The final concerts of the tour were all in Fukushima and it was a very full day with 4 performances to finish up the 2013 tour.
Day 21 – Sendai and Fukushima
Today we travelled by Shinkansen to Sendai, one of the coastal areas in Japan hit particularly hard by the tsunami generated by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. The area between Sendai airport and the coast was completely destroyed by the 10 metre tsunami.
Day 20 – Tokyo
Today we were booked to perform at two nursing homes in Tokyo. The group’s health was improving and probably past the infectious stage, but it was decided by the management of the retirement homes that there was too much risk of giving the elderly residents more than just the gift of music (in the middle […]
Day 19 – Tokyo
Beautiful but cold morning in Gifu with fresh snow overnight. Some of the group made the 3 hour trip to Tokyo early to take advantage of some free time in the world’s largest city. Others (mainly those still recovering or suffering from the flu) chose to stay in Gifu and relax in the morning and […]
Day 18 – Part 2 – Gifu
Minokamo is the sister city of Dubbo, NSW and Isabella a cappella has performed here several times previously. There was snow on the ground when we arrived (great news for the sick people!) We were picked up at the station by our homestay hosts and driven straight to an early gig in the “culture forest“, a museum and […]
Day 18 – Part 1 – Kyoto
Mr Naka (former fighter pilot and fashion model and current Isabella a cappella supporter) and Mr Nishimura (already known to readers of this blog) picked us up in the morning and drove us to Arashiyama in Kyoto, to visit the home and workshop of Yusai Okuda, an artist who specialises in the art of Korozen […]
Day 17 – Katano City
Today was (the actual) Australia Day and time to farewell (and clean up!) the Takarazuka apartment/s that had been generously provided to us by supporters in Takarazuka for 6 nights accomodation during the tour. Somehow, processing the previous nights festivities as well as cleaning, packing and the onsending of shopping purchases to our final destination […]
Day 16 – Hiroshima
Today was a free day with a concert in the evening. As the show was in Hiroshima, about 2 hours by train from our accomodation in Takarazuka, some people decided to go to Hiroshima early for sightseeing and others chose to rest and relax and headed in to Hiroshima in the afternoon just prior to […]
Day 15 – Osaka
More train travel (around 3 hours) to get to an Osaka high school (Katano High School) where we served the dual function of being performers but also judges in an English speaking competition.
Day 14 – Niihama
In the morning, the group went to visit Besshi copper mine, situated in the nearby mountains and once the source of enormous prosperity for Niihama and the whole of Japan. It is a very beautiful location and was apparently a much coveted place to live and work as it was well paid, despite the difficult conditions […]