Kitakyushu Citizens Freude Chorus

It was a chilly morning! I arrived at Hakata Station before 8 o'clock. In stead of taking a rapid train from Hakata to Kokura at 8:06, I took a regualr one at 7:58. Being an early bird with ample amount of time, I thought it would be a smart way to learn the right pronunication in Japanese of each train station one after another (I can pronounce all train stations in Mandarin, except スペースワールド station). Besides, it really felt warm and cozy on the train (In Taiwan, we don't have the heating facilities on the train).

At 9:12, I arrived at Kokura station, fifty minutes before the appointment with Toastmaster Masaki Oshiumi. It was windy at the station hall. I had to seek for a shelter immediately. I walked into Cafe' Croissant doddling around till the time to meet up with Toastmaster Oshiumi at ten.

Toastmaster Oshiumi showed up at the ticket gate punctually. I was so excited to see my old Toastmaster fellow that I gave him a big hug. Then we crossed the street to reach a small shopping matrix, spent one hour discussing our performance of Ode to Joy at D76 Fall Conference 2010 dinner party at the Starbucks Cafe'. When the waitress heard us humming Ode to Joy at the coffeehouse, she volunteered to take a photo of us. Then we rushed to Yamaha Music Store to fetch the songbooks ordered in advance at 11 o'clock, only to find the door was closed. It was an off day of Yamaha.

Without wasting much time, Toastmaster Oshiumi and I went to another music shop in the neighborhood to search for the songbooks of female vocals. I bought four of them for my chorus conductor in Taiwan.

At 11:30, Toastmaster Oshiumi and I rushed back to the train station to meet up with Toastmaster Yumiko Ozuka and Kunihito Yanaga, two members from Kitakyushu Toastmasters Club. We had Chinese food for lunch at Eight Immortals Restaurant. Surprisingly, all four of us were of the same mind, ordered the same course of luncheon.

After lunch, Toastmaster Yanaga gave me an envelope of five past issues of Kitakyushu Bridges. I later knew how much Kitakyushu had evolved in the past century from a highly polluted city of economic and military success to a model Eco-town in Japan and how many efforts the residents of Kitakyushu had made to make their hometown friendly to the world.

After Toastmaster Ozuka left for school and Toastmaster left for home, Toastmaster Oshiumi took me to his private Mandarin lesson at Kitakyushu International Association (KIA). I was moved to observe Mr. Shinji Mori, a senior Japanese gentleman, teach Toastmaster Oshiumi the Mandarin, the language of my mother tongue. After the class, Miss Kazumi Kawano, a friendly young lady staff of KIA, recommended Toastmaster Oshiumi and I visit Mt. Sarakura, a symbol of Kitakyushu.

We took a taxi to get to the Hobashira Cable Car Station from KIA, got on a cable car, transferred to a slopecar, to the top of Mt. Sarakura (622 meters above the sea level) to see the magnificent panoramic view of Kitakyushu. Mt. Sarakura is now famous for the spectacular "10 billion dollars night view" in Japan, in addition to three old night views of Hakotade, Kobe, and Nagasaki.

The indoor mountaintop observatory at Mt. Sarakura was free of charge, but Toastmaster Oshiumi and I didn't stay there long. We took a walk circling the top of Mt. Sarakura for one hour in the cold wind. Toastmaster Oshiumi showed me the various wards in Kitakyushu, including his home in Wakamatsu.

After dinner at Matsumotoya, Toastmaster Oshiumi and I took a taxi to Kitakyushu Municial Gender Equality Center (MOVE). It was the event of the day for me. It was the reason why I came to Kokura. It was to learn how to organize a citizens chorus and to practice Ode to Joy with the 200 members of Kitakyushu Citizens Freude Chorus.

Kitakyushu Citizens Freude Chrous has a proud history. They practice every Tuesday evening from August 3rd till December 20th for their 33rd consecutive year end 第九の夕べ at the Soleil Hall Wednesday evening, December 22nd.

I sat in the group of alto part, next to a lady who had joined the chorus for more than two decades. I was happy to sing next to her and learned much from her. I was grateful to Director Seiji Nakabayashi and Pianist Ms. Chiaki Kiyokawa for the precious chance to learn vocalization skills and to learn important music notes of Ode to Joy.

After the chorus practice, a singing couple of the Freude chorus gave us a ride to Kokura train station and showed us the beautiful illumination of Kokura city along the way. On my way back to Fukuoka, I first got on a regular train and changed to Sonic express train at Orio, and arrived at Khaosan Fukuoka before 10PM. Many thanks go to Toastmaster Oshiumi for a frutiful and enjoyable day.

PS: If I have a chance to visit Kitakyushu again, I won't miss a ride on the "Super-coasters" at Space World and on Wakato Passenger Ferry in the breeze. I'd like to attemp paragliding from Mt. Sarakura, and enjoy a hiking on Hiraodai Limestone Plateau. It would be my dream if I could sing "Ode to Joy" with Kitakyushu Citizens Freude Chorus on New Year Eve one evening in the future.