Home

Ah, I forgot to mention that I am home now!

The story of getting home was fairly ridiculous. We were trying to transport 8 people and lots of luggage and taiko gear purchased in Japan, which slowed down every move we made.

The journey to get back to St. Louis started at around 2 pm Tokyo time on Sunday (around midnightish Saturday US Central). Flight 3 hours later from Narita took about 13 hours to get to Chicago. Once in Chicago (now it was Monday), we learned that the next flight to St. Louis had been cancelled due to rain.

Seeking another route home, we investigated renting vans and cars to get us and our junk home -- none to be had. No trains. No Megabus. American Airlines was not interested in subsidizing our hotel costs overnight in Chicago, either (I understand they don't do that anymore after the airline bankruptcies). We got set up with some alternate flights the next day from Chicago --> Des Moines --> St. Louis.

(I'll elide over lots of cuss words.)

Since we were mostly immobile, the only choice was to pay for rooms at the Quality Inn near the airport and crash. After some pizza dinner mostly everyone just passed out asleep til...

Tuesday morning we learned that budgeting 2.5 hours of time at the airport was not long enough to get everything processed and onto planes. At this point, it was every (wo)man (and his/her checked baggage) for him/herself.

Four of us somehow got *different* flights directly from Chicago to St. Louis. The rest of us, your author included, got on the original flight to Des Moines after booking it through security and down many hallways, just barely making the flight.

Sat in Des Moines for 2 hours and then learned that American cancelled the Des Moines --> St. Louis flight, and that I was going back to Chicago.

Back to Chicago on the tiny pencil plane, only to have just a few minutes to spare finding the *next* plane that would take us to St. Louis!

And thus I finally arrived, exhausted and fresh outta cusswords, around 8:30 pm Tuesday! I am so happy to be home! And I kind of unreasonably hate Chicago and American Airlines now, although I hear it's technically the control tower's call what flights get cancelled, and that Chicago doesn't actually control its own weather.

Annnnd we got some more Tokyo for you

(pictured above: awesome Tokyo hair)

Today was the return from Okaya to Tokyo. One night left in Japan, and no better place to spend it! Just a couple of random shots.

Now if you'll excuse me, I must head back out into the neon night!

More more more

How do you like it? How do you like it?

Okay, sorry, couldn't resist!

More Okaya pictures. Be sure to check out the 500 Taikos of Power videos!

Okaya pictures!

Here is a gallery of some random pictures of Okaya/Suwa activities this week!

One more performance today, later this evening, but the rest of the day is unscheduled and mine to explore! I think I'm going to wander around Okaya a little and enjoy the weather. Tomorrow morning, it's slow trains all the way back to Tokyo (the Japan Rail pass that got us on the shinkansen was good only for one week, the first week). One evening in Tokyo, and then we fly back to St. Louis!

Okaya!

Oh my heavenly mercy it has been a busy time since we arrived in Okaya! It's been a whirlwind of practice and meeting with Suwa Daiko folks and performing and touring around a bit and meeting the Okaya mayor and being taken out to eel dinners and karaoke with people I cannot communicate with at all. Yesterday was 8 hours of taiko practice, and then a wonderful visit to the laundromat!

Today we have two performances, one a Oguchi Sensei memorial concert and the other is, I think, the 300 flaming taikos of insanity gig.

Photos will be posted as soon as I can!

Earthquake?

Nope, I did not feel any earthquake. When it happened, we were at the Suwa Daiko dojo in Okaya, so we were experiencing the usual taiko vibrations anyway!

St. Louis Osuwa Taiko is now ensconced in the city-let of Okaya (which is right next to the city-let of Suwa, sister city of St. Louis), where we will be up to our eyeballs in taiko practice and performing. Pictures to follow as they become available. Guess who forgot to charge the camera battery last night?

Highlight of the day: sitting in a Denny's in Small Town, Japan, and hearing Steely Dan come on over the Muzak. Bring back the Boston rag!

Nozawa and Kiriya Ryoken

Today was a travel day out to Nagano prefecture to the little town of Nozawa. This is Maki's hometown, and as she says, it is indeed about the size of Chesterfield Valley's parking lot! Only with hills and mountains and very cute buildings and winding roads and hot sulphur springs, and therefore many times better than a parking lot.

We stayed the night in her parents' hotel, Kiriya Ryoken, and were treated royally with wonderful food and hospitality and hot sulphur spring soaking!

I would write more but I must go out and locate the place that sells soba ice cream before we leave...man have I eaten good on this trip. Tomorrow, though, starts the hardcore taiko practice and performance section of the trip. So next time you hear from me I'll probably be moaning about how I can't use my arms anymore.

Go see some pictures and videos from the day!

