drumming in apple-land

I arrived at Aomori, dog-tired, carrying a heavy backpack and covered with sweat, leaving the fogged-up train behind me. Aomori station was decorated with little angry-goldfish-shaped balloons because of the ねぶた Nebuta festival. Some random guy came up to me and gave me a road map book of Japan... I insisted it was OK but he gave it to me anyway. I thanked him and then he kinda disappeared on me. Random...

We arrived at about 6 in the morning, so nothing except for 24-hour combinis were open (7-Eleven, oh thank heaven, indeed)... Well, almost nothing. 　I noticed a small electronics shop two blocks down from the station, 伊香電器 Ikoh Electronics, had its window shutter halfway up. I could see they had some Nebuta merchandise for sale, so I had a look and saw they were selling these angry goldfish balloons. So I bought one ^_^. The lady (Mrs. Ikoh) was very nice and offered that I could leave my backpack in her store to go see the sea and the tent village they had set up for keeping the floats looking sharp. Well, there was nothing in my pack but clothes and toiletries, so I left it there and went to go find this tent village. 　I found it on the quay, and the floats were just incredible up close. They're wire with coloured paper attached to the surface. They were impressive in the morning light but I knew they were going to be even more awesome when lit up at night during the parade. After a bit of wandering I then found myself on the dock itself looking out toward the ocean. The dawn was very beautiful, and from Aomori harbour, the sea and sky were a beautiful medley of blues. Jellyfish bobbed away just below the waves (note to self. Don't go swimming in there), and some children were playing traditional Japanese games (with tops and such) on the dock nearby.

Interrupting my peaceful photo-session was one of my favourite sounds in the world - taiko drums. One of the many Nebuta taiko groups was performing for a TV live special. There were 6 or so drummers accompanied by about 30 dancers, dressed in blue and white robes with colourful ribbons and bells attached. I watched them film the special and one of the dancers approached me and gave me some of the 'good-luck bells' attached to his costume. I attached it to my purse for him but the ringing drove me nuts about 10 minutes later so I put them inside, haha.

I returned to Mrs. Ikoh's shop and grabbed my bags, gave her a canned coffee as thanks, and set off to the train station. I took a local train to 浅虫温泉 Asamushi hot spring just east of Aomori on the sea coast. James and I had visited this hot spring during our Golden Week drive, and it was very relaxing. After a nice soak I headed back to the station to take the train to 三沢市 Misawa, where I would transfer to a private railway line bound for Towada City. My lack of sleep caught up with me, and I stupidly left my purse on the bench at the station. I realized this as the train pulled away, and I had to go back on the next train to get it. Thankfully, it was still there... and because of that hiccup in my plans, I wouldn't be able to make it to Misawa on time to meet Ohta-san at the time I promised. There was a limited express train next, so I boarded it, hoping they wouldn't ask for my ticket. They didn't, thankfully, and I got off at Misawa with time to catch the train for Towada.　Phew.

I met with Ohta-san's wife Hiromi as I arrived. We chatted in Japanese just fine - she had little English. I was expecting not to understand her very well, because I know that linguistically speaking, Aomori is a scary place... the Tsugaru peninsula is famous for its (for even other Japanese people) unintelligable dialect, 津軽弁　Tsugaru-ben. For example, water　水 - みず　mizu in (from what I know) all other parts of Japan, is said がっこ　gakko there. Totally different. But, I understood her just fine. Phew. It turns out that in Towada they speak the 南部弁　Nanbu dialect, which shares some words with Hokkaido-ben (such as めんこい　menkoi = 可愛い kawaii meaning 'cute' or 'loveable'). But I'm told people in Tsugaru use standard Japanese for tourists and anybody looking remotely foreign.

We arrived at Ohta-san's parents' kimono shop, and they were busy preparing for a funeral that afternoon. So I went with Ohta-san's sister to meet his two young sons. They were just adorable. Kohki we picked up from his 幼稚園 (kindergarten), and kept calling me 外人さん (gaijin-san - Miss Foreigner). He started calling me ルースさん only on the last day...

Later I got to meet　the rest of the group members at practice. For the first 1/2 hour was 'self-practice'. Taiko practice is for home - group practice is for synchronisation together. Everybody should know their part of a piece up to a certain point, and if the group is learning a new piece together, it is each member's responsbility to come to practice next time having practiced. The self-practice time involves minimal chatter - that is done at the after-practice 宴会 enkai. Each member warms up and irons out bits they think need work. I played some parts of the pieces I did with the Kamikawa group and Todoroki. The group had a performance the next day and so were brushing up on six of their pieces. They practiced them all together, including 喧嘩太鼓 Kenka-daiko, a piece they kindly taught Todoroki and allowed us to perform as we like.　They allowed me to join in this one, even though it had been about 3 months since I'd even heard it last. Turns out my memory is better than I thought... after having only practiced it twice in that one workshop, I remembered it almost fully！ They told me that I'd be performing with them the next day, was that OK... of COURSE it's OK, it's taiko... I'm always game :D

So after practice we went out for dinner at this 居酒屋 izakaya (pub) for my welcome party. They knew I'd come a long way, and that I couldn't stay more than two or three days, but they still took me out for some down home Aomori cuisine. Not apples, that's touristy stuff. The menu of this place is horse. Specifically, 馬刺身 raw horse sashimi, dipped in grated ginger and soy sauce. Well, I wasn't exactly ecstatic, but I tried some anyway. It was pretty good and very lean, but I really didn't feel like a lot, maybe two pieces to save face.　And much drinking - my favourite 梅酒 Ume-shu (Japanese plum liqueur). After the drinking, more drinking and karaoke. The place was called CROSS, pretty stylish but the karaoke menu lacked most of my favourite songs. The guys kept asking me to sing English songs, and thank goodness they didn't have me sing Country Roads or Bryan Adams...