Inadani Taiko Workshop Days 1-3

So, we've been busy. And sore. And tired. And sore.

For the most part, our last three days have been: get up, go to Taiko, go home, collapse, repeat.

On Monday, I foolishly decided to try running before our class. This was foolish for two reasons. Firstly, we're in the mountains. No matter where you run, you are running, at some point, up a mountain. And I did. And it hurt. That wasn't the worst part. The other reason it was foolish is the intense workout your legs get when you practice taiko for six hours. No more running has been performed since.

On Tuesday, Sumi and I took a walk up the mountain I ran/walked up on Monday. It was one of the foothills, actually, and led to a nice section of town with a cute little park at the top of the hill.

The can will be very angry with you if you throw it off the cliff. It was a good 100 meters down, so I can understand why he'd be upset.

The hotel we are staying at, The Silk Hotel, sounds like a love hotel. It is not. Mostly. It does have it's own wedding chapel, however.

The biggest Christian church in the Iida valley, and it isn't really even a church. But it does have a cross.

On the way from the hotel to the practice stage Tokara has for us at a local community center, we get to walk down a little parkway. That's not the most exciting part of the trip however.

Hello Kitty teaching you how to use a computer. That's the most exciting part about the trip.

Iida is a pretty sleepy little city. My initial impression of a place that people move to Tokyo to escape hasn't changed much, but it's certainly not a bad place. The mountain areas are very pretty, the Tenryuu river seems nice (we've been too busy to see it) and the people have been friendly. The food is still a little bit on an issue, unless you don't mind eating in a small smoke-filled restaurant/bar. We've been told the food is good. I will have to believe them, since we won't really have much of a chance, at this point, to sample any more local cuisine, as timing won't really allow it the next few days.

Now, what's been keeping us busy is, of course, the taiko workshop. People have said Art Lee is a hard instructor. We weren't sure what they meant by that. It turns out that he works you hard, physically, which is what we expected going in. He and the rest of the Tokara members (Yukari, Dean and Takafumi) are fantastic instructors. They explain things very clearly, demonstrate well, handle questions well, are approachable, and really help you learn.

They do this, of course, through a cleverly disguised form of torture they call "practice". "Practice" involves making you do something until you hurt a lot, then making you keep doing it until you feel like you can't move anymore, then make you keep doing it for a few more minutes after that. It is, admittedly, effective. It's also a lot of fun, despite our often feeling like we're not really playing taiko and more flailing around madly, mostly in tempo, trying not to fall down. There are a wide variety of experience levels in the group, from people like us who have been playing, barely, for about a year and a half, to some people who have done multiple workshops and have played for ten years of more to people who have never done taiko in their lives. The last group, I am amazed they're sticking with it. It's intense, hard work for people who know what they are doing, let alone learning it all at the same time.

Every morning, stretching and exercise. This is after Shime Tightening, in which you fight with a small drum to get all the ropes holding the drum heads tight. It takes two people and you are drenched with sweat by the time you are done.

I look like I'm having fun, don't I? Actually, we are having fun. So much fun, it hurts. Literally. This is us playing the real version of Yatai. Our group, Hibiki, does a watered-down version of it.

Learning Tonbane. It look like we're not playing in sync. That is because we aren't. We should be. 

Looking all bad-ass. Yeah, right. You aren't seeing me throwing my sticks into the seats.

Y, M, C....

working through Todane

We are also local celebrities. Foreigners are quite rare here to begin with, let alone a horde of 24 of us. Monday we were on the local cable channel every hour in the evening. There have been three newspaper articles about us, so far.

and all the shop owners know who we are. 

On Tuesday afternoon, after lunch, Tokara decided to perform a song for us to "get us in the mood to practice". Cunning and clever, they are. Luring us in with some great performing.

Takafumi, Art, Yukari, Dean.

After class today (Wednesday), we all piled into the bus 

A shady-looking bunch, to be sure

and headed to the onsen were most of the class was staying (four of us were in the hotel in the city) to get cleaned up and go out to eat. Well, unfortunately, Achi, the small town where the onsen is, does not HAVE a place big enough for us all to go eat. So, we ended up, after a nice bath at the onsen, heading back into town and eating with the rest of the Silk Hotel crew at the hotel restaurant. The company was very nice. Jim Mantrozos and his family from South Florida and Sally (whose last name I never learned! Sorry!) from Hong Kong and Sumi and I took over a table in the restaurant, which was trying to be upscale, and was in price and portion size. 

Beef and Peppers over styrofoam. At least that's what it looked and tasted like.

The desserts were very good, however. Pancake with fruit

And essentially chocolate lava cake and ice cream.

We sadly have only one more day of playing left in the workshop. I was hoping to collect at least three more blisters on my hands. I may have to settle for just one. All joking aside, it's been a great time, we have learned a lot, mostly which muscles we don't use enough but also some good technique, some song parts, types of patterns and playing styles. This is the kind of course that should be two weeks in length. By the end of the third day, we are finally getting acclimated to the training routine, but are almost done. Tomorrow we play again, and Friday we take a field trip to Asano Taiko. Saturday is the festival, and we leave on Sunday.

That's all for now. Tomorrow, if all of us survive, we'll all be eating dinner together at the onsen, which DOES have enough room for 30.