A late morning and a quick trip to Kyoto

We visited Kyoto all too briefly today. It is a great town with a very pleasant vibe -- homey, yet large, yet clean, yet not all-new and shiny looking. It also has a strong hip university flavor to it, making it feel smallish and homey yet international.

Walked around plenty in the heat, saw a shrine, saw some geisha action, and ate dinner at a sushi kaiten (sushi on a conveyor belt!!!). Here are some pictures. Wifi is being a jerk and not letting me post my avi (movie) clips -- maybe I'll get some of those up later.

Tomorrow is travel to Nozawa in Nagano prefecture. I get the drift I'll be on trains all day long, so not too much excitement.

Answers to questions!

1) Um, we were too lazy to do Mt. Fuji. It is sad but true! I was happy though to have an extra day to wander Tokyo. Tokyo was really great.

2) Local time here is ahead 14 hours...so right now it is Friday at 11 am, but it's also Thursday at 9 pm.

Hiroshima and Miyajima, Thursday 8/6

Another brief entry: today's travels were to Miyajima and Hiroshima.

This post was written three times and each time wifi kicked me off through a dropped signal. I am not sure how strongly I can express my utter hatred for the internet access here in Osaka!

Briefly, we visited Hiroshima to see part of the Peace Ceremony, and visited Miyajima because it has a very cool shrine, and mountainous prettiness, and monkeys and deer!

Gah. Pictures from the day uploaded here, although depending on when wifi boots me off they may or may not have labels and explanations!

Arrived in Osaka

Today we arrived in Osaka after taking the bullet train (or shinkansen) from Tokyo. It was about a 3 hour trip, plus extra walking to and from stations.

We are staying now at the hotel Yamatoya Honten -- which has the world's crappiest wifi. So the next few days are not going to be very verbose! I'll still get pictures up and post the link. (Like the one for today!)

The day the camera died

Today we ventured to two taiko stores, Suwa Sound Studios and Miyamoto in Asakusa. The trips took most of the day, and unfortunately around 2 pm my camera battery died!

Just a few pictures are up here.

Monday in Tokyo

After a late Family Mart breakfast, several of us headed out to find the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, about a 15 minute train ride away from our hotel. The museum itself was pretty great for fans of Hayao Miyazaki's movies and probably kind of ridiculous for anyone else. The place had a City Museum kind of vibe with lots of nooks to explore -- and of course an insanely priced gift shop and cafe. Photos, alas, were not allowed. See the website for a clearer idea.

We then spent some time walking around Mitaka looking for promising food and found it in an establishment called Ootoya Something.

Only 900 yen -- and then there was dessert, which I consumed too fast to photograph!

We then headed back to the hotel to meet up with the non-Ghibli folk and to locate an ex-STL taiko member living in Japan. Our travels took us to Shinjuku, a part of Tokyo that is half business complex, half insane neon lights and clubs and restaurants.


Restaurant staff stand outside their businesses and sort of mildy harrass you to come inside and eat and drink. We walked through the "red light district" (apparently recently cleaned up and barely identifiable as such right now) and visited a few eating and drinking places amid general wandering around...and ended the night on a karaoke note!

So far I am incredibly impressed with a few things I've noticed in Tokyo: excellent public transportation, clean streets, polite non-in-your-face people, and delicious food. Oh and my tiny tiny hotel room with its oddly huge tub.

See more photos from the day at this flickr set, and photos of the whole trip are piling up at this flickr collection.

Breakfast of Champions

Family Mart is the convenience store of wonderful goods!

As we all get organized to go at different rates this morning, we all scampered in different directions to find food. First stop a block or two away from our hotel was a Family Mart.

Azumi liquid-y wonderful strawberry yogurt, triangular unlabeled rice lump which contained a spicy fish thing inside, and WONDA Wonderful Coffee (as it bills itself), sitting in a *heater* display! Hot coffee in a can! It is wonda-ful indeed.

Best of all, I spent 396 yen. I might be able to afford Tokyo!

Arrived in Tokyo

Well! Here I am safely arrived in Tokyo after about 24 hours of travelling! So far I have been travelling, finding food, walking around, and collapsing sleeping. This morning, I spent the last 45 minutes trying to get the internet to accept my massive amounts of photo uploads. I'm going to have to rethink my procedures here...

Unfortunately, now I must run off and find breakfast and begin the first day of running around touristy things. We are going to the Ghibli museum, among other things!

Meanwhile, for your entertainment, you can check out some photos at my Flickr site. I will try to organize them better, into days, later!

I will be better at describing what's going on in future posts...to my defense, most of yesterday was a blur anyway! Plane. Walking. Tokyo streets. Drizzle. Tokyo streets. Noodles. Tiny hotel room.

Off I go!