TAIKOPROJECT: The Taiko Blog

Riverside Lunar New Year Festival!

2012-01-30T01:25:00.000-08:00

On Jan. 28th, we packed up the van and drove out to Riverside for their Lunar New Year Festival! Maz, Andrew, Candice, Kevin, and I met in Little Tokyo to drive together and we picked up Jen near her home on the way. It was super windy once we got closer to Riverside and Maz had to drive carefully to make sure we were all safe.

This is a great festival!! There were so many different stages with lot of entertainment and activities, along with many booths set up by different organizations and food vendors.

Our first set was in front of the library and then we moved our equipment to the main stage for our second set. I really liked how the different stages have their own unique feeling to them. The library "stage" was actually on the ground, level with the audience. Many people were sitting on the ground in front of us and people gathered all around. It was a nice, intimate feeling. The main stage was quite different. We were definitely much higher then the audience where they sat in chairs. There was a big tent behind the stage for the performers to store equipment and change. It had a more of a "concert" feel. One thing that remained constant from stage to stage was the amazing audience. :) We also saw fellow taiko players from UCR Senryu Taiko! Hi Senryu!

There were lots of funny moments and I only took one photo, which I would totally share with you... but it's a picture of 4 of the members that fell asleep in the van... at the same time. It's not the most attractive photo, and since I'm such a nice person, I won't post it. :D hah!

Happy lunar new year!!!!

Ending 2011 and Starting 2012 with TAIKOPROJECT!

2012-01-06T17:26:00.000-08:00

Normally during my winter break from work, I am bustling at the mall doing last minute shopping, catching up with friends and family and resting after a long year. BUT NOT WINTER 2011-2012! It has been a holiday season filled with 3 major TAIKOPROJECT performances of all different types.

Christmas Eve was spent playing backup for Mansour at Persian Xmas at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas. We learned lots of new and super exciting material to supporting his fabulous music which was be loved by all in attendance! He is truly an artist committed to his fans and his work...and who can complain about a trip to Vegas! Merci!

Then onto New Year's Eve at First Night Fullerton which is a big deal. There were soo many couples, families and friends out in the freezing cold, celebrating the end of 2011. We played 3 sets to more than packed houses! Thanks Fullerton!

And a hometown favorite of mine, Oshogatsu New Year's Day celebration in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles. New Year's is such a rich holiday in the Japanese culture, filled with tradition, family and celebration! Truly and honor to ring in the new year at this awesome event!

Happy 2012 everyone!!! Love, Darren

TP End-of-Year Taiko Marathon

2012-01-05T08:45:00.000-08:00

During the last few hours of the last day of 2011, Bryan, Darren, Emily, Jason, Tomomi and I dared to complete the Taiko Marathon. We had three 30-minute shows in a row, with enough time in between to watch a few of our favorite YouTube videos backstage. The six of us were cozied up inside the First Christian Church in Fullerton, CA with the attendees of Fullerton's 21st annual First Night event. First Night is a tradition of Downtown Fullerton's. The event brings community members together to celebrate the new year in a safe environment. First Night had food of all sorts, entertainment stages in every direction, ample seating and even an ice rink!

When we arrived and found out we'd be playing inside the church, away from the hustle and bustle of the night outside, we initially expected a quiet evening. After all, who would venture inside and away from all of the fun (and more importantly, food) outside? Well, much to our surprise, the evening attracted a dense fog and chilly conditions, resulting in a long line of people waiting to come inside to hang out with us!

Our first show went quite smoothly. I remember a bachi flying somewhere, but we handled it well. :)

Our second show was going just as smoothly until I started feeling the first signs of fatigue during our last song, Many Sides. All that cardio after 2 weeks of vacation was intense! All of a sudden, I was hungry. It was like approaching mile 12 and really wanting a burger. Mitchell read our futures and knew we'd be starving, so he arrived after Show #2 with six delicious corn dogs! Thanks Mitchell!

The third show was difficult, exhausting and a piece of cake all in one. It's tricky to describe the feeling of fighting to get through, yet knowing you could do it all over again at the end. By that time, we were on auto pilot. We had made whatever mistakes we were going to make, and we were looking at the finish line. Once again, bachi went flying. However this time, the bachi came back to us! See what I mean about it being a piece of cake? A youngster in the audience was victim to one of our sticks, and after a bit of encouragement, he gracefully tossed it back up onstage so we could finish our set. How wonderful. I'll never forget what a great throw he had!

All in all, First Night was a success. I'm thinking about going back at the end of this year! Have a great 2012 everybody!

TAIKOPROJECT performs with Blush!

2011-10-21T14:48:00.000-07:00

At the end of September and beginning of October, Jen, Liz, Courtney, Candice, and I had the pleasure of performing at a few gigs with Blush! Blush is a new pan-Asian girl band sensation, with members from China, Korea, Japan, India, and the Philippines. Victoria, JiHae, Natsuko, Alisha, and Angeli are all incredibly talented performers with amazing singing and dancing skills. The girls joined us at a couple of our TAIKOPROJECT rehearsals to get ready for the gigs, and it was so much fun having them with us! They told us that they had learned some taiko while they were in Hong Kong, so when we taught them a few lines to play for the gigs, they picked it up in no time.

Our first performance was at San Gabriel High School, and we performed right in the middle of the quad area. It was so hot! We played a minute or two of Here We Go Now to introduce Blush, and by the time we were finished we were all sweating! I felt so bad for Blush since they had to sing AND dance in the hot sun for another 20 minutes. The students really seemed to enjoy their performance, despite having to bear the heat.

The next day we performed at Redondo Union High School and thankfully it was in a shaded area, so it was much cooler. We tried something different this time and opened with a small segment of Expanding. Blush came on and did their thing, then we helped pass out posters, CDs, and bracelets. That night Jen, Courtney, and I met Blush at the Queen Mary to sound check for our performance the following day. While we were there, we got to bond a bit more with the girls and get used to the venue. My friend Dan Matthews from Afterschoolspecial was busily running around making sure the sound and lighting setup was running smoothly. Thanks, Dan, for all your help!!

The day after was the big performance. We all met up at the Queen Mary in Long Beach for the International Secret Agents, which is a huge concert that showcases the many talents of the upcoming generation. It's a touring concert that starts in Seattle, then works its way down to San Francisco, and makes its final stop in Long Beach. In previous years, ISA was strictly a 3-4 hour long, sit-down-only concert. This year however, they wanted to try turning ISA into an art festival. After we did our second sound check, we had some time to walk around and check out the different vendors and food trucks. We stopped by the Designs by Steppie booth and purchased some cute shirts and accessories.

At 2:40, Blush was the first group to perform and we opened with Expanding. Since we had so chances to rehearse with them, the performance was great! The crowd seemed to really like our intro and Blush's set. After we performed, Jen and I stayed to enjoy the festival and watch the other performances. Afterschoolspecial, New Heights, Clara C, B.O.B., Dumbfounded, AJ Rafael, Wong Fu Productions, and Far East Movement were some of my favorites. Sean Kingston closed the show, but Jen and I were exhausted from such a long weekend, so we decided to leave before his set.

Thank you to Derek Nakamoto for the awesome photos!

Working with Blush was such an incredible experience. They're all such amazing people and we wish them the best of luck with their careers! We hope to see them again soon!

Jen, Courtney, Liz, Candice, and I all got bracelets from each of the girls!

Adventures in Idaho Falls!

2011-10-04T22:42:00.000-07:00

What was Idaho Falls like? Well, let's rewind about a month and a half and let's go see :)

It was actually a very relaxing place :) Here's a few highlights from our visit:

- Jen, Liz and I took a nice morning run by Snake River.

- Candlewood Suites was awesome! It was an extended stay hotel so it had a full kitchen with pots, pans, plates, utensils, etc.

- Late night excursion to see the meteor shower

- Beers after the show with Snake River Taiko

- Redvines!..ok, this has nothing to do with Idaho Falls, but we went through a large pack like it was nothing

There was a lot more, but i'll let the pictures explain the rest...

Jen, David and Maz sitting by the river.

Jen and David looking to see how deep the water is...? Or debating whether or not to jump in! :D

There was an area of the park where they had hula hoops and trashbin-hubcap-canoe-different-items drum setup thing for the kids...so naturally we played with all the stuff too :-P

Where's Liz go?

Oh, there she is!

Hawaiian shaved ice, yum!!! :D

Random, but they had a bunch of these fun benches around the town. Here are a few of them..

Some of the other ones that we saw were a big skateboard bench, bicycle bench, and a bench shaped like the handle of a violin! I looked it up when I got home and found out that they are a part of the 2010 Greenbelt Art Bench Project. It would be so cool to see something like that down here in Irvine!

Snake River at night, so awesome! This was right outside of our hotel room too! I think I took this on the night that we went to go look at the meteor shower until the AMs.

And now...getting ready for the show!

Showtime~!

Thank you Snake River Taiko for your hospitality!

Thought I'd end it with a cast photo...actually, this is a picture from the Wyoming show, but that's ok, right? ^_^

Hope you enjoyed!

Taiko Conference wrap-up

2011-09-28T09:26:00.000-07:00

You wouldn't think it would take me a whole month to recover, but I've finally caught up post-Taiko Conference. Whew! TaikoProject members participated in many aspects of Taiko Conference; Maz and I performed in Taiko Ten and Bryan taught a workshop called Hip-Hop Taiko along with TP assistants. The event was a grand success... looking forward to 2013!

Lobsterfest 2011!

2011-09-18T12:31:00.000-07:00

Last night, we performed at the Port of Los Angeles Lobster Festival!

We unloaded all of our equipment and air-bachi'd through our set behind the stage. Since we had some time before we went on, we decided to walk around the festival. There was SO MUCH food! There was, of course, lobster, but also many food trucks and other food vendors. The line to get the lobster dinner was extremely long. I was getting hungry just walking around, but we all decided to wait to eat until after the show (well, almost all of us...).

Then, it was our turn to perform on the main stage. The crowd was amazing! I love performing and I especially love performing to an awesome audience! We even saw a few familiar faces. :)

We quickly loaded the drums back into the van and headed towards the food once again to get our complimentary lobster dinner. I was dreading the line, but there wasn't one! Yay! It was fun eating lobster with everyone. Some of us demolished our lobsters! Candice used up ALL of her butter!! Okay, just kidding... but it looked like she did so I was telling everyone she did. hah. :p

Here we are!

On the left is Darren, Jen, Brian, and Candice (I sat between Brian and Candi).

On the right is Kevin, Jenny, Emily, Courtney, and Maz.

Liz and David were out looking for a non-lobster dinner and joined us a little bit later. Oh yes, Lobsterfest also gave us free drinks! :D

Thanks Lobsterfest for inviting us to perform and for the dinner!! We had a lot of fun!!!!

Rhythmic Relations 2011!!!

2011-09-15T14:00:00.000-07:00

Greetings to all of the TAIKOPROJECT blog followers!! We are having quite the busy summer, full of performances, tours and a lot of travelling. But lets rewind things back to the end of June for a recap of our Rhythmic Relations 2011 show at the JACCC Plaza.

Stage setup at the JACCC Plaza

This past Rhythmic Relations was my first Rhythmic Relations concert and it was very stressful and tiring weekend, but in the long run it was a truly amazing experience to be a part of such a big show. The first act featured Bombu Taiko, Kitsune Taiko, Loma Pacific Taiko and the Chibi’s, all of the groups that we help teach throughout the year. Since I don’t get to see all of groups on a regular basis, it was really special to play the stroll with all of them at the top of the show. Everyone’s positive energy and excitement has always inspired me to play from the heart and it was truly so much fun! Being one of the newer members to the TAIKOPROJECT family, I was awestruck by all the songs performed by each group. Everyone had such big smiles on their faces and it was very evident that each person was giving their very best and enjoying every minute of it. You guys did an amazing job!!

Ryutaro Kaneko

For the second act, TAIKOPROJECT took the stage with Ryutaro Kaneko who was a member of Kodo, the taiko drumming ensemble on Sado Island in Japan. For many months before the concert, Bryan, Maz and Kris worked with Ryutaro to remix songs both from Kodo’s repertoire and TAIKOPROJECT’s repertoire. One of the songs we remixed was Kodo’s Bird Island, which is a very fast piece and we even got the chance to choreograph a paranku part which is common in Eisa, Okinawan taiko drumming. Thanks to Yumi, her choreography gave our performance a little more depth beyond stationary drumming that we are normally used to. Ryutaro was also given the opportunity to remix one of our songs and the song he showed a lot of interest in was Seiza, our piece that features the koto. Creating a new middle section to the piece featuring a four-drum taiko set solo and several new accompany parts, Ryutaro expanded the normally six-person song to a sixteen-person song. That is almost the entire TAIKOPROJECT cast!

This concert took a lot of work, but with everyone’s combined effort we pulled off a very fun and exciting show. Thanks to the JACCC for providing us with such a nice stage setup and countless hours of help. A special thank you to all of our donors, without your generous support we would not have the chance to share our passion of taiko with the community. A huge thank you to all the friends, family, and fans of TAIKOPROJECT for coming out to the performance. We would also like to show the upmost gratitude to Ryutaro, for taking time out of his schedule to teach and participate in our Rhythmic Relations 2011 show. Thanks for reading TAIKOPROJECT blog followers and see you next time!! :]

TAIKOPROJECT, Bombu Taiko, Kitsune Taiko, Loma Pacific Taiko, Chibis

Our Happy Taiko Family!!! :D

Continuum show in Casper, Wyoming

2011-09-05T18:39:00.000-07:00

August was a busy flying month for me. After the fun adventures in Coeur d'Alene, I flew back to LAX only to take another flight to Mammoth Lakes the same day for a family vacation. This was a good chance for me to relax and do some fishing, hiking, and even try to take photos of the Perseid meteor shower. But don't you worry, after my vacation ended I got right back on a plane with my bachi in order to meet up with the rest of the cast in Wyoming.

Our Casper, WY show was on Sunday, August 14. I flew into Denver on Saturday and met up with Scott. From there we rented a car and had a bit of a drive to Casper. There were very few cities (or anything besides flat land) along our route. The occasional tree or cow was enough to get Scott and me excited! When we finally made it to Casper about 5 hours later, we joined Maz, David, Liz, Jen, and Yumi for dinner at On the Border. I ordered something called the Big Bordurrito because it sounded big. It was :).

Sunday was the day of our Continuum show. After breakfast, we drove to Natrona County High School. Our show was in the auditorium, which looked to be built quite a long time ago. The building had a lot of nice details inside and out, which I took immediate notice of because I thought it was quite nifty. Once we finished unloading with the help of their crew, we prepped everything for our tech and run through.

Originally, Bryan was cast for this show, but he couldn't do it anymore once TP was confirmed for the VH1 Do Something Awards on the same weekend. I took his place and was excited to do the show, but was a little apprehensive as well. I had to learn and perform several new parts that I had never done before, including odaiko for BTO. So not only did I have to fill Bryan's shoes, but his fundoshi as well... Luckily for me, I'm not being literal! I had my own fundoshi to wear for the occasion. The auditorium actually had no air conditioning, so fundoshi was probably the most comfy thing to wear. During our tech, we were all hot and sweaty, so I suggested we all perform in fundoshi, but that motion didn't pass!

We had a few hours of time to rest and eat before the show. Thank you to our presenter who had prepared a delicious dinner for us! When it was finally showtime, we went out with a lot of energy and had a great show. We had the chance to meet and talk with people in the lobby afterwards, which is always fun.

We wanted to celebrate and wind down the night, but almost everywhere was closed. Much to David's delight, the only place we found open was a Wendy's. We all ended up eating Frostys and sea salt fries, yum!

