JAPANEXILE

Or African drumming as it is probably better know around the world. Not long before I quit Yosakoi Craig I started doing Taiko. Its only a one a week thing, its very relaxed, and great fun, so suits me well. We had two sessions with just Taiki, Yumi and the drum leader Ken-chan to get the basics down before being introduced to the larger group of percussionists in the area. There are three types of sound, closed fingers in the centre, closed fingers on the rim, and open fingers on the rim. Simple enough, damn painful after a while, fingers are raw at the end of each session! All the songs are made seemingly by combining these and then just altering the speed and layering different tunes together performed by different members of the group. In out fine group there are 14 members, collectively known as “Toya Toya”. I think I’ve already had four performances as part of “Toya Toya”, about the same number of practice sessions I’ve had! Craig and I don’t have to do anything too complex though, the same beat whilst the more advanced people show their skills. The past two performances we’ve also had our moment in the spot light performing a brief solo whilst everyone else sticks to the main tune. Solo’s are the highlight for sure, quite funny as I have no idea what to do each time, I find it hard to break out of the rhythm of the group to do anything interesting, it doesn’t really matter though, so normally I just start belting the drum at high speed and eventually lapse into a drum rhythm I heard on a Café del Mar album once. Strangely its the only thing I can think of under pressure. Last session we tried a new song, (was only the four of us again, plus some nursery kids) although my hands were hurting so I ended up dancing around the room in what Craig called “The Whisky Dance”. It was that good.

Since this post is so very old some more information is needed. We’ve have a load more performances, which have all been great fun, our final performance being at a nearby campsite where the members of the band outnumbered the people watching. People at the camp were actually a group of foreigners from various countries around the world, here for plant trees, save the earth and all that jazz. Something to do with the summit. Turned out to be a really great night, BBQ and some drinks in the Hokkaido summer. My only regret was not wearing some sort of bug protection. I was eaten alive. Only one drumming related activity remains now, that of our goodbye party.

After a very long hiatus I finally make another post. I’ve become a bit of a book worm/Japanese language obsessive lately, trying to study as much as I can. So free time has been limited, much to the detriment of this blog. I can’t say I’m sorry though, I’ve finally started to enjoy studying, so have little intention of stopping. Its really satisfying to really commit yourself to something and see the fruits of those labors realized. Something I wish I had realised during my school years. I had actually writen this next post 3 months ago, and even then it was 3 months old. But since I had already done it seemed a waste not to post it.

Yoyogi kouen (Yoyogi park). Yoyogi park is as the name might suggest – a park, a big park at that, very centrally located next to Haraujuku station. Contained within the park is Meiji Shrine, one of the larger and more famous Shrines within central Tokyo. I actually went there back in January shortly after New Year, which as I found out was the same time several thousand Japanese people go there. So, it er, didn’t quite have the peaceful temple feel. The park itself is really nice, and the sheer amount of people there actually served to amaze and impress me, rather than than irritation I felt when I was in Kyoto temple viewing (a future post). We did the traditional prayer when we finally made it up to the temple. Throwing my hundred coin about 6 metres over the people in front of me. Minami very narrowly missed the heads of those in front of her. Nothing else really to say about Yoyogi, not that I can remember anyway, was over three months ago…crikey that’s gone quickly. (Now 6, where is the strike through formatting option. PS. I’ve just given up trying to get the photos on the rest of the site working how they used to, I just can’t take the stress anymore.