West An Tir War impressions

[gurdymonkey]

Wednesday, July 4: Was up bright and early to bike over to the temple by 7:30 to get ready for the parade. Being in a parade is fun, but it does require a great deal of hurry-up-and-wait as groups arrive, find where they're to line up and so forth. Our line-up spot was one block from the temple, but the float truck had to go down all the way down Buena Vista and cross over on Grand due to its size as a lot of Alameda's cross streets are fairly narrow. We were also something like 70th group in the order of march, which at least meant we got to watch most of the folks in front of us go by before we pulled out into line. (It also meant I would be bugging out of town for West An Tir War a bit later than I'd hoped.)

I got to play a lot, and mostly rotated lead with Josh because Tracy's feet were giving her hell and she preferred to spend most of the parade sitting and playing one of the wood blocks. Everything went well, I had a great time, and still managed to get home, shower, change, inhale a PB&J and get out of Alameda early enough that I was crossing the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge by the stroke of 2:00 PM.




The drive up to Gold Beach was uneventful and traffic was not an issue, probably because folks who were going someplace on the 4th were already where they wanted to be by the time I got on the road. And once you get up 101 north of Willits, the drive alternates between redwood groves, wild coastline and regular helpings of small towns with 25 mph zones, so it's a long, but pleasant drive. With stops for gas, food and restrooms, I was onsite by about 10 PM. Lash and Sholeh were already there and set up and we got the HOCM pitched quickly with three pairs of hands. Ishida-dono swung by to make sure I had arrived. He was camped with Clan Carn not too far from us and spent a fair amount of the event hanging out with us.

Thursday. I'd wanted to attend Ishida-dono's "Gaijin's Guide to Medieval Japan" and lend moral support, but something Lash said made me think I might make him nervous. I lolled over my coffee and banana for a bit, then got dressed and stopped by toward the last ten of his class just to check it out - he was in full swing with a decent turn-out and seemed at ease, articulate and able to hold his audience. I took the opportunity to invite the attendees to the HOCM sake tasting, then went off with my roll of tape to spam the port-a-johns with posters for said tasting.

Spent some time hanging out with Sholeh and Lash, invited Ishida to dinner - unfortunately he has a fish allergy and I had already thawed and marinated some ahi, but we had rice and vegetables to stir fry, so he could have that. Christened the firepit I'd won in the raffle at work, having purchased a hand forged poker from one of the smiths in Merchant's Row, then hastily plated snacks as people began turning up for the tasting while we were still working on our dinner. Then it was pouring and drinking and the occasional spill, of course. I excused myself at one point to use a privy. I came out, looked up the slope and saw the fire and glowing lanterns and the moon rising over the trees and heard the voices and thought, "That's mine."

The event venue, a working goat ranch, is about 10 miles north of Gold Beach and a couple miles in from the beach, perfectly situated for kite flying with a steady prevailing breeze funneling through the tree covered hills on either side of the field. We had an eyesore of necessity between us and the privy - Sveinn had parked his van and trailer so as to prevent people from driving through a particularly boggy patch of ground that had already sucked a couple of vehicles into it. Other than that, however, the place was about as idyllic as you could want.

Got my modern diamond kite in the air for extended flights twice and will plan accordingly to have a more traditional kite along the next time! (I had materials for a build, but it was so breezy I didn't know where I could do the job without paper blowing around before the glue had time to dry.)  Kites are natural magnets for small children and I cheerfully handed over the reel a few times to various kids. I also discovered that a kite generally provokes attention from and men of all ages, as well as being an endorphin producing stress buster. There's just something very relaxing about flying a kite in yukata and barefoot on a pretty day. Met a young man from An Tir by the name of Yoshio while I was kiting. He plays a bamboo flute staff and shakuhachi. (I am now am duly inspired to actually learn some tunes on the cheap fue I got from J-Box.)

Ishida-dono  Takeshi-dono and Sora-hime were over to visit fairly regularly, and Yoshio-dono soon became a regular visitor as well. The patch of grass beside my tent was the site of an unscheduled taiko jam, and later, an impromptu tutorial by Takeshi-dono with Ishida-dono on katana/great sword fighting.

The Cheerful Monkeys Taiko Dojo also marched with a mob to take back the baronial banners of Allyshia and Rivenoak from the An Tiran barony who had swiped them. Yoshio towed my wagon so I could play the Sewer Pipe Of Doom, while Lash, Sholeh and Ishida carried the Okey-dokey-daiko or the cheap Chinese drums and played those. Folks really, really, REALLY liked it, and Baron Seamus says we "f******g rocked."

Another magical moment happened on Saturday. Lash-dono and Yoshio-dono had decided to go walk the camp. It was late and I sat quietly tending the fire by myself.

Mist swallows the stars
And dims a bright summer moon
Over silent camps.
In the distance a flute sings
Of dreams, sighs, and dewdrop life.

Classes went well and had a good turn-out, as did the Thursday evening sake gathering. Having a firepit is nice too and encouraged folks to visit, hang out, and help empty bottles. Collaborating with Ishida-dono on the garb class went particularly well.

I hope to attend again next year.

Comments

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a lovely time.

[mermaidlady]

I LOVE that photo.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

Backstory: Choya umeshu (plum wine) comes in individual serving 5-packs. I discovered I had two unopened 5-packs plus an additional three left in an open pack. So we started trying to make some of it go away.

I think an empty got knocked off the table and rolled next to Akio, thus inspiring Sholeh to start putting the empties around him on Friday morning after the party. I came back from taiko class to find George wrapped around an empty sake bottle. Then Lash-dono kept making cracks about Hikaru staring at his beer (he does have rather stare-y button eyes) and finally gave in and put a mostly empty Corona in his hot tub with him.