The next morning, Jen, Yumi, Liz, Scott and I said our good byes to David and Maz as they continued on their romantic journey together. The five of us got comfortable in our Corolla and headed back to Denver with a few hours of time to spare before our flight. We decided to walk around downtown Denver for a bit. We ate some pizza at the Mellow Mushroom and took a nice stroll by the river. This was a quick and tiring trip for me, but I thought everything went really well and we all had a good time!

On stage for tech

Looking tired at hotel breakfast, my skillet!

Watching people tubing on Platte River in Denver.

Pizza at Mellow Mushroom, delish!

Yumi and Jen sit at a bench made for giants before heading to airport.

be inspired... Do something!

2011-09-04T16:08:00.000-07:00

As if the Grammy’s and traveling to the UK weren’t enough, this year TP received yet another amazing opportunity to be part of the relatively new VH1 Do Something Awards Show hosted by Jane Lynch! There were twelve of us in total that were scheduled to perform throughout the show.

A little about this awards show, “Do Something” is a wonderful organization that aims to recognize everyday individuals under 25 years who strive to make a difference in the world. This year... there were some amazing finalists whose focus ranged from promoting healthy habits and eating, to reaching out to military widows/widowers , to providing high school teenagers with physical and mental disabilities with an opportunity to be included. It was our great pleasure to be able to play as they strolled down the aisle to be recognized for their accomplishments. =D This was a star-studded event which left some of us in awe that this show was not more well-known. From the moment we arrived, I zoomed in to the area reserved for celebrities with their picture reserving their seats from Mario Lopez, to Tyra Banks, to Will Ferrell. The tech day/rehearsal day as well as the day of were long hours spent getting private shows with performances from One Republic, Demi Lovato, and Foster the People among others. And the icing on the cake, was that our “waiting area” happened to be the place where the celebrity winners would just so happen to walk down to get their picture taken. EEK!

The hardest part of the gig?

Restraining myself from not sneaking a close up picture of....

david beckham! This picture was LITERALLY taken with me right next to the photographer as Kevin and I were trying to get onto the stage.... They were blocking the staircase... *swoon*

The okedo players making the entrance for the 5 finalists...

The chu players on stage. =D

In all seriousness, this truly was a wonderful experience, with the reminder of the value of doing good for others. The winner of the show was Sarah Cronk who initiated a series of all-inclusive cheerleading troupes in high schools around the world . Inspired by her older brother who has a diagnosis of Autism, but has shown her that the sky is the limit, Sarah acknowledges the potential hardships of high school and “fitting in” and has worked to raise awareness of schools everywhere that the world is big enough to accept people of all shapes, sizes, AND abilities. But all these finalists should be commended for their great work and efforts. No matter how big or small the venture, these individuals have touched lives and consequently will inspire others to make a difference in the world.

Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, California Adventure!

2011-09-02T11:58:00.000-07:00

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.

Drive from Coeur d'Alene to Ontario, OR

Farmer's market in Ontario, OR! Melon heads.

Workshop with Sangha Taiko

Maz's breakfast on the left, David's on the right

Remnants of the Minidoka Internment Camp

Overlooking Jackson Holy, WY right before our scary brake malfunction

Viewing shooting stars taken from Jen's camera. Looks like the day doesn't it?

Higashi Obon 2011

2011-08-31T22:57:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe Summer is almost over! We have been pretty busy over the last few months with a variety of gigs. On July 30, we performed at the Higashi Honganji Obon. I really look forward to this gig every year not only because it is held at our home temple, but because almost all of the TP members usually attend the event and perform. Since our group now consists of 19 members, it is really hard to have a gig where everyone can attend. I feel that Higashi Obon is one of those rare performances where almost all of the members get to perform together and to me, these kind of performances are the best.

Here are some pictures from Higashi Obon!

https://picasaweb.google.com/114821564668148213567/HigashiObonFestival03

Nishi Obon

2011-08-30T20:05:00.000-07:00

On July 10, we had a joint performance with Kitsune and the Chibis at the Nishi Hongwanji Obon. We met early at Higashi to run through some of the songs together before we headed over to Nishi. The Kitsune and Chibi parents were a huge help in transporting drums and people over to Nishi, so Thank You Kitsune and Chibi parents for all of your help!

Once we arrived at Nishi, we unloaded all of the equipment and got ready for the performance. Like most Obons, it was REALLY hot, but luckily the stage we performed on was covered so we were in the shade. There was also a nice covered seating area for people to sit and watch performances throughout the day.

The performance went well! That was the first time I performed with Kitsune and the Chibis outside of Rhythmic Relations so it was a lot of fun performing with them. They all did a really great job. We had a few slight mishaps with setting drums, which included some of the drums being set too close causing Sean and Kyle from Kitsune to almost hit each other and Jenny playing Expanding with her set backwards, but it all worked out ok. I don't think the audience could tell. Overall, it was a fun and successful performance. Thanks to Nishi for having us!

Adventures in Coeur d'Alene

2011-08-30T14:22:00.000-07:00

The first stop on our glorious tour through the American Pacific Northwest was beautiful and green Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. This is where I had the rare chance to really get to know some wonderful ladies during the black of night in a new children’s recreation center. I realize this sounds like an odd experience. So, allow me to explain further…

Bryan, Brian, Yuri and I arrived at North Idaho College, after an afternoon of air and compact car travel, at about 9:30pm on August 5th. We pulled up to the outdoor stage just as David and Maz were sound-checking the last piece in preparation for the show that was to take place the following day. It looked like they were wrapping up, so we left everything in the car and went out to help. At the end of the sound check, we worked together to put all of the equipment into the recreation center, directly behind the stage, for the evening.

Hunger set in midway through clean-up, and we decided to get some dinner as soon as we were through. I remember mentioning during that discussion, probably because I was delirious and not using my brain filter, that I had had the urge to use the ladies room all afternoon, but with no success. Travel woes… Finally, as the last few pieces of equipment were being tucked away into our storage hallway, I thought I felt success coming on.

“David,” I said jokingly as I ran into the ladies room, “I’m going to use the restroom. Don’t leave without me!” As you probably guessed, I had no success. But that’s not all.

As I exited and re-entered the empty storage hallway, I thought I heard voices at the back of the center. I walked back into the dark area only to find the voices of the ladies who would later be my heroes. “They must already be outside,” I thought as walked to the door.

When I got there, the car and Taiko Project van were gone! I thought I saw the taillights of the van exiting the parking lot, but I couldn’t be sure. Of course, my phone was in the car. I ran to the tech guy nearest me and asked if he had Maz or Bryan’s cell phone number. He did not.

This is normally when the adrenaline would build up and one’s fight or flight instincts might kick in. If this happened to me, I didn’t feel it. I felt like a sleepy zombie as I wandered back into the recreation center to escape the bugs and plan my escape. I thought hard, and finally remembered that there was a gig sheet, with the necessary phone numbers, in the merchandise box in the hallway. Unluckily for me, the merchandise box was at the bottom of the equipment pile. “Oh well,” I thought as I began to dig it out.

As I was digging, the ladies I heard before came over and offered their assistance. I said I was fine, and that I was just looking for a document. I didn’t want to tell them I was in a bit of a pickle. I remembered, however, that once I had the phone numbers, I’d need to find a phone. And, they started to ask why I was the only one left. So I gave in and explained what I was doing. All three of them immediately offered their cell phones for me to use, and kept me company with great conversation while I dug. It was then that I felt it appropriate to laugh with them at this rare situation.

I will never forget the surprise and disbelief in the “WHAT!” I heard in Maz’s voice as I told him what had happened. He immediately turned around and was back, along with David and Yuri, within 10 minutes. I also will never forget the hug and apology (it was as if I had almost died!) from David as he jumped out of the van with a scared look on his face.

This was actually not a bad experience, but one that I thought I needed to share. After all, almost immediately after this most interesting part of the trip, a tweet to the world announced the story for all to read. I figured I better explain a bit further. I feel lucky to have met and chatted with these three wonderful ladies and two unique tech guys as I waited for my teammates to return. I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to experience the North Idaho College green at night. And, I feel extra lucky to have great teammates who came back for me! They could have very well ignored the call. ☺ Overall, it was a great evening. I suggest everyone try it sometime.

TAIKOPROJECT Ventures Out to the U.K.!

2011-08-29T21:53:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!

Hope everyone out there is doing well! And for those who had a chance to go out to the North American Taiko Conference, I hope you enjoyed your time there as well! This summer has been pretty busy for TP with Rhythmic Relations, taiko conference, obons, AND our tour out to the United Kingdom!

This summer we had the opportunity to go out and tour in Europe. Bryan, Maz, Jen, Courtney and myself headed out to the U.K. in July shortly after Rhythmic Relations. The tour consisted of LOTS of travel time on the plane and buses, as well as watching other taiko groups perform in the Taiko Festival. Once we landed in Heathrow, we drove to Exeter to meet members of Kagemusha Taiko. We finally met Jonathan Kirby, the founder of Kagemusha Taiko. We also had the opportunity to share the stage with Kagemusha Taiko during our performance which was also part of the Taiko Festival in Exeter.
Although our trip in Exeter was short, we had many great adventures that included trying out all types of beers, enjoying the famous "cream tea," leading two workshops, and meeting people from different sides of the country! Thank you Jonathan, Oliver and the Kagemusha family for making TP feel so welcomed! We hope to see you all again soon!

Nisei Week Closing Ceremonies!

2011-08-29T11:54:00.001-07:00

On August 21, we performed for the first time at the Nisei Week Closing Ceremonies in the middle of 1st Street in Little Tokyo. We had a little bit of fun rearranging some of our pieces to perform "in the round" with audience members around us 360 degrees. We did The Stroll circling around our Ohiradaiko, and then a first-time ever arrangement of Expanding dubbed "Circular Expanding" with everyone arranged in a circle facing outwards!

As usual, there were a ton of photographers there. Here are a few photos that were posted recently on Flickr--courtesy of Grant Palmer and Albert Lien:

Weddings Weddings Weddings

2011-08-29T07:53:00.000-07:00

It is definitely a summer of love as TAIKOPROJECT has worked to make a few people's special day perfect with our unique energy. TP has recently had the pleasure of performing at two weddings this past month in Garden Grove and most recently, Redondo Beach. It's always interesting to see how each bride and groom envisions taiko as a part of their wedding day, whether it is a performance for the guests at the reception or more recently, as live music during the processional and recessional. Glad we could be a part of such wonderful memories for the newlyweds and their guests - CONGRATULATIONS!

Stand Bags!

2011-08-26T16:09:00.001-07:00

We just received a new custom set of stand bags from Toni Yagami for our Miyoshi Odaiko stand. I designed it with Toni so that we can pack it up and load it up for gigs quick and fast, and hopefully keep damage on it to a minimum!

Here is our Miyoshi Odaiko stand put together.

As some of you who have Miyoshi Odaiko stands (made by the inimitable Mark Miyoshi of Mt. Shasta, CA) know, his Odaiko stands break down into two main parts. Like so...

So, obviously, two custom bags were needed. Here's the first one, a small bag for the "cradle" or "heart" piece of the stand

The second bag is for the four legs. Toni and I went back and forth on how to design this one--looking at bags for "EZ Ups" and trying to figure out how to best make it work. Here the legs slide in and fit together snugly.

The issue was the casters. As you can see they swing around in a circle, and stick out a few inches, so the opening to the bag needed to widen out a bit in order to make sure that the bag could still close with the casters.

But the bags work great! Everything fits and now we can transport our Miyoshi Odaiko stand with ease and grace.

Thanks Toni! I still have to post photos of the shime stand bags and okedo stand bags...I'll do that soon, but seriously, I think all stands and taiko drums should come with a Toni-made bag when you first get it!

-Bryan

Helping Mayor Yamauchi Celebrate (x3!)

2011-08-18T09:28:00.000-07:00

On Friday, August 5th, Taikoproject was lucky enough to help Mayor of Alhambra, the Honorable Gary Yamauchi, celebrate three momentous occasions: his second term as mayor, his birthday, and the 20th Anniversary of Tri-Star, one of the largest independent vending companies in Southern California that he founded and owns. It was a triple celebration!

The performers of the evening were Andrew, Courtney, Darren, Emily, and me. It would have almost been an ABCDE ordering of performers, but Courtney and I are both "Cs." So Courtney declared I would have to be Bandice for the night to fulfill the alphabetical ordering. (Why not Bourtney?)

We performed Many Sides at the celebration, and the event coordinators (one of whom was the lovely and amazing Ms. June Kuramoto) were kind enough to have provided us with seats at one of the tables so we could have dinner and stay for the event.

We listened to Congresswoman of the 32nd District Judy Chu pay her respects to the Mayor and his accomplishments, and sat down to a very appetizing and yum prime rib dinner. Mayor Yamauchi also made some remarks, and all in all it was a fun night for us. The City of Alhambra has such a great mayor and a great community, and the five of us were so glad to have been a part of it all that night.

Special thanks to June Kuramoto for all of her help and a big congratulations to Mayor Yamauchi!

TP + Vicci Martinez = The Voice Amazingness

2011-06-27T21:42:00.002-07:00

TAIKOPROJECT Rocks the Socks Off NBC's "The Voice"

Did you happen to check out NBC's "The Voice" last Tuesday, June 21st? If you did, you may have noticed six war-painted burly bodies rocking out on okedos to Vicci Martinez's killer performance of Florence and the Machine's "The Dog Days Are Over".

Kickin' it on stage with Vicci, The Voice's sultry blues singer from Tacoma, Washington, TAIKOPROJECT put the beat into judges Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton, and Cee Lo Green with the heartbeat of our okedo while Vicci belted out words that brought the audience to their feet. In a spectacle that coach Cee Lo deemed "The most powerful performance of the night," Vicci and the TAIKOPROJECT locked down a rock-and-roll beat while our warrior paint and Vicci's up-do put the soul into the song.

Meeting Vicci was amazingly enjoyable because she was so down to earth and personable! It was extremely refreshing to work with someone who was engaging and excited to have us on stage with her for such a huge event. I personally hope she goes all the way and takes the finals, and I know the rest of the cast feels the same way.

Although being on stage with Vicci in front of huge stars such as Christina Aguilera and Adam Levine left me a bit starstruck, I think I enjoyed the process as much as the actual performance. Getting ready, rehearsing on stage with direction from our choreographer Hi-Hat (the same choreographer we worked with for the Grammy's gig), and watching all the contestants prepare for the show was just as fulfilling for me as actually being on stage performing. We got professional make-up artists to slather war paint all over our arms and faces, we ate some of the best craft services food I've had in a while, and we even had our own air-conditioned green room!

We arrived at Warner Bros Studios on Tuesday and were taken immediately to get painted. We had no idea it was going to take approximately 45min per person... The result was well worth it though. Check out our red carpet Hollywood shots!

And on to the individual shots. Give me some close ups!


Josh	Andrew

Maz	David

Bryan	Kevin

Here's the gang in front of Warner Bros Studios, getting ready to go on.

After five full days of rehearsals, costume fitting, and militaristic marching, we went on stage with Vicci and absolutely blew the house up. Vicci even borrowed two of our smaller okedos which she used to jam out and get that added rocker effect. I think it worked quite well - what do you think? Check out the video below and see if you can spot who's who!

This performance was special for me because I absolutely love movies, TV, and entertainment, so being on the Warner Bros sets was like putting together peanut butter and chocolate - it just felt right. I'm going to remember this one for a long, long time :)

TAIKOPROJECT:(re)generation in Folsom, CA

2011-06-27T12:19:00.001-07:00

Hi there, folks! TAIKOPROJECT is just finishing up a whirlwind week of taiko, which culminated in our Rhythmic Relations 2011 concert on the JACCC Plaza. But...that is neither here, nor there. I'm here to tell you about our trip to Folsom to perform at the brand new performing arts center, Three Stages at Folsom Lake College. It's an absolutely gorgeous venue in which it was a pleasure to perform. And...it was my first (re)generation show! Oh, thank you, thank you -- your applause is too kind.

