Greetings fellow dancers,

I'm back from Armenia after a successful tour with Japanese folk dancers. We stayed at the Hyatt Place hotel. Accommodations were excellent. We went on three excursions; first to Echmiadzin/Khor Virap including Sts. Hripsime and Gayane cathedrals. I'm always overwhelmed by the Badarak and the choir. We finished the excursion at Zvartnots ruins. We had an excellent English speaking guide and of course my Japanese organizer translated everything into Japanese. Our mini-buses were comfortable and air conditioned. Then we went on another day to Tsitsernakabert monument and museum. All photographs are captioned in Armenian, Russian, and English.

Then we went to Matenadaran, ancient book depository followed by ...

I leave for Armenia Wednesday, July 5. I'll meet 17 Japanese who flying in from Tokyo on LOT airlines, Tokyo to Warsaw and then to Yerevan. We'll meet at Zvartnots Airport in Yerevan and we'll be bused to the Hyatt Place Hotel right next to the Republic Square. Then it's seven days of full activity with several excursions planned, dinners at a variety of restaurants, concerts, visiting dance rehearsals, and going to several of the famous Armenian museums. This will probably continue annually and I'll want to plan a similar tour for my Armenian dance students. Several of the restaurants we are going to have live orchestras and I've arranged for them to play Daldala, Tamzara, Kochari, dances of the Hamshen, Pompoori, ...