August is matsuri (festival) season in Japan. Last night, Nozomi & I heard traditional style drum music that sounded like it wasn't too far down the street. We decided to take a walk and see if there was a neighborhood festival happening somewhere nearby. As we approached the elementary school that's about three blocks from our apartment, the music became louder. We walked onto the school grounds, and could see a group of students inside one of the rooms practicing. Nozomi said it probably wasn't a problem for us to go into the building, so just as they started to take a break, she stepped inside and asked if it would be OK if we watched their practice. The leader said it was fine, so we had an upclose view of them practicing for an upcoming festival. The students were in lines behind different drums, and took turns playing. It was interesting to see them trading off without missing a beat. The video I took is about a minute long, but their practice session was actually about 25 minutes! The youngest student looked like he was maybe a first or second grader; I was impressed with the students' endurance and concentration.
P.S. You get bonus points if you know who sang the song that I referenced in the title of this post ;-)
P.S. You get bonus points if you know who sang the song that I referenced in the title of this post ;-)
No comments:
Post a Comment