Kris’ belated tour wrapup
After a few days of recovery from a whirlwind tour, here are some photos from the trip!
The impetus for putting the tour together came from Yuta Kato, who invited me to join him for a performance with his young students of kotsuzumi. Over three sessions, Yuta taught the kids the basics of how to hold and play the instruments, and I joined them on shamisen to perform a few pieces together at the end. The kids did a great job!
One of the highlights was working the Kagami-Kai booth at the San Francisco Cherry Blossom Festival. Hours of shouting and singing while making shave ice. It was absolutely, totally, completely exhausting and wonderful!
One of the highlights of the trip was spending a day with Shohei Takatani practicing shime tightening. He showed me the basics of the two-person tightening method and I was inspired by his dexterity and form. I look forward to more shime-nerd sessions with Shohei!
Thank you to Stanford Taiko, Kagami-Kai, the Kato’s, Michelle Fujii and Portland Taiko, Stockton Taiko, Chris, Dan, and Maya Kubo, and everyone else I met on tour. It was one of the most enjoyable trips I’ve ever taken!