This post was recovered from an old blog that I had while studying abroad in Japan. I’ve only updated misspellings or dead links, but left any cringe worthy things or immature thoughts. I’ve decided to leave them as a snapshot of who I was and to see how far I’ve come. Any photos have been freshly edited and so are not the same as what was originally posted. Over the years I had several blogs, most lost to time, and I wanted to recover some lost memories and reflect on my life.

A couple weeks ago during one of my Japanese culture classes I played Taiko. I was bad, very bad.

Taiko is simply the word for drum in Japanese. Taiko encompasses not just one, but several kinds of drums. There are huge, loud drums which sound like thunder. Even a small drum with a higher pitch, and high price tag. The ones pictured are actually fairly cheap standard drums, but I can assure you they mad a pleasant noise.

After the class helped the guest teacher carry all his taiko drums in and set up, he began. The rumbling from one of the big drums came across the room and hit me like a wall. It was pretty intense being so close and not just hearing, but feeling the sound. After playing his opening he said he was only giving it 80%. Whoa.

The teacher then moved on to instructing us how to play. He would teach us something simple, have us practice it a couple times, and then say “level up!” I think he was leveling up too quickly for me, soon I found myself standing there with the sticks in my hand looking around at everyone playing. I couldn’t keep up!

Even though I was a disaster to the ears I still had a lot of fun. Thanks to Mori-sensei (The lady in blue) for setting it up. She always makes class interesting, educational, and 楽しい！ ありがとうございます！