The Dojo

My dojo experience.

When getting to the dojo we found out that we had to say while bowing "yorosheku onaguyshemas".  (Pronounced - yo ro she koo  on a guy she mas).   I was so extremely nervous about trying to pronounce the words while yelling them out. I had help the first few times and then I was able to say it without having help. It still gave me butterflies though.  Then we had to go up the stairs with the first step being taken with our left foot.  Why the left I don't really know but that is just the way it was done.  Then before we actually stepped into the building we had to bow again.  When we got into the building we had to take our shoes off stepping on a wooden platform while not touching our socks on the concrete where our shoes were.  We would go up the stairs to the second floor drop off our things and then make our way down to the actually dojo.  To get into the dojo we would bow down while stepping in and up with our left foot and then bowed again.  From that point we would start stretching to get ready for drumming all day.  We would then start meditation which was interesting and kind of hurt because we had to sit on the floor while cross legged without moving around.  From there on out we practiced Taiko.

The sensei.

The first and second day was very intimidating.  The sensei would come out and talk to us every morning in Japanese and a little English.  He was so scary at first because he talked really fast and all in Japanese.  However, at the end of day we would go into his study and ask him questions about Taiko.  He is actually extremely funny and extrememly nice.  He speaks pretty good English so we could understand most everything that he says.  He also has a really fun toy.  It is like an I-pad that he speaks into in Japanese and it changes it into English.  Very cool.  We found out that he has played all of the world in many, many, many concerts.  Everyday at some point in the day he would come in and we would get to watch him play.  HE IS INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!  We would call it "watching studies" (They were the best part of the week).

The Schedule.

Wake up. Eat. Take the Train. Walk to the dojo. Stretch. Meditate. Practice. Eat Lunch. Practice. Walk back to the Train. Eat Dinner. Go to bed.  That was the schedule for the 5 days we were there at Fukui.