Saturday, 2005/11/19 Arrival in Tokio

Sunday, 2005/11/20 1st Concert NHK Hall (Eroica)

Monday, 2005/11/21 2nd Concert Suntory Hall (Heldenleben & Asyla)

Tuesday, 2005/11/22 Return flight to Berlin

Tokyo fills up my ears all over, the whole spectrum of musical sounds, from Berlioz to traditional Japanese music and singing, from screeching Manga girls to drum & bass orgies, from sushi bar sounds to singing demonstrators. Tomorrow it’s off to the fish market and subways.

In Hong Kong – goodness that seems so long ago! – we took the double-decker tramway to North Point, through bazaar-like market alleyways between quite unsightly high-rises, from whose windowed facades the headless drying shirts of their inhabitants waved ghostly pale at us.

We also took the cable-car, called the Pieck-Tram as we young pioneers thought, but turned out to be Peak, and it really was a pinnacle, the wanderlust-inspiring view of the harbour. We took the ferry to… well, one shouldn’t call it that: work. At the Hong Kong zoo there is a dead-tired jaguar and a freezing greenhouse, and you can get clothes tailored inexpensively everywhere.

The 4th round of “Heldenleben” and “Eroica”, and we’re already in Taipei. Not exactly spectacularly beautiful, the city… but the citizens make up for it once again. The concert: It’s almost impossible to play that well, with such uproar, especially during the post-concert “Open Air Clap-In.” And now I’m sitting in Tokyo and regret the documentary hold-up caused by days of distraction.