Muscles

Every muscle in my legs ache. Plus most of the muscles in my lower arms. Yesterday I was having a hard time just squeezing toothpaste onto my brush--my hands were shaking from fatigue so much. Those Shidara folks sure know how to put on a great workshop, and I know they were going easy on us, but wow, it's hard to imagine how fit they must be to be doing this every day. I took the katsugi okedo workshop in the morning, and have decided that my next taiko purchase will probably be an okedo, if I can learn how to tighten and care for it. They sound cool and I was so blown away by the Shidara folks' playing. They showed us some basic kata and playing techniques, but I can see how you could spend years and years learning how to play that style. We play them just on down stands, and they have a really unique sound to them. Different from the boominess of regular josuke. In the afternoon, I took the Hana Matsuri workshop. We learned basic dance steps to the song, and it was a lot of fun, but the movements were kind of strenuous for those non-dancers (such as myself) out there. Hop forward, back, to the side--you just don't realize how hard that is until you do it for a couple of minutes. But it was a lot of fun--can't walk anymore, but fun.