2012 Calendar

I have posted 2012 calendar with panoramic seasonal pictures and Japanese holidays. I suggest that you make A4 borderless printing: Click each paired set of photos, download it and proceed printing. By properly cutting in 2 pieces, it will work as a desktop calendar.
I wish everybody a Happy and Peaceful New Year!



パノラマ写真で来年のカレンダーを作ってみました。写真をクリックして、ファイルをダウンロードしたら、縁なしA4印刷をしてみてください。2枚に切り出せば卓上カレンダーになります。
皆様に良い年が訪れますように。

Merry Christmas!

Lighting up Tokyo Sky Tree this evening for Christmas!


さり気なくスカイツリーもライトアップして、メリー・クリスマス！

Weihnachts-Oratorium – 東京バロック・スコラーズ

12月23日荻窪教会にて。100名も入れないくらい小さな教会でのオルガン伴奏によるクリスマス・オラトリオ演奏会。この日のスターは指揮者の三澤洋史氏だった。多分舞台経験の豊富な指揮者だと思うが、自ら朗読する声が素晴らしく、それが音楽ドラマの進行にとてもわかりやすく貢献していた。
この演奏会ではエヴァンゲリスト他ソリストも合唱団員が努めていて、バスは合格点。皆さん大変な曲をこなすなあと聴き入る。あくまでもアマチュアを集めた合唱団で、総じて図抜けた歌唱力を発揮するところまでは行かないが、よく声質が揃えられている団体という印象だった。先月聴いたEnsemble 14はカンタータ中心なのに対して、こちらは大曲という取り組み方の違いがあるのかな。
客席は開場時間にはほぼ満席。祭壇が片付けられた前方に60名もの合唱団員がひしめく状態で、僕の席はバスから2-3mの近さだったので、もう少しバランスの良いところに座りたかった。写真は開演前のスナップです。


December 23 at Ogikubo Church. A small church to contain perhaps less than 100 visitors, and the concert was Bach’s Christmas Oratorio by Tokyo Baroque Scolars with organ accompanied. The highlight of the day was probably Mr. Hiroshi Miura, the conductor who handled narrations for himself with his beautiful voice, and it greatly helped the realization of dramatic progress of the story in music. He must have been associated in stage performances elsewhere.
The soloists as well as the evangelist were picked from the choir members, and the bass was good among them. Singing those difficult pieces is a high challenge definitely as the soloists are required to carry different set of skills. The choir as a whole may not have a remarkable ability of singing, but their timbre was well matched to achieve uniformity.
The seats were already filled as the premise opened, and then after 30 minutes, about 60 choir singers were filled in front of the audience. Where I sat was only 2-3 meters from the bass, and I wished to be seated with better balance of parts.

Ensemble Rococo – 25周年クリスマス・バロックコンサート

12月21日、東京文化会館小ホールにて。アンサンブル・ロココのクリスマスコンサートは今年が25周年ということでなかなかの盛況だった。フルート、チェンバロの新谷夫妻に、オーボエの小畑、チェロの菊池の両氏を加えた4名で構成されたグループは息の合ったとても質の高いバロック音楽を作り出してくれる。楽器を見ればこれでバッハの基軸は揃っている訳だし、今回もそこに弦楽器とソプラノ（結婚カンタータ）が参加してのバッハ中心のプログラムはとても充実したひとときをもらえたと満足度も大きかった。
とりわけ印象深かったのはチェロ。ここのところ僕はなぜか通奏低音のパートに意識が向いていて、実にそれはバッハにおいては常にペースメーカーであり、華やかに飛び回るバイオリンやオーボエなどの主旋律は掌上で遊ばせながら、自らは別次元の旋律をそこに絡めていくという、チェリストにとっては応えられない至福の音楽だとつくづく思う。そんな意味からも当夜のブランデンブルク協奏曲第5番はとても良かったし、さらに素晴らしさ極まれりと感じたのが最後の演目トリオソナタト長調BWV525だった。


December 21 at Tokyo Bunka-Kaikan small hall. Many listeners gathered to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Ensemble Rococo’s Christmas Concert. The group consists of Mr. and Mrs. Shintani (flute and cembalo), Mr. Obata (oboe) and Mr. Kikuchi (cello), and they create precisely harmonious and top quality baroque music. Their instruments are indeed the core of Bach music, and by adding necessary strings and also a soprano (for BWV202 cantata) this time, the program was very pleasing.

