ASIAN ANIMAL/YEAR?
Ram/1967

Fave color when u were a child?
Red

Fave color now and why?
Deep blues. I love aizome cloth and I love just letting my mind settle into the serenity of it.

Earliest childhood memory?
There was a mirrored wall in my parents house that had a faux-marble affect in gold and I can remember when I was first starting to stand up, holding myself up with my hands on the wall and looking at myself in those mirrors.

Fave Asian sticky snack?
Sticky..hmmm...does Kaki-koori (shave ice) count as sticky? If not, then Ko-Ume candy...the little ones often stick to the wrappers.

Fave stinky Asian snack?
Almost any kind of tsukemono (takuan, rakkyo, kim chee)....right out of the jar.

Where were u born?
Sacramento, California.

Grew up where?
Sacramento, California

-schooling?
Mostly public schools with an A.A. from Sacramento City College and a B.A. from CSU Sacramento.

When did u first realize your talent in taiko?
When did u start?

Started playing with the local Minyo groups at O-Bon shortly after finishing high school. Eventually went to train at the San Francisco Taiko Dojo, commuting to SF Tuesday and Thursday nights, meanwhile going to school & working to put myself through school. I don't know that I realized I had any talent in it until after I had been performing and teaching for a good long while.

What kind of occupation do u think u have gone into if u weren't a taiko player/sensei?

I think something having to do with written or spoken language. Maybe teaching, becoming a writer or storyteller...or if I had the guts-- Acting/Stand-Up Comedy. I was cast in a community theater production when I was at SCC, lost my paying job and thought I maybe ought to find a steadier line of work than performing arts. Now that I'm a musician...go figure-!


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