January ILC

January's ILC meeting was a mixture of a variety of activities. First, we had our yearly group photo. Then there were several demonstrations. The first gentleman to perform is a man skill in traditional Japanese singing and flute playing. The traditional songs he sang were very... well... asian sounding. I was amazed at how long he could go without breathing, but may be that's just because lately I can't get through a whole sentence without stopping for air. :-) He also played a little bit of non-traditional music on his flute. It was very interesting to listen to, but probably not so interesting to look at in pictures. Here he is, anyway.

The next demonstration was three guys who did some martial arts (and now I've forgotten which style, sorry!). First there were individual displays, followed by an example fight. This was much more visually stimulating, but difficult to catch on film.


Finally, there was a group of Japanese Navy who have started a Taiko Drum group. I love Taiko drumming because it's both visual and really exciting to listen to. This group was especially entertaining because the leader had a very unique sense of humor. The first piece they did was entirely using little cymbals. Three guys sat in a row and were playing catch with the sound coming from the cymbals, if that makes any sense at all. One would hit his cymbals together really hard aimed at another and all three of them would "watch" the sound fly through the air and then the other guy would catch it. Of course, there were a few "mishaps" along the way. It got caught on the ceiling and accidentally hit one of the guys, that type of thing. It was really funny to watch. Then they got on to the stuff that I've seen drum groups do before. Here's a picture of that:

Like I said, it's more than just music, it's also visually exciting to watch. So it was a very fun event.