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Kris and I stopped in Denver to refine Omiyage that Shoji and Kelvin started.  The piece is hard, but Denver Taiko and Mirai Daiko did a great job.  Way to hang in there!  I hope they are able to continue developing this piece.  Shoji’s original vision for this piece was for groups to take it and make it their own, not just to do it the way they were taught.  Good luck Denver Taiko and Mirai Daiko!  Next time we stop through, we hope to see improvement!

On the drive here, we listened to history being made on the radio.  It brought a tear to my eye and I’m full of hope for this new year and new era.  In honor of this historical day, we recorded this fun intro to Omiyage in honor of our new president. SurpriseOmiyage.mp3

Kelvin and I just finished our workshop with Denver Taiko and Mirai Daiko. We taught them “Omiyage” a piece that I originally wrote for TAIKOPROJECT and have since released under a free art license as a gift to the North American Taiko community. Bryan Yamami first conceived of a piece called “Omiyage” for TAIKOPROJECT (re)generation that TAIKOPROJECT would workshop to the various communities it would visit. I have Kris to thank for expanding the “Omiyage” concept in terms of releasing it under a free art license. My work and On Ensemble’s music and recordings are released under a more restrictive creative commons, attribution non-commercial, share-alike license, but I often have interesting conversations with Kris regarding free art and admire his commitment to the concept. I wanted to do something under the free art license and “Omiyage” was a logical choice. We’re working on putting together more free art work for the taiko community including more pieces and programs like “30 days to better shime”.

Watching “Omiyage” grow and take on a life of it’s own has been very rewarding. Yuta Kato did a lot to refine the choreography of the piece and spread it through workshops from Long Island to Hawai’i. Maz and the TAIKOPROJECT cast continues to refine their version of the piece and I keep finding more and more YouTube videos of groups performing the piece. There is even a group from Japan posting “Omiyage” videos.

Kelvin and I would like to send out a huge thank you to Aiko and Yuji Kimura for taking such great care of us during our short stay. Denver Taiko and Mirai Daiko did and fantastic job and learning the piece and I’m looking forward to seeing where they take “Omiyage” and who they teach it to!

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!!!