Adventures in Taiko...

2009-08-14T19:16:00.002-05:00

http://www.sjtaiko.org/rhythmspirit/

Preview clips for the new DVD which will be sold at the concert:
http://www.youtube.com/sjtaiko

San Jose Taiko presents RHYTHM SPIRIT 2009 CONCERTS

San Jose Taiko presents its annual RHYTHM SPIRIT concert series in
three heart-pounding performances on September 11th and 12th at the
Campbell Heritage Theater in Campbell, CA.

Taiko, the Japanese drum, is an instrument that embodies the spiritual
essence and heartbeat of Japanese culture. Weaving traditional
Japanese sounds with other world rhythms - African, Latin, Filipino,
American rock and jazz - San Jose Taiko presents an innovative,
contemporary sound that bridges diverse styles and resonates with the
Asian soul in America.

San Jose Taiko was formed in 1973 in San Jose's Japantown. Since then
it has become a dynamic, world-class performing troupe. "We tour
extensively, both nationally and internationally," explains Operating
Manager Wisa Uemura, "but local audiences may only know us through
informal events or outdoor festivals. The RHYTHM SPIRIT programs are
similar to the productions we take on the road." RHYTHM SPIRIT's
Artistic Director, Franco Imperial further elaborates "fans will
appreciate the new faces featured on stage as well as fresh
arrangements of old favorites. New audiences will enjoy the
choreography and pure joy of drumming that has defined San Jose Taiko
for 36 years."

The company will be releasing a new DVD at this concert series
available for the first time to concert audiences.

There will be three performances: Friday, September 11 at 8:00 p.m.
and Saturday, September 12th, at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. All shows
will be at the Campbell Heritage Theatre, 1 West Campbell Avenue in
downtown Campbell, CA.

Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for students & seniors. All seats
are reserved, and group rates are also available. Ticket information
can be found online at http://www.heritagetheatre.org or by calling
408-866-2700. For more information visit http://www.taiko.org.

Augusta, GA

2009-04-22T17:33:00.003-05:00

We are staying at a very very nice hotel in Augusta. Tomorrow is a free day! Which is good, because there's been something going around and I wonder if it's coming to me next...

I've been a terrible blogger on this tour. Partly because of Facebook and partly because other people's blogs and twitter are filling in the days' activity reports. Also, tour is not new to me anymore. I'm still "sparkly-eyed" about it and love being on the road. Thinking lots about performing. But have been too tired to sit down and write about it.

Maybe tomorrow...

Or maybe it's time to retire this blog? Things change and life moves on. I still have my art blog, and to me art and taiko are intertwined, and will be forever.

Durham, NC

2009-04-19T21:25:00.022-05:00

This is today in pictures...

Reston, VA

2009-04-16T23:23:00.002-05:00

Once again, we're back in one of my old neighborhoods... I lived in the DC area for one year, right before 9/11. I've been wanting to get back to see some old friends. Some are coming to the concert tomorrow night. Hurray! It'll be great to see Nen Daiko folks too.

This is my fourth year with San Jose Taiko! Time flies... I remember my first tour, how daunting and exciting everything was. The excitement is still there, and I have to say the daunting part too. There are still always things to improve on, but I wouldn't have it any other way. The challenge keeps me going.

I started taking a hip hop class after my surgery. Mostly for fun, because I love to dance. And partly because I needed a place to "fail" without pressure. This might sound weird, but I learn best about my body from doing things wrong. I am a visual/kinesthetic learner. Talk to me all you want about technique, but until I see and do it (and do it "wrong," before doing it "right") I won't understand it fully.

What kind of learning style do you have? I'm really curious...

Here's a video promo for our show in Augusta, GA. And check out our Twitter! Written this time by Meg.

Spring Tour!

2009-04-16T10:08:00.003-05:00

We're off to Reston, VA today. A direct flight! How exciting.

I'll try to be a better blogger...

In the meantime, check out San Jose Taiko's newish website:
http://www.taiko.org

I'm still alive.

2009-03-01T03:08:00.004-06:00

I've been a bad blogger. But I have an excuse - I had surgery last month! All is well, and I'm back on the taiko. But it did put me out of commission for awhile.

It's amazing how quickly your muscles degenerate... Muscle memory is there, although some of the muscles aren't. How everything aches! But it's a good ache.

The tour team is out now... Alex pointed out that somehow I always seem to miss the cold tours (which actually isn't true because I did go to Fort Collins, CO in wintertime). To catch up on what they are doing, check out a new taiko blog by my taller counterpart.

Here are some pictures from the Kungfu Vampire gig I was talking about ages ago:

At our first rehearsal together. The Kungfu Vampire likened it to two families of different cultures meeting at a wedding - our "awkward marriage." Two different styles of music...

...Which sounded awesome together!

A little more...

2008-11-03T21:10:00.003-06:00

I found these tour videos on my phone.

Coming up soon, our fun Halloween gig with Kung Fu Vampire...

I have no shame.

2008-10-15T21:20:00.004-05:00

Funny...

My motto has always been: "More Fun, Less Stuff!"

And... MORE TAIKO!

Happy to be home.

2008-10-14T10:09:00.005-05:00

It's been a long summer. Tour was amazing, but it's nice to be back. Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Once I do my laundry, I'll add more about Richmond. In the meantime, here's a little clip of us being happy. Dancing to Beau Soleil at the festival after our last performance.

Richmond Folk Festival

2008-10-11T07:03:00.007-05:00

Wow wow wow...

The Richmond Folk Festival is amazing.

Yesterday was a challenging day - we started out early and drove out to 2 middle schools where we did our in-school program as part of the festival's educational program. They went fine, and the kids seemed genuinely interested.

After a short break back at the hotel, we headed out to the festival site. There was much excitement - since from our stage you could see the food area... Indian, Thai, Middle Eastern... yum yum.

At 8:15PM we started out set. I didn't get a chance to look out into the crowd until I was actually on the stage and raised my eyes at the beginning of Spirit of Adventure - the tent was packed and people were crowded around the outside. We were scheduled to play for 75 minutes nonstop, no intermission - something we were all a little nervous about, I think, especially since we were tired from the school shows. But after we heard that first cheer after S of A, I knew the night was going to be fun. They went crazy after every song and gave us a standing ovation after 7 Lands! By the end of Oedo and people jumping up and cheering and waving, we got a little teary (partly because we were so happy we made it through!). It was AWESOME.

Check out this slideshow of the festival.

Two more performances today, a little easier - 2 x 45 minutes with a nice break in between to check out the other acts. There are some big names at this festival apparently...

BeauSoleil avec
Michael Doucet
Cajun
Larry Bland and
the Volunteer Choir
Gospel choir
The Cellicion Traditional
Zuni Singers
Zuni flute, song and dance
James Cheechoo
Cree fiddling
Dholi Mastana, Dholi Brij and Dholi Mosaic
Indian (Punjabi) Percussion Ensemble
The Edelweiss Boys
German Accordion Band
E.U.
Go-go
Ganga
Indian (Bengali) Song and Instrumental Music Ensemble
Grupo Cimarròn
joropo music
Mark Halata and Texavia
Texas-Czech polka
Harmonia
Eastern European
Husnu Aydogdu & the Turkish Music Ensemble
Turkish Instrumental and Vocal Music
The Itals
roots reggae
Ledward Kaapana and Mike Kaawa
Hawaiian guitar masters
Robin Kessinger & Todd Hallawell
Flatpicked and finger-picked guitar
Lee Sexton Band
Appalachian banjo

Líadan
Irish
Nadeem Dlaikan & Friends
Traditional Arabic music
Nukariik
Inuit throat singing
Eddie & Alonzo Pennington
Thumb-picked guitar
Plena Libre
bomba y plena
River Nile Band
Sudanese Popular music
Rumah Gadang Group
Indonesian Minang (West Sumatran) Music and Dance
The Sama Ensemble
Persian Daf and Tombak drumming
San Jose Taiko
Japanese drum and dance
Sharde Thomas and The Rising Star Fife and Drum
African American Fife and Drum
Solazo
Ecuadoran, Chilean & Argentine Music
Howard Tate
R&B and soul
Tamara and the Shadow Puppet Theatre of Java
Indonesian shadow puppetry
Jose “Chino” Terrones
Master dancer, and Peruvian music and dance ensemble
Peruvian Marinera Dance
Tezcatlipoca Voladores
Mayan Flyers Sundace
Thongtanh Souvannaphanh
(Lao Heritage Foundation)
Laotian Instrumental Music
The Dan Tyminski Band
Bluegrass
Eileen Torres
Dance instructor
Vieux Farka Touré
Saharan blues
Dale Watson
Honky-tonk country

Richmond, VA

2008-10-10T14:04:00.003-05:00

We did it! Last stop of this tour - Richmond, VA. We're on a quick break after doing 2 in-school shows this morning, before heading out to the festival site for our big concert.

Check out this audio slideshow of the home team at Spirit of Japantown in SJ.

Also a reminder - if you are on Facebook or Myspace, join our group!

Washington, DC

2008-10-09T07:57:00.008-05:00

"The hardest thing for me is to find a renewed youth each night. The dancing, as strenuous as it is, is the least of it. What takes the energy is finding something new within." - Jorge Donn, dancer

I was thinking about this quote yesterday... On Tuesday and Wednesday we did 4 school shows with varying audience sizes and demographics. And that wasn't too bad, really. But I did have to consciously not go into auto-pilot and find something to pull out the ki, and remind myself that each child in the audience deserved my best performance. I remember taking a friend to Phantom of the Opera in Toronto many years ago and being so disappointed by the performance - those actors did the show once a day for so many years. And it showed. I don't want to become like that.

On Tuesday, Meg's opera singer friend helped us get us some tickets to The Pearl Fishers at the Kennedy Center. So inspiring! I do love to be an audience member - of almost any kind of show, big or small, classical/stage/dance, whatever! - but don't get to do that often enough. The sets were incredible... Even though we were sitting way in the back (and couldn't read the supertitles), there was still a lot to look at.

I think it's important for a performer to go to performances. As it is for artists to look at all kinds of art. That's just my opinion, anyway.

Here's me and Britt in Georgetown, on the Potomac looking out to the Kennedy Center.

Later we each met a DC friend at a restaurant called Mie N Yu. Asian fusion. Delicious! Great name. :)

We're off to Richmond, VA today for the Richmond Folk Festival. Tomorrow we are doing a 75 minute set...

My old neighborhood...

2008-10-06T15:47:00.011-05:00

We're in Cheverly, Maryland now which is just down the road from Takoma Park. I lived there for one year after I finished the JET Program.

Question: "Why did you move to California?"
Answer: "There was no taiko group here!"

Takoma Park is actually a really sweet little community with a great food coop and arty green scene. Lots of trees... Nen Daiko is the closest group in the area, but they are in Fairfax, VA which really isn't that close. I got to see them perform at the Cherry Blossom Festival in 2001. I was working for the Embassy of Japan at the time as the National Cherry Blossom Festival liaison.

We drove past the coop where I used to shop all the time... Awww, memories...

Yesterday was another long day of driving... We stopped a couple of times to eat, gas up and take some photos.

(We saw Ishi dancing in the lighting booth to RumbaKo at one of the shows. Here he is reenacting it.)

Tomorrow and Wednesday we do school shows at the Publick Playhouse. Taiko fun with kids!

All we did today was drive.....

2008-10-04T22:08:00.005-05:00

That's it. And eat. Going to bed... ahhhhggggg.....

A tour ritual, naming the cars. "Shibuya" and "Jazzy."

On a gas stop, we saw a sign that read, "Country Hooters. Burgers, Babes and Brew."

We're in Cookeville, Tennessee tonight.

More driving tomorrow...

Life is Sweet

2008-10-04T08:00:00.017-05:00

Fayetteville has been really good to us. So many great places to eat!! Tech and house crews, awesome. Thank you, Walton Arts Center. We had a t-shirt exchange...

Yesterday morning we started out the day with another school show, and then a workshop with about 60 kids from the New School, on the stage. Very eager to learn, very well-behaved, and totally into it! We told them not to peel the spikes off the stage, and they didn't.

Afterwards we got ready for the evening concert...

PJ pointed out that the seats look like they have eyes...

My friend Rob points out they look like Domo-kun.

It was Britt's last tour concert... Sadness... But we made it a good one! Afterwards I talked to a bunch of the volunteer ushers, mostly retired women who said, "We've decided to take up drumming! We want arms like you guys." I got lots of compliments on my pigtails too. Hee. Most of the people I had talked to had never seen taiko, and were extremely excited and appreciative. So sweet.

After we loaded out and pulled all the spikes, Britt did some cartwheels on the stage...

The theater's slogan is "Life is Sweet."

Today we drive aaaalllllll day towards Maryland. It will take all day tomorrow too.

Life is sweet! No really, it is. :)

Fayetteville, Arkansas

2008-10-02T17:22:00.011-05:00

It took over 10 hours to drive from Baton Rouge to Fayetteville. On the way, we stopped at Sonic for dinner - it was one of the only places we could find to eat. How do you order at these places?

Yesterday was tech and lighting all day... We worked in shifts as usual. Trish, Alex and I were on stage with Ishi and he was working on NanaShi. Trish reminded him that we usually have the lights set up as "independent squares." "Kind of like San Jose Taiko!" Yes, we're (mostly) all Independent Squares.

Here's a video of us in the Green Room to prove it:

We did 2 school shows today and I finally remembered to take some photos. The kids were great. Very polite and quiet as an audience.

During Q&A one student asked, "Where did you get your pants?"

Franco told him that we got them from WalMart and all seemed pleased. WalMart headquarters is just down the road in Bentonville, AR - about 30 minutes away. Hmmmm...

Tomorrow we put on our concert at the Walton Arts Center (WAC) - here's an article about it...

Green room portraits...

Boys with flowers. I love it!

Baton Rouge, LA

2008-09-30T08:45:00.018-05:00

My Macbook screen is all wonky so I can't tell how good the photos are.

Yesterday we loaded in first thing at Manship Theatre, which is a new and very modern venue. I loved all the art on the walls and the sculpture garden. Very friendly crew and wow, GREAT hospitality. We were spoiled.

Here we are exploring the hall...

We had an impromptu school show in the morning while we were teching in - a great exercise. Kind of sprang into action, a little playing here, a little talking there... not quite sure what was going to happen next but making it look like we knew exactly what we were doing. The school shows are one of my favourite things - because it's instant gratification. You can see the wonder on the kids faces.

