I had pho (my favorite food before I leave for a trip) with Courtney. Met Bryan at Higashi. Bryan and I started our long drive and drove to Las Vegas, NV. Watched our favorite movie, Napoleon Dynamite, on our portable DVD player. Brilliant! Stopped in at Jen's (from Las Vegas Kaminari Taiko) home and had a nice dinner cooked by Jen and David. Thank you Jen and Jen's mom for your hospitality!
Day 2, April 11
Drove to Moab, UT! Had a fun workshop with Moab Taiko Dan! We worked on basics and taught Bryan's song called "Tomodachi To Isshoni". What a fun group! Thank you Hop for your hospitality and thank you Sheila for the awesome lasagna.
Day 3, April 12
Drove through the dangerous Rockies to Denver, CO. I had a scary, snowy experience over the Rockies when I was traveling with On Ensemble. Spun out and saw like four accidents... I don't want to experience that again! Taught Junior Denver Taiko a simple version of "Expanding". It went really well and the kids were great! Special thanks to Aiko for feeding us well and for setting up the workshop. Thank you Toni for the new taiko bags! If you ever need a bag to protect your taiko or a bachi bag, Toni's are hard to beat: Taiko Totes
Day 4, April 13
Allergies began... It was really, really windy today. It was so windy that when we stopped for gas and got out of the van, dust would get into my mouth and it would get all gritty in my mouth. Like you know when you eat spinach or a clam and you bite down on some sand? I hate that... All there is in eastern Colorado and Nebraska are cows, prairie, and corn. Boring! Arrived in Council Bluffs, Iowa. No taiko groups out here, so no workshop.
Day 5, April 14
Drove to Chicago, IL. Had a workshop with the local Chicago groups. We got to eat deep dish pizza from Lou Malnati's. Yum! Thanks to Jason for setting up the workshops. Thank you to Christine and Erik (Bryan's old friends from hereandnow) for housing us and for letting us do laundry! Doing laundry on the road is precious...
Day 6, April 15
Drove to Fort Wayne, IN, our main destination. Had a nice welcome dinner and met people from the Fort Wayne Dance Collective and Fort Wayne Taiko. Thank you to Marty for hosting the dinner. Great food and great people! Courtney and Jen arrived and we stayed at Noel and Maggie's home. We rehearsed for the school show the next day.
Day 7, April 16
Rain... sucks to unload for a performance in the rain. We had a lecture/demo for Weisser Park Elementary. The kids were great and we had a lot of fun. We always have fun at schools. Jen and Courtney taught a kids workshop and Bryan and I taught a workshop for Fort Wayne Taiko. Then we loaded our equipment into the theater at the United Arts Center. Had a nice dinner with the Fort Wayne Taiko folks. Thank you for the food and to Jackie for hosting. She has an awesome home with arcade games! So fun... Darren, Tomomi, Yumi, Kevin, and Scott arrived and checked into the hotel.
Day 8, April 17
John arrived. Tech in the theater. All the fun stuff... setting lights, spiking the stage, sound check, preparing merchandise, and a run through. Then we finally get to do the show! It went really well. The audience rocked. I had a blast. IHOP after the show! Otsukaresama everyone!
Day 9, April 18
Scott, John, Yumi, Tomomi, and Kevin departed for home. The rest did a performance for the Fort Wayne Cherry Blossom Festival. This was really fun, but we were pretty tired today. Must get sleep... Drove Darren, Jen, and Courtney to the Indianapolis airport. On the way back, Bryan found this hole-in-the-wall Mexican place on his iPhone. It was surprisingly pretty good! Sorry iPhone and Bryan for previously making fun of you...
Day 10, April 19
Departed Fort Wayne. Thank you Liz, Andy, and the rest of the Fort Wayne Dance Collective for setting up everything. Thank you to Noel and Maggie for housing us. Your home was great. Bryan and I drove to Dublin, OH to teach a workshop for 40 plus kids called the Dublin Taiko Boosters! They were great. They were originally trained by Eitetsu Hayashi (taiko god) about six years ago and are still rolling with it. Awesome! I hope they keep it up. Thank you Susann for setting up the workshop and logistics.
Day 11, April 20
Drove to Pittsburgh, PA. Our last workshop of this tour! Had a fun workshop for Pittsburgh Taiko who has only been in existence for a little over a year. Thank you to Ben for setting up the workshop! We return to LA tomorrow!!!
Facts about the trip to come. Stay tuned.
Workshop with Chicago taiko groups
Workshop with The Dublin Taiko Boosters
Workshop with Pittsburgh Taiko
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