Sore, tired, un-confident (another travel day coming up this afternoon). Thoughtful. This conference was pretty amazing. I need to get in the habit of relaxing my body because it tenses up so automatically I don't even realize it.
There was a concert last night of several taiko groups. The last was San Francisco Taiko Dojo playing a piece called "Tsunami." It is full of pain. There were several very powerful oodaiko solos at the end by extremely talented players, but none of them were joyful. It was all loss and fear and helpless rage and just very, very heavy. Hell of a way to end things. For me this art form is about joy and excitement, so it's weird for a piece to bring me down.
The song was written before the 2011 tsunami, but has been dedicated to the people from the devastated region. I guess before it was simply about raw crushing power. Tanaka-sensei visited the are days after and was asked not to play taiko because it might bring back the sea or its memory.
Overall though,if I can chill out and get over that one song, I feel inspired. And maybe a tiny bit more ready for the festival coming up in a couple weeks.
