June 9, 2009
Summer Travels, Day 2 – June 8
Today was the first day of my taiko workshop. Needless to say, it was great (even if a bit tiring, giving that it was nearly 4 hours of classes). I’m looking forward to the rest of the week – it’s going to be a nice mix of technique and creativity exercises.
Also was allowed to sit in on a video viewing that Kenny Endo for members of his ensemble and the youth taiko group from Taiko Center of the Pacific – they watched videos from the groups that the youth ensemble is going to study with in Japan in a few weeks, as well as the video from a concert they gave in April. One of the guests of the April concert was an ensemble from Japan named Hachijo Taiko. One of the members of Hachijo Taiko is blind, which made watching his performance on the video all the more awe-inspiring. He couldn’t see the drum, but his body knew exactly where it was and where he needed to hit (once he got into place). If you ever needed an example of muscle memory, it was right there.
Not many pictures today, though. Probably not too many tomorrow either. I’m hoping to go to Manoa Falls on Wednesday morning, so perhaps that update will be more visually pleasing. For the meanwhile, check out the few I took today. As always, they’re linked below.
Until next time!
June 8, 2009
Summer Travels, Day 1 – Honolulu
The adventure has begun! Today was mostly a travel day, but there were still surprises to be had.
I woke up at 4, and left for the airport around 5. The first leg of my trip – Pittsburgh to Phoenix – was pretty uneventful. I slept the majority of the 4 hour flight, so it passed rather quickly. The Phoenix to Honolulu leg, on the other hand, was a typical 5-6 hour flight. A few videos games were played, some movies were watched, some sleep was attempted – the latter attempt failed, however. Oh well.
Nevertheless, I arrived in Honolulu, got my rental car, and made my way to the hotel. Once I was settled in to some extent, I set of for food and to explore the Waikiki area (where I’m staying). I had read about a supposedly-good Japanese noodle restaurant on the Lonely Planet website, and was looking forward to eating there. However, the place no longer exists… I probably should have been alerted to the fact that something was off when the reviews on the Lonely PLanet and others stop around 2007, but by this point I had been in the air for 10 hours and was just wanting something to eat.
Not letting that get me down, I decided to walk around Waikiki Beach for a while. Took some pictures – including a few of myself, which is rare. Beyond the fact that a friend asked to me, I figured that perhaps I should have some photo proof that I’ve been everywhere I say I’m going. They didn’t turn out that great, due to lighting and the fact that I was taking them myself (self-photos rarely turn out well, do they), but regardless there are pictures.
It turns out that today was the last day of the Honolulu Pan-Pacific Festival, so I got to see the ending parade after I finally got some food. It seems like the festival is a cross-cultural celebration between Japan and Honolulu, primarily. There were taiko groups, Japanese dance groups, and hula groups (including groups from Japan dancing the hula). There were also a few Chinese, Taiwanese, and Korean groups, but the focus seemed to be on Japan. All in all, it was a pleasant surprise, and a nice way to spend a few hours.
I’ve uploaded all the pictures fI took today to my gallery, along with a few videos I took during the parade. Click on the below picture to check them out.
Tomorrow, the taiko workshops begin!
Waikiki Beach
June 6, 2009
Summer Travels: Prologue
In about seven hours, I’ll be leaving for the airport. I have about ten hours of travel time ahead of me, but it’s not that bad – it’s split between two different flights, with an hour and a half in between. Not bad at all, especially when compared to the eleven hour flights that await me to and from Tokyo. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get some sleep, do some reading, etc… Maybe there’ll even be an interesting movie to watch (typically not my luck, but one can hope).
My plan is to take lots of pictures, post them on the gallery, and then update this blog accordingly. Some days, it’ll probably just be a post informing you that there are new pictures, while other days I’ll give an update on what’s happened, where I’m going, etc. I’m going to have internet access in all the hotels I’ll be staying in, but I’m not so sure about the ryokan I’ll be at in Nagano prefecture. So, worst case scenario, there’ll be a lack of updates the last full week of June. Hopefully not, though. If it happens, however, that’ll just mean the next update after I return to Tokyo will be HUGE. (Hey, gotta look at the bright side of things, right?)
Well then, look forward to pictures, musings, and other things that I hope will be somewhat interesting.
June 1, 2009
Summer Travels – T-minus 6 days
The day of reckoning is quickly approaching, and surprisingly, I’m pretty much ready. I mean, there’s a few semi-minor details to take care of (including one travel advance that I still haven’t gotten from the university, but we’re not going to get into that), but I find myself prepared for the ordeal. And it’s probably going to be an ordeal of sorts. After all, I’m going to be gone for a month, traveling to a different place every week – sometimes, two or three places in one week. And I’m going busy. Oh, am I going to be busy. But it’s a good busy, I think. (I hope :P)
In the spirit of making this more than just a filler post, meanwhile, here’s a few things that I’m looking forward to that aren’t necessarily related to the main purpose of my trip – that is, taiko workshops. I think it’s a given that I’m excited for those.
- REALLY Visiting Hawaii: This won’t be my first trip to Hawaii – that happened in 2004, when I went there for an audition. At that time, however, I was too young to rent a car without paying extra fees (which, given my limited income, meant I was too young to rent a car), and I pretty much spent my time going to and from the audition site (except for a half-day that I spent walking to and from a local mall. EXCITING! -_-;). This time, I’m planning to experience it a little more. The taiko workshops are going to take up most of my time, but I”m going to have a LITTLE bit of free time. And I’ll have a car. That alone gives me much more options. I probably won’t be able to do much, given the time restraints and the degree of tiredness that’s probably going to accompany the workshop, but I think it’d be neat to watch at least one sunrise/sunset on the beach, perhaps travel to see a waterfall or two (I really like waterfalls, I’ve discovered. Dunno why). Plus, I’ve been given a mandate to take loads of pictures. Not that I wasn’t planning to do so, but when one is given a mandate one cannot ignore it. Pictures of one’s hotel room are rather boring, though, so I must seek more photogenic sources.
- Visiting California: Okay, this may seem a bit weird, but I’m actually looking forward to spending a few days (well, two-ish) in California, even if I won’t be doing or seeing much. I’ve never been on the West Coast. I’ve flown over it on my way to Hawaii, and I’ve gotten rather close when I visited Idaho, but the West Coast itself? Never visited the place. So I’m looking forward to the stop. Dunno if I’ll be able to really see anything, as I only have one free day, but at least I will soon be able to say I’ve visited California. But will I have experienced California? That’s a different question. (My California friends will probably tell me ,”No, definitely not.”)
- Returning to Japan: By the end of my time in Japan last summer, I just had started to feel like I had gotten the hang of life in Japan. Riding the subways, eating the food (heck, ORDERING the food), being a little taller than everyone else, feeling so completely unfashionable while walking down Shinjuku-dori or outside of Shibuya Station that I want to hide for a bit – all that was feeling natural. And then, of course, I left. I’m hoping that I’ll get back into the swing of things rather quickly. But then, so enough I’ll be going off into another unexplored world when I stay in the mountains of Nagano Prefecture for a week. That’ll probably throw me for a loop. But it’ll be photogenic, allowing me to continue fulfilling my mandate!
So, that’s a bit of the side stuff that I’m looking forward to. Any requests/recommendations from the peanut gallery? Remember, you can see my schedule (of a sorts) a few posts back.
‘Til next time…
The Road Goes Ever On and On... 