TOKYO TOUR 2010!
Redhot landed at Tokyo Narita airport on Thursday, May 27, 2010 – At the airport, we proudly got our passports stamped with the Japan seal of approval, acquired our first taste of some real Japanese cuisine, used our first Japanese toilet (with all of its 25 buttons and options), and of course, picked up our PASMOs – which were our ticket to Japan’s maze of a subway system for the rest of the trip. After the airport, it was on to our first home-stay – with Marsha from the YMCA International School!
Friday Morning – WAKE UP! While the women were scrambling around trying to get their morning showers in, the men slept peacefully another hour. The night before they all took part in a little Redhot male bonding and dipped into a traditional Japanese bath. Soaking in the hot waters of an old Japanese tradition, the men of Redhot felt close to Japan’s cultural roots from the beginning! (Of course – and maybe even sadly – there are no photos from this event… only legend remains…)
From there, we began our 4 day stay with the students of Tamagawa Academy and University. We met the illustrious Fumito Kurematsu – the Director of the Center for International Programs (more commonly known as the center for showing Redhotties all of Tamagawa) – who showed us all four corners of his incredible school. At Tamagawa, we participated in “Music Exchanges,” exchanging a few songs of our Redhot “musics” for performances from the Tamagawa’s brass band, musical theatre group, mother’s chorus, handbell choir, orchestra, a cappella group, and high school chorus. The whole experience culminated in a dazzling concert – probably one of the best of the year for us, in a beautiful auditorium at Tamagawa!
But, it wasn’t all singing and performing those first few days – in fact, we had Sunday off… a day to explore extraordinary Tokyo with our host families. At Tamagawa, we were lucky in that we each got our own, individual host family, so we got to spend a lot of one-on-one time, really getting immersed in the Japanese culture.
On our day off – families took us all over the city! Some of us ventured south to Kamakura – which was Japan’s capital during the twelfth century and still holds that atmosphere of old Japan, with its numerous temples and shrines, and of course with the Great Buddha Statue! At Kamakura, we saw some of the most beautiful buildings in the world – and of course, as we are apt to do, we took some time to lounge on the nearby beach, for a little relaxing under the Asian sun!
But not everyone went off to Kamakura, some of us climbed Japan’s tallest and most sacred mountain – Mt. Fuji! With our host families, we drove as far as we were able and then rented horses to carry us even further to the top! It was hard not to have a moment of transcendence at the top of Mt. Fuji – gazing out at the miles and miles of Japanese countryside you could see from so high in the sky.
Still others of us headed off to some of the dozens of neighborhoods in Tokyo – including Ginza, Shibuya, Harajuku, and Asakusa!
Leaving Tamagawa on Monday was like saying goodbye to a whole community of people that we had grown to call family! Fumito, Shuhei, our host families, and all those dozens of young Japanese children that became a part of our lives for those four days touched us in so many ways! But, every journey must go on, and so we said goodbye – with crestfallen expressions, and sad eyes – we took our leave from Tamagawa.
From there, we took a train to another concert at the Shisei Home for the Elderly – one of Japan’s few retirement communities. Of course, when we walked in with the usual excitement of walking into any retirement community concert, little did we know that we could have been walking in to a potential war-zone. You see, as many of us pointed out later – probably several of the inhabitants of the Shisei Home were alive during WWII, when the United States wreaked havoc on their precious country, so this concert was clearly a whole lot more than the routine retirement community concert.
But what could have been one of the worst experiences of our lives, quickly became one of the best experiences of our lives. Not only were all the people at the Shisei home so full of smiles, applause, and kindness – one woman even gave us a bouquet of flowers, honoring us, claiming that for the first time in her life – “she felt close to Americans.” It seems that we bridged a gap, decades in the making – through the power of music! With flowers in toe and the remains of a tear on our cheeks, we headed off to our next host families!
The next few days – after we finished our concerts at the YMCA International School, the Tokyo International School, and the Yokohama Country Club, we spent our time exploring unchartered territories in Tokyo! We visited:
Ueno Park – a large public park in Tokyo, opened to the public in 1873. It houses a zoo, an amazing Japanese Cemetery, the Tokyo National Museum, and more than 1000 beautiful Cherry Trees.
