So, I just finished my first ever Taiko workshop and am now officially a
Taiko drummer, as evidenced by the beautiful blood-blisters on both hands.

Imagine this is me.

So, I got pretty crazy out there, whacked big sticks on a big drum,
shouted “HAI!” lots and had a fantastic time. I’d recommend the experience to
anyone. I’m definitely going to try to make it to future classes, but with my
schedule I don’t know if that will be possible.

Some things I liked about it:

• Having a tradition of respect without basing it on some kind of religious
  mumbo-jumbo (Well, you could claim “focusing your chi” is mumbojumbo, but I
  think it’s alright because it’s a mental construct for helping you focus, and
  you don’t have to worship it or stop eating fish on Fridays.) is really
  refreshing and comfortable. For instance, bowing before entering and -leaving-
  a Dojo is kindof a show of respect for the space and for the people you’re
  working with. Meditation at the end of class just to gather your thoughts is
  nice. Having a set of traditions makes it easier to communicate because it
  gives you a shared contextual space to draw ideas from, too.
• Smashing a huge drum as hard ad you can and hearing it make that BOOM!
  noise is -sooooooooo- satisfying, in a deeply animal way.
• Realizing that you can (kindof) remember (in a way) many many lines of
  drumming music (I was about to say code) and build them into muscle memory is
  pretty fascinating. I suck, in particular, at this task. But I was doing
  alright between major screwups. The teacher got a good laugh out of me
  twice, when everyone else in the room went silent and I’d accidentally keep
  on going. “BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM boom boom…. WHOOPS!” Very embarassing.