The First Taiko Performance

I love the irony of this t-shirt...so I bought it. A couple of weeks ago a newspaper reporter came to one of our taiko practices and I got interviewed. I got like one line in the paper and even though I spoke to her in Japanese (well tried anyway) they printed my words in Katakana, which are Japanese letters but they represent the phonetic pronunciation of foreign words. For example, they printed "Eh-ku-sy-tin-gu" (exciting) as my response to her questions about my impression of taiko drumming. That's better than nothing I suppose. Yes Mom, I've got copies...even though I can't even read them, hahaha! It's been less than two months and I'm already performing. Today was so fun! I met with my taiko group this morning for what I thought was going to be a competition, but it was a festival to showcase the talents of different taiko groups from around the prefecture. Although we didn't actually perform until after 5:30, it was nice to see the other teams. Amazing ain't the word. I even finally learned the name of our taiko group...Chigo Akasaka Daiko. If you mix Japanese people with Black college marching band and war you've got Taiko! These folks were getting down you hear me! Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pics in the auditorium, but I did sneak some video on my phone at yesterday's practice but the quality isn't good because I was sitting far from the stage. My co-worker (who drums with me) and I split the cost of the DVD for the third section of the performances so you'll get to see it when I get home. Since we just started we didn't get to do any of the cool stuff so we played the basic rhythm the whole time...which is 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8. Sounds easy right? WRONG! The song is nearly 7 minutes long, has pauses, and requires us to beat the drum HARD! Plus, the lead drummer started it off SUPER FAST! My forearms are going to look like Popeye's when I get back. We were the last to perform so the curtains closed when we ended...So dramatic! Here are some photos from backstage:
Lunch...Dango(dumpling) soup with root veggies (I felt like a peasant...where's the MEAT???), Onigiri (rice balls) with pickled daikon radish, sweet seaweed...maybe pickled, never can really tell, and tea that was grown and bottled in this area. This region is known for its green tea.
Tabi are so cool! I need to find out where I can buy some...maybe at the hardware store...Construction workers wear these with genie pants (super baggy with tapered ankles). Come to think of it, I want the pants too! Can you blame me for walking around humming the theme song for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Turtles in a half shell...TURTLE POWER!)???
Did I mention that I'm the master? Ok, so maybe I'm not. If you want a real upper body workout (complete with calluses and blisters...minor detail), then you need to do some taiko...and for killer legs, do like me and ride your bike/walk EVERYWHERE! Thank God my city doesn't have any hills. Now to work on the RiCe BoOtY!
I really love how our group is like one big happy family. There are members of all ages. I think the youngest is 8 or so. This man is the oldest, 60 something. I refer to him as "Grandaddy" (not to his face though, hehe!). When he hits a drum, you can feel it in the depths of your being...literally. The first time he walked over to me and hit my drum I almost fell backwards. It was so LOUD and shook my entire body!
Yes, even the men wear these cute little bows on their heads that actually look pretty Tupac-ish from a distance while they're drumming...GANGSTA! That's Maggie (my co-worker) above me. She's from Hawaii.

Here's the guest performer. He plays the Shamisen (a guitarish type instument played with a plectrum). He's really good...and really tall. The tallest girl in this picture is a little taller than I am if that's any indication of his height. He was really nice and the girls were falling all over themselves to talk to him! They're so cute!