After teching in all day, and eating the great food the presenters gave us all day some of us needed a nap...

This picture was on the front of the program. It took us a while to figure out who it was.

The concert was fine, the audience very appreciative. Our first show of the tour! The reprise before the encore had a pretty fast clip, but exciting! I think we all felt good to have played through the concert. It has been such a long and busy summer. We just played and played for 2 hours, that felt good.

Here are the happy load-outers...

We got to sign the dock wall.

Then too tired to go out, we ate sandwiches in the hotel lobby...

More TAIKO!

Today we drove 10 hours, almost to Fayetteville. Long tech and lighting day tomorrow... Going to bed.

Many, many modes of transport...

2008-09-29T09:28:00.010-05:00

We made it to Baton Rouge!

Yesterday was a very long day.

Matt, don't read this.

There were 7 of us flying out of San Jose Airport at 6:30AM. The day started out pretty normal - met at 5AM, got on the plane, fell asleep... Suddenly as we were in the air about 10 minutes I woke up to a *BANG.* The plane shook a little and then the little screens that were showing the altitude, temperature, etc started to retract into the ceiling. I think my reaction was similar to others - we kept on flying, no one moved or seemed panicked, but... what was going on?

Turns out we had blown the left engine. Meg said the lady in front of her said, "I see sparks!"

Later Meg also said that she discovered that in life-threatening situations, the majority of San Jose Taiko members choose to go to sleep.

We had to fly back to San Jose and figure out what to do next...

Once again, San Jose Taiko spung into action - one team worked on finding other flight routes to Baton Rouge. Another went to get the luggage. Trish and Ishi kept our place in the long long long line to the ticket counter (I won't say which airline).

Bullet list of the rest:

- Roy drove us to San Francisco airport.

- We flew from SFO to Salt Lake City.

- We flew from Salt Lake City to Houston. Turned out the flight attendant named Phil was from Baton Rouge and he used to work at the Manship Theatre where we are performing tonight.

- When we got to Houston we took a bus to get from Terminal A to B. In the terminal the departure screen showing our gate number had an error message on it - a big square that covered our flight.

- Once inside Terminal B, we found out there was only food in Terminal E. Crud.

- We took a tram to Terminal E (and almost missed our stop).

The best part of the day was getting on the little shuttle car back to Terminal B...

Ok, it was the second best part. The BEST part was finally getting in to Baton Rouge last night after traveling for 17.5 hours and seeing Wisa and Franco's smiling faces, waiting to pick us up and take us to our cushy hotel. We told them about our adventures and laughed and laughed...

Slept well... Ready for our first concert tonight.

On the road again...

2008-09-27T22:32:00.005-05:00

September 29		Manship Theatre Time: 7:30-9:30PM 100 LaFayette Street, Baton Rouge, LA www.manshiptheatre.org 225-389-7221
October 3		The Walton Arts Center Time: 7:00-9:00PM 495 West Dickson Street, Fayetteville, AR www.waltonartscenter.org 479-443-9216
October 10		Richmond Folk Festival Time: 8:00-9:15PM downtown Richmond, VA www.richmondfolkfestival.com 301-565-0654
October 11		Richmond Folk Festival Time: 2:00-2:45PM downtown Richmond, VA www.richmondfolkfestival.com 301-565-0654
October 11		Richmond Folk Festival Time: 7:00-7:45PM downtown Richmond, VA www.richmondfolkfestival.com 301-565-0654

Got my tour bag and coffee mug. Essentials. Oh, and bachi too...

Here we go!!!

2008-09-18T04:01:00.004-05:00

San Jose Metro's "Pick of the Week."

I love "flagrant joy."

See you at the show!

San Jose Taiko Celebrates 35th Anniversary

2008-09-03T10:06:00.002-05:00

San Jose Taiko (SJT) celebrates their 35th anniversary with a concert series at the Campbell Heritage Theater in downtown Campbell, CA. The concert series will feature SJT’s entire 18-member performing company in three heart-pounding performances: 8:00PM on Friday, September 19 and 2:00PM and 8:00PM on Saturday, September 20.

SJT was founded in 1973 by young Asian Americans searching for an outlet to convey their experiences as sansei, or third generation Japanese Americans. Looking to Japan for inspiration, they were drawn to the empowering sounds of the taiko, the Japanese drum, an instrument that embodies the spiritual essence and heartbeat of Japanese culture. Weaving traditional Japanese sounds with other world rhythms, SJT presents an innovative sound that bridges diverse styles and resonates with the Asian soul in America.

Since then, SJT has become a world-class ensemble, performing extensively both nationally and internationally, while maintaining close ties with the San Jose Japantown community. SJT gives more than 200 performances and workshops each year and reaches over 100,000 audience members annually.

The concert program will look back at 35 years’ worth of SJT’s original repertoire and will also feature new works, including a dynamic piece composed by SJT Performing Members Alex Hudson, Franco Imperial, Britt Mattern, and Wisa Uemura. “SJT's existing repertoire is already very extensive.” says Imperial. “The challenge with this composition was to create a new method of movement that was original but also reflects SJT’s style. We hope audiences find it exciting to watch.”

Another new piece was written by former Kodo member Tetsuro Naito and arranged by SJT Performing Member Adam Weiner. “It features the katsugi okedo, a drum that is tied to the drummer and allows movement for the player,” says Weiner. “It combines complicated technical patterns with the energy and spirit that SJT is known for.”

35th Anniversary Concert Series
Campbell Heritage Theater
1 West Campbell Avenue
Campbell, CA

Friday, September 19th at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, September 20th at 2:00 p.m.
Saturday, September 20th at 8:00 p.m.

$35 adults; $25 for students & seniors.
All seats are reserved, and group rates are available.
For tickets, call 408-866-2700 or visit www.heritagetheatre.org

For more information, visit www.taiko.org. You can also watch the SJT feature from KQED’s Spark TV program.

www.taiko.org
taiko@taiko.org
(408) 293-9344

Going down memory lane...

2008-05-21T01:25:00.019-05:00

Last weekend I went to hang out with Sonoma County Taiko as they paraded in downtown Santa Rosa for the annual Luther Burbank Rose Parade. The sad thing was, it may have been the last one. It's been going on for 114 years! I'd been in the parade about 5 times with SCT.

Luther Burbank was a well known botanist who lived in Santa Rosa. He had an experimental farm in Sebastopol (down the road where I used to live). He developed over 800 varieties/strains of plants and was was interested in education. For the parade, all of the participants are required to display roses on their floats or costumes. It's a really beautiful parade, and smells great!

I caught up with them as they were finishing up the parade...

...and moving on to the festival performance. Nice job guys!

Taiko Training

2008-05-16T10:47:00.006-05:00

When I first started playing taiko, one of my teachers warned us, "Your progress will not feel like a gradual climb, it will be full of ditches and pits. Some of them you'll stay in for a long time before you find one day that you're out!"

So true....

When I was feeling down about my progress one day, Arn came up with a great metaphor. He said, "Learning taiko is like building a mountain. You start with the big boulders and the shape comes quickly. It feels good. But then you have to start filling in the cracks with smaller rocks and it starts to feel like no matter how many rocks you put in, the mountain feel like it's not growing. You are working on smaller rocks now."

So I try to keep that in mind.

I am also thinking about the foundation that the mountain has to sit on. If it's weak, it will collapse. So I'm trying to stay in shape, eat well, sleep well...

I have thinking about materials too. I know that in working on art projects, materials make a huge difference. If you have good pens, paints or paper, sometimes the art makes itself. The same with taiko - if it's made well, the sound of the instrument can guide the way you play. But you have to listen in order for that to work.

I decided to cut down my bachi a half inch - I think they were too long for me. Things I've been working on - the smaller rocks - like grip are greatly affected by this.

We'll see how it goes...

Arn found a use for the ends I cut off. He likes to recycle too.

SAVE THE DATE

2008-04-07T02:00:00.002-05:00

This year, instead of our usual spring Rhythm Spirit concert in April, we will be celebrating with a Benefit Dinner in June and a special 35th Anniversary concert in September.

June 20, 2008
Benefit Dinner
Summit Center, San Jose

September 19-20, 2008
35th Anniversary Concert
Campbell Heritage Theatre, Campbell, CA

For more information about these events, call 408-293-9344 or email taiko@taiko.org.

Sad Day

2007-11-28T10:35:00.000-06:00

There was a huge fire in Japantown last night. Check out Meg's blog for more details and pictures. Very sad and horrible.

Also, a news link.

**********

Thanksgiving was delicious and mellow.

Arn's family is very good at making stuff... food... crafts...

One of his nephews found a piece of turkey that looked like a wizard.

Last week we were in LA for a couple of school shows and a concert at the Japan America Theater. Afterwards we went to my friend Rob's studio for a recording session. I got to wear earphones and conduct.

Napa, California

2007-10-31T00:41:00.000-05:00

Pictures for now. Will add words later...

Wilmington, Ohio - The Last Stop

2007-10-22T23:09:00.001-05:00

We just finished our last concert on this leg of Tour. Hooray! It's only midnight. This show was only one hour, which meant we could go and eat dinner and relax after the show.

I started to ask around about people's essential tour items - something that is uniquely their own. For example, mine are a squeeze tube of peanut butter and my french press travel mug.

Alex says his is a notebook or laptop - someplace to write (because he was an English major).

I'm guessing that Pammy's is her collection of puzzles. She is a Puzzle Master.

I would also guess that Adam's are his fingers. For eating chicken wings. (He ate over 20 last night. See before and after pictures. "More Wings!")

I have yet to interview the others... Although Meg says she doesn't have one, I think it's www.cuteoverload.com.

The concert went fine - there were lots of kids in the audience that asked questions during our Q&A afterwards. We got the usual questions about our costumes, the names of the taiko and how long we played taiko.

In the lobby we also got asked if we were related, the answer to which is "No." But we are in a way a family.

Here's our public face...

Here's our fabulous face!

We fly home tomorrow. See you soon!

Good night.

A Day Off in Pittsburg

2007-10-20T16:23:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we had a nice day off in Pittsburg. Interesting to compare the photo to Hiwasa, where I lived in Japan on JET.

We started off at Lidia's...

Brunch was incredible! We started off with some nice breads and muffins, mimosas, antipasti - then on to the main course (I had octopus, the others had the pasta sampler) and ended with desserts and coffee.

I'm still recovering...

Afterwards we walked around the Strip District and admired the produce and yummy-looking things which normally we would have been all over. After Lidia's, however, we were pretty much spoiled for the rest of the day. When we went into the fudge shop looking for omiyage, I hid from the lady giving out samples.

Today we move on to Wilmington, Ohio - our last stop on this leg of Tour.

Friday's concert and school show went fine. The students at Shadyside Academy got into their uniforms just for us.

Check out this nice blog entry about our performance in Edmonds, Washington. Great pictures too!

And just for fun, here is Arn and Dar in thermal. They went to the Body Worlds exhibit at the SJ Tech Museum last weekend. The other exhibit "Bodies" has been in many of the cities we've been to. I don't know if I could go and see it...

We will be at the Napa Opera House next weekend - if you don't have your tickets yet, you can get them here. It is a different show from the one two years ago - some songs are the same, some different. And it's a different crew too - PJ, Wisa, Franco, Trish, Meg, Pam, Alex and me!

Pittsburg, Pennsylvania

2007-10-18T18:49:00.001-05:00

We're at the Shadyside Academy in Pittsburg for a school show and concert. It's a very nice private school and very interesting academic philosphies...

We admired a huge ikebana display arranged by some Japanese ladies associated with the language school in the area. Apparently there is a large Japanese community in Pittsburg.

Adam and Trish got in safely yesterday. Thoughtful Adam brought me a present... (The tag, not the bag.)

Thanks Adam!

Switch Out

2007-10-17T08:59:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we were sad to say good-bye to the Westin. And to Wisa and Britt! Otsukaresama deshita. The exciting thing is that Trish and Adam are coming out today...

On Monday we did 3 short performances at the New City School in St. Louis. A very nice private school with a great art room (that was also our dressing room and exactly the kind of room I would like in my dream home). The shows went fairly smoothly which was a little bit of a relief from the exciting 3 days we had at COCA...

In total we did 5 one-hour performances at COCA (Center of Creative Arts). It was reminiscent of our time in Indianapolis last year where each performance was different, and some changed quickly (i.e. during the show). It definitely kept us on our toes! As Meg says, "Who is the most flexible taiko group?"

Whew! Poor Ishi.

When we were in Tahlequah, Pammy bought a huge bag of Tootsie-Pops.

295 of them.

This morning she figured out that she has to eat 40 each day in order to finish by Monday. Yesterday she ate 13.

She is sorting flavours...

Tahlequah, Oklahoma to St. Louis, Missouri

2007-10-13T10:36:00.001-05:00

Sore-y...

Britt says, "You have to update your blog!" I haven't felt like doing it since losing my camera battery so here are some photos courtesy of Britt.

(The SJT gang makes fun of the way I say "sorry" - but now they all say it the right way. "Sore-y" not "Sar-ey.")

It's feels so long since we were in Oklahoma... I don't remember much about the concert, which means it was pretty normal, I think. We did 2 school shows and the kids were great! Very polite and well behaved AND at one of the shows, they gave us a standing ovation. Made Wisa a little teary-eyed. Kids rarely do that on their own. I think it was started by some JHS kids, not their teachers even.

Britt remembers the ice cream shop downtown.

Actually Tahlequah was a very interesting town because it is the center of the Cherokee community. Check Meg's blog for more info. We had a wee introduction... went to a festival the first night in town and admired the amazing costumes.

We did eat well in this town. We ate two nights at "Sam & Ella's" (say that out loud) where I had to convince the waiter to make me a cheeseless pizza. Then we ate at "Ernie Coli's" - a great burrito and chilli place. More food info and pics here.

Here we are after lunch in food comas.

We had a really nice time in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Megan took really great care of us! They even gave us the banner posted in town. And mostly I was impressed that she remembered my name!

On the way from Tahlequah to St. Louis, I suddenly remembered that I left my flute in one of the drawers in our hotel room. Here is the conversation that I had with the nice lady at the front desk.

