Thursday 1 July 2010: BIG, BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL

This evening I packed up the car with my friend's birthday gifts and drove in to town to deliver them to her. We then took ourselves off to a small primary school in a town 9 miles from our home town.

We were to attend, as guests of one of the school's teachers, an evening of Japanese drumming; an event that has taken place, annually, for many a year now and my friend and I have been lucky enough to have been invited for the past 5 years.

For the princely sum of £3 we were entertained, for two hours, by Joji Hirota and his Japanese drummers. It was amazing and defies description because it was purely a sensual experience.

The above is a picture of an Odaiko which is the largest (as far as I am aware) of the Japanese drums. It is my favourite of the Japanese drums as when it is beaten it does more than give out a sound; it reaches into the core of your being and reverberates around your body.

The continual rhythm of the core thread of most of the tunes requires the player to enter into some sort of meditative state and the whole thing becomes quite mesmeric.

Truly a wonderful night of entertainment that has made me want to get out my little, but quite loud, drum and play the whole night through. However, as it is now quarter to twelve at night I don't think my neighbours would be too pleased.

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