aim of providing as much support for reconstruction as Arashi. We would be happy to accept any generosity from anyone who has read this article, so please consider it.

The joint training session was covered by two local newspapers and featured in their papers today.

In the actual paper, the space was quite large physically, and it even featured a photo of Akama-kun's face during the interview.