Japan Videos

Videos are linked, below.

Near Asakusa, we stumbled into a very cool street performance of Taiko drumming.  It mixes elements of percussion music, martial arts, dance, and a hefty dollop of old fashioned stage presence.

• http://blog.shadowmecha.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/TaikoStreetFestival.mp4

Oh yeah, a few days ago we got to sit in on a kindergarten kid’s taiko lesson.  The cuteness level was over 9000.

 

In Narita, we got to check out a gion street festival.  The Japanese are very hard workers, but they also have more holidays than we enjoy in the States.  So, they do stuff like haul these shrine-on-a-cart things (“mikoshi”) around and stop for a drink every hour or so.  It all starts out very disciplined and by the end of the day they’re pretty smashed.

• http://blog.shadowmecha.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/VID00078RollingShrine.MP4
• http://blog.shadowmecha.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/VID00083NaritaGionWalkabout.MP4
• http://blog.shadowmecha.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/VID00088RollingShrine2.MP4
• http://blog.shadowmecha.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/VID00094RollingShrine3.MP4

 

Aaaaand one more, from the Tokyo National Museum of Natural History (equivalent to our Smithsonian Institutions in DC).  Wait for it…

• http://blog.shadowmecha.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/VID00099NationalMuseum.MP4