News

2010

This year we celebrated our 10th birthday with a huge anniversary concert involving past members in July and a trip to Japan in August.

With a massive fundraising effort and wonderful, financial support from Asia NZ and NZJEP we successfully collected enough money for 10 of us to travel to Japan for two weeks during the hottest and most humid summer they have seen for years.

We took off from Auckland in the early morning and 15 hours later touched down in the magical land of the rising sun.

First stop was Shikoku, Island of 99 Buddhist temples on a pilgrimage trail. It is also home to the fabulous Manten drummers who visited us in New Zealand in 2005 and gave us two songs - Michiyuki and Manten. We were very well looked after by the Kono family who introduced us to yummy Sanuki udon. They also took us to the Awaodori dance festival where we danced down the street en masse (sweating bucket loads), watched hundreds of dance teams from all over Japan accompanied by funky drums and had a taste of typical festival food - octopus balls, squid on a stick, shaved ice and crepes. The scale of this festival has to be seen to be believed with not one parade but many, many parades on many, many streets!

Manten also secured us the opening spot for the Miroku Summer Festival where we debuted our poi and taiko fusion song Waikato Awa. We were overwhelmed to hear audible gasps from the audience when we started our percussive poi routine which made all the hard work learning poi from scratch pay off. The night ended with half an hour of stunning fireworks with the local taiko group amping up the atmosphere on an odaiko set up high on a stand - unforgettable!

The next day we had a workshop with Manten and were humbled by their request to learn Shobu from us. We also got the kids twirling poi and Flavio even taught Mr Kono some staff techniques. It felt good to give back and share some New Zealand culture. We finished off with a huge, joint Michiyuki which had us buzzing with the energy we created.

After feasting that night on tempura, crab, kara age chicken, yakiudon and wedges (?) we indulged in a completely unsuccessful tanuki (raccoon dog) hunt before retiring to our futons to rest in readiness for our journey to Kyoto the next day.

Spirits were high as we headed north and had our first ride on the world-famous bullet train to Kyoto city where we met our host families and split off for the night. A full day and night of taiko followed, starting at Tachibana High School - hardcore stretches, challenging drills, joint song practice, communal obentoo (lunch box) in the school cafeteria, an interview with the Kyoto Daily Times and a concert in the well-appointed theatre.

Then we rushed across the city to meet up with our favourite pro drummers Wa San Bon - a happy reunion! - and to play in a concert organised by Riichi especially for us. Kenji MC'd the evening in a swanky suit and when he joined in with us on Yaraiya he ripped off his jacket and tied his pink tie round his head which got a huge laugh. It was so much fun!

We spent a day sightseeing around the beautiful, traditional city before making the long journey to Sado Island for Earth Celebration. Here we stayed in a minshuku (traditional, family-owned motel), swam in a lovely cove, participated in Miyake, demon dancing and drumming, onna uchi (women.s style) and flute making and playing workshops. We shopped at the bohemian festival market and attended Kodo concerts in the leafy green Shiroyama park three nights in a row. Oh, and we were lucky enough to perform on the fringe stage! To be able to go to this event was a dream come true and to perform there was incredible. To do workshops with the legendary Kodo drummers was a privilege and to see them perform live at such a beautiful venue was magical. Kodo.s hospitality extended to the very end when they gathered at the ferry dock to send us all off back to the mainland at the close of the festival. As the boat pulled away we unfurled long streams of ticker tape for a romantic and bittersweet farewell.

Next on the itinerary was the mega metropolis Tokyo. It turned out four days wasn't enough in this action-packed city but between us we did manage Sensooji Temple, Meiji Shrine, Sunshine City shopping, Ghibli Museum, the Imperial Palace, the Science Museum, the Sony Building, Anime Centre, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Akihabara, Ginza, Harajuku, catching up with friends and family, shopping, shopping, shopping and of course meeting up with Wa San Bon again. We shot over to Yokohama city where Kenji had organised a re-run of his popular, contemporary taiko show, Megane Live. We opened the night then joined the audience to watch the hilarious, high-energy concert and then jumped back on stage for a Yaraiya encore. Somehow, playing taiko with those guys is mind-blowingly exhilarating. On our final night in Tokyo, Kenji shouted us to a delicious Italian meal at the restaurant where he used to work. Thanks Kenji!

Sadly we had reached the last leg of our trip, heading West towards Nagoya and Hide's family temple where Hide had organised another taiko-filled day for us. He taught us one of his funky (but tricky) songs and then we had a mini-concert featuring ourselves and two other local groups. We ended the day with a huge feast of sushi, yakitori, beer and NZ lollies. At the very end we swapped t-shirts and gifts and then headed off to the local bath house for a communal bath.

And so, our time in Japan was over. Apart from all the amazing taiko experiences it was wonderful to get to know this quirky, crazy country ,the glorious food, convenience stores, fireworks, vending machines, temples and shrines, shopping, 100-yen stores, kimono, yukata and traditional footwear, trains, department store food halls, festivals - the list goes on. It was an unforgettable experience.

Thanks to all those people who supported us in the run-up to the trip by buying chocolate, attending our quiz, bonfire and ethnic percussion nights, and especially Asia NZ and NZJEP - we couldn't have done it without you.

Thanks also to our wonderful friends in Japan who looked after us so lovingly - Manten, Kitamura-sensei, the Tachibana students and Tomoko Sawasaki, Melanie Taylor and Kodo, Waraku, Riichi Yamauchi, Kenji Furutate and Hide Yura.