World City: Japan

There is a free, family-oriented program that Music Center in LA does every couple of months. It's called World City, and a different country is featured at each performance. This time it was Japan, and they had a great storyteller (yeah, I forgot to get a picture of her) and a cool musical group.

These guys played taiko drums and wooden flutes and a cool stringed instrument that I forgot the name of, and some brass pots, as well as a TURNTABLE. Yup, they were a "fusion" group of old and new styles. It was really interesting music.

The performance was held at the outdoor theater at Disney Hall, and the tickets for the 11am show started being handed out at 10 am. We arrived at 10:02 am and by the time we got to the front of the line, they were out of tickets. We were on standby and after waiting in line for about 45 minutes, we got in to the performance.
After the show they had a few crafts for the kids: making an origami duck and coloring a wooden Japanese doll, complete with kimono.
Avery and Alex had a great time. The next one isn't until October, so we'll see if we can go back again.