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Gifu Nobunaga Festival, Part One: Matt On A Horse

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Matt and I attended our second annual Nobunaga Festival, or matsuri, on October 2nd.  Rather,  I attended and Matt performed!  He was approached by one of our friends who works at City Hall about taking the role of Luis Frois, a Portuguese missionary who befriended Nobunaga in 1569.  He wrote histories of Japan while he was traveling and meeting with various Shoguns.  Matt jumped at the chance to be a part of the community in such a meaningful way, and he got to ride a horse!

To the left is a wonderful picture of Matt with two of his new friends.  On the right is this year's Nobunaga, and on the left is the right-hand military man.

Below is a video of Matt riding a horse that's pretty entertaining.  Evidently all the little old Japanese ladies positively fainted over him throughout the parade as he waved and smiled at little kids, waved to everyone, tipped his hat, and overall was the perfect (Jewish) Catholic.



Pretty soon after watching Matt I headed to the Bunka (Cultural) Center to play some taiko drums!  The event was put together by the same person who asked Matt to play missionary, and it was surprising on many levels.  First, we were in a much smaller room than I anticipated, which made for much ringing in the ears.  Second, we were taught by kids!  This turned out to be amazing.  They were great at taiko.  Below is a video of them playing part of a song.  I really like the choreography as the girls in front change places throughout the performance.

After the group played two songs, us foreigners who were there to partake in the cultural exchange took up the drumsticks.  I had a great little tutor, Yugo Yamada, age 10.  He's pictured with me below, and you can see how serious he is.  I loved it.  I had great instruction, with tips on how to hold the sticks and the proper way to hit the drum.  As a result, I got surprised smiles when I did something right, and I think at the end of the lesson my tutor was very proud of my progress.  The two friends who came with me, Rachael and Chelsea, both got blisters on their hands from the sticks.  I didn't!  I give full credit to my tutor for his consistency.      





The whole group!
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