Bix & Marki　Summer&Autumn 2025
Tour Report！

This year we divided our Summer Tour into three parts. In the first part, we traveled to northern Japan — Sendai, Hakodate, and Aomori — then to Toyohashi, Shizuoka, and Hamamatsu, and finally to Fukui, Toyama, and Nagano. The tour allowed us to maintain our teaching schedule in Tokyo between each trip: music classes for Marki, abstract drawing and language-communication for Bix. We were able to cover three distinct regions, which was great, although the Summer was very hot this year too.

Friday 18 July 2025 　Botanicalitem&café CYAN
Sendai-shi Aobaku Ichibancho 1-6-22 Chambord ichibancho 1F
https://www.instagram.com/cafecyan/
https://magentalife.net/cafe-cyan/
Organised by Alliance Française SENDAI
http://www.afsendai.com/contact.html/


We played in this very spooky (interestingly decorated as such) café in a party for the members and students of the French language school Alliance Française. It was lovely and warmhearted. Thank you so much to the Alliance staff and maybe especially to Stanislas who had recently started the job as teacher and animateur at Alliance ! It was a real cultural exchange intertwined with our music. Thank you so much!

Saturday 19 July 2025 　Gotouken
Hakodate-shi Suehiro-cho 4-5 　Tel 0138-23-1106
http://www.gotoken.hakodate.jp/

As every year, we went to perform a concert in Hakodate, at the beautiful and historic restaurant Gotoken, as part of an evening event organized by the Franco-Japanese Association of Hakodate. It was an especially warm occasion, as we knew most of the attendees from previous concerts — they had been part of our audience many times before. Mr. Wakayama, the organizer, was in great spirits, and the atmosphere was wonderfully relaxed, set in a stunning venue with a breathtaking view over the city from its elevated location. Thank you to everyone!

Monday 21 July 2025 　Restaurant Cassis
Aomori-shi Matumori 3-20-52　Tel 017-764-0331

On our way back south, we visited the French restaurant CASSIS in Aomori for the second time, a nice place where we had performed the year before. We gave a dinner concert, delighted once again by how creative, visually beautiful, and absolutely delicious the French cuisine is there. In fact, Beatrix had back pain that July, from having carried something too heavy one day, in Tokyo — but it didn’t affect the concerts. However, getting to Cassis in Aomori city, from Hirosaki, was a bit complicated, and Marki had to carry a lot of luggage in the heat ! On the way back, we were grateful for Mme Cassis’s kindness in driving us to the hotel. It was a truly wonderful evening.

Friday 1 August 2025 　café & gâteaux Knohd
Toyohashi-shi Ekimae-oodori 1-111  Tel 070-6533-6664
http://knohd.jp/   https://www.facebook.com/knohd2012/

Café Knohd was hosting a very interesting exhibition of paintings, the owners’ collection, on its walls. We performed a concert for a lovely audience and had conversations about music, art, and life in general. Whenever we come to Toyohashi to play at this café, we always take advantage of the nearby cultural center to rehearse our pieces. This time, the owners’ two young boys joined us in the rehearsal studio. It gave them a little glimpse into what it’s like to practice and prepare music before a concert — they responded to each piece by dancing, listening quietly, or commenting after playing. That’s what music is about, too!

Saturday 2 August 2025 　Pain SINGE
Shizuoka-shi Aoi-ku Hitoyado-cho 2-5-26　Tel 054-204-0331

Our concert took place at this wonderful bakery in the center of Shizuoka, in collaboration with the French-Japanese Association of Shizuoka and Hitomi Yamamoto’s French language school "espace éclatant"— all thanks to her! Many people came. The audience enjoyed wine from Saint Tropez (which Hitomi imports through La Maison de la Picole), along with the chef’s dish and dessert. We performed our songs, and the atmosphere was great. Thank you so much!!

Sunday 3 August 2025 　IGUZIONE cafe
Hamamatsu-shi Naka-ku Takamachi 200-25  Tel 053-454-3131
https://www.facebook.com/iguzione.cafe.hamamatsu/

In the summer heat, the cozy cultural venue Iguzione welcomed us once again with kindness. Just before our concert, there was a class about the history of the traditional Japanese theater style Kabuki. A lovely cultural and studious atmosphere. Our friend Ippei Watanabe — who teaches French language and culture there — came to listen to our music, with some of his students. It is a good and quite big space, where people can order a drink or some food. The acoustics in the room are excellent, and we were happy to be able to play there again. Thank you so much to everyone!

Friday 26 September 2025 　Tsunag cafe
Toyama-shi Cyuou-dori 1-2-11
https://www.instagram.com/tsunag.2021/ https://www.facebook.com/tsunag.2021/?locale=ja_JP

It was the first time for us to play downtown Toyama. The café is located in a former shopping arcade, and residents of Toyama are trying to revive it by creating cultural spaces, like Tsunag café — We had friends coming and even had some coming from far away ! Thank you to everyone, and to Ms. Nakajima who organized the event.

Saturday 27 September 2025 　Keya Coffee
Fukui-shi Keya 3-2-11
https://www.instagram.com/keya_coffee/

The Keya café＆gallery owner would like to create a small cultural center in the old house. The space is beautiful: he had decorated everything himself. Bix had sent some paintings, and we performed for a lovely small audience of artists and Keya Coffee fans, on the stage opposite Bix’ paintings. In between the songs, we spoke about connections between music and painting. It was a wonderful experience and we will definitely come again!

Sunday 28 September 2025 　Au Crieur de Vin
Nagano-ken Matsumto-shi Fukashi 1-2-11
Tel 02 63 37 19 66   http://crieur-japon.com/

We’ve been performing at Au Crieur for over ten years (but not during the pandemic), and some people came to hear us after receiving information of the concert from the French-Japanese Association in Nagano. By chance, at the next table, there was also a French-speaking Japanese couple and their family! The evening was joyful, and everyone delighted with the truly authentic French cuisine.

Monday 29 August 2025 　Café TAC
Nagano-ken Shimosuwa-cho Mita-machi 3158   Tel 0266-75-5315

The lake air in Shimo Suwa was a little cool in the evening, but just what we’d been waiting for after three months of summer heatwaves. Café Tac was unchanged since we had been there with the cameramen who filmed Bix and Marki playing for a BS Tokyo TV program, in 2023. A sweet lady told us she had been waiting for us! The doors were open to the street, there were a Canadian family visiting, a German couple, local residents, and in the street people from the neighbourhood —a beautiful atmosphere, as always, in this artistic lovely place.

The exhibition of Bix's paintings at Keya coffee in Fukui created a good atmosphere for our music. The café's owner studied Spanish in Mexico years ago and he traveled alone through Central and south American countries. This experience has given him an individual subtle sense of beauty and this café a special atmosphere.

We still notice that people don’t tend to go out so much, since the covid but also since screen-activities at home have developed so much.That is why we were especially pleased to see people coming to our concerts. We think that the exchange of energy becomes even more important. Another thing is that these days, one can create music without knowing an instrument, but we will definitely continue playing our analog live music in front of people … and exchange vibes in various places... Thank you so much for reading, supporting and following us!

30. Summer＆Autumn tour 2025