Aimachi, a perennial fan favorite Independent World Ensemble from Japan, has announced that its 2017 trip to the WGI World Championships this week will be its last for the foreseeable future.


"There are many reasons that they will be taking a break. But, mostly, they have been coming every two or three years for about 20 years now," Aimachi designer Michael Gaines said. "There is also a group of older members that wanted to do this one more time before getting married and having children."

While travel costs to Dayton, Ohio, can get expensive very quickly even for domestic color guards, the trip from Tokyo to the U.S. each year for Aimachi members can cost as much as $1,200 for a plane ticket booked a year in advance.

Props Stuck In Customs

After arriving in San Fransisco on Sunday following a long flight from Japan, Aimachi hit another roadblock ahead of performing at the WGI World Championships on Thursday, April 6.  U.S. Customs officials seized the group's props and are holding them until they are cleared. As of Monday afternoon, there's no new information about when the props will be released.

As if traveling halfway around the world wasn't difficult enough, Aimachi's designers, support staff, and volunteers were left scrambling to rebuild the props used in the group's 2017 production, "May The Music Never End."

However, Gaines posted on Facebook that most of the props have already been rebuilt and that the rest will be completed in plenty of time for the World Championships.

As for now, it's time to knock off the jet-lag and begin final preparations for Aimachi's final U.S. performance. Make sure you watch them perform, beginning with prelims on Thursday, April 6, at 7:15 PM EST at UD Arena, or you can watch them LIVE on FloMarching's exclusive live stream of WGI World Championships.

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