Drummin' it up at the Narita Taiko Festival.

Hordes of people came to see the festival.

This year, I was absolutely determined to go see the Narita Taiko Festival (成田太鼓祭)! With about 55 teams (wadaiko, drum, and Japanese dance) that come to perform here each year, this event is said to be one of Japan's greatest taiko festival - and more importantly, who doesn't like taiko??
 
The Narita Taiko Festival is usually held on a weekend in April. I had originally planned to go Saturday, but then the forecast called for rain...which makes it difficult to take decent photos, no? So I went on Sunday instead. I think everyone else figured the same thing - or the crowd for this event is just always incredible. On second thought, I think it's both.

All for one, one for all!

Everyone was crammed into what is normally a gigantic open space (it only feels this cramped during the festival!) particularly for the Sengan Hana Daiko (千願華太鼓) performance, which is held at 10am both mornings of the festival...except if it rains, and this portion of the program is cancelled. Which is what happened this year.

I am really really glad I got to see it though! I can't explain well enough how amazing and intense it is...imagine about 700 drum players performing all at once! Surprisingly it is not deafeningly loud (because it is wadaiko, or Japanese drums???) but the drumbeats vibrating throughout the whole plaza is one awesome experience.

Since words don't do very well, here is a short clip I filmed:


Sadly the audio is pretty horrible on my recording, so here is a much much better quality clip of the Sengan Hana Daiko on youtube:

Yes, it's early, but if you actually want to be able to see the performance, you should plan to get there waaaaaaaaay before 10am. We got there maybe 15 minutes before everything started, and there were easily 5-6 people in front of us in every direction. No matter how much you try and shift, it was impossible to see...so the only glimpses I actually got of the performance were through my camera, when I stuck it in the air to take photos.

Long awaited MOCHI WAFFLE!

We took a break in between all the excitement to hunt this baby down. Yes - it is a waffle, but entirely made of mochi! I wonder if they stick the mochi into a waffle maker??? It was simple and PERFECT. You can choose from "Western-style (洋風)" or "Japanese-style (和風)." The Japanese-style has red bean paste, kinako, and kuromitsu on it, and looked delicious! I got the western style (pictured above), which has maple and chocolate syrup on it...it sounds weird, but it was pure genius.

The cafe - it's near the entrance to Naritasan Shinshoji Temple. The inside is super cute too...I would love to come back.

Navigating the sea of people along Omotesando Street.

After refueling, it was time to wander Omotesando Street, which connects Narita Station and Naritasan Shinshoji Temple. There are a bunch of individual stages set up directly along this street, and after the Sengan Hana Daiko in the morning, each of the taiko teams take turns performing at these stages throughout the day. Not to mention, the historic feel of this area is lovely, and you can find a lot of fun shops to buy stuff in and/or eat at.

OMG this guy! He kept taking giant leaps into the air as he slammed a baseball bat-sized taiko stick onto the drum. WIN.

As we strolled around, we managed to come across one of the teams we were hoping to see perform individually - a group called 和 (wa)-jin.

Once again, words can't describe how EPIC their performance is, so here's a video:



And also, recording of much better quality from the previous day (once again not mine, found on youtube):

Choshi Hane-daiko drummers!

I will end this post with a group from our very own Chiba - the Choshi Hane-daiko (銚子はね太鼓)! I don't know too much about it yet - but it is a traditional style of wadaiko from Choshi, the most eastern tip of Chiba Prefecture (aka CHI-BA+KUN's ear?).

One dude leaps up after being pinned down.

 The really cool thing about Choshi Hane-daiko is how one guy will pin down the other guy and both of them will continue drumming like nothing's happened. As my friend put it, it's got this whole "I am man" masculine tone to it. It must hurt to be knocked to the ground like that though?

Here is my not-so-good recording:



I couldn't find any recordings of the Choshi Hane-daiko from this year, so here's one from last year:

In conclusion - taiko is epic! There are a couple of other highlight events I didn't get to see this year (the taiko performances by fire at night on the first day, and the taiko parade throughout the streets on the second day) - hopefully I will get to see them next year?