On the evening before the show, Andrew, Emily, and I assisted Bryan in offering a workshop to some of the concert attendees in the Black Box, an intimate space that was perfect for teaching. They learned about basic playing technique, some of the patterns that we frequently use, and even learned a drill with multiple parts that they could play together as an ensemble. Afterward, the four of us performed a shortened version of Tsunami, which had everyone smiling, nodding...and covering their ears.

The next day, after the rest of the group had arrived, we did our tech rehearsal and run-through for the show. Feeling prepared, we took a break to eat, get changed, and allow everyone to indulge in preconcert rituals. For this show, my preconcert ritual involved pulling a shime with Kevin. If I might accommodate my ego just a bit, I have to say we did an amazing job. The show that night was a great success, with our workshop friends in the audience along with the renowned Tiffany Tamaribuchi, sensei of Sacramento Taiko Dan. Thanks to everyone who came to the show!

The Adventure
I would be remiss in not relating the details of our trip up to Folsom, because what started off as an ordinary (albeit long) drive up north turned into an ordeal of statistically improbable and comical proportions. It's quite lengthy, but if you're curious, keep reading.

It began one temperate Thursday morning. To avoid taking up parking spaces at Higashi, Andrew drove to my house and Bryan and Emily picked us up from there. We drove to Higashi to load equipment into the trailer and then set out on the trip north.

All was going swimmingly until we noticed signs mentioning a fire somewhere near Valencia. At that point, we hit remarkable traffic because several lanes of the highway had to be closed. But...this is Los Angeles, so that's not particularly out of the ordinary. I've occasionally been caught in traffic here at 2 am.

Once we managed to get past the bottleneck, we stopped off for some lunch at...CHICK-FIL-A! I could barely contain my excitement. For those of you who aren't familiar, I recommend you to do some research with your taste buds. We enjoyed a delicious lunch before getting some gas and setting out again.

Several hours later driving north on I-5, the car started lurching forward before intermittently losing power. Eventually, the car simply wouldn't respond any more, so Bryan pulled over to the shoulder of the highway. He and I (carefully) got out and took a look under the hood to see if we could diagnose the problem. We checked the oil, which happened to be low, but Bryan had a stash in his car, so we added some. Everything else seemed to be normal, and after checking under the chassis, we tried to start the car again.

No dice. It wouldn't even turn on! Now, those of you who are in the know may be thinking at this moment, "But David, didn't you study Mechanical Engineering?" And it is at this point that I would like to let you know that I'm not that kind of ME, so I wasn't particularly helpful. Bryan called AAA and after about an hour of figuring out where we were, what rental options were available (that could pull a trailer full of equipment), and how to get a tow truck out to us, we had come up with a plan.

Bryan and Andrew would take a taxi to the nearest U-Haul to get a truck that could pull the trailer. Emily and I would go with the tow truck to take Bryan's car to the nearest repair shop, which happened to be about an hour north in downtown Stockton. After waiting another 30-40 minutes and beginning to wonder if either taxi or tow truck would actually come, they both showed up at the same time and we said our temporary farewells to each other and to our poor trailer.

Bryan and Andrew acquire vehicles

After the taxi stopped about 125 meters down past us on the highway, Bryan and Andrew carefully traversed the shoulder of the I-5 (at night, mind you) to head to the U-Haul. Once they got in, the taxi driver, in his best rendition of Crazy Taxi proceeded to pull a U-turn at one of the areas normally designated for Highway Patrol officers. They made it to the rental office, where the proprietors had stayed open just for us (thank you!) and managed to get a truck that could pull the trailer.

After contacting Maz's uncle Jerry, who allowed us to borrow his car, they were able to return to the trailer and get it hitched up, while Andrew drove the car up north to extract Emily and I from Stockton. Bryan drove solo with the trailer and experienced an uncanny amount of exit closures, blockages, and other obstacles to getting to our final destination. I can only imagine the frustration...

Emily and David are not in Kansas anymore...

Once Bryan's 4Runner was saddled up on top of the tow truck, we set out on the long ride north to Stockton. Driving a tow truck always seemed like a solitary life to me, and now I know that that's only half true. It does seem like a lot of alone time in the truck, but the radio chatter that we heard was really funny. I guess these guys have to entertain themselves somehow.

By the time we got to the repair shop, it was already closed for the night. We had the keys to the car, but couldn't take them with us since the shop would need them in the morning. Searching around the perimeter of the shop for a place to hide the keys, we didn't find anywhere useful, but did notice suspicious holes in the windows and doors of the shop. Hopefully they were made by rocks...

Finally, I spied a small empty box of fuses on the top of a trash can, so I grabbed that and put in the keys. We then tossed it inside a gate into a bush and took some notes so we could tell the shop people where to find it. We wanted to wait at a Starbucks for Andrew, so we used Emily's phone to locate one. We followed the map to the location marked and ended up walking through a park that, at night at least, seemed like something out of a Tim Burton film filled with questionable characters. After skirting a couple of large, ornery dogs and shadowy figures standing on corners, we finally found ourselves...in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

We happened to have chosen a Starbucks with an incorrect map address, so, choosing another one, we set out again to try to find a reasonably safe place to wait. When we arrived, we saw that it had already closed, so we went next door to the Cold Stone to use the restroom and have some ice cream. After another brief run in with a woman who seemed, well...not all there, we decided to find a bench outside in the atrium to sit and wait. Only a few minutes had passed before I heard from the top of a nearby parking structure, "I'm going to jump!" at which point I began to wonder if we were in some kind of dark comedy of errors. Shortly thereafter, we got a call that the cavalry had come directly: Andrew was there to pick us up!

To the Hotel!

Andrew, Emily, and I headed north mostly without event until we finally reached Folsom. Once we got into town, though, we were kind of lost -- and driving like it: stopping, driving slowly, changing lanes abruptly, etc. We finally thought we'd figured out where to go when, after making a turn, we were greeted with an eruption of blue and red light in our rear-view mirror. What else could go wrong? we thought. The officer stepped up to my side of the car and asked us if we'd had anything to drink. We told him that we were just lost and trying to find our way, after which he asked to see Andrew's license and the registration for the car. After explaining that the reason the registration had a different name was because we were from out of town and borrowing the car (which he thankfully didn't question), he gave us directions the rest of the way to the hotel. Over fourteen hours after the start of our trip, we had arrived!

The Los Banos 4 Reunited

We met Bryan after he arrived at the hotel with the trailer. By that time, it was 12:30 am or so, so there wasn't much open. We drove around for about 10 minutes before finding T2 Yan, a late-night Chinese food restaurant. It was quite lively inside, with loud club music splitting time with locals belting out their favorite karaoke hits. But it was open and the food was good, so we couldn't complain. We were just happy to have made it through the day.

So, that's it! If you've made it this far, I salute you. And for those of you in the tl;dr crowd: The Folsom show was a success, but we sure had a crazy time getting up there!

Qualcomm Uplinq: June 1st, 2011

2011-06-10T12:12:00.000-07:00

TAIKOPROJECT and a few friends took a quick trip down to the sunny San Diego Manchester Grant Hyatt Hotel to perform at the 2011 Uplinq Conference hosted by Qualcomm. According to the website, "Uplinq is the only wireless ecosystem conference that brings together developers and publishers, device makes, OS and technology providers, and network operators to build business around high-quality, compelling mobile apps and data services". Here's a cool picture that Andrew took of the incredible projection screen setup!

Bryan, Maz, David, TP friends Jason and Kelvin, and I all drove down early on May 31st to load in and attend the first rehearsal. Once we arrived, we met with our presenter, Anthony, who walked us through our assignments. Anthony is so great. He's very hospitable and welcoming, so it was a pleasure working with him! After the rehearsal, we walked to a nearby outdoor mall for lunch. Seaport Village is home to various eateries that serve Mexican, Greek, and traditional "American" cuisine. I ordered the rolled chicken tacos, smothered in guacamole and cheese. Yum!

We walked back to the hotel and checked into our own comfy rooms, where we rested until later that evening . Soon after, Andrew, Yuri, Doug, and TP friend Joe arrived and joined us for the second rehearsal. Following the rehearsal, we sat down for a wonderful dinner at the hotel. It was at this dinner that we discovered David's fascinating eating habits! Poor David suffered through many of Bryan's attempts at sabotaging his perfectly separated portions. :( Fortunately, the rest of us aren't too concerned about our food touching, so Bryan didn't bother us. This was our dinner: jicama mango salad, tortilla soup, baked mac and cheese, and beef ribs!

After dinner, several of us decided to take a stroll through the famous Gaslamp Quarter. Jason really wanted to go dancing, but sadly he was the only one. The majority of us were already exhausted from the long day of loading in and rehearsals.

The next morning, we woke up bright and early to perform at the opening of the conference. Instead of wearing our signature TP outfits, we wore casual black button-down tops and slacks. We were positioned at several locations throughout the audience, designated by colorful spotlights that illuminated us as we played. Our assignment was to play along to a track that accompanied an inspirational spoken word video. The video was only about 90 seconds long, so the performance was over before we knew it! We returned at the end of the opening to do a short rendition of "Here We Go Now!".

To celebrate, the whole San Diego cast went to Andrew's parents' restaurant, Choice of Mandarin. We stuffed ourselves with spicy tofu, fried rice, sauteed beef, and Maz's favorite, honey walnut shrimp!

Here's Maz in front of the restaurant!

The meal was extremely satisfying, and it was so nice to finally meet Andrew's parents. Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Chen! We hope to see you both again soon!

The Shishi Restoration Project - Part 2!!

2011-04-07T13:49:00.000-07:00

After Bryan made the Shishi head shiny and new looking (read about it HERE), I took it home and made a cape for it.

I decided to make the new Shishi cape a little bit different from the first one I made. This one will have a green body with dark red and white stripes down the middle of the back.

After the green fabric was cut to size, I sewed it all together. As I was doing that, Hiro cut out all the red and white panels. We started sewing the red and white panels together, but it was way too thick... so Hiro made them thinner. They looked much better!!

Then, I put the green part together with the red and white part. Easy peasy.

Of course, no Shishi cape is complete without a tail! I made it red and then added red and white fabric pieces at the ends.

You would think I'd be finished with everything... but I had to add the hair!

This was a mess! The wig was tangled. I even tried to brush it out, but it looked worse, so I decided to just leave it as it was.

I used red felt to put everything together.

Finally, I sewed the cape onto the head.

Tadaa~!

-with no hair

with hair!!!!

"Hello~!!!"

And here it is in action!!!!!! I, um, think he/she needs a hair cut... badly... :P

Longview, WA - reGeneration - 3.19.11

2011-03-27T15:34:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, the TAIKOPROJECT stormed the Pacific Northwest and visited the small-town of Longview, Washington. Longview is a quaint town about an hour north of Portland, OR, so this show was a special event for me personally, as it was the first show that my parents were able to see. The Suda family originates out of Portland, OR, so it was a relatively short journey to experience taiko a la TAIKOPROJECT.

Team DTK (Darren, Tricia, and Kevin) left LAX in the late afternoon on Thursday, the 17th, in order to land and prepare for the following day's school show. The flight was delayed 30min as we had to wait for a crewmember who was running late. The funny thing is, the stewardess announced their colleague's tardiness over the intercom, instead of making up some excuse for them. Good friend.

Darren, Yumi, and myself entertaining ourselves while we waited to take off.

After running across the Seattle Airport to catch our connecting flight (we actually had to catch a train to get to the other side of the airport), we landed at PDX in the late evening. We were greeted by our driver, Ned Piper, who was a Longview native that had deep roots in the town, dating back to its inception in the early 1900s. We learned all about Longview and the interesting story of the Columbia Theatre, which was saved inadvertently by the Mt. St. Helens eruption in May of 1980. Apparently, the theatre was set to be torn down, but the St. Helens eruption required use of the town's heavy machinery, which gave Longview locals enough time to rally and raise money to keep it open.

After it's extensive renovation, the theatre looks beautiful! So in a way...thanks Mt. St. Helens.


photo courtesy of universetoday.com	photo courtesy of cplinc.com

Friday's school show brought roughly 100 students ranging from middle school up through high school. We performed our shortened school show set and afterwards had the kids come up to learn some taiko basics. After the show, we spiked for Saturday's show and hit the road back to our hotel.

It was on Friday night that we discovered the perfect set of tights for Tomomi. We found them at Target while searching for clear tape. Aren't they perfect?!

The second half of the team (Jen, John, Scott, Liz, and Courtney) arrived later that night and after a short dinner at the local Shari's, we hit the hay.

Showtime. Saturday we were prepping all day for the big show. Right before we went on, we got a message from the Getty cast (the other half of the group was performing at the Getty Museum in LA earlier that same day). They had posted a fun-loving picture after their successful show.

In anticipation of our own performance, we decided to take our own picture. (see if you can match up who's who!)

For this show, I was particularly nervous because I wanted to make sure that the first reGen show my parents saw was a great experience. The show went pretty well, and the crowd was very receptive. We saw many of the students from the school show, which was nice because they got to see the full production.

Mom and Dad loved the show! While it could have been cleaner at points, I'm just glad they finally got to see TP in action. Almost three years of hearing about rehearsals and tours, but now they got to experience the show!

It was so nice to be back in the Pac. NW and to see my parents, but it was also nice to return to LA and SoCal. I'll always love going home to Portland, but my taiko family is here in LA!

Getty Center, Los Angeles

2011-03-25T14:53:00.000-07:00

The March 19th weekend was a bustling weekend for TAIKOPROJECT. While half the cast traveled to Longview, Washington to do their reGeneration show (see Kevin's awesome post above), the other half stayed behind to perform at the beautiful Getty Center in Los Angeles as a part of its Family Festival series. There were many performances and shows that day, and we were one of many. We even had the pleasure of watching Chinese acrobats perform on stage just as we were loading in!

Despite FREEZING afternoon weather on a chilly and overcast day, the cast made performing in short sleeved and sleeveless tops look easy! The 1 hour show was great and everyone had a blast. Check out the pics, below (photo credit and special thanks to Hiro)!

The ending of Here We Go Now, which was our opening piece of the afternoon.

The debut of our brand new shishi! It kind of needs a haircut...but Brian did a great job with it nonetheless.

Our fue stars in Island Groove, Yuri and Brian! Plus, some support from the Groovettes: Keiko, Emily and me.

Many Sides was a fun piece (as it always is), and it helped us warm up in the cold!

This was definitely a "har har" candid moment that Hiro so cleverly captured. That's Andrew and Emily standing in matching poses...and I don't think they were doing it intentionally. Who was copying whom? I'll let you decide.

All in all, a really fun gig, especially for those of us who either had never been to the Getty, or had not visited in years. It's such a beautiful venue with great people, and a stunning view. DEF felt the TP love that weekend! (ALSO see Kevin's post for the second picture that came after this one...and the Longview cast's rendition. Haha)

Special thanks and TP love also to Hal and Lisa from Bombu for transporting members and equipment; Dok and Melissa for manning the Merchandise table; Hiro for photos, and Hiroka-san for helping us lug drums around! We couldn't have had a successful performance without you!

The Shishi Restoration Project - Part 1

2011-03-14T21:23:00.000-07:00

TP recently acquired a shishi gashira (lion mask) on Ebay for a great price of $150! Normally, shishi gashira can be $2000 - $5000 brand new. It's a little smaller than our current shishi, but still a pretty good size. It was a little dingy too, so I thought it would be a fun project to refurbish it, and it would make it possible for TP to do a two-person shishimai. Also, thought it would be fun to document the process to share with our friends and fans! It isn't quite all finished yet, but we've made a lot of progress so far and wanted to share--so here we go...

