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 After many years of wishing and many months of planning, Kita No Taiko finally achieved its goal of a group trip to Japan. The purpose of this excursion was not only to further our exposure to and skills in taiko, but also to experience Japanese culture. Accordingly, the trip was a mixture of taiko and partying!
Eleven members boarded the plane on Oct 26, landing in Tokyo. The day after, we plunged into okedo lessons (okedo are the drums that we carry over our shoulders), led by Hayashida-san, a former member of Kodo. His energy and enthusiasm were both amazing and inspiring.
The next stop was the hotspring resort town, Atami. Atami is a small town but surprisingly, has a large new museum located on the side of a small mountain. In the building, to reach the museum itself, you have to go up a series of extremely long escalators. The view from the top was wonderful.
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 In Atami, a few members encountered their most memorable experience. A "certain somebody" in our group broke a white glass fixture in the public hotspring bath covered with white tile. Shards of glass everywhere with continuously flowing water took quite a while to clean up. The hotel was very kind about what happened and did not charge extra. Maybe they were amused enough by three foreign naked guys profusely apologizing while cleaning. Anyway, the bath was probably much cleaner than before the whole thing happened.
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 The next stop was the historical city of Kyoto. Despite an awful rain storm (we were on the edge of a typhoon hitting Japan) soaking everyone to the skin, we managed to visit many temples and shrines. We made a side trip to Nara and saw the pillar with a slot cut out of it at the Todaiji Temple. If you are able to squeeze through the slot, you become smarter. Very few of us managed to fit through.
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