Particularly impressive was cello partly because my focus recently tends to be swayed by the basso continuo. They are the pace-maker of Bach’s music with the absolute tempo under their control to begin with, and while letting the main melody by violins dance around on the surface, the basso independently weaves its own beauty of counterpoints in parallel, which makes the cellist inevitably feel privileged. In that sense, Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in the evening was superb, and even further brilliant was Trio Sonata G-major BWV525 that they played in the end of the program.

Serious Scars in My Bike – 傷つけられた自転車

ちょっと買い物に路駐しておいた僅かの時間に、自転車がこの有様！大切なクランクの表面が何度も深くえぐられた深刻な傷。嫉妬深い悪党だ。不運が続けば次は盗まれるだろうから、この自転車で買い物はしないこと。


For only 15 or 20 minutes of parking for a quick shopping in town, I got my bike scarred deep in the crank. Villains! Japan is generally safe but not 100%, and the reality of life is as such. My special bike might be stolen next time if I am unfortunate again.

David Villa Injured – ヴィジャ負傷

Toyota Cup semi-final game was exceptionally quiet as Barca enchanted the entire stadium with the beauty of their plays. Most unfortunate was Villa who broke his left leg in the game.


トヨタカップ準決勝。異常に静かなスタジアムは、観客全員がバルサのプレイに魅入られているからだろう。ヴイジャが負傷退場したのが何とも残念。

湘南を走る - Run for Full View of Mt. Fuji

目が覚めたら疲労で動く気がしないくらいだるい。
昨日は奥多摩から峠越えを予定していたのだが、本格的な冬の到来で雪も降った後だし凍結も怖いので、友人と湘南国際村、三崎港、三浦海岸を巡る海岸線ルート68kmを走ることに変更。アップ・ダウンを何度か繰り返したのがきつかったみたいだ。でもこちらは暖かさも違うし、特に三崎口から剣崎に向かう215号線は眺めも楽しめる快適な走行ルートで気に入った。
で、身体は重いのだが、今日はリア・ディレーラーRD-7900の調整をもう少し追い込みたいし、昨日見えた白い富士山をもっと全面展開で満喫したいと考えて、東名平塚あたりまで行けば展望が開けているし、片道25kmくらいなら消耗することもないだろうと、意を決して11時頃に自宅を飛び出した。

走ったルートはなかなか走りやすくて、鎌倉の長谷から藤沢まで32号、駅の北口に回ってからは辻堂まで線路伝いの一本道。右にカーブして北上、新湘南バイパスの下を寒川（茅ヶ崎中央）まで行く。ここまで来ると富士山は目の前にかなり大きく見えるので、あとはそれに向かって西に走っていく感じだ。僕は岡崎大橋からの眺めで満足したので、その先のセブン・イレブンで小休止。帰り道は134号線まで下って、海岸線を激走した。



I woke up in the morning and felt as if my entire body was filled with huge fatigue. I ran yesterday 68km along the Shonan coastline including Shonan Village, Misaki harbor and Miura beach with a friend of mine. Originally our plan was a hill climb in the northern pass of Tokyo, but the weather went into the complete winter last few days, with some snow and possibly frozen roads, so we decided to avoid risking ourselves. Minura Peninsula was warm and the Route 215 from Misaki to Tsurugizaki was so comfortable to run and offered plenty of nice views.
We also enjoyed clear and white Mt. Fuji yesterday, and I thought of even wider view of it to capture along with a finer tuning of RD-7900 derailleur, so I tried to compress my dullness and ran out of home around 11 a.m. heading for somewhere near Hiratsuka of Tomei expressway. It shouldn’t be exhausting since the distance is 25km or so.
The route I took was good for bikes mostly, although bike riding is not generally safe in Japan: I took Route 32 from Hase, Kamakura to Fujisawa, then went to the north exit of the station. From there to Tsujido was a straight line of road in parallel with the railway. I then took north up to Shin-Shonan Bypass. There was an underway beneath the Bypass. At Chigasaki Chuo, the Bypass splits and by that time Mt. Fuji can be seen in front and larger. I simply kept heading west watching the mountain and ended up with Okazaki Ohashi bridge. As I was already content with the view there, I took a short break at Seven Eleven store a few hundred meters ahead. The rest, I went down south to the coast and accelerated my pedals on Route 134 back home.

Multi-Ferrari's Crash – 空前の高級車衝突

Sunday, 4th of December, 8 Ferrari, 1 Lamborghini, and 3 Mercedez sports cars crashed in Chugoku Express Way, Japan, perhaps the priciest car accident ever. They were all a tour team cruising for Kyushu and the one on top hit the center wall to bounce against the second car, involving all the rest following them. Well, that’s their fault.