Taiko: Part Deux
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Okay, a little bit of organizational clarification: This could be one big long post, but I'm not going to do that to you. If you know me and love me, you are used to my long conversations and my ability to keep you up until 3am talking about absolutely nothing. If you don't know me and love me, then you will overdose on Yvette if I don't protect you. I am like a drug. I fill your mind with thoughts and ideas, then I leave. You are left feeling haunted-- or at least mildly perterbed. Some people have flashbacks of me years later and wake up screaming in the middle of the night. Others have the hair on the backs of their necks stand up, and get intense feelings of dread everytime Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" plays on the radio. I don't do this on purpose. I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way. ;)
Anyways, what I am going to do is split this one big post into 3 smaller posts. Notice I said smaller, not small. One post will be on some thoughts I had on the way up to San Jose. One post will be on the workshop. The last post will be on everything I did after the workshop. I'm not going to be doing this in order either because I want to talk about the workshop first. So on to the post!
I pulled into the public parking lot around 9:30. I was early. This particular lot was a block away from Okida Hall, and was not the same parking lot I used the first time I was here. Since it was Saturday, the closer lot wasn't free, and you could only park for two hours at a time. Our workshop was three hours, and I didn't want to have to think about running out to pump some quarters in a meter. Also, I was more familiar with the neighborhood this time, so I felt safe leaving my car down the street.
On my way to the hall, I stopped off at a Japanese grocery store for a bottled water. It was a really cute store. The cashier who helped me reminded me of a woman I had met after I graduated from Fresno State. Her name was Meesh and she was an aspiring pharmacist. Her parents also owned a kick-ass Chinese restaurant that I used to love to eat at.
I arrived at Okida Hall and entered immediately. I was ready to have some fun! It was a little weird, knowing already what to expect. As the other participants started arriving, I could tell they were... Hmm, not sure how to explain it. It wasn't nervousness, it was simply not knowing what to expect. That's how I felt my first time- I was excited to be there, but had no idea what I was in for.
This time it was different. I knew the general outline of how the workshop was going to play out. What I didn't know was how I was going to do. A lot of things were different. I had been training for this day: I got back on the bike, I was lifting weights (actually small dumbells), I was walking (to taiko music) on my breaks at work. I wanted to avert the serious breakdown my body had after my first workshop. I had to call in sick to work because I couldn't move, I was so sore! Another thing that was different were the instructors. This time the instructors were performing member Yumi Ishihara, and apprentice members Dylan Solomon and Rylan Sekiguchi.
The beginning of the workshop was similar to the one before. We were treated to a performance by the instructors. San Jose Taiko had a performance that day so some of the other members were there in the studio. They also participated in this little performance. One was apprentice member Alex Hudson who I remembered from my first workshop. There were two other performing members: Franco Imperial and another woman whose name I can't remember (argh!) ((Taking a peak at the performing members list at the SJT website, I think it could have been Meg Suzuki, but I'm not sure.)) Now, I do remember that the Executive Director, Roy Hirabayashi was there, and he spoke to us for a bit, but I can't remember if he was in the performance or not.
After that awesome performance (could have been half-assed for all I know), we watched a DVD talking about everything San Jose Taiko does in the community. Jumping ahead a bit in my story, I bought the DVD, so if you ever find yourself in Fresno, come on over, I'll make some popcorn and we can watch it together!
After watching the DVD, we circled up on the taiko floor and introduced ourselves. It's always interesting to hear where people came from and what brought them to the workshop. Afterwards, we got an introduction to all the different kinds of drums. I won't repeat all the details, but if you would like to read about it, click here .
Then it was time to get busy! We had a short but thorough warm-up. It had me sweating already. The warm up by itself could be the reason I can really feel my hamstrings right now. ;) We learned the stance, called kata, and how to hold the sticks used in taiko, called bachi. Kata reminds me of a variation of the fencing stance or a deep demi plie in fourth position. Which IS the reason why I can really feel my quads right now. (^ ^)
Okay, a little bit of organizational clarification: This could be one big long post, but I'm not going to do that to you. If you know me and love me, you are used to my long conversations and my ability to keep you up until 3am talking about absolutely nothing. If you don't know me and love me, then you will overdose on Yvette if I don't protect you. I am like a drug. I fill your mind with thoughts and ideas, then I leave. You are left feeling haunted-- or at least mildly perterbed. Some people have flashbacks of me years later and wake up screaming in the middle of the night. Others have the hair on the backs of their necks stand up, and get intense feelings of dread everytime Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" plays on the radio. I don't do this on purpose. I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way. ;)
Anyways, what I am going to do is split this one big post into 3 smaller posts. Notice I said smaller, not small. One post will be on some thoughts I had on the way up to San Jose. One post will be on the workshop. The last post will be on everything I did after the workshop. I'm not going to be doing this in order either because I want to talk about the workshop first. So on to the post!