Here's the back of the shishi. A small dowel holds the jaw part on the mask.

This shishi also had a tongue attached to the bottom of the mouth. The ears come off too.

In my years of doing shishimai, I have always enjoyed using shishi gashira that has a mouth that can open wide. Unfortunately, this shishi has a small mouth opening, but with a little surgery...we can make the mouth open wider. Here is the jaw as it was before surgery.

Here is the jaw post-surgery. Basically all I did was make an angled cut on the jaw to make more space for the jaw to open up.

Here's the original.

Here's the new mouth opening, increased maybe 1 1/2-2"! Next step...painting--

First coat--Krylon spray paint, fire engine red, with black accent areas taped over. Here's the jaw and the tongue.

With the tape taken off, old black accents exposed.

The whole mask after the paint job.

Tape removed.

After painting black accents and gold teeth.

From the side.

New handle attached on the back of the shishi gashira. Nothing too fancy, but hopefully will allow the shishi person to control the mask well.

Handle taped up with black tape. Next in Part 2, we'll bring in Yuri, who is making a new cape for the shishi, we'll add the hair, and then Shishi #2 will be good to go!

LunarFest Riverside

2011-02-04T16:46:00.000-08:00

TAIKOPROJECT was really busy this past weekend! While one group was in Chicago freezing their tails off in the snow, the rest of us were playing for Riverside's First Annual Lunar New Year Festival. Happily, I was in the latter group with Maz, Courtney, Darren, Emily, Yumi, and Candice performing outside in the nice Downtown Riverside weather.

Emily, Yumi, and I arrived early so we walked around for a bit and saw a few of the performances, including traditional dancing, martial artists, and Chinese lion dancers. They also had a ping pong tournament going on. I wanted to play, but didn't want to embarrass myself! Then Yumi's food radar went off and led her directly to the eggrolls...

Once everyone arrived, we prepped our equipment backstage for our 1:45pm performance. After unloading, Maz and Emily needed to re-park their cars, but unfortunately finding parking was quite difficult. While Emily was still looking for a place to park, the festival staff alerted us that we might need to go on early! Luckily she found parking just in time and we went out to perform for a great audience.

After our first set, we had some spare time so we relaxed at the Coffee Bean and ate some Portos courtesy of Darren (thanks D!). We also got a chance to hang out with UCR Senryu members. They had performances at the opening and closing of the event. We later saw this amazing performer who could change his face mask in the blink of an eye. He would either turn around or flash his cape in front of his face for a fraction of a second and presto blingo -- new face! I thought one of the masks looked like Pikachu, but I could be wrong...

Our second set was at 4pm and we made a few adjustments to make it an even better performance. Thank you to the festival volunteers that were very helpful and assisted us in getting on and off stage! After packing up our equipment, it looked like the sun was setting soon. We were tired, but had a lot of fun. Maz especially had a blast because he loves his festivities!

On our walk back to the car, we passed by a booth that had some rabbits in honor of the Year of the Rabbit. These weren't ordinary rabbits though... these were the biggest rabbits I've ever seen! Some would say ginormous! I'm pretty sure the rabbits would beat up my dog. Thank you to LunarFest Riverside for having us. Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Celebrasia 2011: Year of the Rabbit

2011-02-03T18:01:00.000-08:00

Before the sun has even started to peek over the horizon on Jan 29th, Bryan, Andrew, Tomomi, Jenny and Jen met at LAX to get on their flight to Chicago to perform at Northwestern University's Celebrasia. Celebrasia is an annual program that is hosted by Northwestern's own Taiwanese American Student's Club and the Chinese Student's Association to celebrate the lunar new year. This year, we were joined by other student performers and acts such as Chicago's Seven Stars Lion Dance, Youtube singer Jennifer Chung, the Shanghai Restoration Project and the Season 5 winners of America's Best Dance Crew -Poreotics.

After landing in Chicago, we drove straight to the Midwest Buddhist Temple to pick up some borrowed drums and also met up with Ryan who helped us out all day...thanks Ryan, you're awesome!! From the temple, we headed directly to Northwestern for our sound/tech rehearsal and then it was showtime! The crowd was jam packed and had great energy all night. We want to thank Tiffany Chang, TASC and CSA for bringing us out and to all the students for their hard work and great hospitality.

The next morning, we had some free time before out flight back to LA, so Andrew, Tomomi, Jenny and I decided to drive out to downtown Chicago to do some sightseeing. First we visited the Willis tower and took an elevator 103 floors up to their Skydeck. On the Skydeck, they have a glass box called the "Ledge" that extends about 4 feet out of the side of the building. We all took turns standing on the ledge and from 1,353 feet up in the sky, enjoyed the vast horizon and view of downtown Chicago. After Willis Tower, we walked around the streets of Chicago for a while then made a stop by Millennium Park to visit the Cloud Gate sculpture before heading back to the airport. I was told that it was fairly warm for Chicago weather while we were there (and it seemed that way as we saw students walking around in shorts and shirtless on campus), but thinking back to our frozen, shivering bodies while walking through the city, it was apparent to me that you can't get acclimated to colder weather like that in just 2 days =)

Thank you again to Northwestern's Taiwanese American Student's Club and the Chinese Student's Association for bringing us out and thank you to Chicago for a great time. Can't wait to visit again!

Loading in, loading out...

2011-01-24T20:50:00.003-08:00

I often joke around that 90% of my job as a taiko drummer is driving stuff around--loading and unloading equipment. 10% of my time I am actually drumming. While moving and packing drums has been pretty normal--we have Toni Yagami chudaiko bags, and other cases for shime and okedotaiko, what often causes us to make a ridiculous amount of trips back and forth to the van are our numerous stands. Shime stands, okedo stand pieces, chu stands, percussion tables, etc, etc. After about a decade of doing this, I think I've finally figured out a simple solution, and I am very grateful that Toni is humoring me and helping make some STAND BAGS! Here are some sketches and ideas that we have. If you have the same problem lugging stands around, maybe Toni can make some stand bags for you, too! (after she does ours)

Here are some of my basic ideas--first, here we have three shime stands that fold up and can stack together pretty compact.

Normally, we'd just pick one or two up in one hand and carry them from van to stage and back. What this and the other stand bags are going to do that is going to save us tons of time (I think) is that we can pack multiple stands and carry three at a time over our shoulders, which means our hands are still free to carry other stuff. We're ordering two for now, which means we should be able to transport 6 stands, which should be plenty.

We also have two more designs, and anyone out there who has Asano Taiko okedos and stands might find these intriguing. As some of you may know, Asano Taiko's okedo stands break down into two pieces. A piece shaped like an "I" and another piece shaped like an "H". If you're like TAIKOPROJECT, every now and then we take the wrong sized stand, or mismatched, or one time we left a stand piece at a gig. Sigh. These okedo stand bags we hope will make it so none of these things happen, AND that we can transport them and protect them better.

This first photo is the "I" pieces. There's a caster on one of them, but we're going to take it off--

Here's the bag sketch. Also, there will be some padding on the top flap, because we have had to repair a number of pegs, since they're kind of fragile. This one also slings over the shoulder, making it easy to carry along with other pieces of equipment.

Finally, we have our okedo "H" stand pieces. These come in various sizes, but are all pretty close in their dimensions. Again, they sling over the shoulder and will also protect the stands when they're packed away.

Here's the bag sketch--

Toni has just started working on these, but I am really excited to see how they'll turn out. When they're done, we'll post photos on our blog!

Oshogatsu, Part 2

2011-01-05T21:10:00.000-08:00

After a great New Year's day performance, TP continued its Oshogatsu celebrations on Sunday, January 2nd with a performance at JANM (the Japanese American National Museum), located in the heart of Little Tokyo.

Despite some disappointing weather (2011 opened with beautiful, sunny weather on the 1st but gave LA a taste of more rain on the 2nd), JANM continued its family celebrations to ring in the New Year with folks from all over the city. We were the last performance of the day, closing out the day's festivities.

We performed a fun set, and I found that the rain turned out to serve some good after all. It brought everyone together indoors, and while performing for large, spread out audiences are exciting too, the second floor of the museum provided a warm, intimate space. There's something about having your audience so physically close that adds extra enjoyment to a performance. As one of the brand new trainees myself, it was, no doubt, a good stage experience to add to my personal repertoire.

All in all, a great way to kick off the year.

Enjoying a bite-sized piece of warm, soft kinako mochi post-performance doesn't hurt either. (Thanks, Kodama Taiko!)

New Year's Taiko Gigs

2011-01-05T15:32:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, folks! I hope you all had a chance to open the new year with lots of food, friends, family, and fun – and also with an appropriate amount of alliteration.

It’s a busy time for TaikoProject so far this year. On New Year’s Day, we were very pleased to perform at Weller Court in downtown LA’s Little Tokyo. The performance opened with an improvised collaboration with an impressive and dynamic Ikebana presentation (we're talking huge bamboo...not your typical New Year's Day table centerpiece), and later we performed a set for a packed courtyard crowd of New Year’s revelers and spectators.

We’ve got several other gigs coming up soon, so if you’re feeling the need for some TP taiko magic to set your year on the path to awesomeness, head on over to our website to find out where you can see us next!

HTV commercial shoot in San Pedro!

2011-01-05T14:28:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! Looks like 2011 is going to be a very busy and exciting year for TAIKOPROJECT! Just wanted to tell you guys a about a gig we had last month.

On December 7^th, TP was asked to help shoot a commercial for HTV, an MTV-esque Latin American TV channel.Our call time was super early! 6:00AM! The commercial was shot at the Korean Bell of Friendship in San Pedro. When we got there it dark and foggy, but people were already running around building the set. As the sun rose, the Korean Bell transformed into some kind of feudal Asian palace. At one point we heard, “Bring anything that looks Asian!!!!!” being yelled across the park. Ceramic urns, tea pots, blankets, pillows, and random Mardi Gras beads were hurried over and strewn around the bell.Taiko players, ninjas, a Japanese/Filipino emperor, and Chinese lion dancers converged at the Korean Bell to create some mutant freak mix of Asian culture. Several hours later the set was complete, everyone was in place, and we were ready to begin shooting!

Now would be a good time for me to tell you the premise of the commercial....which I find hilarious....

A buff, mean-looking Asian Emperor sits in his palace surrounded by scantily glad ninja girls (because we all know being a ninja is so much easier when you are wearing close to nothing). Ferocious taiko playing can be heard in the background. *ominous drumroll... A voluptuous "Latin Bombshell" arrives at said Asian palace in a black luxury sedan with her two ripped Latino man-friends. Asian Emperor sends his ninja girls to do battle with them. Lead ninja girl cuts half of Latin Bombshell's dress off. Tension rises. *CUE SALSA MUSIC *CUE LION DANCERS *CUE SPONTANEOUS DANCE PARTY!!! Ninja girl enjoys a passionate dance with Latino man.... Asian Emperor shares a moment with Latin Bombshell... you get the idea. If only all the world's problems could be solved by spontaneously bursting into dance....Based on the other commercials in this series, I’m assuming at some point in time a gigantic hot air balloon with the HTV logo on it will rip the temple from the ground and take us all on a happy, dance-filled ride into the unknown (I’m serious.)

Playing taiko was fun as usual. The drums were so loud that the production crew had to continuously yell at us to stop playing… Bryan, Brian, and I played a pretty simple arrangement thrown together earlier that morning. Eventually we spiced things up and played along to some salsa music (for the dance party). Bryan and Bryan has some close-up shots taken of them with an extremely expensive crane-mounted camera. Hopefully those make it into the commercial somewhere!

Most of the day was actually spent waiting for the fog to lift. The fog ended up putting the shoot many hours behind schedule. To make matters worse, it was absolutely freezing outside! Fortunately, someone was there to give us our jackets between shots. Some 12 hours after we arrived, the sun was beginning to set, the temperature had dropped even more, and the crew was scrambling to get some last shots in. There was lots of stress and yelling in those last 30 minutes, but after we wrapped we got to enjoy a nice sunset.

A long day, but very fun nonetheless. The three of us met some very interesting people and had some good laughs. Here are some pictures from our day:

Hiroshima's Spirit of the Season Holiday Show!

2010-12-08T18:38:00.001-08:00

About two months ago, I got an email from June and Dan Kuramoto of the popular Asian American band, Hiroshima, asking me if I'd be interested in playing an opening koto set for their annual Spirit of the Season Holiday Show. They stumbled across "Seiza" from TAIKOPROJECT's Surrounding Suns CD and fell in love with it. To quote June, she exclaimed, "My heart is exploding!" It's quite an honor to be asked to open for Hiroshima, so I couldn't pass it up!

I had no idea what to perform other than "Seiza". Since I haven't written any songs with just koto, I didn't have much to choose from. While performing with Jodaiko at UC Irvine, I co-wrote a koto/taiko piece entitled "Enkai" with my good friend Michael Gusukuma. Hoping that I still remembered how to play the song, I decided to play "Enkai" as the second number of my set.

I was so excited when Darren, Jen, Maz, Tomomi, and Yuri agreed to accompany me, especially since they are such amazing taiko players that I admire both as musicians and as my friends. They put forth a great deal of effort to learn Enkai and they really transformed the song by adding some TP flair to it!

THE DAY OF THE SHOW:

We arrived at the Japan America Aratani Theater in Little Tokyo, welcomed by the sounds of Hiroshima wrapping up their sound check. At that moment, everything was incredibly nostalgic for me. Every other year when I was young (from about age 4 to age 12) I used to come to the JAT to perform koto concerts with the Koto String Society. At that time, June would perform with us and I would always admire the finesse with which she played. She was, and definitely still is, my koto idol and a dear family-friend. Watching her rehearse with Hiroshima brought me back to those days when I was young. It was such a warm feeling!

After our sound check, we ate some delicious food with the band. We spent a good amount of time hanging out with Shoji Kameda (former musical director of TAIKOPROJECT and composer of "Omiyage"), which was really nice. It was my first time formally meeting him! To be honest, I was a little star-struck...I hope I didn't act too much like a fan!

Finally it was show time! We performed "Seiza", "Enkai", and "Many Sides". Everything went pretty smoothly and it was a lot of fun! I could hear my small fan-base of family and friends cheering for us in the audience, thanks to my mom who invited almost everyone she knew (she's a huge TP fan).

It's been my dream to perform koto at a gig like this. I'm particularly grateful that I got to share the stage with my TAIKOPORJECT buddies! This was definitely a performance to remember :)

Escondido School Show & HP Software Kick-off 2010 in Vegas

2010-11-27T17:28:00.000-08:00

Last week we went to Escondido for a school show and Las Vegas for the HP Software Kick-off 2010. This was my first school show and the first time I got to travel with TAIKOPROJECT so I was excited.

We drove down to Escondido on Wednesday morning. The performance was at this really nice Center for the Arts. About 1,000 elementary and junior high school students came in from different schools in the area. We played a couple of songs, talked about the history of taiko, and demonstrated the different types of drums and instruments. It was really fun and interesting to see how much the kids enjoyed everything. Near the end of our performance we had some kids come up and try playing. Jenny and I went out into the audience to pick the kids. I felt bad though because there were SO many kids that wanted to come up, but I could only pick a few. It was awesome seeing the kids playing on the drums though and how much fun they were having. After the kids played then we asked if some of the teachers wanted to try. Some of the teachers looked even more excited than the kids. My favorite part was actually after the performance. After most of the students left, there were a group of deaf students that came up. They put their hand on the drum while Maz hit it so they could feel the vibrations. It was really amazing seeing their reaction when Maz hit the drum. Overall, it was a really fun performance and I'm glad that the schools could do events like this for the kids because they all seemed to really enjoy it.

