good news
July 12, 2005
Yesterday night I got home from my last ever evening class, to find my neighbour Mr. K and a couple of others having a mini-party in the cafe next door. They were celebrating some amazing news that Mr. K had just received that afternoon: the taiko-group — which Mr. K runs — has been accepted to participate in the 4th Tokyo International Taiko Contest, in October. They are one of only twelve taiko-drumming groups that will take part, which means that they will be competing against (and consequently, are one of) the best taiko groups in the world!
As well as being fantastic news, it has also made the decision for me that I won’t be leaving Japan before late October. Not that I’ll be playing or anything (there’s a one million yen prize at stake here!), but it would be crazy not to go along. Also, when they go to Tokyo, there’s a fair chance they’ll do another concert somewhere else, and then I probably would get to play. Either way, it should be an excellent end to my time on this island — to go to Tokyo with the band that I first saw by chance in a London street four years ago, before I’d ever heard of this island, and which made me want to learn taiko in the first place.