Yu: Hello. I just left your hotel and think I may have left a flute in the room.
FD: Oh, I'll check for you if you could give me your name and the room number.
Yu: I was in room 15. My name is Yurika.
FD: Judy?
Yu: It's Yurika, spelled Y-U-R-I-K-A. Yu-ri-ka.
FD: Ok, Judy, I'll call you right back.

About 2o minutes later...

FD: Hello Judy, we found your flute.
Yu: Uh, ok. That's great!
FD: Could you please give me your address so we can send it to you?
Yu: Sure. (I give her my info and spell out my first and last name.)
FD: Oh... so how does the Judy fit in?
Yu: (Pause. Not quite sure how to respond.) I don't usually go by that name. (Pam and Britt are laughing hysterically...)
FD: Ok...

Really, I am thankful that they were helpful and able to find my fue. But such is my life with my name.

We're in St. Louis, Missouri now! Home of American baseball and beer. We are staying at the plush Westin hotel next to the home of the St. Louis Cardinals and the Bowling museum.

More to come...

Zannen

2007-10-09T07:37:00.000-05:00

Too bad... I forgot my camera battery charging in the last hotel. We left in a big hurry (hotel confusions).

Watch this for now. It's a commercial for today's show in Tahlequah, OK.

Video

2007-10-08T13:52:00.000-05:00

We had dinner last night at the Cookson Smokehouse in Tahlequah, Oklahoma...

Rolla, Missouri

2007-10-06T00:38:00.002-05:00

It's the end of long day... We did two school shows this morning and afternoon followed by a full concert and load-out. Yesterday we also did two school shows. The kids were pretty great! There was, however, one kid who had a laser pointer in the first show who was aiming it on the stage. Wisa sent the stage manager to find him during the show... That was the end of that. The kid's principal and teacher dealt with him duly afterwards.

The concert was somewhat eventful...

When we ended out in the lobby, I saw a couple with tears in their eyes... People asked if we were going to come back. We saw a lot of kids who had come in the morning and brought their parents. That was great. They were so excited about taiko!

Tomorrow we drive to Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

Picture Gallery

2007-10-03T21:43:00.002-05:00

Hello from Rolla, Missouri!

This is my favorite picture. See Wisa's face just below the shime. All taken with Photobooth.

Also some doodles...

Two school shows tomorrow. Great! I miss the kids. They work better on me than Vitamin Water.

Catching Up

2007-10-02T22:15:00.000-05:00

We spent the past weekend back in the Seattle area. It was raining. Despite that, I like Seattle. Seattle = coffee, REI, trees and Uwajimaya. If you don't know about Uwajimaya, it is a huge Japanese grocery store with everything you could ever want. We only had 30 minutes to spend there, barely enough time.

The show in Edmonds (north of Seattle) was fine - a smallish audience but the venue was new and nice - it was a renovated old high school. The men's washroom doors were funny. There was one labeled "men" and the other right next to it said "boys." Alex got one door all to himself.

(I'm not writing things down in order. I can't remember the order! We woke up at 3:45 am today. My brain is fairly scrambled.)

We had a workshop at the Seattle Buddhist Church with Seattle Matsuri Taiko. One of the many taiko groups in the area. Apparently there are around 9 groups. They get together once every 2 years for their own conference called the "Regional Taiko Gathering" and are very friendly. I like that.

After the workshop, we had dinner with Tyler and Thy. Tyler used to play with SJT some years ago. We ate and ate and ate delicious food. More details here. They had a great house with a fireplace, which was nice to warm up to with the rainy cold weather. But it also made us sleepy... By about 8pm we were ready to crash.

The next day we had another workshop with members of several other Seattle groups, including Seattle Kokon Taiko, Northwest Taiko and Kaze Daiko. It was interesting to see all the different taiko and stands they brought. And taiko bags too. Before and after the workshop we all help each other haul drums to and from cars. It's part of playing taiko. One day I would like to put together a book of taiko t-shirt designs. There are some really great ones.

Here is a completely unrelated video of us playing "Funk Yorokobi" at Obon this summer. I just found it on youtube.

Today we flew. We met up with Pam, Britt and Ishi in Denver. Britt made us all onigiri with umeboshi! We are in Rolla, Missouri (pronounced "raw-la" not "roll-a"). After picking up the cars, truck and equipment, we stopped in to have dinner with the Kanoyas - old friends of SJT. We found their house pretty easily...

It was nice to relax and play with dogs and eat and listen to the high school band next door practicing. Thank you to the Kanoyas for your hospitality!!

Good-bye Pacific Northwest

2007-10-02T01:21:00.000-05:00

Have to keep it short. We're checking out at 4:30AM to catch 6AM flight to Missouri.

We sent all the taiko and stands today through FEDEX. Have a safe trip, drums!

Here's a nice blog entry by a local farmer we met in Caldwell, Idaho.

To come... our adventures in Seattle. But to bed now. Good night!

Auburn, Washington

2007-09-29T09:09:00.000-05:00

... is just south of Seattle. It's raining.

Here are some pictures from our drive on Thursday from Oregon.

We stopped at a gas station and Ishi pulled out some corn to eat. I had to take this picture - read the sign in the background! (How do I post this without it going sideways??)

PJ and Alex got to bond with some animals.

A little later, we stopped to eat the bentos that the Buddhist Temple folks packed for us. There's nothing like eating bentos made with love, even if it's in a parking lot.

Then it was back on the road again... Luckily we had a great 80's radio station to keep us occupied.

Yesterday we loaded-in and did lighting and the concert. It was a little harder than the other concerts - maybe because of the rainy weather, maybe because we didn't have the kids shows to get us warmed up and excited (the kids give me energy), maybe because the audience was a mellower than the last venue. The venue itself was different acoustically than Caldwell too, it sucked the sound away. A good exercise in "Selling what you got!" Anyway, it was nice to see taiko friends that we knew - the Seattle area has about 9 taiko groups. Today we load-in and tech in Edmonds, on the north side of Seattle. Send us your genki!

Caldwell, ID to Ontario, OR

2007-09-26T02:39:00.001-05:00

The last couple of days have been pretty "normal." We had a nice concert at Albertson's College of Idaho in Caldwell on Tuesday night. The folks from the Idaho-Oregon Buddhist Temple came out to see us which was really great. We also had a visit from Dylan's parents (who live in San Diego). They were hanging around the area and went to a Pear Festival and brought us lots of delicious pears and other goodies for after the show. They know what makes us happy...
Yesterday we had dinner at the Idaho-Oregon Buddhist Temple with Reverend Fujimoto. We had been looking forward to that potluck dinner since the beginning of the trip. Tsukemono, kabocha, mochi... all of my favorite things. There was plenty of meat for everyone else.

After dinner we did a naname workshop with Sangha Taiko and Kawa Taiko. Everyone was really full, but we managed to move around. They sent us home with more food - bentos, homemade cookies, beer, Pocky and other treats...

We won't have to worry about food for awhile.

The Car Incident

2007-09-24T18:39:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was supposed to be another typical driving day. Check out at 10AM and arrive around dinnertime. We were heading southwest to Caldwell, Idaho. About an hour into our drive we started climbing into some mountains. The mountains had falling boulders... Silver Suzie hit one and started to leak oil.

Luckily, we're always on walkie-talkies and a few of us had cell phone reception. San Jose Taiko sprang into action... (I wish I had a picture of everyone on their cell phone.)

We figured out that we had to get a tow-truck to come from a nearby town and haul Suzie back to the rental car place in Missoula, which was about 2 hours north. The wrong direction to where we were going.

While we waited, it snowed. Luckily we had lots of snacks from Hamilton.

Wisa and I went back with the tow truck driver. His company was called "Honey Enterprises." A very nice and very knowledgeable fellow who chewed on whole cloves while we drove - he said it was good for his sinuses. He told us all about the history of the area and about his family. Once in Missoula we picked up a Honda Civic, which we named "Blue Betsy" and hit the road - only 5 hours behind.

We finally got in to Caldwell, Idaho a little before 1AM - driving though twisty-turny mountain roads, and through falling snow. I fell into bed and blinked and had to wake up again for today's school show. It went fine, even though the floor was so slippery I felt like I was wearing socks on stage. After the show we went out to the audience where all the kids wanted to high-5 us. Wisa overheard one say, "I'm never going to wash this hand again!"

Long day tomorrow...

We Love Hamilton, MT!

2007-09-23T02:15:00.002-05:00

Here are the girls getting ready...

(Some people ask "Where are the pictures of you?" Well they are on Meg's blog. And since her blog is all about food, they are all pictures of me eating.)

Dylan and Alex have lots of energy before the show.

Here with Franco, they are dynamic! Notice Alex's hair, so alert. So ready.

After the show we had to load-out in the rain...

The show went fine - the audience was awesome! After certain songs we heard people shout "Whoa!" And someone was dancing like crazy in the back during RumbaKo and Seven Lands. These are the best audiences to play for, the ones that you know you just made their day. Makes all the pain of Seven Lands worth it.

Thank you Hamilton.

A Walk in the Woods

2007-09-21T22:55:00.004-05:00

We went for a walk this morning in the mountains of Blodgett Park. PJ, Britt, Meg and I were hopeful to see a Pika ... but no such luck. Great views of Hamilton, though.

(This is a pika - not to be confused with Pikachu.)

It's nice to be alone with the trees once in awhile.

We wandered down to the creek at the base of the mountain. The water was clear and cold.

In the afternoon, we did a school show for grades 3-8. Immediately after the show, 30 kids came on stage for a mini-workshop. Franco spotted one of the kids peeling spikes off the stage. Luckily he only got a few, whew!

Hamilton, Montana

2007-09-21T08:56:00.001-05:00

We're in Hamilton, Montana! It's about 45 minutes south of Missoula, close to the Oregon border. This is the pond outside of our window at the Bitterroot River Inn.

The presenter left us nice welcome packages.

Yesterday we loaded-in at the Hamilton Performing Arts Center and stayed there the whole day to deal with lighting. We also got to practice a little.

This is from Franco's song called "Gathering."

For dinner we went back to a restaurant in town called Spice of Life (that we went to on Wednesday too). Turns out the owner is half Japanese and the sponsor of our poster. Also turns out that the food is delicious. It's very eclectic - in this old house with great old fixtures and reminds me of my college days in TO. When we walked in the door, they had a box of free giant zuccini. And wine from Chateau Montelena was on the wine list (that's where Ed from SCT works, in Napa).

Day on the Road

2007-09-20T00:54:00.000-05:00

Happy National Talk like a Pirate Day! Arrr...

We checked out nice and leisurely today at 11am... Drove west towards Hamilton, Montana. The Budget truck (a.k.a. "Big Bertha"), the generic Chevy (a.k.a. "Silver Suzie") and the PT Cruiser (a.k.a. "Barbie Dream Cruiser"). Driving and eating. That was the day. We saw lots of hills, trees and sheep. Amazing. We also saw a sign for the Annual Testicle Festival. (This is a food thing.) Interesting.

Check out a review and video of our school show in Billings.

(If you look carefully, you might see that I'm playing the end of Rumbako with only one bachi. I lost the other one on the jumps.)

Load in and tech tomorrow!

An Exciting First Concert!

2007-09-19T01:54:00.002-05:00

Today we started the day with a school show. 1400 sixth grade students. All of the sixth grade students in Billings, in fact. They were good kids. (Here Britt and Meg are checking out the marquee of the Alberta Bair Theater...)

The evening concert was fine. I survived Seven Lands (channeling Yumi the whole time - thanks Yumz!).

It was Dylan's first concert. Good job Dylan!

Montana people are so friendly. Especially the ushers who gushed over the show. They had never seen anything like taiko before. One lady said "I really didn't think I was going to like the concert, but I loved it! It's so precise! And on top of you all being so talented, you are all so cute!"

Moving west to Hamilton, Montana tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing more of "Big Sky Country."

Billings, Montana

2007-09-17T08:55:00.001-05:00

The tour team out on this leg is PJ, Meg, Franco, Wisa, Alex, Dylan, Britt and myself. And Ishi, our Lighting Designer. As anticipated, yesterday was a very long day. After a couple of false starts to the airport at quarter to 5 in the morning (back to the studio, back to Meg's, back to Alex's for forgotten items) we got on the plane to our first tour destination - Billings, Montana.

At Salt Lake City Airport, we spotted Patrick Dempsey. That automatically made yesterday a good day! That and Meg made me a sandwich and dessert - a double-good day.

The rest of the day was fairly usual - we checked into the hotel, some of us had lunch while others slept and then headed over the theater for load-in and tech. The focusing went really fast which was nice. We had a chance to run the entire school show which we had only done once and about 3 weeks ago. Much needed.

Montana is beautiful. So much open space and the sky is enormous.

Our shuttle driver from the airport told us that the Crowne Plaza hotel, where we are staying, is the tallest building (22 stories) in the whole state of Montana. (Meg says according to Wikipedia, it's the 2nd tallest building.)

(Meg and Dylan standing in front of a Pinto Horse at the airport in Billings. It's covered in pinto beans.)

A Very Early Start

2007-09-16T05:54:00.000-05:00

Today is Day One of our fall tour. Roy is picking Alex and me up at 4:40am for a 6am flight. I think I got 1.5 hours of sleep... Not that I didn't want to sleep, but my mind can't turn off - too many things to think about and too afraid of sleeping through my alarm clock.

My suitcase is packed. It's small but solid (kind of like me).

Yesterday was a crazy day... Between trying to pack up and clean my apartment, we had two gigs - one of which was in Burlingame (where we only played one song).

I'm looking forward to sleeping on the plane... But today will be a long day since we have to load in the equipment and do our tech for a school show in Billings today. Once we get to Montana, we'll be in the theater all afternoon and evening, I think.

4:01am... Only 39 more minutes until we leave...

Thanks to everyone who's staying home and holding up the fort! Orusuban yoroshiku.

Coming to a town near you.

2007-08-31T05:55:00.001-05:00

We're going on the road again in 2 weeks!

