Kenji & Sachiyo

The campsite on Miyajima Island is very sad.  It's very large with many tenting spots and all of them are empty except for the very tame deer that wander all over the island.  They are so tame that one almost bit through Mere's pack during an unguarded moment, trying to get at our mandarin oranges (which we've been eating constantly since we got here).  Fortunately, we intervened in time to save Mere's brand new pack from permanent damage and from Brad doing permanent damage to a protected deer.
But the campsite isn't sad because of the deer or that it's too cold for anyone else to want to camp here at this time of year.  The campsite is sad because we've just said good-bye to Kenji & Sachiyo who drove us here 3 hours South of their home near Okayama earlier that day. 
Kenji teaches high school English and to improve his skills, lived in Victoria for a year.  He's also a fantastic taiko player who played with us in Uminari Taiko although he hasn't had time or motive to play since returning from his time in Canada.  That's where I first met him and he's one of my main reasons for wanting to come to Japan to visit him and his lovely wife Sachiyo who also lived in Victoria for 6 months.
Kenji had wanted us to come to Okayama on that particular weekend so he could take us to taiko concert and show us around since they both work crazy hours during the week.  When we arrived, we felt very grateful to enjoy their (by Japanese standards) spacious apartment in an interesting area sort of between a rural and urban area.  The district they live in is called Hayashima and to celebrate its 420th birthday 6 different taiko groups would be performing in the auditorium.of their community centre.  Mere & I were the only non-Japanese in the packed theatre so I was very excited to get to see 4 hours of pure 100% undiluted homegrown Japanese taiko.  Mere & Sachiyo started falling asleep about half way through the show as the soothing vibrations of the drums bombarded the room and started lulling them to sleep.    Meanwhile, I was on the edge of my seat, savouring this taiko buffet which started with a local kids group demonstrating some impressive skills.  The next highlight were 3 women of another local group who just ripped it up, passing solos back and forth between each other playing overtop these driving swing beats that left me in awe and mouth breathing by the end of their set.  Then some friends Kenji used to play with took the stage as Fujin taiko showed just how 3 people can leave an audience breathless from flawless fue (a Japanese flute) and incredibly strong, relentless energy.  They immaculately performed some very difficult pieces that clearly demonstrated years of continous practice.  Another highlight followed their set as suddenly 4 demons came into the audience from the exits banging drums, shaking rattles, waving staffs and giving children in the audience nightmares for years to come.  However, demons (aka Oni, pronounced oh-knee) arent't considered all that bad here in Japan so once the screaming children had been removed or medicated, they took the stage and were joined by 8 other fully masked & costumed demons.  Now, having worn an Oni mask on stage myself once or twice,  I'm blown away by how many of them are in cosutme because I know how smoking hot it is inside them, especially under stage lighting.  So I spent most of their set thinking...okay, when are they going to take those masks off and end their suffering?...Well, they don't.  They pull out an entire mind blowing half hour set in full regalia which created such an other worldly experience it's hard to describe.  But after watching them for a while it really seemed like there was this big pack of hairy demons rocking out on stage.  It was so cool and something I'd never seen anything like before (with or without drugs).  Sadly we weren't allowed to take any pictures during the show or I'd let them do the talking.
Kenji's sister & brother-in-law run a very fine tempura restaurant in Okayama so our visit kept getting better as we woke up Mere & Sachiyo after the grand finale of all the groups playing together.  We had by far best tempura I've ever had.  Kenhi's sister served us herself and brought course after course of exquisitely made delicacies we washed down with beer and sake.  I didn't think you could do much with deep frying veggies and seafood , but man was I proven wrong. The Japanese word for delicious is 'Oichi'!
We were also very happy to meet the parents of Kenji & Sachiyo.  Kenji's Mom sewed up a huge tear in one of my few pairs of pants and his Dad (who'd been a monk before retiring) showed us a dvd over a very fine lunch of the ceremony where Kenji's brother took over the temple he'd built.
On our way out of town to Miyajima, Sachiyo's Mom & Dad were kind enough to print off some cheap bus tickets Kenji & Sachiyo helped us find on-line since we can't read the language here.  We arrived at Kenji's with unclear plans for the remainder of our time in Japan and they were golden in helping us sort out our last few weeks in Japan.
Since they hadn't been to our next destination before (Miyajima Island,  renowned for it's floating temple and being "One of Japan's 3 most scenic places to visit"), they offered to drive us down to it on Sunday since the tolls on the highways are cheaper and we could enjoy a short road trip together.  They said they loved being reminded of their time in Canada having us around too.
We had some good conversations on the drive down and more fun times on Miyajima, taking a short boat ride through the shine gate out on the water and exploring the floating temple which was very cool.
So it was a bittersweet, sad farewell at the empty Miyajima campsite that afternoon to this lovely couple that took us in and in typical Japanese fashion, gave us far more than we could give them.
Mere and I hiked to the top of Miyajima the next day for a memorable 360 view but it paled in comparison to our memories of spending time with good friends!