Everyone has gone home, the taiko have been returned to the local group and the JACCC is now deep into Nisei Week.  As I walked through the plaza this past weekend filled with food and craft vendors, a karate demonstration on the stage and tons of people gathered for the Nisei Week Parade, I quietly reminisced about our time at Taiko Conference.  The power surrounding that plaza from the beginning of the Summer Taiko Institute to Taiko 10 to Taiko Jam to our last group photo after the closing - it still fills me and is ever so vivid in my memory.

Thank you for your confidence in me. Thank you for your hard work. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your commitment to learn and teach taiko. Thank you for late night talks. Thank you for your insight. Thank you for your guidance. Thank you for the passion. Thank you for the love. Thank you for the community that came together once again August 7-9 in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles.

Thank you Taiko Conference…on to Stanford in 2011!

Otsukaresama Desu,
Darren Endo