Jenni's Day Off

Had the day off today for my birthday holiday.  Took Maiya to school, then went to the gym and did 27 minutes on the treadmill.  I could have gone longer, but I had to get home to shower and head to the eye doctor.  The good news is my eyes are getting better, which explains why I cannot read anything close, since my contacts are too strong.  

Then booked it out to J-town, on my day off to have lunch at Toranoko with my cousins (from left to right above) Roxane, Cherie, Jackie, and beautiful cutie Harper (Jackie's grandbaby).  Planned on FB last night, it was a last chance to get together for Cherie, who heads back to France tomorrow after visiting for a week and a half.

This girl is such a cutie pie!

After lunch, I went back to pick up Maiya from taiko class, one of her after school classes.  When we were considering Japanese immersion education for Maiya, one of the main considerations for me was the cultural awareness and activities that go along with the language learning.  We are so fortunate that Maiya is able to not only learn to speak, read and write in Japanese, but she is also learning traditional Japanese dance, making Japanese and Japanese American friends... and learning taiko.  How many elementary schools have after school taiko programs?  I must admit, as a former failed taiko player myself (Bombu Taiko), I had hopes that she would be interested in taiko.  After two months of taiko class, I think she is already much better than I was after a year of playing taiko, and she definitely has better form and rhythm than I ever did.

Anyways, after school, I cleaned up all the Halloween decorations in the yard while Maiya did homework, then we went to dinner at Howard's Bacon and Avocado Burgers for turkey tacos, and then to Baskin Robbins to use a $2 off coupon.  And there, if anyone was interested, is a nutshell of my day off, and NaBloPoMo12 #5.  Peace. Out.

WLA Obonalicious

WLA Taiko members range from kids to 70-somethings

Sao... Darin's how's the udon?

Eating shave ice with Grandpa Walt & Uncle Bill

Might be my favorite picture of the summerTrying to take a picture with grandma and grandpa

Hey Kevin.. let's see your face!

Sparkle, sparkle, sparkle

Clap clap... clap

We had a great time at the WLA Obon. Uncle Bill joined us and we arrived just in time for the big dinner crowds. My parents and brother Darin's family and their friends also were there. Food was great and the long lines went pretty fast, but it was just so crowded. Tony & I ate Feast from the East salads, while Maiya had her usual hot dog & shave ice. The shave ice is one of the better ones. Uncle Bill enjoyed the teriyaki chicken. Maiya (and I) probably waited 20 minutes in line for the bouncer. Tony was busy chatting with various friends he hadn't seen in awhile, so there's no pictures of him or me.

Uncle Bill and Tony walked back to Uncle Bill's house, and Maiya and I stayed to dance. The bummer is that by the time we dance, Maiya is usually a little cranky and annoying, but the great thing is that she and I did a lot of dancing this year and we are actually starting to learn the dances! It is fun to be with her and watch her watching others and catching on to the moves, at the same time I am learning. It's fun doing Tampopo, Auntie Nobuko's song. My favorite one is the one with the "sparkle, sparkle, sparkle." Still, some of the dances are too hard and we take a little break.

Taiko=Love & ART=LIFE

NaBloPoMo#9: I love taiko. I always have. Tony and I call it the "music of our people." Tonight, Maiya & I were joined by my brother Darin and his family to see San Jose Taiko in concert at the JACCC. They came to my office after work, and we all walked down to TOT in Little Tokyo for dinner. At the restaurant, we saw friends from Bombu Taiko (I played with them as a beginning taiko player for about a year), Kenny Endo (who I met through Great Leap/Bindu Records years ago), and some activist folks from the community.

I have to say, the kids did pretty well during the concert. They all sat fairly quietly in our laps in the first half of the show. By the intermission, they were kind of antsy and needed to run around and play a bit, especially as it was running into bedtime. During the second half, Maiya & Kevin were standing up and dancing around, drumming a little in the air, so we spent a good part of the second half in the lobby. We did go back inside to see the finale and the encore, and by then the kids were running up and down the aisle.

Darin, Kevin, PJ, Saori & Kyle

After the show, we hung around awhile and got to catch up a little with PJ, the Artistic Director of San Jose Taiko. She is so much fun to watch because she looks like she is having so much fun performing. I met PJ years ago through Great Leap when she and Nobuko spent 5 years creating the Triangle Project-- I wrote a column called "My Journey with the Triangle Project" about the birthing of that incredible show.

I enjoyed spending time with Darin, Saori and the kids (they drove out from Ventura County on a Friday night), enjoyed seeing old friends from the taiko & arts community, and enjoyed sharing a night of API performing arts with Maiya. Even though I am really "into" early childhood education right now and I know I'm doing good work for low income families for a great nonprofit, I realize that I have missed working in the arts the last 3 years.

I miss the energy of producing a show, being part of artistic creation, being backstage just before and during a show, the stress of selling tickets, lining up sponsors and funders, writing press releases and doing PR (oh wait--the stress part I don't miss), greeting friends and supporters during a show, interacting with incredibly dedicated and creative community artists, and the relief of a successful production as it comes to an end.

Maybe it's time for me to start seeing more productions. I know that I'm looking for kid-friendly shows to see and look forward to giving Maiya more artistic experiences as she grows up, because ART=LIFE.