On Sunday July 7 our school sponsored a Sayonara concert for us. It was a chance for people who have become our friends and family to hear us one last time and for us to express our thanks for their hospitality to us during our stay in Japan.

The concert was held in Reihoku, a town near Hondo in a brand new concert hall that seats 220 people. It was the perfect place, as the accoustics were good and the size was just right for the number of people who came.

Sarah played some solos with her pianist friend Mihoko. Dan and Sarah played their first duet together. The group of 5 musicians that we have been performing with since we came played together. Sarah's three violin students also played, and Dan played with one of his elementary school students. We also created a small chorale of sorts and sang "My Old Kentucky Home," an old American folk song, with three other friends.

All of our co-workers participated: Carl danced a Japanese dance and Carol helped us out by being the emcee; Mamiko played the flute with us and Johnny was busy with the lights and sound. It was great to see everyone working together to make the day a success!

After the concert, performers and audience joined together to talk over food and drink. Dan prepared a PowerPoint presentation which summed up our stay in Japan and ran it through four computers which were set up like stations for guests to peruse. It is a bit unusual in Japan to have such an informal "potluck" gathering, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

I think we realized how many people we have come into contact with during our four years here and that we are going to miss a lot of people when we leave. We have promised that we will come back sometime, so it is not goodbye forever, but it is going to be a big change.

Song from the Concert

The Bach Double - a section of a duet by Dan and Sarah.

This is a MP3 file. In order to save file size it is not the best quality. But it is listenable. Click to listen and right click to save to your computer. Enjoy!!