Monday, July 11, 2016

San Jose Obon 2016!

So it's Monday and I'm writing this in advance because I'm going to be beyond tired come this blog post.

San Jose Obon is such a huge event, starting (for me) Friday night with the potluck full of collegiate players, friends of SJT, and SJT itself.  There's probably about 250 people who attend, and about 95% of them either play or have played taiko.  We eat, we rehearse Ei Ja Nai Ka, we clean up, and we rest for the weekend!

Over the weekend there's six taiko performances, 4 collegiate groups (2 each day) with SJT playing at the end on both days.  Then there's the dancing a few hours later; we had over 1200 odori dancers last Obon Saturday and I want to say around 900 on the Sunday?  With even more people around, watching.

Add all the food, games, crafts, and other entertainment, and it's like a 2-day block party/carnival right outside our door.  Literally, like 50 feet from my doorstep.

I'll be taking and posting pics of the collegiate taiko and dancing as I normally do to post later in the week.  If you've never been to SJ Obon, I highly highly recommend it, as it's the largest in North America, has a lot of taiko to enjoy, and is in the heart of SJ Japantown!

By the time you read this, I'll be recuperating, so I hope you were able to attend, but if not, come over in 2017!

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