Thursday morning we left for Las Vegas for the HP Software Kick-off 2010. We got to the Venetian and unloaded all of the equipment for the rehearsal. We were at the rehearsal for a couple of hours to figure out how everything would go for the next day. After the rehearsal, we checked in to our rooms. We each got our own room at the Venetian! I think I might've gotten a little spoiled for my first traveling experience. We had the night free so we decided to see the Jabbawockeez. The show was really good and it was a lot more theatrical than I was expecting. After the show we all went back to our rooms since we had a long day and we had to be up early for the performance the next day. For the performance, we opened the program to get everyone awake and pumped up. After we played, Bryan led an audience participation exercise. Each audience member got this small drum so they could play with us. There were about 200 people there so it got to be pretty loud in the theatre. Then we introduced the CEO and he came in playing an okedo. He seemed to have fun playing and the audience was really rooting him on. Then we hung out backstage while their program went on. We came on again at the end of the program to pump everyone up and get excited for the coming year. After the performance, we loaded up, stopped to eat something then headed home. Overall, the performance went well and it was fun hanging out with everyone.

Thanks to everyone involved in the Escondido school show and the HP Software Kick-off 2010 show!

Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Tanabe!

2010-11-20T23:15:00.001-08:00

This past Saturday, 11/13... one more Deguchi sister was wed. And back by popular demand, TaikoProject was asked to perform at her wedding... or rather... my sisters took full advantage of their performing monkey...=( In either case, members of TP graciously came to celebrate the union of my sister and her new husband along with 300 guests (and 150 were from JAPAN!) The ceremony and reception was held at the beautifully expensive Langham Hotel in Pasadena and true to my sister's taste... it was an extravagant affair!

since no post is complete without a few visuals.. here are some photos from the wedding

The newest addition to our family of girls:

TP with their newest/youngest fans (my cousin's son and daughter, Troy and Kelli)

Back in October, Liz wrote about my mom's 60th birthday. And just like his auntie, my little nephew has just been CRAZY for the drums....So after our performance at my mom's party, he came straight to the drums and starting playing Expanding! (just kidding)
*Note: he requires no guidance to this drum... he went all on his own =D

After my sister's wedding performance, he wasted no time and just went straight to the drums. He proceeded to follow me even as we were packing up.

Presenting the future of American taiko

(Disclaimer: No drums were harmed or dirtied in any of these photos... =D)

Kris and Maz's Cross Country Adventures!

2010-11-15T16:49:00.000-08:00

Day 1, October 31
Kris and I leave the group after a nice show in beautiful Fresno, CA! I didn't realize that we were going to pass by Kris' parent's place near Tehachapi until the night before. Kris called his mom and we met up with her for lunch (his dad was traveling to France). Kris usually brings "Takeru-kun", which is a small 2 cup rice cooker, and makes his own food when we're on tour, so I decided that I should join him and be healthier this time around since I always gain weight going through the midwest. Indian curry from Trader Joe's was on the menu today! Kris' mom made us a nice loaf of bread. We drive to St. George, Utah and try to go bowling, but it was closed!

Day 2, November 1
Drove to Denver, Colorado. It was a beautiful day driving through the Rockies. Snow had just fallen and it sparkled in the sun. We had a fun sling okedo workshop with Denver Taiko. Thank you Aiko and family for housing us and for feeding us well.

Day 3, November 2
Drove to Davenport, Iowa. This was a 13 hour drive... so long! Kris downloaded some podcasts from NPR which included Car Talk, This American Life, Film Week, and Science Friday to keep us from getting too bored. I decided that I needed to get my blood pumping, so I went running, went swimming, and sat in the hot tub.

Day 4, November 3
Drove to Novi, Michigan to have an Omiyage workshop with Great Lakes Taiko Center. We taught the main part of Omiyage in 2 hours! It was tough to get through it, but they hung in there! Thank you Brian, Mayumi, and their family for housing us. We begin to feel the weather getting colder.

Day 5, November 4
My gps took us through Canada to get us to Geneseo, NY. Bizarre! We got to the Canadian border with no passports, but they still let us in. Apparently the gps took us on the fastest route and apparently it happens all the time, so we were all good. We met up with Darren, Emily, and Scott (our technical director) for dinner at Applebee's! After eating with Kris who's a vegan and eating vegan food for the past 5 days, I kinda go crazy and get ribs. Yum!

Day 6, November 5
I got an oil change in the morning then Kris, Emily, Darren, Scott, and I loaded in the theater, set up the instruments, set lights, set up some costumes, spiked the first half of the show, did a sound check, and ran a public workshop. Jen, Yuri, Tomomi, Yumi, and Kevin fly in and we met up to eat pizza at Mama Mia's!

Day 7, November 6
Show day! Tech and run through went really well. We found ourselves with a lot of downtime which is really rare. The show went well considering it was only the second time we've done it. Only a few hiccups here and there, but for the most part I was happy with the show. After the show, we ate at Denny's in honor of Bryan. Then we went to my room and had fun stacking stuff on sleeping Darren. The crack from the rock chip in the van windshield started to grow to about four inches. I think the cold had to do something with it. Thank you Lindsey, Kellie, and Cary of the SUNY Limelight and Accents Performing Arts Series in for putting on the concert.

Day 8, November 7
Kris and I part ways with the rest of the group =( and drive to Dublin, Ohio to finish teaching Omiyage to the Dublin Taiko Boosters that Bryan and I started this past April. They learned it all! After the workshop, we had a two hour private lesson with Eric Paton who is a professor at Capital University and teaches percussion and taiko. Thank you Susann for organizing the workshop and to her husband for providing us a nice hotel room. The crack in the windshield grows to about 8 inches

Day 9, November 8
Drove to St. Joseph, Missouri. There's nothing out here!

Day 10, November 9
Drove back to Denver, Colorado on a small, two-lane highway through the north part of Kansas. Nothing but prairie out there. Boring!!! But, we passed through some interesting small towns with lots of character. Towards the end of the drive, we drove right through a blizzard. Scary! When we arrived in Denver, we played ping pong and pool with Aiko's sons, Matthew and Connor. Fun! Thanks again to Aiko and her family for housing us!

Day 11, November 10
Drove to Moab, Utah. I was a little concerned going over the Rockies because of the blizzard the day before, but it was fine. Nice and sunny, but quite cold, so the windshield wiper fluid hose froze. I had to stop to defrost it because the windshield was really dirty and I couldn't see very well. Had a good workshop with Moab Taiko Dan. Taught the new rhythms to Tomodachi To Isshoni which we taught when Bryan and I passed through in the spring. Thank you Hop and Sheila for housing us!

Day 12, November 11
Last day of driving! It was long and we ran out of NPR podcasts, but we finally made it back to Higashi to unload and practice a little bit. Otsukaresama deshita! The crack in the windshield ended up being about two feet!

Facts about the trip:
-5,509 miles driven according to google maps
-Passed through California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Ontario (Canada), New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri
-40 NPR podcasts listened to
-Dishes created in Kris' rice cooker: rice and indian curry, Jamaican rice, chocolate cake, and oatmeal
-Besides being in Geneseo, we made all of our meals
-5 workshops and 2 private lessons conducted
-The crack in the windshield ended up being almost two feet long

Picnic time in the Rockies

Fun with snow in the Rockies

Somewhere in Missouri...

Desert in Utah

Geneseo, New York

2010-11-08T13:41:00.000-08:00

Picture by Yuri Yoshida

This weekend TAIKOPROJECT went to Geneseo, New York with TAIKOPROJECT for a performance. We first stopped in Cleveland for 30 minutes or so then transferred onto a “putt-putt” plane that flew us to NY. When we left Los Angeles it was in the high 90's but when we reached Geneseo, it was in the mid-30's. 60 degrees difference! Brrrrr!

We got picked up and finally met up with Emily, Darren, Maz, Kris and Scott. We went to go eat pizza at Mama Mia’s. Then Saturday we arrived at the theater around noon and got to work. We spiked the rest of the second set and did some prep work before run throughs.

I had a lot of fun hanging out with everyone. Tours are always fun-creating and sharing new memories together. Can't wait for the next tour!

...And we're back from Geneseo, New York!

2010-11-08T12:34:00.000-08:00

Darren, Kevin, Yuri, Jen, Yumi, Tomomi, and I just got back from a gig in Geneseo, New York this past weekend! (Maz and Kris also played with us, but they're currently driving back to L.A., holding workshops along the way until Thursday.) We performed TAIKOPROJECT's new Continuum show for the Limelight & Accents Performing Arts Series at the State University of New York (SUNY - pronounced "soo-knee") at Geneseo. The show was held on campus in the Wadsworth Auditorium, which seats nearly 1,000 people!

It all started on Thursday morning, when Darren and I flew out of L.A. with our lighting director, Scott. After about 6 hours of flying and a 40-minute drive, we finally arrived in Geneseo! We met up with Maz & Kris at the hotel and went to a late dinner at Applebee's. It was my first time eating there, even though I know there are plenty of Applebee's restaurants in southern California. Has anyone else not eaten there at some point in their life, or am I just a rare case...?

The next day, we prepped for the show as much as possible, loading in all the equipment, checking sound, spiking the stage, and setting & steaming costumes. I was amazed that we were able to do all that with only four people! The rest of the cast flew in from L.A., so Scott and I headed back to the hotel to help them settle in, while Maz, Kris, and Darren stayed at the auditorium to hold a workshop. We all met up afterwards and went to dinner, then headed back to the hotel to rest up for the show.

Saturday was the big day! The show went great and we were well-received by the big audience. Thank you so much to everyone who came out to watch! After the show, we got to meet and talk to the members of Yamatai, Cornell University's taiko group. Everyone was really nice, and I hope we keep in touch :)

On Sunday, we said our goodbyes to Maz & Kris (who left early that morning to drive out to Dublin, Ohio) and headed to the airport. After another long day of flying, we arrived home safely! A BIG thanks goes out to Lindsey Hebell and the rest of the Limelight & Accents crew. Thank you for having us! It was a pleasure working with you all and we had a great time in Geneseo!!

Fresno Concert Show

2010-11-01T22:31:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we took a trip up to the beautiful town of Fresno, CA for the debut of our Concert Program, Continuum. We split into two groups for this show: group one drove north on Friday early morning to perform for a school show, while the remainder of the eight person cast followed early Saturday morning.

The show was sponsored by the Fresno Lively Arts foundation, and we played at the gorgeous Shaghoian Hall. When we got there, we took one look at the brand new Shaghoian Hall and were immediately impressed. The facilities were enormous! Not to mention the acoustics on the inside of the theatre got us all excited for a great show.

This was the debut performance of our Concert Program, so we were a bit nervous as to how well it would be received, but the crowd was amazing! So receptive, so welcoming, they not only welcomed us into their theatre, but were gracious enough to let us stay with them as well. A HUGE thank you to all of Fresno Gumyo Taiko as well as our homestay families: Sharon, Reba, and Kathy! (your food was delicious!!! )

After the performance, TP held a short 3 hour workshop with Fresno Gumyo and other neighboring taiko groups. We gave pointers on basics, stage presence, and taught a little of our very own Omiyage and it was all very well received.

All in all, the trip, performance, and community feeling we experienced in Fresno made this trip a huge success. Thank you to all for coming, for housing and feeding us, and for all of the fresh FRUIT! (I probably ate half of it on the way back, and that's saying a lot considering how many lbs we had...)

Feel free to check out the introductory article by Fresno's very own Fresno Bee. Thanks for the great introduction!

-Kevin

Asian American Music Festival '10

2010-10-17T10:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Liz and I performed at the Asian American Music Festival as part of the Pan Asian Arkestra, which was put together for this show by Gary Fukushima. The festival is a 3 day event featuring Asian American music of various genres. The event took place at JANM's Democracy Forum.

The festival has 5 "movements" and we were a part of the second movement. It started off with Gary's GF3 Trio, featuring Gary on piano, JP Maramba on bass, and Miles Senzaki on drums. Liz and I sat in the audience and watched their performance. So awesome!!

They were followed by Jon Jang's solo piano performance. It was amazing to watch him perform!

Then, we were up. The Pan Asian Arkestra performed Jon Jang's Reparations Now! Concerto for Jazz Ensemble and Taiko (which was composed in 1988 to bring attention to the Japanese American reparations movement), and Hitomi Oba's new piece, The Generation Tree. We shared the stage with the Trio, Hitomi, Ian Vo, Michael Birnbryer, Josh Aguiar, and Nick DePinna.

What an awesome experience! It was an honor to perform with a group of such amazing musicians!

As I stated here, it was the first time that I collaborated with a Jazz ensemble, so I was a little bit nervous at first. Not only that, Liz and I had to read music with Western notation (we mainly learn taiko music through kuchi-shoga). It's a good thing both of us played piano and flute! It's been like over 10 years for me....and it was like riding a bike....ha! We practiced and practiced (thanks Gary and Hitomi for meeting up with us to go over the music!) and we became familiar with the music.

I had a lot of fun at this performance and was kind of sad when it was all over!! We made new friends and I'm totally inspired! As we loaded our drums and left the venue, Liz and I talked about how awesome it would be if we could do something like this again some time.

Thanks Gary for bringing us on board! And thanks Paul (Festival Director) for putting together a great event!

Fun fact: one of the people working on sound at the theater was Joel Mankey, a former TP member! :)

Another fun fact: Liz and I shook hands with Jake Shimabukuro!

A few photos!

Gary's GF3 Trio performing.

Jon Jang on piano

Me and Liz with Gary

Happy 60th Birthday, Mrs. Deguchi!

2010-10-14T23:50:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday a few of us helped Mrs. Deguchi (a.k.a. Courtney's mommy) celebrate her 60th birthday at the Friendly Hills Country Club in Whittier, CA. The guests were so elegant (especially the birthday girl), the food was delicious, and the atmosphere was amazing! It really was a lot of fun and a great way to spend the evening. Plus, now we all know Courtney and her family a little bit better! :)

PS - if any of you want beauty tips on how to look 40 when you're 60, ask Courtney's mom. Seriously. :)

This Saturday: Asian American Music Festival!

2010-10-14T13:37:00.000-07:00

Taikoproject was invited by Gary Fukushima to perform this weekend at the Asian American Music Festival with the Pan Asian Arkestra!

Liz and I have been studying the music and we rehearsed on Tuesday with everyone! It's going to be awesome. For me, personally, it's the first time that I'm collaborating with a Jazz ensemble, so I'm super excited.

We'll be performing 2 songs: Jon Jang's Concerto for Jazz Ensemble and Taiko, and Hitomi Oba's new piece, The Generation Tree. Hitomi actually played a little taiko at UCLA with KYNK and Yukai Daiko and knows some of us in TP!

Asian American Music Festival will take place this weekend (10/15 to 10/17).Our 'movement' will perform on Saturday, October 16.Click here for ticket information!! We hope you can come!

Here are 2 photos from the rehearsal!

(re)generation show in Torrance recap!!

2010-10-07T11:25:00.000-07:00

Hello TAIKOPROJECT friends, family, and followers! Here is a recap post about our (re)generation show on October 2nd, 2010 at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center, not from a performers perspective, but from the stagehand trainee perspective.

The day started very early with many of the guys heading over to our studio in Long Beach to pick up any remaining drums and equipment we needed for the show. But most importantly we needed a lot of strong hands to get our Ohiradaiko (weighing over 330 pounds!) loaded up and ready for the show.

Once the entire cast was present at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center, we all helped setting up equipment, unpacking the drums, and prepping for the show. One of tasks some of the trainees were assigned was to setup the risers for the show, with the help of some older members we managed to set them up just fine. The risers added some great level changes to the show and it looked really good. I also got the chance to retie some of the okedo (roped taiko drums, normally played with a sling) which I have never done before. It was a surprisingly difficult task causing me to break a sweat, but I guess it didn't help either that is was progressively getting warmer outside too. Once all the equipment was set it was time to start spiking the performance and we moved all of the drums to the stage.

