On Sunday most people woke fairly early to a beautiful morning and headed out to explore the mountainside. There was a waterfall nearby and some great views to be had following the mountain up the road.
Morning in the mountains. This photo is rare in that it features our photographer Brenden Allen on the right. (Photo using the camera timer – Brenden Allen)
After breakfast we headed back into Fukuoka for a concert organised by Naoko Kakino. We have been guests at Naoko’s concerts many times in the past and it is always enjoyable as the performance space we use there is a wonderful acoustic space and the piano there is very good. We enjoyed performing for a packed house and also listening to the other performers: Naoko’s chorus group and also the Koto group performance that opened the show.
Following a finale where we sang and played the sound of music song “Edelweiss” we unfortunately had to rush off in order to make a series of frighteningly tight train connections. As our destination was Miyazaki, 8 hours away, we had to make all of our connections or be stranded. To add pressure to the situation, a Shinkansen train from Tokyo was delayed by 15 minutes, meaning that at our final connection we had only 2 minutes to run from one platform to another. This was truly a close call with one person struggling to hold the train as we waited for our last member to emerge from the elevator. Luckily we made this final train and got to our accomodation at the Miyazaki Sheraton a bit before midnight.