Impressions of Japan

The trip to Japan was short, intense and amazing!!
The soldiers were great, the shows were fun, the people in Yokosuka extra nice.
But for me, the best part is that I got to see two great friends from
Berklee: Aika and Toshio.
Aika is an amazing saxophone player that I had the opportunity to play
with at Pedro Mills's piano recital. So, after that, we became
friends, played freesbe together, ate Thai food, went to the Japanese
F-1 parties in Boston, where all the Japanese were, and then they
would invite the Brazilians, that would bring the guitar and sing
Brazilian music all night long!!
When I left Boston, she gave me a card saying: "keep playing, keep
laughing, keep dancing and singing".
Toshio was considered one of the best drummers in school. Before I met
him, I had heard about him more than 10 times, his name would always
be mentioned at the Argentina table, in the cafeteria, they would
always say : "Toshio is really good".
Then, one day I was called to make a recording on Kevin Mahogany's
studio in Boston, with a bunch of Italians and Toshio was on drums. I
must say that I don't know why we didn't drive him crazy, because
we stayed a whole afternoon and night only speaking in Italian... and
he was always laughing and looking so cool and relaxed. After that we
would always hang in school.
After that, I moved to Nashville to play with Mustang Sally, and they
graduated, Aika went back to Japan and Toshio is spending some time
there before he goes back to Boston.
So, this week I saw them after two years, and it felt so good.
On Monday, Aika went to the show and played with us, and then on
Tuesday me and the rest of the band went to Tokyo, where we met Aika
and Toshio.
They were our tour guides, spent all day with us, showed us the Tokyo
Tower, Shibuya district, Rippongi district, walk around all over, and at the end they
took us to an authentic sushi restaurant where we had all the
possible coaching - especially for me, they showed me how to hold the
chopsticks, and all the different kinds of sushi -
so, I must say that I had a blast in Tokyo.




One of the greatest things about my job is that I get to travel all
over the country and the world, and that gives me the opportunity to
see old friends and make new ones, therefore, I am really happy that I
got to hang with Aika and Toshio, and keep in contact with them ,
even if I am on the other side of the world.

kisses for all;
Amanda