Photo Courtesy of Tomomi Hongo

Once on stage the cast practiced the songs for concert while lighting and crew were setting up backstage. This was one of my first experiences of a big show with taiko on stage and I've never realized how much goes on during the setup. For example when the stagehands want to alert the performers that something will be lowered to the stage, they say "(whatever they are adjusting) coming in" at which point all performers have to repeat the call so the stagehands know the performers know its coming in. After spiking and making final adjustments to the show, it was only a matter of time before show time.

Photo Courtesy of Tomomi Hongo

Once all the equipment was prepped on stage and backstage, costumes were set, and everyone was warmed up, the show was ready to kick off. It was so exciting even though I spent most of the time backstage prepping equipment for the upcoming songs along with my fellow trainees. When we had the chance we would get to watch a glimpse of the show from the sides of the stage and it was so cool to see the energy not only from the performers but also from the audience's applause. What I also enjoyed was the unspoken dialogues between the performers off stage, since we had to be so quiet when adjusting equipment a simple smile or sign of acknowledgment seemed to say "keep up the good work" or "let's keep doing our best!". I think the highlight of my night backstage was when we had a little bit of stage time when we took off some of the drums for the finale song "Here We Go Now!", sure it might have been only a couple of seconds, it was better than nothing. :)

Great job with an amazing show TAIKOPROJECT and this was definitely an educational show for my many performances in the future. Thanks to all the friends and family who came to watch the show and I hope you enjoyed the performance as much as I did. Being a local performance it was great to have so much support from the home crowd as well as other taiko groups in the area, thank you so much!! If you missed this performance of (re)generation, TAIKOPROJECT will be hitting the road for our next (re)generation show which will be in Longview, Washington on March 19, 2011!! Thanks for reading and see you next time TAIKOPROJECT followers!!

Photo Courtesy of Tomomi Hongo

Performance with 30 Seconds to Mars at the Epicenter

2010-10-01T15:53:00.000-07:00

Last weekend TAIKOPROJECT had another opportunity to perform with rock band, 30 Seconds to Mars. The cast members drove down to the Epicenter in Fontana. It was EXTREMELY hot. Right when we got out the car we were sweating bullets. Luckily, Shannon Leto, the drummer from 30 STM let us borrow their dressing room where they had air conditioning and fresh fruits! We spent the time preparing for the show although we weren't really sure what we were suppose to play until moments before the show. But...it was so much fun! We played for their opening song, "Escape" and the last song "Kings and Queens." The last song was especially fun. Jared Leto, the main singer for the show allowed a number of audiences to gather on the stage to sing and dance along. People gathered and rocked out! TP played along with the music and shared some awesome moments with the fans. It was awesome. Pictures from the performance will be up soon!

Watts Towers Day of the Drum Festival

2010-09-27T23:23:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was a busy weekend for us!

We started off by performing at the Watts Towers Day of the Drum Festival. It was super hot, but the crowd was amazing and we had a lot of fun!

It was a longer set and we were able to play one of our newer songs, Island Groove, where I got to be a Groovette! If you don't know what a Groovette is, you have to come to our (re)generation show this weekend in Torrance, since we'll play Island Groove for sure. :)

Here we are after performing.

Like I said, it was super hot... but it didn't compare to what we were about to face the next day for our performance with 30 Seconds to Mars! Be on the lookout for an entry and photos from that gig!

Target Kaleidoscopic Fashion Spectacular!

2010-09-01T19:47:00.000-07:00

In early August, I got a call from the folks at Squeak E Clean Productions, music producer Sam Spiegel's production company. I first met Sam in early 2008 when he called us in to do a taiko recording which seemed at first to not really seem like a big deal.

It was in his home studio and I didn't know what would come of it--later, we found out it was for Nike's "Fast Forward" commercial, featuring Kobe Bryant, Maria Sharapova, and a number of other top athletes, training and being victorious all to the tune of our taiko-laced tracks.

Later that year, he contacted me again and we were in a bigger studio recording taiko tracks for Kanye West's "Glow in the Dark Tour." Anyways, that's the history of TP and Squeak E Clean. This most recent call was about "an event for Target," so I thought "cool, I go to Target, why not?"

Kris, Emily, Jen and I headed to the legendary Capitol Studios (where everyone from Frank Sinatra to Green Day has recorded), and started working with Sam on his concepts for the "Green" section of the show.

After a short few hours in the studio, we were done! We didn't hear anything about how it turned out, so we decided to just look on YouTube to see if we could find out what the event was, and found the following video--our section starts at about 3:40 and goes to about 7:00. What a production it was!

Target apparently rented out all the rooms on one side of the Standard Hotel in New York City for the production, equipped them all with colored led lights, and put on an amazing show!

We're proud to have been a part of such an innovative project. Thanks Sam and Chris at Squeak E Clean, and enjoy the video below! You can watch it on Facebook too, from different angles and such--

Indiana State Fair

2010-08-17T18:25:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a quick quick trip to Indianapolis, where we performed at the Indiana State Fair! Three days, three shows per day. We were part of the "Bridges to Japan" exhibit this year, organized by the Japan America Society of Indiana. In addition to live performances, the exhibition included Japanese pop culture displays and delicious Japanese food.

We arrived in Indianapolis on the evening of Thursday, August 12th. At the airport, we met Theresa Kulchzak, Executive Director of the Japan American Society of Indiana. She is absolutely wonderful, and worked so hard all weekend. (Thank you Theresa!) After arriving at the hotel, we went to grab a quick bite at Rock Bottom Brewery. Yummmmy! Then, bed time!

Friday was by far the most interesting day. Jen, Jenny, Yumi and I started the morning off with a quick television promotion performance, where the hostess was mesmerized by our "ninja turtle shoes." The best part??? - Complementary oatmeal cookies! According to the kind gentleman behind the counter, they stayed up all night baking them. Our first group show was in the air conditioned International Pavilion. Then, as the clouds began to roll in, we moved all of our drums to an outdoor free stage. Unfortunately for us, those clouds became thunder, lightening and rain during our third set! Thank you to the 8 troopers who sat through the crazy weather to watch the show! I actually thought it was pretty awesome to play along with thunder. :) Some Perks of the Day included green tea ice cream, yakisoba and our very own RV trailer green room! (We're all not-so-secretly hoping that TP's next big purchase is an RV!) Dinner on Friday was delicious pasta from the Old Spaghetti Factory in downtown Indianapolis!

We were back at the fair on Saturday morning. In addition to performing and touring the fairgrounds, we met the members of the New York City based dance group, 10tecomai, who practice the tradition of Yosakoi Dance. I really enjoyed their energy and style of dance, and I know the audience did as well. Perks of the Day included Okonomiyaki, listening to Keith Urban from outside the grandstand and again, green tea ice cream! Dinner on Saturday was the unique cuisine of Adobo Grill, with the best margaritas and guacamole ever. :)

Sunday was our last day at the fair. We were able to do all three shows inside the International Pavilion this day. We were very thankful to be able to stay out of the Indiana heat! We deviated from the set list a bit on Sunday and tried some new/old pieces. Fun times! Perks of the Day included Henna tattoos, green tea ice cream (of course), and a free Selena Gomez performance (from our trailer window).

Special thanks to Thersa Kulczak, John Lajiness, Tamayo Fukumoto and driver John, as well as the rest of the team at the Japan America Society of Indiana! We had a blast!

ShastaYama 2010

2010-08-11T13:57:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we took a roadtrip up north to Mt. Shasta,CA where we had the honor of sharing the stage with Russel Baba, Jeanne Mercer, Michelle Fujii, Toru Watanabe, Shasta Taiko, and Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble at ShastaYama 2010.

Thursday 7/29/10

Bryan, Jen, Darren, Courtney, Tomomi, Emily, Andrew, and I arrived in Shasta. Maz and Kris had left earlier in the week and were already there.

The log CASTLE!...where we stayed while we were in Shasta.

Friday 7/30/10

Since we had some down time in the morning, we decided to go hiking to Mossbrae Falls. Although it was quite a walk to get there, it was totally worth it! It was soo gorgeous!

After our hike, we headed over to tech rehearsal. The stage was set up on a large open field facing Mt. Shasta. It was really refreshing playing taiko while surrounded by such beautiful scenery. Shasta Taiko also taught us a fun dance that we were going to perform with them at the concert.

Tech rehearsal went ok overall but we did have two injuries. One of them resulted in Jen being sent to the ER! We were all really worried but after about an hour and a few stitches on her leg, Jen was back on her feet. She even played during run-throughs! Go Jen! The second injury was another leg injury. Kris accidently cut his leg on stage. Thankfully, he did not have to go to the ER! I think everyone was being REALLY careful after that so that we would not have any more injuries.

Saturday 7/31/10

Today was the day of the concert. After a deliciousbrunch at a local cafe and some souvenir shopping earlier in the day, we headed back out to the concert venue. There were about 1,300 people in the audience! Over 1 thousand people, Mt. Shasta in the background, Taiko drumming, and Shasta Taiko banners waving in the wind…the concert was very epic! :)

Sunday 8/1/10

After an eventful few days in Shasta, we headed back home to LA. It took us 12 hours and Bryan drove the ENTIRE time!!! Thank you Bryan! Otsukaresama!

Here are some more pictures from Shastayama 2010 :

http://picasaweb.google.com/TAIKOPROJECT/ShastaYamaFestival#

Thank you very much Russel Baba and Jeanne Mercer for inviting us! We had a fantastic time!

Higashi Obon 2010!

2010-08-04T12:07:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

A couple weeks ago on July 24th, we performed a 45-minute set at the Higashi Honganji Obon Festival. We played a few TP favorites such as Expanding, Many Sides, and Omiyage, and also three of our newer pieces, Island Groove, Tsuki E and Seiza. Higashi Obon has got to be one of my personal favorite places to perform because of all the friends and family that come to watch. It's always nice to spot some familiar faces in the crowd!

Check out this great picture of Yumi during her solo for Many Sides!

Dancing in Tsuki E

All smiles in Island Groove

Here's a video of Seiza from the performance:

Thank you to Mickey from Higashi Honganji for recording the video and posting it on YouTube for us!

Afterwards, we all treated ourselves to some tasty eats. Higashi seems to have the most diverse menu out of all the southern California obon festivals. They had everything from chicken teriyaki and udon to tamales and chili rice. The cold somen and shaved ice were refreshingly delicious after performing in the hot sun. Yumi and I especially liked the popular "Dango Dogs", which were like little corn dogs, but instead of the traditional corn batter, the hot dogs were covered in a sweet Japanese donut batter. I wish I had a picture to share with you all, but I guess you'll just have to go to obon next year and try them for yourselves!

RHYTHMIC RELATIONS 2010

2010-07-19T20:37:00.000-07:00

Hi all!
RHYTHMIC RELATIONS 2010 was a huge success! Thank you to friends and family who came to support TAIKOPROJECT, as well as Bombu Taiko, Kitsune Taiko, and the new Chibi Kitsune and Loma Pacific Taiko! It was a weekend that I would truly cherish forever. We became one huge family with one main goal: Putting on an AMAZING show and sharing this moment with each other and the audience.

TP and other crew members from the Ford theater got in early on Saturday to prep for the show. TP had a morning show which was a lot of fun! The weather wasn't too bad until...it started raining 2 hours before the show! We all ran outside to cover the drums since they were getting wet. The Ford theater guys were pro and handled everything in a calm matter. I on the other hand was freaking out! I prayed and I prayed and I prayed. I prayed that it'll stop raining so that we can put on this show. All the groups worked extremely hard putting together this show and it would of been a big disappointment if the weather conditions didn't allow us to play. Fortunately...THE RAIN STOPPED! It was a bit cloudy but nonetheless we were able to perform! So we did and the feeling of sharing the stage with great people was amazing.

Here are some pictures I took during our time at the theater:

Run through of Expanding

Meeting before the first show

Yuri, who is also a member of TP, couldn't play with us because this year because she is pregnant! But she came with her husband, Hiro and supported us from the audience! (She actually had her baby today! Congrats to her and Hiro!!!)

Visit our Facebook for more pictures and upcoming performances! Have a safe summer everyone!

Tomorrow's the big show!!

2010-07-09T15:12:00.001-07:00

After weeks and weeks of intensive rehearsals, Rhythmic Relations 2010 is tomorrow!! It's been a long haul, but in the past few months, we've written and refined six new songs, put together a new taiko group at our Long Beach Studio, taught ten 8-year olds how to play taiko, recorded and produced our first CD, published a 10-year Anniversary book, put together our first TP calendar, and pieced it all into a great show. (and in between it all we took some time to play with 30 Seconds to Mars and Stevie Wonder)

Now all we can do is give it our all tomorrow and Sunday and hope everyone enjoys the show! There are still tickets available, so if you want to come see the show, come on by and buy tix at the door, or come early to picnic and have a glass of wine before the show--it'll be an unforgettable summer night at the Ford--

It's Here!!!

2010-06-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I picked up the new TAIKOPROJECT CDs, called "Surrounding Suns"! I'm totally excited that it's finally here. Lots and lots of hard earned hours went into the process. Tasks included: remixing old material, writing new material, a three-day recording session, editing and mixing the tracks, mastering the album, designing the packaging for the album, putting the album into replication, and now we distribute! I'm so happy it's here! Pick yours up at Rhythmic Relations 2010! You can check out our website for a preview song.

Thanks everyone for your hard work! Couldn't have done it without you.

Rhythmic Relations 2010 - June 10 & 11, 8 pm

2010-06-03T09:23:00.000-07:00

Come one, come all! This summer's Rhythmic Relations concerts are going to be the most epic ones yet--we are debuting six new songs, we have a whole bunch of new taiko players, and a new taiko group, AND we have a new CD (our first one) being released at the show--you can only get them at the show!

Check out our promo video below:

Hope you can make it! Our past shows at the Ford Amphitheatre have sold out, so get your tickets soon!

Cleveland Residency/School Shows

2010-05-19T21:14:00.000-07:00

May has been a pretty busy month for us. We started off the month in Cleveland, Ohio, where Bryan, Maz, Jen, Courtney, Liz, Kris, and I did a weeklong residency as well as a couple of school shows. I was able to experience soooo~ much in the week that we was there, I could talk for hours about all of the events that happened!...but I’m going to attempt to limit myself to this post.

pictures can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/TAIKOPROJECT

May 2, Sun – DAY 1

Courtney, Kris, Liz and I flew into the Cleveland where we were greeted by Bryan and Maz(they had flown in a few days before) who came to pick us up. We then drove to Oberlin where we did an Expanding workshop with Oberlin and Icho Daiko. Kris and I were assigned to teach one of the Shime/Okedo set parts. I was really amazed at how quickly everyone was able to pickup the complicated beats, let alone learning four different parts!

May 3, Mon – DAY 2

My roomie for the week, Liz, and I were getting ready in the morning in our very lovely Wyndham hotel room when I turned the tv on to find ‘TAIKOPROJECT” written across the screen. The Wyndham had included us into their main hotel channel! I found this very amusing and exciting! Today was the first day of the residency. For 5 days, 5 hours each day, we worked with 7 high school students: Jacob, Jeni, Erika, Nathan, Zack, Brittany, and Andrew, in a taiko intensive. And let me tell ya, this was DEFINITELY not just an intensive for the students. Everyday consisted of an hour intensive running/warm-up session, lead by a different member each day, that we all participated in. Today was Courtney’s turn to lead warm-ups. Although I was sore for pretty much then entire week, it was a great workout not only for the students but for us “oldies” as well. Today’s instruction focused on taiko basics

May 4, Tues – DAY 3

Throughout the week, Liz and I took advantage of every possible minute of free time we had to go explore the city. There was a FREE trolley that takes you around the downtown area that we loved to ride on. Today was Day 2 of the residency. After warm-ups, which were led by Liz, we jumped right into teaching the 2 songs that the students were going to be performing at the end of the residency. The students were very enthusiastic and worked very hard to learn the pieces in just a few days!

