DAY 12 (HAMAMATSU) August 14, 2024 (repost from KCR/ER1 Japan Tour 2024)

This morning, we woke up ate breakfast, then left to play even more bells. We had fun ringing all together. We learned how to make music even more musically. For lunch today, there was beef bento boxes, and a three rice vegan (actually vegetarian) meal. After I ate my beef bento box, I went to the family mart across the street and got an amazing Hagen Daz matcha ice cream. The matcha ice cream here is so much better than the one at home! Everyone had either free time afterwards, or a workshop. The workshops consisted of finger weaving (from Canada), playing Ghibli festival music (Japan), mastering mallet technique (USA) and many other options. I went to one where we learned something called “Tsumami Zaiku”. This is when you make something out of fabric with special folds and stitches. We learned to make a flower. Jordan went to a workshop on preventing handbell injuries. It was very interesting to learn from a physical therapist as to how we can better warm up and stretch before playing. She says that she will run a stretching session tomorrow morning before our solo practice! After that, we had another few songs of practice. It is very fun and one of my favourite parts of symposiums to learn under different conducting styles. We are refining our music and improving our musicality for our final concert. Then, we had the absolute best time listening to the second solo concert. One of the best choirs in the world blessed our ears with an insane rendition of an overture. It is a good reminder that while we are good, we always have room to grow and improve. For dinner, we were on our own. It is very easy to pick up a quick meal from a local konbini— we constantly comment how in America we would never eat from a gas station, but from here the food is great and delicious! We are looking forward to a great day tomorrow that starts early and ends late. Another day in beautiful Hamamatsu— surrounded by amazing musicians and musicality.

Aria & Jordan