Asakusa – a temple town, replete with tons of authentic Japanese gifts and treasures. The main street through Asakusa – Asakusa Nakamise Street – stretches from the famous Kaminari-mon Gate to the Senso-ji Temple. At Asakusa, we collected souvenirs and took tons of photos! Erika took some time to peruse bowls (!!!)—Mitchel found a kimono (for himself?)—Mary purchased a fan for the beautiful Sam Sanders—Andrew F. picked up a Noe Mask for….—Bezek got a fish pancake experience—Erika also took a moment (or several) to go through every pair of chopsticks in all of Asakusa! (but managed to find the perfect pair!)
Odaiba – a large, man-made island in Tokyo Bay – full of unique architecture and beautiful views of the sunset! Plus, a warm hot spring!
Shibuya – A huge shopping district in Japan – home to the world’s most crowded crosswalk and to one of the largest Starbucks I’ve ever seen in my life! Shibuya square is alive at every hour of the day – from the early morning business-men heading off to work, to the evening crowd, enjoying the thousands of lights that bring the light of day to Tokyo nights!
Sumo Wrestling – There happened to be one of the world’s largest sumo-wrestling tournaments happening in Tokyo, while we were there… OF COURSE we went!
Harajuku – home to what many of us think of when we think “pop-culture” Japan. Yes! This mean Engrish – hilarious t-shirts, bags, folders, buttons, postcards, costumes, hair salons… the list goes on! And randomly – but quite deliciously – CREPES!
Yokohama – a port city, just outside of Tokyo, but located along Tokyo Bay. We saw Japanese crewships – and took some time by the water!
Roppongi – home to Tokyo’s nightlife! A couple nights, some Redhotties decided we wanted a little taste of what it meant to “go out” in Japan… so we headed over to Roppongi for some merriment on the streets of one of the world’s busiest cities. Starting at R-burger – we worked our way to the Hard Rock Café, a place named Gaspanic, 7-11, a park, a pet store, a World Cup Soccer hangout, McDonalds, and several other places before ambling back home when the metro re-opened at 5:30 AM.
Ginza – Japan’s high-end district, with some of the most incredible restaurants and buildings in the city. Stores take up entire BUILDINGS! (There is an 11-story Abercrombie and Fitch!) And of course a world famous Baum Kuchen shop – selling some of the best cake I have ever tasted!
Tokyo Disneyland! – On our final day in Tokyo some group members couldn’t pass up the opportunity to re-live precious, seminal childhood moments at Japan’s version of Disneyland. We rode Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, watched the parade, the Country Bear Show (where one of the bears was caught singing “Your tears are a chaser for my wine” – WHAT?), and of course, took time to enjoy some CARAMEL POPCORN!
At the end of the trip, we finished off with a world-class concert in a world-class hotel – the Park Hotel Tokyo. We were able to perform our last real concert with our favorite juniors (before they go off and do their whole senior thing) in an enormous hotel lobby… linking arms and watching Adam conduct “When You Are Old” one last time. It was certainly an experience – amidst the madness and crazy fun of Japan, we all took a moment to step back and really remember what we are all about – singing.
Perhaps the woman from the Shisei Home for the Elderly is the mascot of the trip – the enduring image that we will all take away from the thousands of experiences we all shared in one of Asia’s most spectacular cities. Despite all the temples, palaces, buildings, beaches, subways, sushi trays, milk tea bottles, panda cookie boxes, tea bowls, and crazy Asian photographers that we saw along our journey, it was really through singing that we found ourselves the closest to the Japanese people. Just as they shared their incredible country with us, we were able to share a small part of who we are with them – through music.
The rest is history! I have finished my first official year in Redhot and Blue – it’s hard to imagine that a year ago today, I hadn’t even really thought about which group I would join – even which group I thought I wanted to join. I can’t imagine myself in a better, happier situation than the one I’m in right now. I can’t thank you all enough for making my freshman year just that – my freshman year. I don’t know that it would’ve been at all possible without you all. Let’s never stop making music together!
As we all go off in nearly a thousand different directions this summer – I will miss you all terribly. And no matter what happens, no matter what becomes of our sporadic, fleeting, and wonderful lives, at least we can say… we’ll always have Japan!
Bless Japan – bless summer – and bless you all!
See you in August!
Your Blogmeister,
Bezek
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