May 5, Wed – DAY 4

Jen flew into Cleveland early in the morning. Liz found a farmers market nearby that had a crepe place so we decided to go in the morning to get breakfast crepes. The crepes, although a bit messy with the oozing chocolate, were amazing! Awesome find Liz! I think many of us were able to get some souvenir/gift shopping done there to so that was great! In the afternoon, we went to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum. My favorite exhibit at the museum was a drumset that was titled Sasquatch. As you could probably guess from the name, it was a drumset that was covered entirely with white fur. We weren’t allowed to bring cameras into the museum so I didn't get a picture of it but…It was awesome! Today was Day 3 of the residency and was my day to lead warm-ups. I really enjoyed the idea of having someone different lead warm-ups each day. It was a great way of keeping things fresh and different. I think a different part of my body was sore each day! We continued to work on the two performance pieces today. In addition to learning the beats, we also began to focus a lot on movement, form and stance as well. Putting movement and beats together is pretty difficult to do but the students picked it up really fast!

May 6, Thurs – DAY 5

We were asked to do a short segment for the news so Bryan, Liz, and I went to the theatre in the morning to do a short Nidan performance. Kris came with us to photograph the event. Thank you so much Kris! Although we didn’t get to see ourselves on tv for it was broadcast live, it was still very exciting! Later that morning, we had 2 school shows. This was Liz and my first time doing a school show. I was very nervous for the first show, especially because I had a speaking part. The first show, I felt was really rough, personally. After some helpful tips by the veterans of the group, I felt a little more confident after the second show. Overall, both shows went well! Today was Day 4 of the residency and Jen lead the warm-ups. Today was similar to yesterday where we spent the first hour or so working on form, stance, and striking, and the rest of the time we worked on the performance pieces. 4 days into our intense taiko boot camp and all seven of the students were still showing up! I was afraid that after our daily running and exercising, someone was going to end up hating us. Jacob, Jeni, Erika, Nathan, Zack, Brittany, and Andrew…you guys rock!

May 7, Fri – DAY 6

We had 2 more school shows this morning. The set was the same from Thursday so I was definitely more relaxed than I was the day before. I felt better about my speaking sections today, and I think the shows went really well overall. Today was the last practice before the performance. Since everyone was such a good sport about the running/warm-up all week, we decided that today we would play Capture the Flag…or in our case, toilet paper… instead. Taikoproject versus Atsumari Daiko!

***Atsumari Daiko is the official taiko group name that the students came up with for themselves. Atsumari, in Japanese, means: a gathering of people. They chose this name because they are a group of high school students, who come from different areas in Ohio and attend different high schools, who have gathered together in Cleveland to learn and play taiko.

Guess who won?!...not us. Although we didn't officially keep score, I’m pretty sure we got our butts kicked by Atsumari Daiko. We want a rematch!!! After our hour of being silly, it was crunch time! The remaining hours of practice were dedicated to working on and cleaning up the performance pieces.

May 8, Sat – DAY 7

This afternoon, Atsumari Daiko had their debut performance at the Idea Center in Cleveland! We were originally scheduled to play outside but due to rain, we ended up performing inside at the Idea Center. Despite the weather and some changes made, we had a large audience and both the performances we did went well. Awesome job and congrats Atsumari Daiko! I hope we get to see you guys again sometime! After giving our congratulation and goodbye hugs *sniff* and saying our closing aisatsu, the residency came to an end. Since it was just around dinner time when we finished loading up our equipment back into the trailer, we decided to go eat at a nearby Mardi Gras themed restaurant called Fat Fish Blue. After a quick dinner there, we headed to our next destination…dessert! We found a place called Chocolate Bar that had an amazing selection of sweets that we could choose from. The line to be seated was really long though, so we ended up going across the street to a bowling alley to kill an hour. After bowling, we went back to the Chocolate bar and were finally able to get a table. I think we were all on a sugar high for a few hours afterwards…I definitely was! It was a great way to end our Ohio trip!

May 9, Sun – DAY 8

Jen, Courtney, Kris, Liz and I head back to LA(Thank you Bryan and Maz for the ride to the airport and for driving the trailer all the way to the east coast and back), and Bryan and Maz begin their drive back to the west coast, making stops to do more workshops along the way. I couldn’t believe how fast the week went by! This week was not only just a learning experience for the members of Atsumari Daiko, but was definitely one for me as well. Since it was my first residency, I wasn’t sure what to expect, or how to go about things. Although I know that there is still much I need to improve on, I feel that the next time I get to take part in a residency such as this, I will definitely be more confident and have a better understanding of how things are supposed to run. I had an amazing amazing AMAZING time! Also, thank you SO MUCH Playhouse Square for allowing us to have this residency and letting us use your theatres for a week!

Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles Performance

2010-05-19T14:53:00.000-07:00

As the last 2 posts stated... we had a very busy Saturday last weekend. Not only did we have a gig with 30 Seconds to Mars and a birthday gig in San Francisco, we had a performance for the Episcopal Diocese of LA.

The performance was at the Long Beach Arena where they had an event for the consecration of the new bishops. There were lots of performances and it was quite a large event!

This gig also included some Bombu Taiko and Kitsune Taiko members! It's not TOO often that we get to all perform together, so it was a lot of fun!

We played two songs. The first one we played was "Here We Go Now" and we walked from the back of the audience and through the middle aisle. Then, we played a short arrangement of Many Sides. :)

And here we are!!!! Kevin, Jenny, Courtney, Kerry, Kate, Christy, Bryan, Claire, me, and Junko!

Right after the performance, Bryan, Courtney, Kevin, and Jenny rushed off to the 30 Seconds to Mars gig! You can read about that 2 posts down!!

Short trip to the Bay

2010-05-18T16:25:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was definitely one of the busiest weekends that TAIKOPROJECT has had in a while. We had three separate performances packed into a single day as separate teams played at the Long Beach Arena, The Cliff House and The Greek Theatre throughout the day.

The San Fransisco team had an early start on Saturday morning as Darren, Emily, Brian and I met up at 3am and started heading up towards the bay. We arrived in SF a little after 10:30am at The Cliff House. The Cliff House is a beautiful restaurant that sits atop a cliff overlooking the Bay. It's been around since 1963 and we heard that they have a fantastic brunch menu...yum! The event was for Ted's 80th Birthday and we had a great time performing for all the guests. Thank you to Bobby, Ted's grandson, for bringing us out! As we were getting ready to go on stage that day, I received a text from Bryan saying that the Long Beach team was just about ready to perform too. Those performances may have marked the 1st time that 2 separate TAIKOPROJECT performances were going on at the exact same time =)

That evening, we all wanted to go out to explore and enjoy the city, but ended up all passing out in Emily's sister's living room (Thanks Kim for letting us crash at your place!) The next morning, we got up early to catch some dim sum in Chinatown, made a quick stop in Jtown, then headed back to LA to reunite with the rest of the group.

Playing with 30 Seconds to Mars!!!

2010-05-18T11:20:00.000-07:00

San Francisco. Long Beach. Griffith Park. Everywhere in between. That's where we were this past Saturday. It was insane, but it was entirely worth it.

I joined in on the last leg of the performance madness, and met up with Bryan, Maz, Kris, Jenny, Kevin and Courtney to play with 30 Seconds to Mars at the Greek Theatre. If I had to describe this experience in one word, well, I couldn't. It was so amazing to be able to play with such a talented and enthusiastic group of musicians. It was sort of inspiring... I really want to be a rock star now and jump around the stage, run through big crowds and dye my hair purple. Like I said, inspiring. :)

We began the day with a pretty smooth load in, and then began rehearsing with the band. Compared to the madness it very well could have been, the rehearsal was actually quite calm and the band remained really open-minded.

After the rehearsal, we all went backstage to eat. Dinner was great. Dessert was better. I really admire anyone who can make and serve a really delicious chocolate cake, and these ladies definitely had that covered. Needless to say, I was a happy camper. Getting ready in costume and make-up was entertaining as well. Courtney had the honor of putting make-up on all of the guys. I must say she did a great job.

Playing with the band was awesome. The crowd was really interested in what we were doing, and I thought we did a pretty good job considering we were scattered in various place throughout the house, about 150 feet apart from one another. Jenny actually found some video footage of us playing on Youtube, filmed by an audience member. Check it out below:

It was great to be able to watch the parts of the show that we did not play in. Towards the end of the show, Jared Leto came out into the audience to play some acoustic stuff. He was basically standing on top of Bryan, who had to crouch and hide in the corner. Bryan had the best seat in the house! Then, when Jared jumped down from that platform, some guy jumped after him and into the okedo and shime Bryan was desperately trying to protect... the best and most dangerous seat in the house! I think Jared also stepped on Courtney's foot and brushed against Kevin. Jenny and I got to watch the show from a great spot in the audience, where we spotted Maz completely rockin' out to the last song... hair-whipping and everything! Basically, we were all star-struck.

30 Seconds to Mars really knew how to please the audience. It was a great concert, and an overall unforgettable night! :)

Facts About 1st half of Tour

2010-05-01T20:14:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Now that we flew in to Cleveland to begin the second half of the tour, after a week back in LA, I wanted to share a few facts from the first half of the tour:

-Miles driven: 3,000 plus
-States we passed through: California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania
-Taiko groups we visited: Las Vegas Kaminari Taiko, Moab Taiko Dan, Junior Denver Taiko, Ho Etsu Taiko, Kokyo Taiko, Midwest Buddhist Temple Taiko, Fort Wayne Taiko, Dublin Taiko, Pittsburgh Taiko
-Movies watched (or listened to if we were driving) on our portable DVD player: Napoleon Dynamite (plus various funny clips we watched over and over), The Simpsons Movie, Pulp Fiction, Brokeback Mountain, The Breakfast Club, Smoke Signals
-Fast/bad food we ate: only Wendy's, IHOP!!! Somehow, I still gained weight...
-New funny situations that surfaced: The Snarr Face, something about Kevin that I can't blog about, Tomomi to Bryan: "You don't like it, so it makes me smile", Jen's jazz hands during a rehearsal of Many Sides, Uncle Rico's reaction after smacking Napoleon in the face with a steak, Yumi as a GPS voice, All-American Dad voice

TAIKOPROJECT Fort Wayne Tour Travelog

2010-04-20T20:44:00.000-07:00

Day 1, April 10
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

Fun at the Studio

2010-03-20T20:06:00.000-07:00

It's been about a month since we went into the studio to record TP's first studio album. Bryan gave me the task of heading this project and it's been pretty fun although tedious. For most it of us, it was our first experience in the studio and I think we all enjoyed it. Everyone did really well and I'm proud of everyone for doing an awesome job. Our recording engineer and old friend of Bryan's, Glenn Suravech, has been really helpful and patient with us. Jen and I are actually in his studio right now helping with editing and mixing the tracks. It sounds amazing! I'm really excited for this album.

Here's a pic of us and Glenn after the recording session at Clear Lake Audio.

Stay tuned for more news on the album!

TP's First Ever Koto Song!

2010-02-23T15:29:00.000-08:00

When Maz and Bryan approached me and asked if I'd be interested in composing a koto piece for TAIKOPROJECT, I'll admit, I was hesitant at first. I had never composed anything on the koto before, despite my many years of classical training. However, with their encouragement, I decided to give it a shot. I began by developing a few simple melodies of my own, and then playing them for Maz so that he could assist me in figuring out how to string them together. From there, Maz helped Jen and Bryan use their hands to generate soft beat patterns on the odaiko, sumo-daiko, and shime-daiko to add a percussive element. Soon after, Jenny came on board to help me on the koto. I had her pluck the "base" melody (which I originally played with my left hand, while simultaneously playing the other melodies with my right hand) to free up my left hand so that I could focus on playing more confidently and accurately with my right hand. I am so grateful to Jenny for all of her help! Without having to worry about playing two parts all by myself, I was also able to explore more with improvisation and sound accentuation. Finally, Maz added several fue melodies to complement the koto melodies, and at that point the song had pretty much come full-circle.

I had my parents listen to a rough preview of the song that we had recorded at rehearsal, and my father made a humorous remark that it made him feel as if he was "riding a horse through a peaceful forest". One of my close friends said that it reminded him of a slow-motion battle scene from the movie "The Last Samurai". Personally, when I play this song I imagine that I am watching fireworks and shooting stars while standing in a vast, open field.

What's unique about this particular composition process is that I never really had a concrete vision for the song. Instead of me guiding it in such a way to fit a specific image or theme, the song somehow guided itself. Maz ingeniously came up with the title, "Seiza", meaning "constellation" in Japanese. Whether you envision green forests, epic battles, fireworks, or starry night skies, I hope you will all enjoy listening to what TP has nicknamed "The Koto Song".

Vegas Baby, Vegas.... x 2!

2010-02-20T16:49:00.000-08:00

Back in January, in the midst of our crazy Riverside show, some members drove out to Las Vegas, City that Never sleeps, on back to back Mondays.

1st- Monday Vegas gig:
6am we set off w/ 4 (Maz, Bryan, Jen, & Courtney) in a car, for a 10 o clock call time. This would be our quickest trip EVER made! Upon arrival, we load out and meet up with members of LV Kaminari Taiko, Jen & Wendy and head over to the Venetian hotel! A quick lunch and then we did short but efficient run thru tech. Then in it's time to change and perform our short 5 minute stint for the opening of the conference. Immediately we change back, and then it's back on the road!

Total driving time: 8.5 hours
Total actual time in Vegas: 4.5 hours

Short post. But there's only so much a person can write about a 5 hour span.

2nd- Monday Vegas gig:
Round 2. The same foursome, this time with more drums and a bigger van. We head off this time to the Wynn Hotel, where we met Vegas' version of Higashi's security guard, Rodney. He let us into the back of the hotel, where we loaded and then... waited.

While we waited, Jen did some work…

Maz got busy…

I did some homework…

and Bryan…

= D

3 hours later, we headed for the stage to rehearse our 1.5 minute piece, an abridged Expanding. Add one oroshii and you have a grand entrance for the executives of the conference. We called it a day and headed to our posh Wynn hotel rooms where we could unwind and relax. Then around 11pm, we had another LVKT reunion, this time with more members and food! We had an early call time so our time together was somewhat limited, but not without eating some delicious bacon wrapped mochi, ramen, etc… and ending our meal with Honey Toast!

There are many diverse personalities in LVKT, but one thing that many of them have in common…. is the name Jen.

Plus our Jen from Tp, they decided to take a traditional “jen” picture.

More on the UCR show!

2010-02-08T01:22:00.000-08:00

Like Liz said, our first big performance with the group was a lot of fun! It was amazing to see how much equipment and manpower is required to put on each (re)generation show. There is so much to prepare, but I think the lights, videos, props, and other storytelling elements make (re)generation a lot different than most taiko performances.

When it came time for the actual show, I was a lot less nervous than I thought I would be. Nonetheless, it was still really exciting to perform in front of a big audience! My favorite part of the show had to be all of the chaos that occured backstage. I love all the running around and the last minute adjustments. It's such a rush when you have barely enough time to get into a new costume, move a drum, and get ready to play!

Aside from a few small mistakes, I thought the show went really well! It was really inspiring to see the older TP members do their thing and go through the show. It was Byron’s last performance with the team. I’m glad I had the chance to be part of it! I look forward to doing the show again!