I pulled into the public parking lot around 9:30. I was early. This particular lot was a block away from Okida Hall, and was not the same parking lot I used the first time I was here. Since it was Saturday, the closer lot wasn't free, and you could only park for two hours at a time. Our workshop was three hours, and I didn't want to have to think about running out to pump some quarters in a meter. Also, I was more familiar with the neighborhood this time, so I felt safe leaving my car down the street.
On my way to the hall, I stopped off at a Japanese grocery store for a bottled water. It was a really cute store. The cashier who helped me reminded me of a woman I had met after I graduated from Fresno State. Her name was Meesh and she was an aspiring pharmacist. Her parents also owned a kick-ass Chinese restaurant that I used to love to eat at.
I arrived at Okida Hall and entered immediately. I was ready to have some fun! It was a little weird, knowing already what to expect. As the other participants started arriving, I could tell they were... Hmm, not sure how to explain it. It wasn't nervousness, it was simply not knowing what to expect. That's how I felt my first time- I was excited to be there, but had no idea what I was in for.
This time it was different. I knew the general outline of how the workshop was going to play out. What I didn't know was how I was going to do. A lot of things were different. I had been training for this day: I got back on the bike, I was lifting weights (actually small dumbells), I was walking (to taiko music) on my breaks at work. I wanted to avert the serious breakdown my body had after my first workshop. I had to call in sick to work because I couldn't move, I was so sore! Another thing that was different were the instructors. This time the instructors were performing member Yumi Ishihara, and apprentice members Dylan Solomon and Rylan Sekiguchi.
The beginning of the workshop was similar to the one before. We were treated to a performance by the instructors. San Jose Taiko had a performance that day so some of the other members were there in the studio. They also participated in this little performance. One was apprentice member Alex Hudson who I remembered from my first workshop. There were two other performing members: Franco Imperial and another woman whose name I can't remember (argh!) ((Taking a peak at the performing members list at the SJT website, I think it could have been Meg Suzuki, but I'm not sure.)) Now, I do remember that the Executive Director, Roy Hirabayashi was there, and he spoke to us for a bit, but I can't remember if he was in the performance or not.
After that awesome performance (could have been half-assed for all I know), we watched a DVD talking about everything San Jose Taiko does in the community. Jumping ahead a bit in my story, I bought the DVD, so if you ever find yourself in Fresno, come on over, I'll make some popcorn and we can watch it together!
After watching the DVD, we circled up on the taiko floor and introduced ourselves. It's always interesting to hear where people came from and what brought them to the workshop. Afterwards, we got an introduction to all the different kinds of drums. I won't repeat all the details, but if you would like to read about it, click here .
Then it was time to get busy! We had a short but thorough warm-up. It had me sweating already. The warm up by itself could be the reason I can really feel my hamstrings right now. ;) We learned the stance, called kata, and how to hold the sticks used in taiko, called bachi. Kata reminds me of a variation of the fencing stance or a deep demi plie in fourth position. Which IS the reason why I can really feel my quads right now. (^ ^)
We learned some of the notes used in playing, and we learned a song. Then, to make things more challenging, we played the song in a round. At first I wasn't sure if we were going to be able to pull it off, but we did, and we sounded GOOD!
It was a really good workshop. And I'm not as sore as I was the first time. My hamstrings and quads are sore, but I am able to walk. I even walked to work this morning and back. My biceps and triceps aren't sore, but my forearms are KILLING ME. I need to figure out how to buff up my forearms for the next workshop. (^ ^)
~Vet
"I am ready. The sky is not the limit."
Õ
posted by Yvette @ 5/14/2007
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