Last Sunday we went to Yamada Taiko, the best known taiko group in Kochi. A friend of ours with the unfortunate nickname of Ika-chan a.k.a. Mister Squid is a member and played everything with reckless abandon, especially the odaiko a.k.a. the big the fat drum. But he’s a skinny runt of a man compared to the group leader whose name I do not know. A squat, barrel-chested, pony-tailed dude of about 50, group leader has arms like tree trunks and man oh man did he bang a drum. He banged fast, he banged slow and to top it all off he blew a mean shakuhachi a.k.a. bamboo flute. But the show was more than just men in fundoshi a.k.a sumo diapers pelting drums. One of the women performers had obviously risen to the rank of right hand and banged with the speed and fury of Baraka gone rabid on vitamin R a.k.a eating the shit out of Zangrief’s forehead. There were the children, too, all done up in psychedelic yukata a.k.a. florescent pink and blue bathrobes. They came on stage to the enjoying of the this is traditional Japanese game a.k.a paper balloons and marbles and cup and ball. And all the while the group leader wailing on the shakuhachi and Mister Squid whomping the odaiko with a baseball bat and right hand woman tokatoka-ing a million miles an hour and nobody ever missing a beat not even for a second. Needless to say, we bought the CD.