Taiko goodness :)

My first Taiko (japanese drums) performance yesterday!

Me and 4 other UT Gindaiko members (Adryon, Megan, Robyn, Laura and Saurabh) went over to Allen Elementary School. When we reached there the kids opened the door for us as we carried the drums in.

I must say, this being first Taiko performance still made a me a little nervous. I remembered (out loud) that I threw one of my drumstick during my first Chinese Drum performance back in high school.

Throughout the performance I had a few memory mistakes, as did everyone else, but the energy was so there! Everyone was so into it. Especially when you see the kids faces. They were pretty much fixated and in awe of our big drums haha.

And Adryon threw her drumstick (bachi)during our performance. Haha, I prolly shouldn't have told her about my first drum performance experience.

During the Q&A session, a little boy that sat next to one of the teachers raised his hand and asked a question. He seemed shy at first, "can I have your autograph?", and giggled to himself later on. Haha.... we couldn't help but laugh.

One thing about American kids, nearly EVERYONE asked a question. They're much more outspoken and expressive. Little hands flew up in the air EVERYWHERE during Q&A.

We had very good questions, "How did you make your drums?, how did you all meet? what other talents do you have? where are all of you from?". And absolutely ADOBRABLE questions, one of the little girls asked, "are ya'll gonna tour the world and perform, like in Europe and Asia?". She was really serious about that question haha and you could tell she thought she had asked a really important question, as did the other kids. The teachers giggled a bit. And we explained that we would love to but didn't have the money yet haha.

Another little boy also asked, "Are there gonna be more boys? Cos' there's only one now!", and pointed at Saurabh. And then another kid pointed at me and asked, "Are you Chinese?", and then asked me to read the words on our t-shirt, since I was the only Asian person in the group. Haha, the words on the t-shirt was actually Japanese but good thing I could read it though :)

And at the end of the Q&A, ALL of the kids ran to the stage with their little notebooks and pieces of paper and even pokemon cards. They brought their colorful markers and asked for our autograph. Some girls even brought several pieces of paper, "this one is for my aunt", "this one for my sister".... Haha. And I signed like a million autographs. IT WAS AWESOME. No one's ever asked me for my autograph and likely not every again so it was freaking awesome and i admit i was basking in the glory w rather easily impressed little kids :)

We signed autographs for half an hour at least hahahaaa. And since I sat on the stage while signing, my feet were dangling out and some kid kept playing with my shoe, (tabi), the ones that look like the ones the teenage mutant ninja turtles wear. and they asked me if I had made the shoes hahaha.

And when it was all over and time to leave they asked us when we would come back again! :)