For the first day of non-touring in Japan, we were able to sleep in! It was very nice since it was the first and the last time we will be able to sleep in during this trip. Some people in our group woke up earlier and decided to get up for breakfast in the hotel. However some people, like myself, slept in as much as possible and didn’t make it to have breakfast at the hotel before they stopped serving people. I woke up and started getting ready and then a bunch of us met in the lobby to go out and go shopping and explore Hamamatsu for the first time. Conveniently, there is a large “mall” across the street from our hotel with many stores, places to eat and just a nice area to walk around in.

We all started by going into Loft which was very big and many of us bought a couple things. After that London and I split off and we went into Uniqlo, which led us to many other stores in that area. We went and looked at a bunch of the restaurants on the food level and stopped to have a little brunch at Starbucks since it was the easiest place to grab some food quickly.

After walking around for a while we walked back to the hotel and went into our own rooms for a little before getting a text telling everyone to meet at the building where the symposium is taking place. That building also happens to be right across the street from our hotel so it was an easy walk over there after finding out where to go. We all gathered in the rehearsal room and walked in to find gifts for us on our chairs at our spots. Everyone received a nice bag with many things inside, including our lanyard with our name and the workshops we will attending, a little bag with a pin and the tickets we will need for the lunch’s and dinners they are providing and a couple booklets with information. Everyone then started setting up the pads for the tables, and we all made sure the pads and table clothes were laid out perfectly, especially because we are in the front rows. After setting everything up we had a quick meeting so that Eiko, Sarah and Scott could let us know what we were doing for the rest of the day and a couple things about tomorrow too. We then all split off and were able to leave.

Many people went across the street and went into a Family Mart to buy some snacks and then we walked back to the hotel.

We all rested at the hotel until we had to be back at the venue for the opening ceremony which started at 6pm. Takasu-sensei, who is the director of Kanto Gakuin and directed the massed ringing piece at the Friendship Concert, gave the opening remarks. Arthur Syin translated, reprising his role as the Japanese translator at the Australia symposium. There was then a procession of flags for all of the handbell guilds that make up the International Handbell Committee (IHC) followed by each chapter’s president ringing the Opening Bell to officially mark the start of the Symposium. Jun-ichi Ozawa, the president of Handbell Ringers of Japan, and Tim Willets, the director of the IHC both gave speeches before the Grace Handbell Choir of Japan played a piece. After that, Taka-sensei gave his closing remarks before Arthur announced the beginning of “Fun Night”.

This was an opportunity for the ringers to go around to other choirs and individuals from different countries, or even the same country as themselves, and trade pins and other goodies as well as get to know each other. One of the main reasons for having these symposiums is the connection everyone experiences, and this was just one way for us to do that. The IHC also provided food trucks from local vendors so there was plenty of food and drinks to go around. While we were eating, Sasha, Sam and I (Julia) met two ringers from Tokyo named Yuki and Sae. We all chatted about KCR/ER1’s tour of Japan and talked about some differences between Japan and New York, one of which was the lack of jaywalking in Japan. After we finished eating, Sasha and I moved on and met Hailee and Judy from Hong Kong. We learned that it was their first time at a symposium as we exchanged goodies. They actually found us later in the night to exchange social media handles. Both of us met many more people and exchanged many more pins and by the end of the night, everyone had a nice haul.

This is my name tag with the pins I got today plus some extra things, but some people had even more stuff. The night ended with a mini concert by a Traditional Japanese Drumming choir. They were amazing and it was very cool to see, as most of us haven’t seen anything like that before. I was told that the last time the International Handbell Symposium was held in Japan in 1998, there was a drumming concert similar to what we experienced tonight, but not many people from our choir were there for that, so it was a good experience for the rest of us.

Click here for a short video of the drummers (video by Noreen).

Eventually everyone started trickling back to the hotel for some much needed rest in anticipation for our first massed ringing rehearsal tomorrow morning.

Brie & Julia