Cherry Blossom Festival

These two nice blond ladies came all the way from Okinawa to perform at the rather crummy DC Sakura Matsuri.

This turned out to be a little less interesting than it seemed at first glance. First because they are in Japan with the military, which is the least interesting way to end up there, at least to a Japanophile sort of person. And then because the group didn't exactly play taiko drums after all, but rather did dance routines with the drums to recorded music. I mean that they danced while actually holding and playing the drums. They had somehow even convinced their adolescent sons to do something that seemed like a combination of taiko drumming and Morris dance. Maybe it seemed manly enough because of the loud noise and hitting with sticks component, or maybe this says something about the strength of military families in strange places, I don't know.