1997 NAGANO TOUR

One year before the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic Games opened in Japan, festivities commenced with “Harmony that links the World”, the Gala Concert of Children of Five Continents. The ABC was invited to represent Australia and twenty boys braved the ice and snow for the choir’s second visit to Japan.

Visits to schools, lessons in calligraphy and traditional rice cake making were all were all part of the experience, along with ‘curling’ at the Olympic Curling Arena. Curling was introduced as an official Winter Olympic sport at Nagano.

As with the previous visit, the boys were very popular in Japan. Cameron Graham remembers, “we got swamped by Japanese school girls … kinda went over my head unfortunately…”.

For Michael Pountney, sightseeing was a highlight. “Some of the temples we visited were magnificent. I recall wandering through a dark tunnel, and rubbing the statues that would bring lifelong good luck.” We think the boys’ luck began before the tour even started…