Videos are linked, below.
Near Asakusa, we stumbled into a very cool street performance of Taiko drumming. Â It mixes elements of percussion music, martial arts, dance, and a hefty dollop of old fashioned stage presence.
Oh yeah, a few days ago we got to sit in on a kindergarten kid’s taiko lesson. Â The cuteness level was over 9000.
In Narita, we got to check out a gion street festival. Â The Japanese are very hard workers, but they also have more holidays than we enjoy in the States. Â So, they do stuff like haul these shrine-on-a-cart things (“mikoshi”) around and stop for a drink every hour or so. Â 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). Â Wait for it…