Speaking of classical music, I heard on the local news that my college senpai – a fellow graduate 10 years ahead of me – Dan Hege is coming back to the area as Music Director for Wichita Symphony, our local orchestra.  This is a pretty exciting news.  The college I graduated from is very small, never having student count of over 1000.  And I went to see him conduct Wichita Symphony as a guest conductor.  It was an awesome experience.  It sure helped that I was sitting on the second row, and they played a giant piece, Respighi’s Pines of Rome, which I also love.

Now, off to another topic.

My trip to Japan is formulating quite nicely so far.  In the itinerary, we added Enakyo area (including Enakyo Land) for a theme park and onsen hot springs, Gion Matsuri somewhat near our home, to see 2 hours of fireworks, and Adventure World to see Giant Panda, Red Panda, Emperor Penguin, etc.  That should also satisfy my daughter’s request to go to an aquarium while we are there.  If that doesn’t happen, I’m sure we’ll pay a visit to Nagoya Port Aquarium.

Whatever happens, it looks like we’ll be traveling quite a bit.