In spring I was asked to join my header's band as a singer to Japan. I said yes, and I was bothered about the trip even when I was in the USA! But everything came to the conclusion, and here were we going to the Land of the Rising Sun.
Our way to Japan was pretty uneasy. I hadn't almost slept the night before, and my cat had hurt my thumb, so it was ill till the end of the travel. I went to our port town Korsakov with the headache and nervous condition. Then the sea was restless, and we were stormed a little during the sailing. But it didn't stop me from takimg photos. Actually, talking 'bout photos, I started using my camera only in the end of the travel LOL So in 5 and a half hours we came to Wakkanai.
We did a lot of performances - 36 concerts during 10 working days. Even if one performance could last 15 minutes, it was still something that took our power. We sang at the port, the airport and the railway station advertising rest in Wakkanai and the south of Sakhalin. To tell the truth, Japanese advertise the south Sakhalin more than Russian.
The most interesting performances were at open deck of the ferry. We were on our way to small island Rishiri and Rebun; and when we were sailed from Wakkanai to Rishiri and from Rebun back to Wakkanai, we sang to the afloat people. We sang very early - at 7:30 am! Also we came back to Wakkanai in the twilight, so we chanced to watch the most beautiful lavender sunset. Unfortunately, photos with that sunset I'll get only in September.
We lived in the flats, not in a hotel. I was settled with another singer Lera. The funny thing is that we both are afraid of insects to the death, so every time all those creatures got into our flat, our place became full of screaming.
~Time of awesome stories~
The first time a night butterfly flied into our lodging, but almost at the same time it got lost somewhere, so we couldn't see it flying and buzzing all over our flat, and it was ok. The next morning I took my backpack with the hood, and the hood had cat's ears (I bought the backpack in Sapporo - see below). So all nigh that damn butterfly was sleeping between one ear and the hood! The butterfly even left some pollen on it!
The second time we had to struggle with a big mosquito. I came out to the balcony to hang washing on a line, and that monster entered our place. Lera offered me an idea, and I used it - I vacuumed it.
Hellish insects.
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All the way our band was accompanied by Japanese organizers. Our constant 'curator' was Nakai, an assistant of our main organizer and sponsor Fujiwara. Nakai knows Russian very well, and English a little bit. Sometimes he asked me how some words was in English. He really became a brother to us. Also there were some guys from Wakkanai's administration which helped us: Nishimura, Sugavara and Arai. Even though Lera and I didn't know English, and the guys didn't know Russian, we laughed a lot, did many jokes, so generally had fun; the language we spoke was a mix of Russian, Japanese and English.
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| From left to right: Arai-san, Nakai-san, Nishimura-san and, in fact, me. |
Since my Japanese trip 3 years ago I'd known Japanese people are awesome, and now I only confirmed it. Talking about the Japanese language, since this travel I've thought about learning this language one day.
I've already mentioned Fujiwara; so he's very cool. He's been working with Sakhalin for a long time, and he wants to develop this relationship.
~Time of awesome stories~
There's a Russian restaurant in Wakkanai belonging to Fujiwara, and one day Lera wanted to visit it, and I kept her company. We came to the restaurant, and Fujiwara was there. Choosing among Russian dishes, I like pancakes, but there weren't any pancakes in the menu. Fujiwara heard I'd mentioned pancakes (he understood the Russian word "blinchiki" meaning pancakes) and made attendants cook pancakes special for me! I was shocked! Although I had to wait 80 minutes till the pancakes were ready.
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On the 29th and 30th of July we were in Sapporo. We gave a concert in Sapporo Beer (at the place it was written like "Bier". Maybe, it's German?), and then our headers tasted every kind of Sapporo beer, and that time Lera and I took cool photos with our Japanese organizers.
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| A guy to the right is Sugawara-san |
We had one day off on the 1st of August, so we dedicated it to shopping. In general, I bought a lot of sweets and a lot of small things like pens, chopsticks, copybooks... Socks. One more big thing is a purse, because I broke my previous one in the USA, and my mom likes my new purse.
On the last day we has a cruise to small islands Rishiri and Rebun, as I've written above. We had to wake up at 5 a.m., so probably it was the longest day of Japanese travel. I've written about the performance, so it's time for the islands themselves. Those islands are small, but it doesn't make them poor. Both of the islands are civilized, with good asphalt, electricity and shops on the islands everywhere (reproaching Russian Government). The first island we visited was Rishiri.
~Time of awesome stories~
The symbol of Rishiri is a chipmunk. We stopped near the shop that sold small plush chipmunks (the same as you can see at the picture of me and Nakai-san sitting on the bench with big chipmunks, but there were mini-copies). We all came into the shop, Lera and I started hanging up around plush chipmunks, thinking about buying them. In the end we decided to save money, but one man - Nishiura-san, a general manager of the ferry, who accompanied us on the islands - bought those little chipmunks to us! We were so happy!
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| Lera and I with big chipmunks and our mini-ones |
The next island is Rebun. When we got there, the weather became gloomy, but the island still stood awesome. Unfortunately, my camera's battery was low, so I couldn't take many photos. Even though our Russian organizer had told Rebun is more beautiful, I liked Rishiri more.
Also we took a part in one big event in Wakkanai - a festival, but I'll tell about it next time.
Although I haven't been in Tokyo yet, but it's a capital city of Japan, so here's the song of the day.
☼Be brave, travel the world!☼
P.S. Leaving Wakkanai
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