March 15: TAIKO!!!

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Japanese Vocabulary
wadaiko: Japanese taiko drumming
ajisai: hydrangea
kakkoii: cool
fushigi: mysterious
hage/ske-ske/tsurutsuru: all words/onomatopoeia for bald, or smooth

On Saturday, March 15, Lara and I performed with our wadaiko group at a big concert in the nearby town in Ajisai Hall. The theatre seated about 700-800 people and it was pretty much a full house! It was mostly local people who attended, usually friends or family of the taiko members, which includes an adult group and a children’s group, but of course, the local contingent of gaijin English teachers was also present.

Lara’s twin siblings, Nick and Selina, were also in town and came to watch to show. It was just a crazy week in general but a good and fun bonding experience for the taiko group. The group, called Shigo Senryo Daiko, is predominantly boys/men, so the girls (all 5 or 6 of us) get to gossip about which boys are the most kakkoii and good looking. The guys (a.k.a. team taiko) are all really funny and are sort of all like brothers and spend a lot of our practices just hanging out, playing jokes on each other, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer.

My (and Lara's) personal favorite is Satoru, who drives Lara and I to and from practice every Wednesday. He says he studies English every night by watching 24 until 2 or 3 in the morning…haha, even though his English is a bit grammatically challenged, he makes up for it in enthusiasm and gestures. He’s just a sweet and funny guy and he lives out in the countryside near where we practice and has 4 kids. Once I said to him “wow, 4 kids, you must be busy taking care of them!” and he nods emphatically “yes yes…very busy…my wife- very busy!”…which is pretty much how it goes down up here on the mountain. But you seriously can’t help but adore him!

Anyways most of my pics are from the practices that led up to the concert since we didn’t have much time during the concert to take pics!

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Photos

Taiko!!!
Very [i]fushigi[/i] with all the lighting and the mist...

comedy
in addition to taiko, they also have shamisen (japanese guitar-like instrument) and comedy...you can see the taiko group members ages range from older...

to very young!
They also have a kids group perform, composed of the students of the local school...sooooo cute!

practice
This is a fast peice, called MD, which stands for "my dream"...hahahaha!

modern...
They also have one modern piece that incorporates other instruments...Lara plays her violin, Nao plays the flute and Wada Sensei plays the shamisen.

Lara on the violin
with Wakita on the keyboard and Satoru on the drums

other members
On the big tall drum is the boss, Oka-kun, with HG (hot guy, aka Hiroshi) on the fan drum set, Nao on the flute, Keisuke (lovingly referred to by the other boys as [i]ske-ske[/i] because of his prematurely receding hairline)on the taiko drums in the backround and Wada Sensei on the shamisen.

Traditional...
miyake, a standard of pretty much all taiko groups...

Waki and Kiyoe
Kiyoe is probably the best female player in the group and played in pretty much all the pieces.

which roughly translates to "great ab workout"...
just kidding. I don't know what it means. BUT most of the time, the drummers are reclined in a sit up position while playing.

me and Lara
just a little before curtain call!

Keisuke, Satoru and Kiyoe
awwwwwwwwww

Kodo
this was the actual performance...I was only in the first and last pieces since I've only been coming for half a year or so! For more pics of the concert, you can try to befriend Zachary Nagle on Facebook to look at his albums!

Comments

[Zakku]

I agree - I like the lighting, too. It was a great show. I look forward to the next encounter with the mountain boys. Keep on rocking the wadaiko - just make sure to avoid the taikobara!