Japan's most famous orchestral conductor, Seiji Ozawa, returned briefly to the stage Sunday following a nine month battle with throat cancer. Ozawa arrived to open the Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto city, central Japan, to deafening applause, explaining that he was back as he took up the conductor's baton for Tchaikovsky's "Serenade for Strings" but with a bad back.Honored to have you back, maestro."Allow me to apologize to you today. I was taken care of by superb doctors so I can say I have graduated from being a cancer patient but there's one small snag -- my back, which had in the past given me trouble is bad again," Ozawa told concert-goers.