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Wow… I’m well into my 30s now!  This is unofficially my and Shoji’s 25th year of playing taiko.  Can you believe it?  How special it is to still be playing with each other.  Thanks Shoj for all the great years.

Last year was a pretty good year for me personally.  Although things were tough for loved ones around me, I felt like I did a lot of growing up.  I finally feel comfortable being the person I am.  It’s in my nature to be a follower and I’ve always been told I should make an effort to be a leader, but that’s asking someone to be someone they are not.  I feel like I can be a quiet leader and supporter.  I feel confident with the skills that I have to be strong.  I don’t have to be “over the top” or a “go-getter” to be respected.  I’ve finally found out that I just have to be myself.

Some highlights of being 30:
-Driving across country and back SAFELY with Kris.
-Putting on a successful show at the Ford Amphitheatre with TAIKOPROJECT featuring guest artists San Francisco Taiko Dojo and making Tanaka-sensei proud.
-Going to Japan once to visit Courtney, going back a second time to help Kris receive his “natori”.
-Playing with TAIKOPROJECT in Hawaii.  I MISS Hawaii.  Thank you to Kenny and Chizuko Endo for being a big part of who I am.
-Adopting two abandoned kittens that Byron (my roommate and fellow TAIKOPROJECT member) found.  We nursed them, gave one away to Yuri and kept the other one who Mika named “Tabi”.  She has three grey feet and one white foot.
-Courtney’s return from Japan!!!  A year is long.
-Shasta Yama with On Ensemble.  Always awesome to play for the home crowd.
-Our home concert “Yobu”.  At first it started to feel like, “why do we do this to ourselves?”  But then, when the show started and we saw our family, friends, and fans, it was definitely worth it.  Thank you all for coming!

Here’s to another year.  Hope this one is better.

Kris and I returned safely on Wednesday evening just in time to have Thanksgiving.  Kris went to be with his parents and I stayed in LA to eat with Courtney and her family.

We had one more stop after Minneapolis, but first we drove like 15 hours to Denver and stayed with Aiko from Denver Taiko.  Thank you!!!

The next day, we drove to Moab, Utah to teach a workshop.  I was just there at the end of October with TAIKOPROJECT.  We went to Arches National Park, but when I went, we were having so much fun, we actually ran out of time and didn’t get to see any arches.  Boo… BUT, this time I convinced Kris to go back and the first thing we did was go to see the North and South Windows and climbed to the top of the Turret Arch.  It was dangerous and scary, but worth it!  This picture is of Kris on top of the Turret Arch.  It’s small, but can you see him?

Thanks to Moab Taiko Dan for setting up these workshops.  Special thanks to Joan and Scott for hosting us at your awesome house!!!

We get some time off in December to rest up for our cross country drive to the East Coast!!!

Sadly, our stay here in Winnipeg, Canada has come to a close. We’d like to give a HUGE thank you to Pam and her awesome dog, Ruby, for hosting us. I had fun walking Ruby, although I think she was actually taking me for a walk.

We were kept busy up here teaching workshops to Hinode Taiko, performing a lecture/demonstration for Pam’s school, and eating. The Hinode Taiko folks are a fun bunch! Thanks for being great students!  Oh, and Karleen made an unbelievable vegan chocolate cake with fresh raspberries. Kris was in heaven!

The first day, Kris taught his “30 Days to Better Shime” workshop and I taught slant stand. The second day, Kris gave a private shime tightening workshop, then we held a percussion workshop, and taught composition at night. Today we had a lecture/demo and ended with a fun improvisation workshop. Before the workshop, we ate at Mr. Ono’s restaurant, Edohei, the restaurant Shoji mentioned and ate like kings. Shoji’s right! The butterfish sushi and tuna, avocado, and grapefruit salad were the bomb!

Tomorrow, Kris, Kelvin, and I drive back to Minneapolis, MN for our concert series with Mu Daiko this weekend and Shoji flies in from LA.

Our residency here at Saint John’s University came to a close with a hands-on workshop in the afternoon and then our final concert this evening. We taught some basics and Renshu Taiko to our workshop participants. We had a few kids participate who saw our lecture/demonstration yesterday and they did awesome. Kris did introductions and final wrap up, I taught basics, and Kelvin taught Renshu. Great job everyone!