"(Re)generation" in Riverside, CA

2010-01-29T11:46:00.000-08:00

What a great way to start 2010! On January 15th at UC Riverside, Andrew, Jenny, Emily and I (new trainees) participated in our first ever big big show with the group. It was amazing, to say the least. My favorite part, aside from being on stage with everyone else, was the level of organization and efficiency when setting up and preparing for the show. I know, I know... that's probably not the first thing one would think of when describing a show, but I really was impressed. Overall, it was an amazing experience that I hope to repeat over and over and over, etc.

I stole a picture to post here from the TaikoProject website. If you'd like to see more of them, visit www.taikoproject.com!

LA Holiday Celebration

2009-12-27T09:52:00.000-08:00

This year, TP was invited back to perform at the L.A. Holiday Celebration. So on Christmas Eve, Emily, Liz, Brian, Tomomi, Yumi, Bryon, Courtney and Jen packed up the van, and headed over to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in LA. This holiday program has been around for over four decades and we were very happy be a part of it again this year. Thank you LA County Arts Commission for inviting us back this year!! We had a great time!

Every year, the Holiday Celebration program features a number of guests that participate in a six-hour live performance. We did a short rendition of our song, Omiyage and even had the audience participate with us. The show was broadcast live on KCET. Did you get a chance to catch a glimpse of us..?

Now, all the TP folks are spending some quality time with family and loved ones for the holidays. Hope everyone is having a warm holiday season too!!

Happy Holidays from TAIKOPROJECT! EI...YA...SA!!! =)

TP Holiday Time at Disneyland

2009-12-21T00:27:00.000-08:00

This past week, TAIKOPROJECT visited the awesome Holidays at Disneyland! Luckily for us, when we walked into the park, the very fun "A Christmas Fantasy Parade" began right in front of us! We first hit up Space Mountain. Many of us really think it goes faster now for some reason. Very proper first ride!!

Throw in Big Thunder Mountain, dinner at Pizza Port, cream cheese filled and Mickey pretzels, Haunted Mansion, and of course...FIREWORKS, and you have some of the best times at Disneyland.

Of course one of the challenges groups face at the Magic Kingdom is navigating efficiently. I never knew strollers could be so dangerous... I can commit to the fact that TAIKOPROJECT has some of the best Disneyland walkers out there.

Happy Holidays Everyone!!! =)

TP Holiday Gifts now available!

2009-12-04T13:01:00.001-08:00

What's the perfect gift for taiko players? How about TP DVDs, shirts, and bachi? Order before Dec. 15 and get FREE SHIPPING and FREE PERSONALIZATION for all gifts! Check out our new TP shirts in purple and teal, as well as in classic black, and our DVDs, a great addition to anyone's taiko DVD library! Check out our 2009 Holiday Order Form!

Open House a Success!

2009-11-14T23:25:00.001-08:00

Today TP hosted an Open House to show our new studio off to the general public and thank you to everyone who came out to see it! Actually, last week, our donors got to come check it out first, but today, we opened up to the public!

The studio is still under construction, as the owner has been delayed by city processes and permits, but lots has been done. When we first moved in, it was just a concrete box (with flames on the walls). Since then, we've installed theatrical drapes around the perimeter of the space to absorb some of our noise and improve acoustics, we've hung up some of our show banners from past Rhythmic Relations shows, we've built and started storing our equipment on industrial shelving in the space, we've installed a sound dampening wall on our shared wall and installed a 32' x 6' wall of mirrors, and a 32' x 32' raised, insulated stage. In the next couple of weeks, we'll have two new bathrooms and drywall will be installed in the space, which should insulate our sound pretty well. After that,we'll just have a few other projects that will complete our renovation and we'll be ready to go!

Thank you to all the Long Beach and South Bay folks who came out (as well as my Aunty from Huntington Beach)--and all the taiko groups that came out--folks from Togen Daiko, Kishin Daiko, Kodama Taiko, Touzan Taiko (the new collegiate group from Pomona), UCI Jodaiko, Shin3, TCLA, Kinnara Taiko, and Kitsune Taiko! Stay tuned for more photos and updates about our new studio!

Kris' first performance with TP

2009-11-12T07:47:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was my first performance with TaikoProject since beginning rehearsals with the group a few months ago. We performed at the beautiful Aquarium of the Pacific. I'm still learning the pieces so it was a bit nerve-wracking for me, but thanks to Liz, Yuri, Bryan, and Maz, I survived and had a great time. Looking forward to more!

We took a quick photo after the gig... Liz was off changing, as you can see... :)

Building New Taiko!

2009-10-26T12:21:00.000-07:00

Bombu Taiko is one of the groups that TAIKOPROJECT has taught since the group started at Higashi. They've been building new drums for the past few weeks and have been working really hard. I think there's about a dozen barrels that they're working on, which will really add to what is already there. I helped with some sanding about 2 weeks ago and it's a lot of work! Still, I found the sanding to have sort of a ... meditative feeling. I kind of zoned out. It really is a lot of work, with so many different steps. The part that I helped out with was just a tiny part of the process for one drum. I'll be going back to help out some more!

I'm really excited to see and hear the new drums. There's lots of Bombu love going into them! :)

- Quick remider: our open house for the brand new studio is coming up!

Sunday, 10/11 - Encino Folk Music Festival

2009-10-11T23:33:00.000-07:00

Encino Folk Music Festival - Encino Park, Encino, CA

Today we ventured into "the Valley" (as Californians call it) for a performance at Encino's Folk Music Festival! Bryan, Maz, Yuri, Liz, Andrew, and myself were attendance and with high spirits as we were prepared to play a somewhat longer set than we had lately been playing.

We arrived amidst the hustle and bustle of a booming festival, complete with jester-like entertainers and line-dancing. There was even a standing taiko that anyone was free to jam on!

After dropping off our fearless navigator, Maz, to find the unloading entrance for performers, we finally circled around the block and found the correct entrance. Unloading was a breeze, as the cheery staff was eager to help. As we got to the stage and started to lay out our equipment, the Polynesian Paradise group of Tahitian dancers were getting ready to perform. We were really feeling their groovy beats, and we could tell by the hip-shaking shuffle of some of the audience members, that they were too. After the Tahitian dancers cleared off, it was our time.

We set up on what was a surprisingly small stage, and crossed our fingers that we would not hit the awning directly over our heads, or each other. The set went pretty well and based on the positive feedback we received afterward, we could tell many of the Long Beach patrons in attendance were intrigued by the announcement that we were moving to Long Beach soon (if you haven't already checked out the promo video below, be sure to do so!). Like I said earlier, we played a longer set than usual - about 7(?) songs - so we were thoroughly juiced by the end of it.

The entire volunteer staff at the festival was very welcoming, encouraging, and extremely helpful! They made the unloading and loading process very easy, which was good since we were all pretty tired!

As we finished packing up our gear, we knew that while our stay at the gathering was over for the day, the festival would go on......for about another 2 hours.

And with that, I leave you with some pictures from the festival in 2003 (b/c we didn't bring a camera)

Yay Encino Folk Music Festival!

-Kevin

Support the Cause!

2009-10-10T13:08:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! We're launching an end-of-the-year fundraising campaign to help renovate our new warehouse into SoCal's only dedicated taiko studio. Check out our website for all the info you need. Also check out this video that Bryan and I put together at the warehouse:

We have doors!!!

2009-10-07T14:38:00.001-07:00

This is Jen about two weeks ago next to our yellow wall outside by the parking lot. No doors, no windows, no way to get inside from this wall. It's actually the other side of the wall with flames.

Last weekend, as I was driving home late at night, I stopped by the warehouse and we had new doors installed! Two to be exact! Here's one of them!

Please excuse the bright light at the bottom... that was my car. :p

Bryan recently went inside to take a look at the renovations. He said there's a lot going on in there! Can't wait to see it in a few weeks!

SushiMasters 2009

2009-09-22T22:37:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday, Bryan, Liz, Kevin, Jenny and I performed at the 2009 SushiMasters Competition in Little Tokyo! Bryan was really excited about getting to see/meet Brian Malarkey from Top Chef Season 3.

We started off the competition in the JAT...and I managed to not fall off the stage! yay! Once the competition was done, we continued our performance out at the JACCC Plaza as the attendees milled about enjoying the endless samples of sushi and sake...mmm yum! :) After we packed up and took everything back to Higashi, we followed our tummies back to the sushi and got to sample some ourselves...I'm getting hungry just thinking about it :-P

O, almost forgot to mention it, but this performance marked the debut of our newest piece dubbed Island Groove and is our first marimba song! See the picture at the top? Yup, that's the one! It's a nice mellow piece amidst our usual high energy taiko pieces.

Short blog, but my computer is not a happy camper at the moment, so I will leave you with the quote of the day :)

"All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt." -Charles M. Schulz <-- I totally agree :-D 'Til the next blog!

Keiro Performance!

2009-09-22T13:02:00.001-07:00

On the evening of Friday, September 18th, TAIKOPROJECT performed for the wonderful people at Keiro. Despite it being a bit hot, I really enjoyed myself, and I think the audience members enjoyed themselves as well.

The best part had to be during Shishimai, when Byron got really creative with the crowd. The little ladies in the front row looked a bit frightened at first by the big lion approaching them, but they were soon laughing and exchanging squeals with one another. It was really really cute and very entertaining. After the performance, we had the opportunity to talk to a lot of the attendees. Another great perk was the yummy yummy bento box we each received after the show. :)

Overall, it was a great learning experience and one that I'll always remember.

We started moving in!

2009-09-17T13:18:00.001-07:00

We started moving some of our things into the new space today! I can't believe we're actually doing this! The owner is getting ready to do some major renovations (which will take a few weeks), then we have to do some of our own... and then we officially move in! AAaahh! :)

Here's Bryan pulling the trailer in...

... and here I am with Emily posing in front of our wall!

So, should we keep the flames or paint over it? So far, on Twitter, people are saying we should keep the flames!

If we paint over it, what should we put there instead? We're taking requests!! Let us know!!

Ah, yes, the big news!

2009-09-11T13:26:00.000-07:00

So, if you've been following us on Twitter or have visited our official website , then you already know the news, but here it is!!

We just signed a lease for a warehouse! That means, we're going to have a studio!

It'll be the only studio dedicated to taiko in southern California.

We're really excited to start brainstorming new programs and other things we can do in the studio. We're hoping to grow more as an organization through this big move.

Where is this new studio going to be? It'll be in Long Beach! Personally, my commute just got shortened to 2 minutes.

We're still waiting on renovations to complete, but I'm so excited to move in!

We hope to keep you updated throughout this exciting process, so stay tuned!!!

If you have any thoughts or ideas about what we can do with our new space, don't hesitate to leave a comment!

Big news!! Big news!!

2009-09-04T01:04:00.001-07:00

I can't believe it actually happened!! Stay tuned for the big news and the official announcement!!!

Next Generation Remix Concert

2009-08-24T18:52:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday we got to perform at the JACCC Plaza in Little Tokyo for the sixth annual Next Generation Remix, a free outdoor concert presented by the Nikkei Federation and produced by our good friend, Kisa Ito (check out the trailer here)! The line-up also featured many talented Asian American artists such as Kacie Yoshida, Sibrian, EyeASage, Bambu, and American Idol finalist Camile Velasco. I especially liked the smooth hip-hop beats of Bambu and the soulful singing of Camile Velasco. They both had so much energy and really got the crowd going! There was also a raffle and Jenny & Tomomi were lucky enough to win a couple prizes!!

Since this event was apart of Nisei Week, throughout the concert there were booths all along the plaza perimeter selling okonomiyaki, shaved ice, and grilled corn, among many other tasty treats. I got a HUGE green tea shaved ice with azuki beans and condensed milk...YUMMM!!

It was a really fun night and we're glad to have been apart of the show. Congratulations to Kisa for doing such a wonderful job running the event!

Here are a few video clips from the performance:

Here We Go Now

Expanding

Lava Cool

Congratulations Supreme Master TV!!

2009-08-19T11:21:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, Maz, Darren, Kevin, Brian, Liz & Jen helped Supreme Master TV celebrate at their 3rd anniversary Concert: Rejoicing in our Green Planet and Peaceful Life. Supreme Master TV is a broadcast station that tries to bring nobility & spirituality to their viewers' lives through programs that promote living green, healthy, and compassionately. They even served a vegan menu where we got to enjoy some vegan sandwiches & vegan cupcakes while we waited...yum!

TAIKOPROJECT was the opening act of the Concert and was later followed by other performances with Korean Court & Thai dancers. At the end, we received gift bags that included Supreme Master TV shirts, hats & books. You just might see Kevin or Brian out one day sporting their new Supreme Master TV hats =)
The Concert is scheduled to air on September 7th in the U.S.

Studio Search...

2009-08-18T23:11:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone (or whoever actually reads this besides TP members)...

Just thought I'd post something since it's been awhile since I've posted. As some of you may know, we've been searching for a warehouse for the past 6 months or so, in order to expand our capacity as a non-profit organization, to offer more classes, and to create a kick-ass taiko rehearsal studio with mirrors, stage flooring, and for once, ample storage space and organization for our bulky and ever-growing inventory of equipment.

After much searching and driving around sketchy industrial neighborhoods for a few months, I finally found what I think may be the warehouse for us. We have come close with three other warehouses, but they didn't come together for various reasons...the first one, the owner backed out because he thought we'd be too loud for neighboring tenants, the second, just seemed too close to residential areas, and the third fell through because of lease negotiations with the owner.

Well, here we are several months later, and we may have found the warehouse for us...the only thing is, that it is in Long Beach. Since half of the TP cast is from Orange County, we hear cheers from them about the move. For us LA folks, well, it just means we now have a longer drive, but it's a small sacrifice for what will hopefully be our new space, and Southern California's only dedicated taiko studio. If all goes well, in a few weeks, we'll be signed off on leases and moving into a 3,200 square feet warehouse down in Long Beach, and getting it set up to be an amazing space.

More news to come! It's an exciting time, and we couldn't have gotten this far without your support!

Bryan

LA Tap Fest!

2009-08-17T12:57:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, TAIKOPROJECT went to Central LA Area New High School #9 to accompany tap dancers during their opening number for the Los Angeles Tap Fest! This new high school is beautiful and the theater is amazing. The architecture is modern and it's hard to believe that it's even a high school at all!

The piece we were in was part of a documentary that followed tap dancers from around the world and to follow their tap dreams. We accompanied Chloe Arnold, the festival's co-director and awesome tap dancer, and 4 tap dancers from Japan. We were there to recreate a piece they performed in Tokyo. We also saw the festival's director, Jason Samuels Smith, and many others dance. There were these little kids who were tearing up the stage, too. Awesome!!

Maz, Jen, Brian, Courtney, and I had a fun time performing with Kris Bergstrom!! Yup, he came with us to this gig and I think he even got tap pointers from the dancers! Who knows... maybe he'll bust out a tap solo some time soon! hehe!!

:)

-Yuri

2009 North American Taiko Conference

2009-08-16T12:22:00.000-07:00

Last week TAIKOPROJECT took part in the 2009 North American Taiko Conference! The conference returned to LA this year and was hosted by the JACCC (www.jaccc.org). This was my first time attending conference so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was pretty much an amazing few days of everything and everyone taiko! I had the privilege of helping Byron and Kevin out with the Omiyage workshop on Saturday. For the first two hours we split our group up into two groups. Byron took one group to teach the chu part and Kevin and I took the other for the set part. In the beginning, I was really nervous because it was my first time teaching a workshop, and I was wondering how we were going to teach omiyage in just two hours. After seeing how quickly the participants were learning, I soon realized that learning how to play omiyage in two hours is possible! For the last portion of the workshop, we got back into one group and played Omiyage together. I was truly amazed at how enthusiastic everyone was about learning this piece and how fast they learned it as well. I was so happy I was able to take part in the taiko conference this year! The only regret I have is that I did not attend as a participant. Next time i will definitely be signing up as a participant!

~Jenny~