***

September 18, 2007 (Tue)
Alberta Bair Theater
Time: 7:30PM
2801 3rd Avenue N, Billings, MT

September 22, 2007 (Sat)
Hamilton Performing Arts Center
Time: TBD
327 Fairgrounds Rd., Hamilton, MT

September 25, 2007 (Tue)
Caldwell Fine Arts Series, Albertson College of Idaho
Time: 7:30PM
Jewett Auditorium, 2112 Cleveland Blvd, Caldwell, ID

September 28, 2007 (Fri)
Auburn Performing Arts Center
Time: 7:30PM
700 East Main Street, Auburn, WA

September 29, 2007 (Sun)
Edmonds Center for the Arts
Time: 7:30PM
410 4th Ave., Edmonds, WA

October 5, 2007 (Fri)
Leach Theatre
Time: 7:00PM
103 Castleman Hall, Rolla MO 65409

October 6, 2007 (Sat)
Spirit of Japantown Festival
Time: TBD
San Jose Japantown

October 9, 2007 (Tue)
Northeastern State University
Time: 7:30PM
Center for the Performing Arts, 600 N. Grand Ave, Tahlequah, OK

October 12, 2007 (Fri)
Center for Creative Arts Theater
Time: 7:00PM
524 Trinity Ave., St. Louis, MO

October 19, 2007 (Fri)
Shadyside Academy
Time: 7:30PM
Hillman Center for Performing Arts, Pittsburgh, PA

October 22, 2007 (Mon)
Kids&Company/Wilmington College
Time: 7:30PM
Hiland Theater, Boyd Cultural Arts Center, Wilmington, OH

October 27, 2007 (Sat)
Napa Valley Opera House
Time: 8:00PM
1000 Main Street, Napa, CA

December 6, 2007 (Thu)
California State University at Monterey Bay
Time: 7:30PM
World Theater, 100 Campus Center, Building #28, Monterey, CA

February 12, 2008 (Tue)
Peace Center for Performing Arts
Time: 10:00AM-11:00AM/12:00PM-1:00PM
300 S. Main St., Greenville, SC

February 15, 2008 (Fri)
The Lyceum Committee Series
Time: 7:30PM
Harrison Auditorium, 1601 East Market, Greensboro, NC

February 23, 2008 (Sat)
Tennessee Performing Arts Center
Time: 2:00PM
James K. Polk Theatre, 505 Deaderick Street, Nashville, TN

February 29, 2008 (Fri)
T.B. Sheldon Theatre
Time: 7:00PM
443 W. 3rd Street (at East Ave.), Red Wing, MN 55066

March 2, 2008 (Sun)
Weidner Center
Time: 2:00PM
2420 Nicolet Dr., Green Bay, WI 54311

March 4, 2008 (Tue)
Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts/Michigan Technological University
Time: 7:30PM
1400 Townsend Dr., Houghton, MI

March 7, 2008 (Fri)
Myles Reif Performing Arts Center
Time: 7:30PM
720 Conifer Drive, Grand Rapids, MN

March 10, 2008 (Mon)
St. Mary's University
Time: 7:30PM
Page Theatre, 700 Terrace Heights, Winona, MN 55987

Busy Taiko Summer

2007-08-17T10:50:00.000-05:00

It's been a very busy taiko summer.

July

Summer Taiko at Stanford

Wisa and I got to work with 24 kids aged 9-14, along with Stanford Taiko Alums Yoko Okano and Rina Chang in a fun week learning the basics of taiko. I taught the younger kids (The Bachi Bombers) and Wisa taught the older kids (The Drumline) a song each that they named "Dragon Dance" and "Taiko Maiko." They did a great job performing for their parents. It's amazing how much kids learn in a week! The kids also made taiko out of buckets that they personalized and played on.

The Summer Taiko at Stanford camp has been going on for 10 years now, it's taught jointly by San Jose Taiko and Stanford Taiko each summer and coordinated by Linda Uyechi and Irene Matsumoto, both SJT Alums.

Here Wisa and I are doing a demo for the parents.

Obon

Highlights: Debuting "Funk Yorokobi," dancing with over 900 people on Saturday.

Taiko & Japanese Culture Camp (in Sonoma Co.)

Kids get to learn calligraphy, culture, etiquette, food, crafts, dancing, songs and taiko.

August

North American Taiko Conference

Highlights: Selling stuff at the Taiko Marketplace, playing in Taiko Jam, shopping at Pike Place Market and Uwajimaya. Meeting lots and lots and lots of taiko folks.

Moving from Okida Hall

To our new studio on 10th street. We're still moving and cleaning...

Pook's Visit

My sister Haruka came to visit from Toronto. Arn and I took her to the Monterey Aquarium. The rest of the time she was pretty much on her own since I was too busy - good thing she's a library technician and good at research. She explored San Jose and told me what's out there!

Adventures in Streetpainting

2007-06-11T11:28:00.000-05:00

I love this time of the year when Youth in Arts San Rafael puts on their Italian Streetpainting Festival. I've been lucky enough to be invited to help out Arn and his incredibly talented artist friends - this is my 5th festival. Here's a picture from last year. The artist was Botticelli.

When I got there on Sunday, Spence Snyder, Arn and Sue Young have already completed a lot of the 9'x12' image. This spot was sponsored by Groove 11, a design firm located directly above our square on 4th street. They chose this picture. No one seemed to know who the boy was. Probably stock photo.
(I can't get it to not post sideways.)

I worked on the right side palm, index and middle fingers. We get done fast! Most years we are drawing up to the festival's end, around 6pm. We go have lunch and wander around looking at other art...

Sarah Mordecai always has a beautiful original design.

Tracy Stum does some cool 3D stuff this year.

Joel Yau and Cuong Nguyen work together on a memorial square. How does Joel stay so clean?

Kids get to draw too. I spot a Canadian flag and an igloo.

We get invited up to the Groove 11 office who is sponsoring our square. It's a great view of the whole festival.

Some of Arn's family members come and visit...
We sit on the grass and eat Powerbars (Sue works for Powerbar).
She's very hard to take a picture of but I get one in the end (I'm sneaky.)

All in all, it's a very nice day! Until next year...

Intercollegiate Taiko Invitational (or whatever it's called)

2007-05-27T11:29:00.001-05:00

Roy, Meg, Dylan, Alex and I are in Los Angeles this weekend for the Intercollegiate Taiko Invitational. It's been a busy run these past few weeks... and I'm on my second large cup of coffee.

Bits and pieces in no particular order: Arn says, "Look, I'm a cokehead!"

Arn plays with the Santa Rosa Symphony who performed a piece written by a JA composer (I can't remember his name) which included taiko.

Six of us flew to Tucson for the weekend to be the guest artist for the Arizona Taiko Showcase. (Here I am explaining why I should get the smallest uchiwa, not Meg. She reluctantly agreed.)

Practicing "Tottemo Yoi" ("Very Good") with 3 other taiko groups and Tiffany and Christy from Sacramento Taiko Dan. There were 41 people on stage altogether. It turned out pretty cool, considering we only practiced with everyone on the day of the show.

Karen Falkenstrom and Rome Hamner of Odaiko Sonora took great care of us. Thank you!

ADAM graduated! CONGRATULATIONS!!! I ate wings for Adam's graduation. Ug. The next day at a school show my Hayaku solo was more syncopated than usual.

We had dinner last night at a yummy Italian restaurant with Michelle, Shoji, Kaoru and Mas. They had the biggest apple pie I had ever seen in my life. I was too full for the pie. Next time.

More to come...

Oh, the Desert

2007-05-22T01:42:00.001-05:00

Hot and dusty and dry. And home to more and more taiko players!

We just got back from a most amazing and interesting weekend out in the Sonoran desert with Karen and Rome of Odaiko Sonora. I'm totally exhausted and dehydrated and going to bed now. More to come...

(Yumi, Meg, Karen, Roy, Franco and Pear hanging out in Berger Auditorium before the big showcase concert!)

Tucson, AZ

2007-05-09T00:54:00.000-05:00

How did that become "Too-sawn" anyway?

Blogging is weird. I blog for what? I don't know who reads it but it is very helpful to me because I can remember what I just did. I don't remember things anymore. I've blocked out huge chunks of my JET program experience (or lost them from too many enkais - is mom reading this?). I used to write in journals. Lots of journaling. I still have those journals, but should really burn them...

Anyway, so I've been working for San Jose Taiko for 3 months now. Learning a lot. How to use the scanner, phone network, and learning how crazy it can get in the office with scheduling, planning, etc. It still blows my mind how staff keep all those programs going. All with a smile.

We are flying to Tucson next Thursday for a concert put on by Odaiko Sonora. Fushicho Daiko will also be there. If you are in the area check it out: http://www.tucsontaiko.org/news.asp

The weekend after that, a few of us will be in LA for Intercollegiate Taiko Invitational (hosted by UCLA's Kyodo Taiko): http://members.tripod.com/~kyodo/frame_index.html

I've been curious about the world of collegiate taiko, which is growing at breakneck speeds. I'm envious that students have the opportunity to play taiko in an academic environment, some schools have taiko courses with readings and everything! 10 years ago when I started, you had to do a lot more digging to find anything.

Tonight was the first real practice back from our spring break. I am out of shape. A worry. I must get back into the swing of things in order to make it through the busy summer. I want to play some new parts and really get comfortable with the old. I feel like my hands are really slipping too - I used to play shime a lot but don't so much anymore. All part of the rise and fall of personal progress. I must persevere... (this is for Meg).

An Inconvenient Truth

2007-04-18T23:44:00.000-05:00

See it!

"In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

And then let's have dinner and a chat about it... It's important!

Sick as a DAWG

2007-04-15T06:10:00.000-05:00

It's over...

And it I think it was a really great show! Tonight we sold out the house and the crowd was awesome. Unfortunately I've been sick all day and it was BAD. I think I have food poisoning. Ug, the worst feeling in the world. The hardest thing I had to do... get up there smile and have ki when all I wanted to do was puke and pass out.

Everyone was concerned, offered me all kinds of pharmaceuticals, but in the end I just had to suck it up and go on stage. Franco put a wastebasket on the side of the stage, just in case. When I wasn't playing I sat in the back with my forehead against a cool metal rail which felt so good... Then got up, took a deep breath when it was time and tried to give the audience the show they wanted.

Now I can't sleep because I'm so tired and am still really nauseaus.

Apart from that it was a great day!

Bad Blogger...

2007-04-12T00:42:00.000-05:00

I've been a very bad blogger. I got addicted to Facebook. Thanks a lot Nicole!!! No, really it's been crazy finding all these people from elementary school and hearing from my successor's successor on JET who used my lesson plans and lived in my apartment.

Ok, check out this great article about San Jose Taiko in the Metro, SJ's free paper:
http://www.metroactive.com/metro/04.11.07/music-picks-0715.html

And this feature in the SJ Mercury:
http://www.mercurynewsphoto.com/2007/04/11/sjtaiko/

Ok, I really must go... we are going to be at the Campbell Heritage Theater all day tomorrow and I have to pack my things.

See you at the show!

Taiko Taiko Taiko Taiko Taiko

2007-03-28T00:47:00.000-05:00

Check out this YouTube commercial for RHYTHM SPIRIT 2007!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czn8jZXX8wY

Practice practice practice... My knuckles are a gorgeous deep purple from playing chappa (the little cymbals). The concert is really coming together - it is going to be fun! There is going to be dancing, chanting and lots of DRUMMING.

Get tickets!!!

www.taiko.org

Home for Now

2007-03-05T23:57:00.000-06:00

No tours for a little while. Spring concert spring concert spring concert....

GET TICKETS!!!
www.taiko.org

Something to watch - SJT in Iowa last June. The group that went out did a three-week residency and were very busy.

http://www.hancher.uiowa.edu/spot07/standard_sjt_streaming.swf

Frantic February

2007-02-21T02:48:00.000-06:00

My calendar this month is covered with red events. Lots of special events. Today we had a couple of workshops with Kaoru Watanabe and Chieko Kojima of KASA (Kodo Arts Sphere America). I played the fue and danced! Almost passed out...

Check out www.taiko.org! We just launched a new kids site. I did the drawings. Franco did all the fancy computer stuff.

End of Winter Tour

2007-02-17T03:09:00.000-06:00

We did a school show and full concert today. Happy to be going home tomorrow. The shows went fine - we were a little worried about Matt yesterday but he was feeling much better today. Unfortunately if you are on tour and get sick, you still have to play. We were all downing Airborne through the day.

After PJ's opening on the okedo, the crowd cheered and I thought, "This is going to be GOOD!"

I'm still struggling to find the balance between being "careful" and "carefree."

A woman said "Gochisosama!" to us in the lobby as she was going out the door.

A little boy hugged Britt really hard without saying a word.

We found a spot on the wall that San Jose Taiko had autographed in 1998. We added our autographs on the other side of stage left door.

Tomorrow I ride back in the van with - Matt is going with Franco in the truck. I hear it's in the 70s in SJ! Happy happy.

Next tour won't be for awhile as we prep for the spring concert. Hope to see you there!!!

Not Your Average Photo Shoot

2007-02-15T23:58:00.000-06:00

You come up with the captions.
Models: Trish & Britt. Not posed. All spontaneous.

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Happy Valentine's Day!

2007-02-15T00:08:00.000-06:00

Here we are at the Best Western Antelope Valley Inn. It's cold outside!

The drive here was fine - it was a gorgeously sunny day. Franco and I chatted pretty much the whole way (I didn't repeatedly poke him in the shoulder, Adam) while eating Meg's pantry peanut butter cookies.

We ate dinner at the Antelope Valley Mall food court because we could not get in ANY restaurant in the area. The wait at Outback was 2 hours. We ate falafels, MacDonalds, potatoes and overly spicy mongolian noodles while thinking about our Valentines back home...

Are there antelopes here?

In the Truck

2007-02-14T08:33:00.000-06:00

Franco and I are driving the Budget truck to Lancaster, CA today. Wish me luck!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARN!!!

2007-02-11T10:31:00.000-06:00

Kodo Visit

2007-02-07T10:56:00.000-06:00

Yesterday Yumi brought down 11 members of Kodo to San Jose Japantown. They came to eat at Gombei and watch us practice. Talk about pressure... We quit early to sit down and chat about the long relationship between Kodo and San Jose Taiko - when SJT first started, Roy went to Japan to go on the road with the group, then known as Ondekoza. Ever since then, the groups have grown up together. Masafumi Kazama, their Assistant Stage Manager, told us a funny story about how he had no idea he was going to be a taiko player. He went along with Ondekoza because he was told it would be an easy way to see the world and was under the impression that they were going to the USA to do the Boston Marathon. So, they did the marathon and he was told he was going to play a concert immediately afterwards. Even after several concerts, he still thought they played taiko in order to train for marathons!

