Summer Concert

For the past few months, Chorus D has been practicing songs related to the seasons. We also included other traditional Japanese songs. Our first performance since March was a double feature: two venues, back-to-back. My Japanese, while improving, still fails me sometimes. It did that when the group was discussing the plan: all I understood was the date and time. I got a ride from the conductor, and soon discovered that we were singing at two retirement homes in my city.

At both homes, the eleven of us took the stage and introduced ourselves. There were between twenty and thirty residents gathered, along with the nurses and orderlies. While some of the residents slept through it, most of them were awake, and most of those obviously loved the performance. We sang our original set from February (old anime songs), plus the traditional songs we'd added. For two of the songs, we had the audience sing with us. The lyrics for one of the songs were written on a board, but everyone knew the other song from memory.

Here's the song list from our performances, with links to YouTube videos of other renditions:

"春が来た" ("Spring Has Come")
"花の街" ("Street of Flowers")
"早春賦" ("Ode to Early Spring")
"夏は来ね" (something like "Summer Has Come")
"茶摘み"　("Tea Harvest")
"たなばたさま" ("Star Festival")
"つの子" ("Seven Little Babies")
"かたつむり" ("The Snail")
"浜辺の歌" ("Beach Song")
"ふるさと" ("Home Town")

As a side note, the Star Festival has a really cool story behind it. Give it a read.

Everyone thanked us at both homes, but at the second one, one of the residents asked for the microphone. In a slow yet clear voice, she introduced herself and told us that she was coming up on her 92nd birthday. Not making any attempt to hold back tears, she explained something about our singing reminding her of her hometown and her childhood. I couldn't make out all the words, but I had no problem understanding her. She thanked us for coming, and asked us to come back anytime.

At the obligatory after-concert dinner that night, I learned about the chorus' history. They've only been around for three or four years, and started out with about four members. I also found out that the D does actually stand for something: Donko. Donko is a subtype of Shiitake, an Asian mushroom species. Tsushima is somewhat famous for its shiitake, and donko is apparently a highly-valued variant. So the name is a creative tie-in to Tsushima. For whatever reason (perhaps Anglophones in the audience sniggering at the name), "Donko" was quickly contracted to just "D." While killing the mystery does somewhat diminish the group's mystique, at least it's a name connected to Tsushima.