My Trip to Japan

Our son had a 20th Anniversary concert for his Taiko drumming group in mid February and I wanted to experience the celebration too so I went to Japan for 3 weeks. Taiko drumming is an old art, so why is the club celebrating just 20 years? Each shrine/temple/district had their own drum or drums, own method of playing and own rhythm. So that the art is not lost clubs now collate these varieties. The district where j’s club is had a 123, 123, 123, rhythm like the waltz played on an upright drum. It symbolised the sword making with 2 apprentices and the master craftsman playing on an upright drum representing the anvil. Some drums are small, like kettle drums and they go up to taller than men! And some are played side on, like the big base in a drum kit, and others are worn on straps over the shoulder for processions. The playing is loud and energetic and up to 12 drums could be played at a time and sometimes 2 people either end of a side on drum. This is my favourite technique. The concert was fantastic!

Of course I stayed with the family and played at being Grandma. Every morning I took R to kindi on the back of M’s bike at 8:30am and collected him at 2pm. He is now 5 and doesn’t start school until he is 6. The kindi kids wear uniform and there are 24 kids in his class for one teacher and there are 6 kindi groups in his “school”. Kids start there at 3. I went to an end of year concert in February.. The new school year starts in April. It was a demonstration of some things they had learnt in class – eg songs, some English, and skipping. 5 Year olds were skipping VERY competently! R’s class did some taiko! R and I played after kindi. He understood most of what I said but he only spoke minimally. We went bike-riding ; he can ride a 2 wheeler well and one day we did an exploring hike of 10kms. K turned 1 in November. He walks and talks but nobody understands him. It is neither Japanese nor English! It didn’t matter because he sure let you know what he wanted or didn’t want. If M was around he didn’t want to know me but we went for walks in the pusher and I even took him to Playgroup alone. I had a wonderful time, even though it was very cold and snowed a few times. I was in Japan for 3 weeks.
The house sit in Sale ended early March and so S finished off that commitment and l drove over to join me in Adelaide where I am now teaching English to Japanese students for 2 weeks AND looking after my parents. My Mum has just been in hospital for exhaustion. My Dad is frail, grumpy and selfish! We will be in Adelaide until early May and then we go to house sit in Hobart. We are all looking forward to daughter, J’s wedding in April. ALL our family will be together for a week – the first time for 8 years