Yamaha and back to Shinagawa

Unfortunately, today was going to be a day that had a lot of running around...with our luggage. First, we had to ride a few different trains (including the bullet train) in order to get to the train station where Yamaha was near. Then, we had to get taxis, load ourselves and luggage into them, and then take a short ride to the actual Yamaha Musical Instrument Factory. Thankfully, Yamaha had a safe place we were able to leave our luggage so we would not have to carry everything around with us for the tour.

Yamaha began by giving us a presentation about the history of Yamaha Musical Instruments. This included how Yamaha began with making the woodwind instruments but then started branching out and made all different kinds of instruments, including strings. Also, they showed us that the top selling instrument was (to everyone's surprise) the flute. Most of us were guessing the instruments like the saxophone or trumpet were the number one sellers, but we were all wrong. After the presentation, we were given a tour of the factory. Like most of the other factory tours we had, pictures were not allowed. This tour was actually quite interesting though. We were able to see the technique they use in order to bend parts of the instrument. I think my favorite part of this tour though was being able to see the guys basically chisel the designs into the saxophone bells. Because they want to make sure the designs do not harm the instrument, but are still deep enough where they will last, they are all hand made. For the designs that are not as important, they are lasered into the instrument. Another fun part of the tour was when we reached the areas where they would sound check the instruments. This was done in order to make sure there were no cracks or anything that they have missed or any other errors that would make the instrument play incorrectly. Because most of the workers there love music, many of them actually know how to play basically all of the instruments they make and are a part of the factory's ensemble.

Following the tour, we were able to get a chance to actually play some of the instruments. There was a room that we were able to explore a bit that, not only had the history of Yamaha, but had many different instruments around that you could try out. They had everything from drum sets, to pianos, to guitars, and even an accordion! I think the drum set, or at least the people who were playing them, were most of the group's favorite part though. Once our time was up, it was basically time to go back the way we came. We collected our luggage, rode the taxis to the train station, and then rode the bullet train back to Shinagawa.

After arriving in Shinagawa, we went back to the Shinagawa Toyoko Inn, which was the very first hotel we stayed in when we arrived in Japan. After we were all checked in, we were given free time for the rest of the night. Dani, Charles, Theresa, Carol, Matt, Dr. Laurence, and I all went back to the Italian restaurant we had the first night we were in Japan. The seven of us just relaxed and talked about what we thought of Japan and what we were going to do the next day during our half free day. The funny part was this was the first and last restaurant I ate at in Japan. With only one more day to go, I was excited to see what we would do the next day.