Kyoto....welcome home

I lived in Kyoto for a year on a high school exchange, and coming back now was really strange....so much has changed (including me) that it didn't really feel the same at all. But I still love it here.
I stayed with my coach - Kitamura-sensei and his wife and they were the most wonderful generous hosts. Lots of delicious food and nights watching taiko DVDs :)

I went along to one of my old high school club practices and was amazed to see the group had grown from about 20 to 60! They have a lot more drums and are much stricter now too!
I joined in on the warm up practices and it was lots of fun although really challenging, they do a lot more control stuff with Left and Right hand which was really fun. (I have finally got it after a lot of practice on long train rides!)
Then I watched them practice a couple of songs which was interesting - the group watching gives feedback and then the group that played huddles and gives their own feedback, and there is always lots of very loud responses (HELLO! YES! OK! I UNDERSTAND!)
They all treated me with the utmost respect which befits a senior student...which I found rather hilarious as I don't think I have ever been treated like that before!
The next day I went to watch a community group practice that my coach also leads. This was much more relaxed and covered all age groups - from primary school kids right up to older ladies. You could see how much they all enjoyed drumming and I couldn't help but smile along as I watched them play :)