The concert went well. Thank you to all who came out and supported us! Special thanks to Leslie, Mary, Brooke, Brian, Kevin, Adam, and Deb for bringing us out and making this happen! It was a fun experience and we felt very well taken care of.

Tomorrow, we head to Minneapolis to drop off our van at Mu Daiko‘s studio, then we drive our rental car to Winnipeg, Canada to hold workshops with Hinode Taiko and a lecture/demonstrations for schools.

Kelvin and I made it! Three days and almost 2,000 miles driven! That’s a lot. They should have frequent driver miles. Like get a free tank of gas every 1,000 miles driven or something…

Today, we had a great lecture/demonstration for kids here in the St. Cloud area and later on for the university students at the College of Saint Benedict Saint John’s University’s Humphrey Theater where we’ll be performing tomorrow evening at 8pm. So far everyone who has helped us with this residency has been awesome! Thank you so much!

Kelvin in front of church

After lunch, Kelvin and I checked out the gigantic church on campus. It was awesome! Really interesting architecture and stained glass. Here is a picture of the front of the church. Can you see Kelvin?

We had a fun time back at the hotel where we played basketball and pool, went to a nice Greek dinner, played some ping pong, and now I’m writing this post while watching the Lakers and Kris sleeps. We’re finally getting some well deserved R & R. Whew!

Hello all,

Kelvin and I drove about 12 hours today to Grand Island, NE! I smell nothing but cows out here and see nothing but prarie. The scary part of the drive through the Rockies is over though, so I’m glad. At the beginning of the year when we were driving back from NY, I spun out driving through there. We were driving like 25 miles an hour for loooong time. This time it wasn’t nearly as bad, but I was still stressed out.

We also have been stopping at these random diners where they have this IQ test game at each table. Kelvin was able to get two left and me three. Does anyone know the strategy for this game?

Maybe by the end of this tour, we’ll get it… this picture was taken with my phone, so sorry for the bad quality, but you get the picture right? You’ve played this game right?

Hi all.  I spent the last week in South Lake Tahoe with TAIKOPROJECT.  Actually it’s been just me and Courtney.  We presented 14 lecture/demonstrations for about 10 different schools!!!  I’m exhausted, but it’s been fun.  The kids have been great.

It’s beautiful up here.  Reminds me a little of home… except it’s about 3,000 feet higher, so I can really feel the thin air up here.  Hard to breathe!

Here’s a pic of me pretending to fish with bears (conveniently with my “KUMA” t-shirt) made out of moss.  The leaves are changing too.  This area is called Sorenson‘s where there were many aspen trees.  So pretty!

It snowed today!  Bryan and the rest of the gang are driving up tonight for our public show tomorrow.  It’s being put on by Peggy Thompson and the Tahoe Arts Project.  Thanks for everything Peggy!

Don’t forget about On Ensemble’s concert coming up in less than a month!!!

See you in LA!

Anyone ever see that movie?  Pretty fun movie if you’ve ever lived in Tokyo.  I’m not really that lost in translation, but it’s always a challenge being in Japan.

I got here on Sunday and now it’s Wednesday evening in Japan.  We’re leaving tomorrow already!  Crazy…

I miss Japan!  Wish I could be here longer, but it’s soooo expensive!  The food is damn good here as well… hard to go back to the Japanese food in LA…

I’m going to leave most of the posting for Kris to do since I’m basically here for him.  I came here to take a lesson from Kikuyu-sensei who has her natori in the taiko realm of nagauta.  I learned the piece  “Taiko No Kyoku” that we’re going to perform for On Ensemble ’08 : Yobu, but I don’t know the form very well, so I needed some guidance.  As you all know, Kris is getting his natori (stage name) for shamisen (Japanese banjo-type instrument), and is here to continue his studies.  We’re going to bring his sensei over for our concert and present this piece and his natori.  Please come support his cause.  This is a huge deal.

I watched Kris’ lesson with the iemoto (head teacher of his school).  A great man.  Here’s a pic of us after Kris’ lesson.

Check back for Kris’ update!

I caught up with some good friends on this trip too!  Thanks for coming out and seeing us/me!