Tour of Japan 2025: day 10
Today was a first time, for a last time: our final concert of the tour with Sayaka Shoji. Time flies when every day begins with quiet notes in hotel rooms and ends with applause in a concert hall.
And yet: even on such days, the unexpected sneaks in. Like this morning, when we stepped out of the hotel and saw a huge line of people waiting inside and outside. For a split second I thought: finally, our superstar moment! They’re here for us! I imagined the musicians signing autographs, taking selfies. But no. Of course not. We were sharing the hotel with a sports team, and those fans were here for their heroes. Flags, banners, matching T-shirts, the whole kit. For a moment I considered walking past with a mysterious smile, pretending they were mine too, but decided against it.
An hour later we were on the bus to Yokohama. The city slid by: flyovers, towers, and finally the glimmer of the port. Someone tapped me on the shoulder and asked: “Have you seen the comments under the videos on Instagram? We really do have fans here!” And that’s when it clicked. Maybe no lines outside our hotel, but a community all the same, online, in the hall, and sometimes even arriving in boxes of cookies.
Because during rehearsals at Minato Mirai Hall, a big cardboard box appeared backstage. A handwritten note on top. When we opened it, a cloud of vanilla rose into the air. Neatly wrapped cookies, tied with little ribbons, as if someone had packaged love itself and mailed it to us. Within minutes, the dressing room turned into a small celebration.
The concert itself felt charged. The last time with Sayaka added intensity to every note. Behind the scenes, everything ran with professional precision, but it’s the small moments that linger. Pierre Buizer and Remko de Jager stood backstage after their piece, watching the rest of the concert on a monitor. The applause thundered through the speakers, shaking the walls. Remko turned to Pierre and said : “This is what you do it for. For this applause.”
Afterwards, Sanne and I met with a devoted fan who has attended several of our concerts whenever the Rotterdam Philharmonic comes to Japan. We’d surprised him earlier with a personal video, featuring his favorite artist Bruno, but the real conversation was even better. His eyes lit up as he spoke about how our music had accompanied him through the years. He even brought along his best friend, to let him experience our music. Thousands of kilometers from home, it felt suddenly intimate and close.
And as if that wasn’t enough, during the final applause a man in the audience stood up holding a giant banner: “Braaaavo!” in bold letters. Not something you usually see in a classical hall. But today it fit perfectly. It felt festive, lighthearted, almost like a pop concert.
A day full of fans, in all shapes and sizes: from the sports enthusiasts at the hotel to the digital supporters on Instagram, from the fragrant box of cookies to the roaring backstage applause, from the warm conversation to the cheerful banner in the hall. Fans make music tangible, visible, and deeply felt. And today, they made it unforgettable.
