Taiko Performance/Kameoka Festival

Today we performed with our taiko group for the Kameoka Mitsuhide Festival. The festival celebrates the historical lord of Kameoka. A large part of the town, including most of the schools participate in a parade where men dress up as samurai and ride horses through the town.

Two of my colleagues, Koshio-san and Fukuchi-san, came to watch us play taiko. Atsushi was working the parade so he couldn't make it but he sent a text wishing me luck the day before.

We messed up on the 3rd song because one of the women hadn't been at the practice and she thought the person who was supposed to start the song forgot, though really it was just a song with a long intro, so she called out to start it and we all got confused...But other than that the performance went really well I think.

Judge for yourselves...I'm on the far left.





After the performance we went to watch the parade and eat some festival food. While walking a little girl ran up to me and waved and I couldn't remember how I knew her til her mom told me she was from Girl Scouts...it was a bit awkward but I was really glad that she seemed so happy to see me.

The parade was really fun and actually a lot similar to American parades. The high school bands were playing familiar songs and little kids dressed as cheerleaders waved and shouted. The only difference was that my friends and I got almost as much attention as the parade. We actually knew a great many people in the parade, which was surprising. Mr. "No Hair" who comes and visits my office sometimes was one of the main samurai and some other people I worked with held fairly prominent roles.

Once the parade was over Laurel and I went to get ready for our red eye flight to Thailand!