The Choir of St John's College, Cambridge

Today, Tuesday, we fly to Japan for the first time in 12 years. After leaving Cambridge early this morning, avoiding all of the Olympic traffic, we successfully checked in and are now on our way across the world.

There has been a huge build up for this tour, even considering a momentous visit to Wittenberg and Denmark at Easter – members of the Japanese press, including TV crews from NHK Japan, photographers, journalists and bloggers alike have been visiting rehearsals and getting a good look around the College; the Choristers have been learning about last year's horrific Earthquake in Tohoku; the Choir have learnt a popular Japanese 'douyou' (a nursery song) called Akatombo to sing on the tour; and we have even had a Japanese theme to our most recent art exhibition in the Ante-chapel where artist Yozu Hirayama created a display of One Thousand Pots, One Thousand Thoughts in memory of those who died in the tsunami and earthquake last year.

The Choir have been to Japan a number of times in the last 50 years and, after a sizeable gap, it is a real thrill to be returning, especially in this year of Jubilympic celebration! Indeed, while several Johnians play big roles in organising the Olympics, the Choir won't be forgetting the other major 'event' this year, HM the Queen's Diamond Jubilee – we were delighted that Her Majesty was able to visit us last year in our 500th Anniversary (watch below), last year, and to mark the Jubilee we have chosen a section of our tour programme as 'Music for Royal Occasions'.

Keep up to date with the latest tour news on Twitter as well as our Japanese Facebook page.