Earlier in the day, I was talking to Mitsunaga Matsuura ("Mitsu") who currently is their trainer and physical therapist. He had some interesting suggestions in what kinds of exercises would help our members. He said I should do some fast walking, not running, and also aim to strengthen my lower abs. I asked him to please write a taiko workout book for us in English! He said Yumi could translate it.

Before they left, the all the Kodo members sang a song for us. It was a folk song and we all clapped and said "Yoi-sa!" with them. It was an amazing exchange for both groups, I think. For 6 of their members, this is their first tour and first trip to the USA. I wondered what they thought of our joyful taiko playing. Katsuhiro Kumada (Kodo's longtime lighting designer) said he thought San Jose Taiko has it's own lifeblood and spirit. Both groups have changed a lot over the years, with lots of new members and some old members. It'll be interesting to see how they both develop in the years to come.

(Eiichi Saito, Kenta Nakagome, Dylan Solomon, Rylan Sekiguchi, Natsuki Saito, Masayuki Sakamoto, Shogo Yoshii.)

KODO has it's own Japanese/English weblog at: http://heartbeat.cocolog-nifty.com/kodo_blog/

RHYTHM SPIRIT 2007 Tickets on Sale!

2007-02-04T09:53:00.000-06:00

RHYTHM SPIRIT TICKETS are on Sale!!!
Call the Campbell Heritage Theatre Box Office
408-866-2700
or go online to
http://www.ci.campbell.ca.us/heritagetheatre/boxoffice.htm.
Please note that there is an additional $5/tickets charge for online orders.
For more information, call SJT at 408-293-9344

Home for a little while.

The shows on Friday were especially fun! It was the last day, the audience was very responsive and we challenged Franco to play a longer Oedo solo.

It was gorgeous in San Jose yesterday - 62 degrees! We were sweating with all the fleece and goretex on from Colorado. Laundry and unpacking and going to see Kodo today! Stay tuned... we're off to Lancaster soon.

(Signing autographs for kids in the lobby.)

Cold and Colder

2007-02-02T00:55:00.000-06:00

We did 3 shows today. Sleepy...

They went ok. Time-wise we were right on. Almost exactly one hour each time. A few little brain-farty things happenned, which we can blame on the altitude. One of the stage crew guys was telling us that they weren't allowed to have oxygen tanks there unless every performer had a doctor's note, but that they had buckets on the side of each stage in case we needed to throw up. Apparently they'd had an actor who threw up every night because of the altitude. I guess we are doing pretty good!

It's supposed to go down to something like 7 degrees tomorrow.

Britt is my roommate for this part of the tour. (Her nickname is "Burrito", what they used to call her in Japan.) She's had her nose in a fantasy book this whole time. She keeps apologizing for being antisocial and says after she's done (she's on her last chapter), she is going to talk to me!!

Rocky Mountain Cold

2007-01-31T22:39:00.000-06:00

We're in Fort Collins, Colorado. There's snow and it's COLD.

Of course there are good things about being in a cold place. One is that there is good coffee everywhere. Another is that there is central heating everywhere (not like California - when it's cold outside, it's cold inside!). So we got HOT practicing tonight and decided to go to Culver's for their famous lemon freeze, which Meg had been telling me about since last tour. I was so looking forward to that sour lemony make-you-pucker icy treat... but they don't have lemon freezes in the winter. (Meg points out that lemon is a winter fruit.) So I watched Franco eat a butter burger and Britt eat a peanut butter frozen custard (bleck!).

Enough about food...

Today we were at the Lincoln Center all afternoon spiking and doing lighting. Stewart and I are the spiking team now. I always wondered how it worked - there are different spikes for different songs (i.e. white with a red stripe, yellow with an "H", etc.) and different spike shapes for different drums (vertical for down drums, x's for shime, etc.). Before we do a run-through we usually wander around the stage finding our spikes - from the perspective of someone who didn't know what we were doing, you would think we were a bunch of crazy people. Sometimes during the show it's hard to find your spike in the dark, but you have to make the best of it and try to put your drum in the right place!

Franco and Adam got in late last night. They drove all the way from Malibu, leaving right after our gig on Monday, driving through Utah while the rest of us got to fly and take it easy. It was good to see the Budget truck in the parking lot this morning. And to see them of course! (Thank you for driving!) Over lunch Meg, Tomoko and I were trying to think of kids' songs in Japanese to teach Franco - does anyone know how "It's a Small World" is sung? Tomoko sang "Do-A-Deer":

Do wa Donatsu no do
Re wa Remon no re
Mi wa Minna no mi
Fa wa Faito no fa
So wa Aoi Sora
Ra wa Rappa no ra
Shi wa Shiawase yo
Sa! Utaimasho!

Which roughly translates as:

Do is the do of Donuts
Re is the re of Lemons
Mi is the mi of Minna (everyone)
Fa is the fa of Fight
So is the so Aoi Sora (Blue Sky)
Ra is the ra of Rappa (Trumpet)
Shi is the shi of Shiawase (Happiness)
So let's all sing!

We thought we should change the fa in Fight to fa in Fanta. Less violent.

Tomorrow we are doing a school show in the morning and 2 one hour concerts in the evening. Same for Friday. We are at an altitude of 5000 feet - we'll find out tomorrow how that affects our playing... I've heard that in some other high places they've played, they had oxygen tanks on the side of the stage. I didn't see any there today.

Smile and Play

2007-01-29T17:54:00.000-06:00

So we have finished our stint in Malibu and everything went fine. We did a matinee concert last night and 2 school shows this morning, packed up the equipment and sent Franco and Adam on their way to Colorado in the Budget truck. The rest of us fly out tomorrow morning.

The mixture of waking up early and fighting viruses going around made it especially hard to get our ki out yesterday, but we finished fine and fast! Somehow Gendai got really speedy, which made it exciting but also challenging for the later 3 soloists. This was one of the times when we really had to pull it all out. The audience seemed jazzed anyway, they cheered after PJ's okedo solo, after Meg's Iruka transition and lots of other times in between. We met some folks from Togen Daiko, out of the Oxnard Buddhist Temple who were very nice. It might have been them, and some of Stew's friends, who were responsible for getting the audience excited. Or maybe it was us...

I finally got to meet Tomoko, lighting designer extraordinaire. She was so efficient in setting up our lighting and is funny to boot. And this morning brought onigiri and umeboshi for us!

This afternoon we made a trip down to the town of Malibu to look at the ocean and get some coffee. Now we're relaxing in our rooms and looking at cuteoverload.com or napping. Might go out for dinner later.

Malibu, California

2007-01-27T23:46:00.000-06:00

Here we are - the Sleep Inn in Calabasas. Don't ask me, I don't know LA at all. It's quarter to 10 and Meg and I are drinking Airborne and watching figure skating. (Pammy thinks she may be coming down with something.) Bedtime tonight is in 15 minutes. We have to meet at the cars at 5:30am! There are no coffee makers in any of the rooms... Ack!

So, the SJT gang has this Tour tradition where people give each other little goody bags before heading out. Things like candy, chocolate, homemade cookies, lip balm, postcard stamps, etc. It's kind of nice to get a little omiyage before going, to bring memories of home with us instead of the other way around. I stayed up way too late last night making washi bookmarks.

One matinee concert tomorrow. The first of the year!

It's cold and rainy here. How is it where you are?

Back on Tour!

2007-01-27T03:03:00.000-06:00

We had our second of two rehearsals tonight for Winter Tour (section 1) - tomorrow we're off to Pepperdine University in Malibu (LA area) and Fort Collins, Colorado (just outside of Denver). It went pretty well, although there was a scary moment when a bunch of Japanese young people came into the studio and I thought it was Kodo! Yumi is going on the road with them as one of their tour managers and had been talking about bringing them down to SJ... It wasn't them. Whew.

The program is almost the same as Fall Tour, except that we are without Wisa (she's staying home to teach Junior Taiko) and I have a couple of new parts. Actually, I get to play a bunch of different instruments including chappa, kane, clave, horagai (conch) and taiko. This time around definitely feels easier - I have played the parts more than once before hitting the stage!

Flying out tomorrow afternoon!

Stay tuned for more updates on the road...

Today's Highs/Lows

2007-01-20T09:03:00.000-06:00

San Jose, California
58F/41F (14C/5C)

Malibu, California
59F/49F (15C/7C)

Fort Collins, Colorado
34F/12F (1C/-11C)

Toronto, Ontario
20F/18F (-6C/-7C)

It's all relative, isn't it?

Taiko fans (and you who have never seen taiko): Go see KODO. They are traveling through North America for two months starting in February on their One Earth Tour. They will be in Toronto at Massey Hall in March!

Next tour coming right up!

2007-01-14T00:32:00.000-06:00

Cold and tired. We had our winter tour rehearsal today from 10-5. Franco took pictures of us wrapped up in scarves and fleece while playing the taiko. Now I'm curled up in front of the heater watching The Terminal and feeling wistful for airports. Luckily we're off to So Cal in a couple of weeks! Then Colorado, which I'm sure will be great but cold...

Check out this video clip from PASIC in Austin, TX back in November if you get a chance!

Here we go!

2007-01-10T00:40:00.000-06:00

Back to taiko practice tonight after what seemed like an eternity... Can I keep up after all this sitting around and eating chocolate?

The next four months are especially busy as we prepare for Rhythm Spirit 2007, SJT's annual spring concert:

Save the date!
RHYTHM SPIRIT 2007
Friday, April 13th, 8:00 PM
Saturday, April 14th, 2:00 PM & 8:00 PM
Campbell Heritage Center
Campbell, CA (just south of San Jose)

The weekend was mel-low. Went for a walk with Arn and Nicole from Graton to Forestville. Made some friends along the way:

Gotta love Sonoma County. I almost miss the smell of fertilizer in summer...

I got out some old things from my JET days and found some letters from my high school students when I was going back to Canada. Here are some of my favorites:

I'm really sad to hear that you go back to Canada. I'm sorry that I didn't talk you many times. I want to see you again. Be fine and smile all the time. Please come again Kitako someday. -Yuka M.

Hello Yurika! I have no money now. I'm going to arubait. I will become a rich boy. So you home much money? My hobby is to read books. I want to some books. So I want to money! Good-bye -Takaaki M.

("Arubaito" means "part-time job")

Life is always hard. -Seijun S.

I like sports. I like Drums. I like movie. I don't like study. I like Yurika very much. Bad boy -Tomoya S.

Dear Yurika,
I felt sad when I knew that you return to Canada. I wanted to talk more with you. Now my English is poor. But I am going to study it harder. What will you do in Canada? What is your dream? It is my dream to become a nice lady. I hope that I can take other's feelings into account. Besides I will come across a gentleman. He is a broad minded man. And I will marry him. This is my dream. But I have yet to meet him. I'll write a letter to you later. Please remember me!
-Kayo U.

English class was very good. YURIKA will be fine in Kanada please. I think YURIKA is very good woman. Never you don't give up difficult question wall please! See you again. -Kazumori M.

(I think he's referring to one of the games I used to play in English class where I made all the students stand up in rows and they couldn't sit down until they answered at least one question. They hated it but it made them speak!)

Some of the letters were written in Japanese - maybe someday I'll be able to read them.

Time for bed! School show in the morning.

Happy Holidays!

2006-12-27T00:33:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noel, Happy New Year, Feliz Navidad, Happy Hannukah, Akemashite Omedeto Gozaimasu.

Taiko is on break - I'm gearing up for a busy 2007. I am now officially a Performing Member of SJT! Hooray!

Hangin' out with my other half. As usual, his sisters outdid themselves with the Xmas meal. We had cioppino! And the most delicious brownies liberally laced with ground coffee. In the morning we exchanged gifts with Arn's family. His niece received pepper spray from one of the aunties. Reading the instructions, she came upon the word "psychotics." She asked, "What are psycho ticks?" Those are some scary bugs. Arn and I got what we thought was a samurai movie for his dad. Turns out it was full of nude scenes... Angela came running into the kitchen saying - "Grampa's watching porn!" Oops.

Here's some funny (or scary?) pictures from Photo Booth:

Best wishes for 2007.

More fun, less stuff!

It's Winter!

2006-12-12T16:53:00.000-06:00

Upcoming performances on the road:

January 28	Pepperdine University-Smothers Theatre Time: 2:00-4:00PM Malibu, CA For more information: www.pepperdine.edu/arts 310-506-4522
February 1	Lincoln Center Time: 7:30-8:30PM Fort Collins, CO For more information: www.ci.fort-collins.co.us/lctix
February 1	Lincoln Center Time: 5:30-6:30PM Fort Collins, CO For more information: www.ci.fort-collins.co.us/lctix
February 2	Lincoln Center Time: 7:30-8:30PM Fort Collins, CO For more information: www.ci.fort-collins.co.us/lctix
February 2	Lincoln Center Time: 5:30-6:30PM Fort Collins, CO For more information: www.ci.fort-collins.co.us/lctix
February 16	Lancaster Performing Arts Center Time: 8:00-10:00PM Lancaster, CA For more information: www.lpac.org 661-723-5950

Back in J-town

2006-12-03T22:48:00.000-06:00

If you are just joining me, this is my humble taiko tour blog. I have only my cellphone camera so the pictures aren't that great, but hopefully give little taste of taiko life on the road. I just got back from my first tour around the USA with San Jose Taiko, one that lasted almost 8 weeks.

This is a hoedown that we wrote on the crazy drive from Austin, TX to Toledo. Hope anyone doesn't mind - it's too funny not to share. We took turns, the truck wrote a verse, then the car, etc. Alex wrote some of these verses off the top of his head. Took a little longer for the rest of us... (Please look over before reading to little kids!)

It has 2 titles:

Motion Sickness

Throw Down – Hoe-Down

I’m tired, so tired, of bein’ on the road.
My butt is so sore from haulin’ this friggin’ load
I’ll stop my complainin’ if I find me an abode,
To give me a rest from bein’ on the road.

(Alex verse)
All my friends back home think the road is pretty neat.
Drive around, take a nap, and then go out to eat.
As for me I have to say we’ve taken this too far,
Because I can barely fit my ass into this compact car.

Continental breakfasts, then driving until dusk.
Life out on the road can be an awful fuss.
Gas up every four hours, peein' every three.
As long as we get our blessed Wi-Fi for free.

