As usual, I had to work on Saturday. There's a little Christmas village in the open space in front of Lotteria, and a small amount of live music, but nothing really worth taking pictures of, yet. And I can't find a schedule for the live performances. When I walked by on my way to the English school on the 14th, there were a few people preparing to do some Christmas music, and one guy dressed up as Santa. The lead singer was talking about the Santa, and saying the kids could pose for photos with him later. During this, I was looking at what little face I could see through the fake white beard and mustache, and I'm pretty sure I know who it was. But, he stayed in character and didn't act like he recognized me, so I didn't try waving or anything as a distraction. After that, I just kept walking to the school. On Sunday, I went up to Amu.
The official advertising booklet only showed two orchestras scheduled for the day, one at 3 PM and the other at 6 PM, and the photos of the groups indicated that they had 20-30 musicians each. So, I was kind of surprised, and disappointed, when the SDF orchestra represented with only 5 people. They played passable jazz, but I was in the middle of Christmas shopping and only had enough time to take a few photos and then leave.
Actually, I finished the shopping a little later, and came back to the stage at 4 PM.
Although there was nothing saying there'd be anyone else playing during the day, I had my suspicions, which turned out to be true when the MC announced the Kagoshima University Jazz Club at 4 PM. Again, passable jazz, but they were a little stiff, and not really comfortable playing together.
I went inside to drink coffee at Seattle's Best, and play video games. I opted against going out to see if anyone else was playing at 5 PM, and instead hung around until 6 PM, when I had to go home anyway for dinner.
The second orchestra was already set up and playing at that point, and there were enough people (maybe 40-50, but the space was cramped to start with) that I couldn't get close enough for good photos. I had to hold the camera up over my head and hope it was focusing right. Out of 10 shots, only 2 turned out.
Again, not as good as two years ago. Sigh.
We'll see what happens next weekend.
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