Tuesday, May 28, 2013

April Ohanami Tea Ceremony and Taiko Demonstration

A busy springtime leaves little time for writing! After our demonstration and fundraiser in April we found ourselves busier than usual with little energy or time to spare.

As we settle now to a more normal pace of life we're finding some snippets of time to catch up. Here are some photos from our spring Ohanami Cherry Blossom Viewing Tea Ceremony and Taiko demonstration.

Tea ceremony demonstration in the lobby
of the historic Vance Hotel,Old Town, Eureka.

Origami crane "adoption" table, with Johnson Tilghman and D'har.
Gary Thawatchai Ronne begins his taiko performance.

A curious onlooker watches Gary Thawatchai Ronne
as he demonstrates taiko.

One of Gary Thawatchai Ronne's taiko drums, made of a wine barrel.

Detail of one of Gary's drums.

The skies threatened to rain on us, so we held our demonstration indoors at the then-vacant Vance Hotel lobby. The Eureka-Kamisu Sister City Association benefitted from our "Adopt A Crane for Kamisu" campaign and we shared cha-no-yu with about 45 people. Taiko performances by Gary Thawatchai Ronne were a special treat.

Many thanks go out Gary and his lovely family for adding the new dimension of taiko to our demonstration; to Johnson Tighlman and the students of Eureka High School who are working to re-boot the Eureka-Kamisu Sister City exchange student program; to our friends (both old and new!) who support our efforts to share tea in Humboldt County; and especially to our "Tea(m) Horai" volunteers without whose help we could not offer these demonstrations.

And yes, the cherry trees were lovely! More photos are on our Facebook page.