(Alex verse)
Before I hit the road they told me to set a goal.
Something to work after while the tour would take its toll.
I could have fixed my kata or worked at projecting my ki.
Instead I’m trying to be the fattest member of AP.

Pets back home sure miss us as much as we miss them.
They’re still getting exercise ‘cause of our dear friends.
Gazing at their screenshots is all that brings us joy,
Until we get back home and they say “where is Roy?”

(Alex verse)
Being the youngest member of the group must have its charms.
After each show old ladies like to come and squeeze my arms.
I don’t mind when they touch my hair or even when they leer.
I have to draw the line when that one grandma pinched my rear.

Killing time in cars is my life today.
Thank goodness for those iPods that’s all I have to say.
But if you play Gypsy Kings or any Stevie Nicks,
I’ll kindly pierce my eyeballs with one thousand tooth picks.

We’ve seen so many roadkill, as we’ve been on the go.
Dead raccoons and deer and even one armadillo.
We almost hit a skunk one night but luckily we missed,
‘Cause if we brought back skunky drums the home team would be pissed!

Sounds like we are complaining, but we’re really not.
Deep inside we know that SJTaiko’s ki’s real hot!
But being on the road so long, we’re out of things to say,
And this is the only game that we have left to play.

************************************************************************
Here's a pic from Indianapolis:

Stay tuned for more tour fun - I'll be out again in January. In the meantime, it's back to practice and work. We just finished our year-end retreat today and it sounds like Rhythm Spirit 2007 is going to be great!

Closing Night

2006-11-19T01:58:00.000-06:00

Hurray! Tonight we celebrated our final concert of this Tour. It was a very fine finish in a very nice hall with a great crew. It was also a delicious finish - someone told me that Omaha is the city with the most restaurants per capital in the country. We were giddy at dinner (at 11:30pm) as people in the restaurant came up to us to thank us for the show. We are giddy and goofy as usual, I guess.

Although it was not my best performance, I did strive to get rid of the "chatter in my head" and give it all the ki I had left. It was a happy show. Met lots of genuinely appreciative people in the lobby after the show, who thanked us for coming to Nebraska. So far, I like Nebraska. Yes, I would come back!

We fly home to SJ tomorrow. I can't believe Tour is over. Thank you to San Jose Taiko for giving me this opportunity. And to all youz I got to tour with - it was awesome!

Thank you to the people who emailed and called and kept up with my blog. It meant a lot.

Pam is konked out - I should sleep... Good night.

Love ya,
Yu (aka "Canadia")

The Last Stop

2006-11-16T21:23:00.000-06:00

Omaha, Nebraska. We made it!

Toledo was a quickie. Drive drive drive. Dinner with Bowling Green Taiko club (very nice students). Load in, tech, cue-t0-cue, show, load out. Drive drive drive. Spend the night just outside of Des Moines. Drive a little more. So happy to check into the Redick Plaza Hotel - it's right across the street from the Orpheum.

The Orpheum is an old, elegant hall that was built in the 1927's as a vaudeville house. It is ENORMOUS. When we first got in we all just stood around to admire the detail work and gorgeous chandeliers.

The okedo looks tiny on the huge stage!

There are enough dressing rooms downstairs that we can have 2 each. And we discovered that downtown Omaha has a very quaint old cobblestoned section of town called the Old Market that has lots of restaurants, pubs, shops and galleries. A nice finish to our tour.

BEST OF TOUR 2006

To kill time on the drive this morning, Alex, Meg, Ishi and I worked on the "Best of Tour 2006" list. Here are some of the categories, still to be finalized.

FOOD

Best sit-d0wn restaurant (breakfast) - Lou's Diner, Hanover, VT
Best sit-down restaurant (lunch) - Rudy's BBQ, Austin, TX
Best sit-down restaurant (dinner) - Hoover's, Austin, TX; Plums, Beaufort, SC; Frankie's, Charlotte, NC
Best fast food - Whole Foods, Austin, TX
Best venue-provided meal - Stephens Auditorium, Ames, IA; USCB, Beaufort, SC; Robert Howell Brooks Center, Clemson, SC
Best ethnic food - Sawasdee Thai, Indianapolis, IN; Thai, Middletown, CT; International Festival, Indianapolis, IN
Best chocolate - Peterbrook Chocolatier, Jacksonville, FL
Best ice cream - (name???), Middletown, CT; Whole Foods, Austin, TX
Best coffee - (name???), Beaufort, SC
Best dessert - Apple dumpling, Blues Cafe, Memphis, TN; Cranberry Sorbet, Whole Foods, Austin, TX
Best bakery - Flour, Boston, MA; King Arthur Flour; Hanover, VT
Most special dessert - Ron's Brownies, Ames, IA; Bibinka, Imperials, Austin, TX
Most special meal - Adobo/Ham/Fried Turkey Fest, Imperials, Austin, TX
Best car snack - Maple coated pecans, Whole Foods, Austin, TX
Best vegetarian food - Whole Foods, Austin, TX; Salad bar, Ruby Tuesday's, Clemson, SC
Best food town - Austin, TX

LODGING

Best overall hotel - Hilton, Austin, TX; Inn at Middletown, Middletown, CT
Best bed - Crowne Plaza, Jacksonville, FL
Best in-room ammenities - Staybridge Suites, Naples, FL
Best hotel ammenities - Hilton, Austin, TX; Staybridge Suites, Naples, FL
Hotel closest to venue - Reddick Plaza Hotel, Omaha, NE
Best hotel breakfast - Inn at Middletown, Middletown, CT
Best view - Crowne Plaza, Jacksonville, FL; Hilton, Austin, TX

VENUES

Biggest venue - Stephens Auditorium, Ames, IA (2900 seats?)
Smallest venue - Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT (450 seats?)
Biggest stage - Stephens Auditorium, Ames, IA
Best dressing rooms -
Best green room -
Best audience - Florida Theater, Jacksonville, FL; State Theater, Eau Claire, WI
Best crew - Hayes Hall, Naples, FL
Best tech equipment - Hayes Hall, Naples, FL
Most concessions sold ($ per head) - Owens College, Toledo, OH
Most concessions sold (gross $) - Hayes Hall, Naples FL
Best overall town - Austin, TX; Middletown, CT; Beaufort, SC

MISCELLANEOUS

Saddest moment - Discovering that there was a Trader Joe's less than a mile from our hotel in Indianapolis on the way out of town. The orange T-shirts, Clemson, SC. Febreeze rice.
Happiest moment - Discovering the Trader Joe's in Indianapolis, on the way to Toledo.
Most memorable road signs - Gun poetry in Illinois. Billboard for Vasectomy Reversal above board for White Crested Woodpecker (Alex's fav).
Best rental car - 1. Dodge Stratus 2. Crysler Sebring convertible
Most memorable drive - Backroads detour from Charlotte to Ames (?)
Best concert moment - 1. Pam jumping towards Franco in Rumbako 2. Franco staying onstage during blackout 3. Pam/Franco double solo during Gendai

Only 3 days left to go... We fly in to SJ on Sunday. Already talk of eating dinner in Jtown at Gombei. We miss rice and tofu.

Before I forget - here are some "reviews" written by some students for the show we did in Iowa.

Many, Many Miles

2006-11-13T17:32:00.000-06:00

This is all I've been staring at for the last 3 days.

We found a Trader Joe's in Indianapolis! Hooray! Bought MORE snacks. There are snacks in every nook and cranny of the car.

Yesterday we managed to kill a couple of hours by writing a hoedown about being on the road (a la "Whose Line is it Anyway"). Stay tuned for that. Going to dinner hosted by Bowling Green University's Taiko club (?) in a little while. Why does driving make you so pooped?

To Austin, TX and Back

2006-11-11T21:13:00.000-06:00

Texas = BBQ

Ug. I mean "Yum!" No really, it was delicious. But just too much. The least I could order was "half a bird." Throw on 4 slices of texas toast and call it lunch.

I'm actually in Little Rock, Arkansas now - on the way BACK from the PASIC conference in Austin. 3 days of driving, 2 nights at the Hilton for 1 short "Showcase Concert." The conference was incredible - there were hundreds of vendors showing off drums, sticks, cymbals, bags, you name it. Picture an entire stall full of triangles. Of different sizes with different sticks and cases. And thousands of percussionists of all kinds there - specialists in maracas and marimbas, high school drumlines, and us. I believe we were the only taiko group there. Meg is standing behind Pearl's taiko, the one they are hoping to get onto the market soon. Remo had one taiko and some shime too. That was it for taiko.

I went to see Keiko Abe, a world famous marimba player. She was a tiny lady of almost 70 playing with incredible energy and speed. Does anyone know anything else about this lady? People were jumping up and applauding after each piece she played.

Austin is a great city. Apparently more bats live there than people - at dusk every evening between March-Nov, about 1.5 million bats emerge from under a downtown bridge. It's a scene. Didn't see it.

We did see the flagship WHOLE FOODS market though. It is 80,000 square feet of Whole Foods! Meg was in heaven. There were about a dozen different soups at the deli and almost 20 different kinds of muffins. They also had gelato, Indian food, pizza bar, nut bar, noodle bar, too many choices!

On Friday we went to Franco's nephews' school, Spicewood Elementary, to do two short school shows. Franco's mom and dad, 2 older brothers and sister came, with all their kids (11 in all). Then we went over to his brother Archie's house for a FEAST. Details here. Ate. Got sleepy. Watched "Nacho Libre." Crashed. It was like Thanksgiving practice.

Today we drove and drove and ate leftovers (Franco's mom packed 2 coolers) and drove. I drove the truck for a little while. Got to our hotel and ate more leftovers.

When I have some more active braincells, I'll try to write more about PASIC. But for now, sleep time...

(Note: Alex's middle names are Lane Valera, NOT Bolera which he says sounds like a veneral disease. Sorry.)

On the way to Austin... a night in Mesquite, TX

2006-11-07T22:37:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we turned in our Chev 4-door sedan and Sebring convertible (lovingly named "White Lightening" and "Blue Thunder" by Stewart) for another, even smaller, Chevrolet and hit the road. We're down to the original 6 full-tour members for this leg of Tour.

The six of us are PJ, Wisa, Franco, Meg, Alex and myself. We're into Week 5. The destination for tomorrow is Austin, Texas and PASIC (Percussive Arts Society International Conference). We do a one-hour demo on Thursday and attend some meetings. It should be interesting to see other demos by percussionists and check out their gear - a world we kind of fit into, but don't really. My cousin's husband, a percussionist who lives in Germany, will be there - it will be good to see him too.

Yesterday we stopped in Memphis for the night and went to a BBQ place for dinner (you know where to go to find more info on that!). My jacket and clothes all smell like smokey BBQ sauce and oil. Browsed a Tower Records that was going out of business and picked up the soundtrack for "Monsoon Wedding". (I love Indian dance music.) Someday I would love to do more exploring, but we were all tired and it was rainy... back to the hotel for sleeping. Almost every bar and restaurant we walked by had live music - I miss watching live bands. We're always thinking about how to get more people to go to taiko shows, I like to reciprocate for other types of musicians/performers when I can.

Tonight I'm rooming with PJ again - there are only so many combinations of roommates now. Is she falling asleep at her computer?

We almost hit a skunk on the way back from dinner. That was exciting. Alex's morbid fear of seeing roadkill made him unable to warn me with words. What came out was something like, "UNNNNGGGG!!! GNNAAAAAAAHHH!" Skunky made it across the road. Whew.

So after PASIC, we only have 2 concerts and one school show left! And I'm just starting to feel comfortable with all my parts. "It'll make spring concert seem like nothing," PJ said to me. We'll see. I still have anxieties about soloing - my Gendai solos are never long enough, I run out of things to do. Things to work on... It definitely keeps things interesting - what will come out?

Things I found out about people today: Franco's middle name is Edward. Wisa's middle name is Yoshie. Alex has 2 middle names, Lane Bolera. Meg and PJ don't have middle names. Meg was "MeGUmi" in school, like I was "YuREEka". PJ was almost Patricia, but her grandma couldn't say it. Wisa was almost a Wanda. Alex is not short for anything.

Ok, time for bed...

Indianapolis, IN

2006-11-05T10:11:00.000-06:00

Ending 3 of the busiest days of tour. No internet access for a while. VERY tired. Bullet points:

- Driving in to Indianapolis, we see a huge 20-30 foot banner of SJT (see above) covering a building.
- As a group we did 3 TV morning shows, one radio show, one workshop, one school show, one meet-and-greet and 4 one-hour concerts.
- As a group (and on separate days) we forgot one happi, a pair of wristbands, and a pair of tabi. This means we had to change one program several times in order to wait for lost item retrieval.
- A shinto priest drove all the way from Jacksonville, FL to spend time with us.
- Lots of eating (this is usual). Samosas, tandoori chicken, curries, pancit, adobo, Jamaican beef patties, chow mein, steamed buns, fried plantain, empanadas...
- Meg's mom drove overnight from Pennsylvania to watch our shows.
- The International Festival was held next door to the Indianapolis Gun and Knife Exhibition and the Body and Spirit Exhibition. Meg wanted to change the signage of those two events just to see what would happen.
- Meg and I got into the backseat of the convertible at the same time and knocked our heads together. That hurt.
- We met some very nice Japanese ladies at the festival as there is a Minyo Club of Indianapolis AND the Indianapolis Minyo Dancers, Inc. It turns out that there are a lot of Japanese nationals in the area because many Japanese auto-makers are based here.

Thank you Indianapolis! Good times, good times.

Next... we drive to Austin, Texas by Wednesday. Stop in Memphis tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Good night...

2006-11-02T00:21:00.000-06:00

It's past midnight and we have to leave tomorrow at 7:00am in order to make it in time to load in tomorrow. So just a quickie...

Tonight's show went fine. Horagai (conch) transition has now become "mysterioso" taiko background music. No more blowing (it) for me! We had a great audience who clapped after every solo (started by Mike and co., I think).

Ishi (our lighting guy) for some reason has been cutting us off after before/during bows right at intermission. Tonight again he brought ALL the lights down as we finished Gendai, leaving us in the dark. I thought, oh well... and walked off stage.

I guess everyone else had the same idea, I could hear people shuffling into the wings.

But when the lights came back up, Franco was still standing on the stage by himself! Somehow he didn't realize we'd all left.

Funny!

Good night.

(Bookstore doggie we visit with.)

