CBF, Round Two!
I meant to post some about this earlier, but haven't really been in front of a computer all weekend..
First of all, I'd like to say, I don't think I should be allowed to go back to J-Town for a while..
So I went back on Saturday for another round of the Cherry Blossom Festival. As it happened, I got there just in time to see the breaking of the iwaizake (ceremonial sake) casks. After that, I went down to the food stalls quickly and grabbed some stuff (there was actually no line at all for the takoyaki! It pays to go early sometimes). As it turned out, there were even more kinds of food there this time than last week. And, perhaps most surprising of all, this time they actually had a band playing which was really pretty good!
After lunch, I sat in on some of the Taiko performance in the plaza, then went and saw the Japanese sword exhibition, and sat in a bit on the traditional music stuff going on (where, I note, in a room of about 60 or 70 people, I was one of three white folks in the entire room, and from what I could tell the only one not there with somebody asian), and then discovered a tea ceremony demonstration thing, which was rather cool, and then followed some signs through a maze of twisty little passages to find a paper doll exhibition at the back of everything too.
Then I did some shopping... And spent another $200-$300 or so. Sigh. But I got lots of good stuff (Including a few more kinds of pocky which weren't even on the shelf last week)! I also got a bunch more miscellaneous snacks, a tea set, some nice bowls, a few more shirts, and a book full of Japanese childrens' stories, written in Japanese (for children, so it's actually at a reading level I might be able to understand, which is why I bought it.. plus some of the stories looked interesting). Oh, and a little flippy-ball thing that flips inside-out when you throw it in the air, because it was neat. Then I relaxed for a little bit and waited for rumaki75 to show up for the Taiko Festival performance at 7pm, which we'd bought tickets for last week.
And I have to say, San Francisco Taiko Dojo's show was awesome. Far better than I was expecting, even. I've seen some other little performances that they've done here and there, but they really rolled out their A-material for this one, and it was much better than anything else I've seen. And on top of that, this year for the first time they also had people from Sacramento Taiko Dan performing as well, which was really cool because their style was somewhat different and complemented Taiko Dojo really well (the head of Sacramento Taiko Dan used to be a member of SF Taiko Dojo). It was an amazing experience. I highly recommend everyone see something like this if you can. (Oh, and by the way, there's a Taiko Festival coming up on September 15th and 16th in San Francisco. Mark your calendars!)
One of the other things that was really cool, as far as I was concerned, was that I actually got to see the head of SF Taiko Dojo, Seiichi Tanaka, performing up there as well. Every time people mention him and his accomplishments it surprises me, in a way, because it all seems a bit much to be quite real. This is the man who, singlehandedly, forty years ago, brought the art of Taiko over from Japan and introduced it to the US. He was the first person to ever teach anyone Taiko in the US, and since that time, from his one dojo in San Francisco, hundreds of Taiko groups have since formed all across the country as a direct result of his influence. He is the only person living outside of Japan ever to be granted the title of Grand Master of Taiko. He's been awarded Japan's Foreign Ministers Commendation, as well as the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellows Award for his work, and has recently been inducted into the Japanese American Hall of Fame.
As rumaki75 commented after the show was over, we can now honestly say we've seen a legend in concert. And what's more, after the concert, we got autographs. I'm not personally that big on autographs, but this opportunity was just too cool to pass up.
Oh, and I had a rather odd experience while shopping at the Japanese market the other day.. I read the label for a product, which contained a Japanese word I'd never seen before ("hitokuchi"), and yet even though I'd never encountered it before, I was able to look at it and know what the word meant ("bite-sized"). It's rather surprising to me that even with the limited knowledge I have at this point I'm actually able to figure out and understand words I haven't even studied. That's really pretty cool.
It is a little disturbing to me, though, that I've spent more money now at the Cherry Blossom Festival this year than my entire trip to Vegas.
First of all, I'd like to say, I don't think I should be allowed to go back to J-Town for a while..
So I went back on Saturday for another round of the Cherry Blossom Festival. As it happened, I got there just in time to see the breaking of the iwaizake (ceremonial sake) casks. After that, I went down to the food stalls quickly and grabbed some stuff (there was actually no line at all for the takoyaki! It pays to go early sometimes). As it turned out, there were even more kinds of food there this time than last week. And, perhaps most surprising of all, this time they actually had a band playing which was really pretty good!
After lunch, I sat in on some of the Taiko performance in the plaza, then went and saw the Japanese sword exhibition, and sat in a bit on the traditional music stuff going on (where, I note, in a room of about 60 or 70 people, I was one of three white folks in the entire room, and from what I could tell the only one not there with somebody asian), and then discovered a tea ceremony demonstration thing, which was rather cool, and then followed some signs through a maze of twisty little passages to find a paper doll exhibition at the back of everything too.
Then I did some shopping... And spent another $200-$300 or so. Sigh. But I got lots of good stuff (Including a few more kinds of pocky which weren't even on the shelf last week)! I also got a bunch more miscellaneous snacks, a tea set, some nice bowls, a few more shirts, and a book full of Japanese childrens' stories, written in Japanese (for children, so it's actually at a reading level I might be able to understand, which is why I bought it.. plus some of the stories looked interesting). Oh, and a little flippy-ball thing that flips inside-out when you throw it in the air, because it was neat. Then I relaxed for a little bit and waited for rumaki75 to show up for the Taiko Festival performance at 7pm, which we'd bought tickets for last week.
And I have to say, San Francisco Taiko Dojo's show was awesome. Far better than I was expecting, even. I've seen some other little performances that they've done here and there, but they really rolled out their A-material for this one, and it was much better than anything else I've seen. And on top of that, this year for the first time they also had people from Sacramento Taiko Dan performing as well, which was really cool because their style was somewhat different and complemented Taiko Dojo really well (the head of Sacramento Taiko Dan used to be a member of SF Taiko Dojo). It was an amazing experience. I highly recommend everyone see something like this if you can. (Oh, and by the way, there's a Taiko Festival coming up on September 15th and 16th in San Francisco. Mark your calendars!)
One of the other things that was really cool, as far as I was concerned, was that I actually got to see the head of SF Taiko Dojo, Seiichi Tanaka, performing up there as well. Every time people mention him and his accomplishments it surprises me, in a way, because it all seems a bit much to be quite real. This is the man who, singlehandedly, forty years ago, brought the art of Taiko over from Japan and introduced it to the US. He was the first person to ever teach anyone Taiko in the US, and since that time, from his one dojo in San Francisco, hundreds of Taiko groups have since formed all across the country as a direct result of his influence. He is the only person living outside of Japan ever to be granted the title of Grand Master of Taiko. He's been awarded Japan's Foreign Ministers Commendation, as well as the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellows Award for his work, and has recently been inducted into the Japanese American Hall of Fame.
As rumaki75 commented after the show was over, we can now honestly say we've seen a legend in concert. And what's more, after the concert, we got autographs. I'm not personally that big on autographs, but this opportunity was just too cool to pass up.
Oh, and I had a rather odd experience while shopping at the Japanese market the other day.. I read the label for a product, which contained a Japanese word I'd never seen before ("hitokuchi"), and yet even though I'd never encountered it before, I was able to look at it and know what the word meant ("bite-sized"). It's rather surprising to me that even with the limited knowledge I have at this point I'm actually able to figure out and understand words I haven't even studied. That's really pretty cool.
It is a little disturbing to me, though, that I've spent more money now at the Cherry Blossom Festival this year than my entire trip to Vegas.