Groovin to the beat

One of my favorite things to do when I'm stressed is pounding it out on a "Taiko" drum. This is a picture of my daughter and a friend beating the taiko at a game center.

After you put your money in, you get to choose whether you want an easy "kantan", medium "futsu" or hard "muzukashii" song. You make your selection by beating the sides of the drum to move the cursor and hitting the drum in the middle to choose. Then you get to pick the song. We only know one song so far, "Anpanman." This is a cute little character in the shape of a sweet-bean-paste-stuffed rice ball.

The song bellows out and you follow a little bouncing drum on the screen that shows you if you are supposed to hit the middle of the drum in time to the music, hit the top of the drum, hit it with both sticks (that is a picture of a BIG drum) or perform a drum roll. You get points based on how accurate you are and how many times you hit the drum during the rolls. We can usually get enough points for a free play. I absolutely LOVE to play the taiko drum at the game centers. Sometimes you can see real taiko players strutting their stuff with the "muzukashii" songs, but usually it's kids just like this. I have never seen a gaijin, other than myself, try this and I usually attract quite a crowd when I play. As far as I'm concerned, that's all part of the fun. But it embarrases the heck out of my seven-year-old daughter. Tee Hee.