Eau Claire, Wisconsin

2006-11-01T08:05:00.000-06:00

This is Arn's Halloween pumpkin.

!!!

Today we load in at 9 for full day tech before our concert at 7:30pm tonight. It is VERY cold in Eau Claire and no, that doesn't mean that as a Canadian I am used to it. There is a reason I ended up in California.

For our Halloween treat last night we drove out of town a short ways to meet Mike (former SJT member, aka "the blond one") to eat PIE, which I discovered about a year ago to be one of my favorite desserts. More elaboration on pies on Meg's blog. I got Dutch Apple. Mmmmmmmmmm.... It would have been perfect with a dark bitter hot cup of coffee.

(Sorry about the links on the sidebar - I've tried to fix it but can't figure out why it always come out that way. Help!)

Here is the copy for an ad for the show tonight:

San Jose Taiko
Nov 1, 2006 7:30 PM
State Theatre Downtown Eau Claire
San Jose Taiko has broadened and embellished the historical art form of taiko drumming into a style that joins the traditional rhythms of Japanese drumming with the beat of world rhythms. The resulting sounds are contemporary, exciting and innovative, bridging many styles, while still resonant of the Asian soul in America. San Jose Taiko mesmerizes audiences with their costumes, choreography and the propulsive sounds of the powerful taiko drums.

Our next few days promise to be extrememely busy ones. San Jose Taiko is the featured performer at the Indianapolis multicultural festival. Here's a short rundown:

Thursday, November 2
Drive 9.5 hours to Indianapolis, IN
5:00pm Load-in at venue

Friday, November 3
6:00-7:00AM Split CompanyA: WTHR Channel 13 Sunrise morning show TV performance
7:30-9:00AM Split CompanyB: WXIN Channel 59 TV performance
10:00AM Split CompanyA: 1.5 hour workshop
11:00AM Split CompanyB: 1 hour School Show
8:00PM 60 minute performance

Saturday, November 4
7:30-9:00AM “Live Eye Shot” at Fairgrounds
12:00PM 45 minute performance
1:30PM 30 minute workshop
8:00PM 60 minute performance

Sunday, November 5
3:30PM 45 minute Workshop
5:15PM 45 minute performance

YES lots of taiko taiko taiko! Hopefully lots of ethnic food. I'm craving Thai.

After that we drive all the way to Austin, Texas...

We're running out of things to talk about in the car. Anyone have any good car games?

Lemme know.

The Midwest

2006-10-30T09:00:00.000-06:00

Sorry for not writing in a while. Thanks to the email messages! They keep me going...

We're in Ames, Iowa today. Just finished up a concert yesterday afternoon. Matinees are always a little harder, we have to punch up the ki level a lot - matinee audiences are much more subdued.

Meg and I woke up early to find coffee. Well, chai for me. On the road, we all decided to try to give up a vice for 5 days. Mine is coffee. It's day 3. How is it going? Hmmmmm...

To get from Charlotte to Ames in time, we had to drive about 20 hours in 2 days. 2 drivers per car, that is a lot of driving. My back feels wonky.

We have tomorrow free! Today we drive 5 hours to Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Easy day.

What do I miss from home so far? Japanese food, for sure. Stewart brought tofu and edamame for us and I was very happy. Even though the rice we brought tasted like Febreeze (It was packed together. Yes, we brought a rice cooker for the road.) I won't miss chicken sandwiches and chicken salads. Yes, I'm eating chicken now. Out of necessity.

Here are some pictures...
1) Britt relaxing in the lobby of "The Blake," our Amsterdam-styled hotel in Charlotte.

2) Drum boxes backstage.

3) Stephens Auditorium in Ames, Iowa. This was a 2900 seat theater! HUGE.

4) Alex and Meg doing crunches on the stage?

5) This is the bonus picture of Arn's cat, Chu Chu. Soooo cute!

Don't forget to check out other tour blogs:

www.taikofood.blogspot.com
www.theboyontheroad.blogspot.com

Charlotte, NC

2006-10-23T22:28:00.000-05:00

Another driving day.

Packing, eating, driving. Unloading, unpacking, eating. Rooming with PJ again at the Holiday Inn in downtown Charlotte, a very nice hotel. Unfortunately we have to change hotels tomorrow.

PJ and watched "Walk the Line" tonight. Timely, considering all the things about Tour.

The days and towns and venues and shows are all starting to blend into each other.

It's cold here!

More tomorrow... We load in to the hall in the morning and are doing tech and lighting all day, which usually means some time to sit and do whatever...

Email me!

Beaufort, SC

2006-10-23T09:43:00.000-05:00

It’s quiet out there.

I finally logged onto the internet at the hall today, and there were no emails. If you are reading this and have a chance, please send me a message! Email is my connection to home.

(When we pull into a new hotel or motel the first question everyone always asks is "Is there WIRELESS???" Sometimes we have to go outside to catch the connection from the hotel across the street. The next question is, "How many outlets are there in the room?" Note that Franco in the background of the 3rd picture is holding 2 computers. Don't ask.)

We’re in Beaufort, South Carolina today (pronounced “byou-fort” like “beautiful”) for an evening concert at the University of South Carolina. The hall is a smaller, intimate one (about 500 seats), which hopefully means will look fuller. The Florida Theater in Jacksonville was much bigger and didn’t fill up. It’s always harder to play to a smaller audience. Luckily the crowd there was a rowdy one with people yelling at us through the show. “EI JA NAI KA!” “GAMBARE!” It was a welcome enthusiasm after the polite audiences in Clearwater and Naples.

I can’t believe we’ve been on the road 2 weeks already. Naples seems so far away and New England – ages ago. Wisa asked me how tour was going for me so far. It’s going alright, I think. With every show I learn something new, and with every show it gets a little easier to shoot my ki into the audience without worrying so much about song sequences or transitions. I did have a conch setback though – it took 3 tries to get it going. Bugger.

One of the weird things about being on the road is that we’re not in the habit of training – back home we have regular practice, stretching and drilling. If there is time, some people will run or swim at the hotel (if there is an exercise room), but other than that we’re really on our own to stay in-check, physically. We usually have an hour (if we’re lucky) to warm up before the house opens on show nights. I try to take that time to at least run through shime drilling and going through Oedo patterns. If I’m really lucky, PJ or Franco will give me some tips on playing.

(PJ and Franco practicing Hachijo before the show.)

We’re into the third week of Tour. Tour is an entity. We say things like “Tour makes you stupid.” “My skin hates Tour.” “The hard thing about Tour is being away from my dog.” I’m finding it hard to be away from my Arn.

So… it’s almost midnight now – after the show. Back at America’s Best Inn and watching Iron Chef America with Meg. They are making her nightmare food: goat cheese and lamb with cilantro in phyllo pastry. She’s gagging. I find this funny.

The show went fine – I dropped my bachi during Rumbako. I thought I could catch it going down and fumbled, just like I told the kids always NOT to do. All I could do was stop and wait for the bachi to drop and bounce on the ground. It seemed like an ETERNITY. Conch blowing went great. I even thought that maybe I could get paid $150 like those conch-blowers you can hire for weddings on Kauai. Oops, better not jinx it.

Do I feel like I’m becoming a better taiko player? Sometimes… Maybe a better performer. I’m still in awe of everyone’s skills, totally humbled by solos, the thing I feel most anxious about. I still laugh at the goofyness during Free Spirit and still get shivers during Kin Moku. I hope I don’t become an automaton taiko player, like the actors in Phantom of the Opera – going through the motions. Luckily I still have LOTS to learn.

Mostly Pictures

2006-10-19T20:45:00.000-05:00

Jacksonville, Florida
Day 13 of Tour (Part 2)

The Florida Theater is just across the bridge from our hotel.

It was built in the 1920s and has these great old dressing rooms. Meg is convinced the hall is haunted.

No, that's just Franco playing on his computer. We put him to work looking for a good Italian restaurant.

After dinner we feel like ice cream. Too many choices.

No sorbet for me. Too bad. Meg and Franco share strawberry shortcake.

Early to bed. Two shows tomorrow!!!

Rain rain rain rain rainrainrainrain......

2006-10-18T15:38:00.000-05:00

Yuck.

We're in Jacksonville, Florida. It's rainy and grey. Luckily we're in the comfy Crowne Plaza hotel for the next 3 nights - Wisa and I are hiding out in the room between meals. We went out this a.m. to visit the Farmers' Market, but it turned out it was A Farmer's Market. One lovely farmer. I guess that is enough.

So I thought this might be a good place for:

Taiko Tour FAQ's

WHAT DO YOU EAT?
It varies from person to person. For me, lots of veggies, carbs and some fish/chicken/tofu (if I get it). For others, lots of everything. Wisa likes desserts. Adam likes meat and lots of it.

WHAT IS THE AGE RANGE OF THE MEMBERS?
23-56. I've heard that the average age of Performing Members is 35.

HOW DO YOU GET AROUND WITH ALL THE DRUMS?
All the drums/stands/percussion are packed in touring boxes. They are all packed into a 15 foot Budget truck driven by 2. We have 2 cars to carry the rest of the passengers. Sometimes it is one van. We take turns driving. Yes, we have walkie-talkies.

ARE YOU FROM JAPAN?
Me and Meg were born in Japan but grew up mostly in North America. I am the only Canadian. The rest of the members are a mix - some JA, Filipino American, Chinese American, happa, and American.

HOW MANY YEARS HAS EVERYONE BEEN PLAYING TAIKO?
Ranges from about 5-33 years.

HOW OFTEN DO YOU PRACTICE?
Regular practice is 2 times a week (5 hours altogether). Then there are some extra Friday practices for performances/tours. Then Alex and I have had Wednesday practices for 3 hours for Audition Process as well as extra practice to learn tour songs.

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO LEARN A SONG?
Depends on the person. Usually practices are not geared to learning songs. We are expected to practice at home and learn songs on our own. We get some song-learning help in AP.

Any other questions? Just ask!

Tomorrow is load in and tech at the beautiful old Florida Theater which was built in the 1920s. Friday school show and evening concert, then we're off to Beaufort, South Carolina on Saturday!

Bloopers

2006-10-16T22:52:00.000-05:00

Every show has some minor mishap. Dropped bachi, brain farts here and there, funky lighting - those are the usual ones. At the schools show today, Pam invented The Pam. Gendai was the last song before intermission and everyone in the front line gets to play a solo. It should go like this:

1. Yu
2. Wisa
-BREAK-
3. Franco
4. Pam
-BREAK-
5. Adam

This morning somehow Pam and Franco ended up soloing at the same time without realizing it until they played their cues to go out. Luckily THEY PLAYED THEIR CUES AT EXACTLY THE SAME TIME. And Pam played her solo like she meant it - it turned out to be a beautiful duet. So we've decided The Pam means selling it no matter what!

We're all tired today. And it's only been one week! The tiredness is making us goofy. I mean, much more than usual. The rest of the gang won't let up on their jokes about me being Canadian. It's ok... most of it. I like the comment about Pear poking me with toothpicks to see if maple syrup runs in my veins. (She runs on sugar.)

We met the presenter of today's shows this afternoon - she is a lovely lady with a lovely southern drawl who just kept on gushing about how wonderful the show was. She'd never seem taiko before but was wanting to bring multicultural music to Clemson University. Talk about southern hospitality! They had a full dinner for us tonight - lasagna, chicken and veggies, salad, rolls, brownies... She said, "We loooooove to feed people." Well, it luckily it works out because we loooooove to eat.

I've been thinking about how important FOOD really is to keeping us going. If we were on a budget and going hungry and having to eat junky food all the time, we would be very grumpy. I think the food helps us to be happy and focused. Also to push through when we really need it - like this morning.

I didn't take any pictures today, but here are some from Wesleyan University's "Campus Snapshot." We did a 15 minute "teaser" at the library for the show later that night. I think there are a couple of video clips on the site too.

www.wesleyan.edu/newsletter/snapshot/1006taikoolin.html

And here's a link to an article written about the performance:

www.wesleyanargus.com/article.php?article_id=3919

Tomorrow we drop Adam at Columbia airport and drive part of the way back to Florida - Jacksonville this time. He won't have to hide from the sun this time (Adam can't be in the sun or he will fry to a crisp and Meg will eat him.)

Driving

2006-10-15T20:22:00.000-05:00

First, I've added a few pictures to old posts. Still figuring out my computer and camera phone. They aren't great pictures, but they're something. Don't forget to check out Meg's blog for more pics and food commentary!

www.taikofood.blogspot.com

Yesterday we did our 10:30am concert at Ruth Eckert Hall in Clearwater. It was a little hard to get our energy up, but we still impressed people in the audience - "So much energy! I can barely stand up!" We had to remind ourselves again, this is a different kind of audience. Only 1 dropped bachi though (Alex). Whew. One special treat was that we had Dean Miyakusu in the audience, he is a founding member of SJT. He and his wife Gaye drove from the other side of Florida to visit and brought Florida goodies (chocolate covered potato chips). So PJ & Roy visited with them for awhile.

I'm very tired right now. Sorry for any weird wording.

We drove about 8.5 hours from Clearwater to some town north of Altanta, Georgia last night (started with an "N"?). As we were getting off the freeway, PJ says, "Ga Perimeter...? Oh." By the time we got there it was around 11pm. Ate dinner at a restaurant across the street from the hotel and zonked.

The next morning, more driving. Meg and I took the convertible to Greenville, SC to pick up Ishi (he had to go back to SJ for his band's show on Friday the 13th. I can't remember the name of his band at the moment - something like Kung Fu Vampire.) and then back to Clemson. Another 3.5 hours of driving. Some of it was unnecessary, we had trouble with Google directions.

We're doing a school show and concert tomorrow at Clemson University. Working with a student tech crew, which is great, but they are a little slower than what we're used to. Tech today went from 12-8 with a one hour dinner break.

Learning a lot about lighting... Electrics, specials, gobos, gels... It's still amazes me how much is involved and how quickly the show is over. I will never look at a show the same way again.

We usually go to the stage in shifts to be available in case they need drums moved or stand-ins. When not on stage, we wander around the hall or nap in the green room...

Tomorrow's school show: Kindergarten through high school. Always a fun challenge! I love the kids.

Going to bed.

Day at the Beach

2006-10-12T09:41:00.000-05:00

Wednesday: laundry, check-out, drove 3 hours to Clearwater (which is on the Gulf of Mexico side of Florida, between Tampa and St. Petersburg). Checked-in to Radisson and dinner at Joe's Crab Shack. Crashed...

