TAIKOPROJECT: The Taiko Blog: Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, California Adventure!

Day 1, August 4
David and I left Los Angeles for my home town, Mt. Shasta, CA! I actually just came back from there on Monday after my parents' big taiko festival, ShastaYama. The past couple of days have been crazy trying to pack and get ready for the road. David's aunt Karen made us a yummy lunch of musubi, chicken, and sandwiches, but what I was really impressed by was the awesome ginger chocolate cookies she made for us. Thank you Aunt Karen! I want that recipe. We had a nice salmon and chicken sausage dinner from the bbq with my parents.

Day 2, August 5
Loooong 12 hour drive to Coeur d'Alene, ID. We were pumped up about the first of many Indian curry lunches from Trader Joe's that Kris always makes on our tours. The first lunch was frickin' spicy!!! I think cumin was coming out of our pores. During the morning it looked like it was snowing, but to our disgust, it was actually a cloud of bugs which went on for a good 5 minutes. Our windshield was caked with nasty bug juice. Sorry bugs! Arrived in Coeur d'Alene in time for a nice Applebee's dinner. David enjoyed a quesadilla burger. We went to the stage, loaded in, started a soundcheck and everyone else arrived. Then we went back to Applebee's for a beer while everyone else was starved for dinner, but we forgot Liz at the venue! Sorry Liz! That was a first. Bad communication. We went back to get her. She was fine. Applebee's was fun. You can read her in-depth blog about the adventure below.

Day 3, August 6
Got to sleep in a bit. Headed over to the venue to practice a couple of pieces. Walked around the "Art on the Green Festival". It was huge! Hundreds of vendors and the location was nice right on the Lake Coeur d'Alene. Performance went well. The first of many to come.

Day 4, August 7
Bryan, Yuri, Brian, and Scott leave the hotel at like 3:30am. I said goodbye, then went back to sleep. David, Liz, and I drive to Ontario, OR on a small two way highway through Hell's Canyon. It was beautiful. Today we drove through the smallest population we've ever seen: 10 people! We arrived at the Idaho-Oregon Buddhist Temple and had dinner with Reverend Fujimoto and Michelle.

Day 5, August 8
Went running with Liz and made omelets afterwards. Good to feel healthy. We had our first workshops on Many Sides and Stage Presence with Sangha Taiko. It was fun and the group was very enthusiastic.

Day 6, August 9
Went running and ate omelets again! Yay! David loves candy and sweets, so we put together his breakfast in a cardboard box with candy and coke and wrote "David's breakfast" on it. He had a good laugh. Had our second workshop with another group in the are with mainly kids. They did well.

Day 7, August 10
Running and omelets! We ate 9 eggs each in the 3 mornings we were here! Thank you so much to the Idaho-Oregon Buddhist Temple, Reverend Fujimoto, Michelle, and Sharmon for putting us up. We had the best time ever! David, Liz, and I picked up Jen and Yumi at the Boise Airport en route to Idaho Falls. We stopped at the Minidoka Internment Camp. My mom was born there. It was very surreal. I can't believe my family was forced to live out here in the middle of nowhere. Drove the rest of the way to Idaho Falls and checked in to our awesome hotel on the river! We went to the supermarket to stock up on breakfast foods and candy for David.

Day 8, August 11
Met up with Fireman Bob from Snake River Taiko. He let us use his practice taiko for the workshop we taught to kids for the Snake River Festival which the presenter set up. Went to the theater and did our tech rehearsal and relaxed until the show started which went well. I always love doing lecture/demonstrations for kids. We went back to the hotel and watched "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" which is one of the funniest movies ever.

Day 9, August 12
More of the same today. After the show we stayed up really late to see the meteor shower. David saw 14, Yumi and Jen saw about 8, and I only saw like 5. I blame it on my age. Went to sleep at like 4am.

Day 10, August 13
The drive started off beautiful. Eastern Idaho and western Wyoming are very picturesque. We drove just south of Yellowstone and through Grand Teton. However, we went down a very steep 10% grade and the van brakes were burning and shaking very violently. I was in second gear and it was still bad. Fortunately, we made it down to Jackson Hole, WY and found a Big O Tires and replaced the brakes... thank god for gps and smart phones and civilization. We were very lucky to be able to make it to a town with a garage that was open on a Saturday! Drove carefully the rest of the way to Casper and met up with Scott and Brian for dinner. Ran over the set for the concert the next day.

Day 11, August 14
Breakfast! Headed to the theater for our tech rehearsal. It went really fast. We actually had three hours to relax before the performance. A rarity! The concert was fun, but we all felt the altitude at the end. It was hard to get through Here We Go Now!! It was over 5,000 feet in Casper. We tried to go get a beer after the concert, but EVERYTHING closes at 10pm on Sunday. Bummer. We ended up getting frosties and fries at Wendy's which David was excited about of course.

Day 12, August 15
Jen, Yumi, Brian, Liz, and Scott depart in the morning for the Denver airport. It's back to only David and I again! We met up with the presenter, Carolyn, for a yummy Mexican lunch then headed back to the theater to teach a couple of public workshops. We went to a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. Nice to have some Asian food on the road.

Day 13, August 16
Drove to Salt Lake City and met up with Bo and Kenshin Taiko for dinner, then taught them an Omiyage workshop. Thanks Bo and Kenshin Taiko for having us! We had fun!

Day 14, August 17
Long drive to Reno. Stopped at Starbucks to do a little work and randomly bumped into Rieko, our contact for the Reno Taiko workshop. They were a fun bunch of people. Seemed like they all knew each other very well. Good job Reno Taiko! Thank you Leslie for housing us!

Day 15, August 18
Drove to Stanford for the Taiko Conference. Taiko Conference is always crazy, but we had fun and it was good to see all those familiar faces and new faces.

Day 18, August 21
Drove back to LA! Courtney and Jen joined us on the drive down with little sleep over the crazy weekend in order to make it back for the Nisei Week performance. Otsukaresama everyone!

Fun facts about the trip:
-Miles driven: close to 4,000!
-States passed through: California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada.
-Workshops taught: Eight. Ten including conference.
-Smallest town population that we passed through: 10 somewhere in Wyoming.
-Trader Joe's curry lunches consumed: 18! We had four people at once eating curry.
-This was the first time in TP history where we left someone behind. Sorry Liz!
-Maz and David spent about 61 hours in the van.