Yesterday: went to the beach. Jumped around in the waves and made sand art. Once again Alex and I are reminded, "This is not like regular tour." We have to enjoy the beach while we can - on Saturday after our 10:30am concert (I know!) we drive 13 hours to Clemson, South Carolina.

Meg's sand taiko. Note that the tacks are all made of pretty shells.

Sand family portrait. Franco did mom in the tiara (?), I made dad with chest hair (seaweed) and Alex's was scary uncle on the right.

After dinner, we discovered that Meg and Adam have the same size wrists. Meg's says, "You're freaky." (Adam is 6'4" and Meg is 5'0".) Adam seems proud.

This afternoon we load into Ruth Eckert Hall for tech. Morning performance tomorrow. We are told that this venue is one of the top 5 in the nation. It's been very nice to have these past few days off, but looking forward to the next show!

Oh, here's a commercial for the concert we're doing in Indiana:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBPg9lRUh90

A Very Long Day

2006-10-11T01:19:00.000-05:00

TODAY:

6:30am -Wake up, shower, pack costumes, cook rice, make onigiri, eat breakfast.

8:30am -Arrive at Philharmonic Center for the Arts, check that all drums/percussion are preset for shows, go over NEW version of school show, change, put on make-up.

9:45am -First SCHOOL SHOW (1 hour, almost full house)

10:45am -Preset again, break (which involves taking off costume, since donuts have arrived), dress again.

11:45am -Second SCHOOL SHOW (1 hour)

12:45pm -Lunch break (change and go to California Pizza Kitchen, eat half a sandwich, save the other half for later).

2:30pm -Preset for CONCERT, cue-to-cue (which involves going through all the drum movements and checking all the lighting cues. This lasts for over 2 hours.), run the song "Iruka" twice+ to work out kinks and educate Ishi on lighting cues.

5:00pm -Rest... Everyone has their own thing - some like to read, play on the computer, sleep, practice, snack, hang out in the green room chatting. I do pretty much a little of almost everything (finish my sandwich). The awesome wardrobe person at the hall offers to do our laundry for us and iron our happi!

7:00pm -Dress and make-up, hydrate, stetch.

7:45pm -Circle up (my word tonight is "sparkle!")

8:00pm -CONCERT!! We didn't sell out, but the orchestra looked pretty full. The audience wasn't as loud as at the university hall, but we must keep in mind - lots of retirees. They are quiet but appreciative.

9:45pm-ish? -End of concert, meet-and-greet in the lobby. So many people have never seen taiko, they are amazed at how little we are and how strong the ladies are! 'What do you eat?' I get asked. Two ladies tell me they cried through the whole show. I get asked for my autograph by some kids.

10:00pm -Load out. This means putting all the drums, stands and percussion back in their touring boxes. I'm in charge of all the percussion instruments. They get collected and packed into their cases, then into another case and then into the road box. SJT uses a lot of percussion. Then everything gets Tetrised into the rental truck. We get it done in one hour.

11:00pm -Back to the hotel. PJ, Meg, Pam, Ishi and I eat the onigiri and miso soup for dinner in our room. The perfect dinner. Thank you Meg Mizutani for the umeboshi! We play a game to see who gets the pits that PJ accidentally put in 2 of the onigiri. I get one. Finish off with some ice cream and sherbet. Chat about this and that...

1:00am -PJ goes to bed.

2:35am -I'm still up writing this blog entry.

Gwen asked how we keep up our energy for 3 shows in one day. Well it was hard! Eating a lot, sleeping when we can. Some people pop "Hammer Gel" or drink Gatorade. I think it really helps that everyone knows what needs to get done and it just gets done. There is something to having trust in your teammates that they are doing their part so you don't have to worry about it - you can focus on what you need to focus on. Before the concert, I sit and "hoard" my ki. Then when the lights come on, try to give as much as I can to the audience. I want them to have an unforgettable night.

The Shows Begin

2006-10-09T22:23:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to get to bed at a decent hour since we have 3 shows tomorrow so I'll keep it short.

So... yesterday until 6:30pm was pretty relaxing. I checked out the ammenities at this nice Holiday Inn and even used the exercise room and pool and then headed out to the beach with Meg and Pam. The water was so warm and clear, the sand was fine and white. We saw little and big fish and tiny little clams burrowing into the sand.

In the evening we loaded all the equipment into Hayes Hall in the Philharmonic Center for the Arts, a state-of-the-art new concert hall in Naples. It is very nice, the dressing rooms are complete with showers, closets, phones and towels. The stage is enormous and hall seats about 1500. Tech lasted until about 10:30pm.

We have a new tech guy on the crew - he goes by "Ishi" and is apparently a native San Joseian (sp? I prefer "San Joser"). Today's 2 schools shows were apparently a little "interesting" as he got to know the show and the lighting cues. (Personally, I didn't really notice - all I could tell was that sometimes we were dancing in the dark!) Anyway, the shows were fun, and the kids were pretty good.

Afterwards, lunch... (www.taikofood.blogspot.com)

Did I mention that the rental company gave us a Sebring convertible? I got to drive it today. Not used to all that horsepower!

PJ and I discovered the natural food store and hung out chatting and eating chocolate this afternoon.

2 school shows and big concert in the evening tomorrow!

Naples is a touristy hot, clean, not-too-gaudy Florida city. Very comfortable, but not enough coffee shops. Meg and I walked up and down the streets looking for one - I guess it's only in cold places that there are Starbucks on every corner.

Brochure pic from the tour...

Naples, Florida - Day 1

2006-10-07T22:37:00.000-05:00

We're staying at the Holiday Inn and already our room is falling apart... Somehow PJ and I managed to pull the headboard off the wall when trying to figure out where the lamp outlet was. And the floor is soaking wet in front of the noisy AC. But so nice to be in a fluffy bed with "The Latest in Pillow Comfort."

Today was a traveling day. Wisa and Franco flew to Boston on Wednesday to drive the taiko truck all the way to Florida. So the remaining 6 were PJ, Adam, Meg, Pam, Alex and me. Our bags are notably larger this time. We're ready for anything. Especially food emergencies. Umeboshi are standing by...

Watched "The Devil Wears Prada," slept a bunch. We had a 3 hour layover in Atlanta, GA where the main priority was of course, to eat. Another 2 hour flight to Fort Myers and a quick drive to Naples. It is gorgeously hot and muggy outside, just like I like it. Looked out at the full moon, flat flat road and palm trees. So begins our 6 week taiko adventure.

At lunch Adam asked me if there was anything that surprised me on the New England tour. I thought about if for awhile... Nothing super-surprising apart from how much we eat and how much tech is involved in putting on a 2 hour show. Fairly interesting is how few people on the east coast have seen taiko. Or heard of San Jose. At the last concert, we were asked, "Which one of you is San?" Huh?

Tomorrow is a load-in and tech day. Then we have a slew of school shows and a concert Monday and Tuesday. I love the school shows. SJT has put together a very cute educational program which covers the 4 elements of SJT, history of taiko and all the instruments used. It gives us a chance to push our personalities a little more - Franco does a great job at hamming things up. It makes me laugh every time.

Off to bed... Pam and I have promised to help motivate each other to run. Not used to all this sitting.

I feel like this:

First Stop: SJT Studio

2006-10-07T06:19:00.000-05:00

So it's 4:15am and I'm sucking on a big mug of coffee and doing some last minute packing. Since I'm going to be on tour sections 2-5, that means packing for hot and cold weather. I know they are going to make fun of me because I'm from "Canadia" but I'm packing my thermal underwear and fleece sleeping-bag liner. Taking no chances! There is a REASON why I moved to California from Toronto.

This week at practice we have been working a lot on kata and "whipping" using your hara. I've been thinking a lot about how your grip influences your overall body position and tension. PJ showed me some minor adjustments that really helped the flow of energy from my shoulders down. I'm wondering if it also made a difference that I was using the 7.5 bachi as opposed to the 8.0 I usually use. It pays to play around with your grip.

Yumi bought me a beading book for my birthday - it's a Japanese book with lots of designs of teeny-tiny little animals and people. Somehow it's become my job to come up with a protype of a teeny-tiny little taiko. I swore I would never get into beading... another hobby to add to my gazillion. But the animals are sooo cute! And you know how I love cute.

Speaking of cute... I went to Sonoma County Taiko on Wednesday and met up with the kids. I can't believe how big they have gotten! And how easily they incorporate new taiko information. I miss working with the kids. They put a high priority on FUN and keep reminding me that FUN is very important in life.

I used to have a big bumper sticker that said, "MORE FUN, LESS STUFF." It seems I'm collecting more of the stuff lately. I think it's me grasping to feel at home somewhere. I'm definitely more settled into San Jose than even a month ago, but I'm still subletting and still up in Sonoma an awful lot. Well, I have important business up there...

Back to taiko. Goals for this tour - relaxed solos, using more space (physical and "ma"), more connection to other players, "whipping" with good sound. I'd also really like to get better playing fast and rhythmic. Like those drum corps players - they are amazing. I've been focusing so much on my body for the last year or so, the "kata" part and now I'd like to work on the "musical technique" part a little more.

Gotta run... I have to go knock on Alex's door at 5:15 so we can roll our suitcases over to the studio by 5:30am.

We'll be in Naples, FL tonight! It's 90 degrees there!

Home Sweet Home... For a Few Days

2006-10-01T09:42:00.000-05:00

It's recovery time. I can't sleep in! It's nice to make myself a giant cup of strong strong coffee.

Yesterday we left Middletown, CT just before noon. Wisa and Franco in the truck with the drums and the rest of us and all our luggage in the van. Pear drove and PJ declared, "It looks like no one is driving from back here!" (Pear is tiny.)

We exchanged stories of when we were little and how naughty we were. Then zonked out all the way to Boston.

The flight seemed extra long... But luckily we got to watch a Project Runway marathon - it's the group's usual Wednesday night show. (Luckily SJT has many who can sew, for the sake of costuming. Yes, I got sucked into the show too - but I don't know what is more amusing, the actual episodes or watching Alex yelling at the tv!)

Flight was fine. We landed, got picked up by Roy and Stew and went right to Gombei to eat! Meg said, "I need RICE."

It's nice that I got the chance to do a "test tour" before going on the loooong one. Before we leave on Saturday I can streamline my packing. I definitely need to borrow/buy a camera and also get one of those neck pillows. I'm so impressed at how everyone just gets down to business when the time comes, but can also relax and have a good time during down time. I'm learning more and more how exceptional this group of people are at SJT, I feel thankful to be part of it all.

Our Last Night in New England

2006-09-30T01:43:00.000-05:00

It's 2:30am... PJ is sleeping.

I'm finally showered and ready for bed and can't sleep - too wired from the show we just did, plus eating a few too many chocolates. Tomorrow we drive to Boston and fly home to SJ. A week already!

We split up this afternoon to do two different events - I got to go with the group that put on a school show at the nearby Greens Arts Center. Which meant hauling drums. Our audience was a group of energetic and wiggly kids that couldn't wait to get on the drums. As we were packing up, one pointed to me and said "That one looks like she's a kid." Thank you!

We sold out at the hall tonight - hooray! Yesterday there were only about 100 people. Somehow they forgot to advertise for that one. By Oedo (the last song) I could definitely feel the pull of slowness, it's been a long day. We got some great feedback from the crowd though - after the show I talked to many people who thanked us for coming all the way to CT. Taiko concerts aren't as common out here as back home. We're spoiled.

Wesleyan's buildings are connected by these loooong underground passageways. Anytime we needed to take the drums somewhere we had to roll them about a quarter mile to get them above ground. That made for a lot of walking back and forth, back and forth...

It took us about 2 hours to change, pack up everything into it's correct bag/box and wheel it to the truck. By the time we arrived at Eli Cannon's for dinner it was midnight.

I should go to bed...

Here's a pic of the gang eating. Not a great one - it was taken on my cell phone.

Back soon...

Bakery Tour of New England

2006-09-28T23:10:00.000-05:00

We're on our final stop on the New England tour. It's Thursday night and I'm exhausted... We're in Middletown, Connecticut - a cute college town where we just did a show at Wesleyan University. Tomorrow we split up the group and do two events at the same time, I am going with the school show group. The other group is doing a lecture/demonstration ("lec-dem") with the college taiko club. Then we are putting on a concert at 8:00pm.

My feet are killing me...

Let's see, the past few days have been pretty light - PJ says "It feels like a vacation!" After the concert in New Hampshire we did a lot of driving - first to Boston for a night to do a workshop with Odaiko New England and then from there to CT. In between we've been doing a lot of eating. This group likes to EAT. (I stole this picture from Meg's blog.) Especially baked good and homemade ice cream, it seems.

(We all have the same touring gear - black windshirts and black coats that say "SJT" on them. Wisa says we look like an Asian gang.)

The Odaiko New England workshop was fun - there were about 30 students there of all levels. We taught them the song "Tottemo Yoi" and did a little show and tell sharing. Then we went out for dinner with some of the ONE gang and talked some shop - they are trying to grow their performance group. Mark Rooney said he did about 115 performances last year!

After the workshop - which involves a lot of jumping around - Trish declared that she'd worked off at least one stick of butter.

Tomorrow is the last concert of Tour Part 1. Anxious, relieved and having fun. Tonight I figured out how to relax enough to get a nice "BUUUuuuu" on the conch. Hooray! But afterwards I felt so dizzy that I almost fell down into my position for Currents. Gotta work on that. Before every concert we usually circle up and all say one word. Last concert, mine was power. I'm not sure why I said that - I think it's because I needed confidence. Tonight my word was breathe because I knew I needed air.

Some things are feeling better - my anxiety about playing Rumbako is gone, but now I want to work on better solos. I've been staying pretty conservative with those to avoid dropping bachi and getting stuck. Playing it safe. Ok for now, but kind of boring maybe.

Off to bed... We're staying at a really nice hotel called the "Middletown Inn" and the complimentary breakfasts are real breakfasts. Don't want to miss that!

I'll be back on Saturday for a week. Then on to Part 2: Florida and the South.

Things to bring on the next tour:
-camera
-slippers
-running shoes (to work off some of the cookies!)
-sketchbook
-powdered soymilk
-more instant miso soup
-Meg M's umeboshi (they forgot to pack the rice cooker this time)