Fall Back Friday

During Fall quarter, Bakuhatsu was quite busy from beginning to end. The quarter started off with a performance at the UC Davis New Student Celebration where they played alongside the Golden Turtle Lion Dance Association. The performance was received well by the huge crowd of incoming freshmen and transfer students. Many people who eventually tried out for the team were inspired by the performance.

August Walker and Calvin Lee posing with one of Golden Turtle Lion Dance Association's lions before the performance on Sept 18.

​Next came multiple promotional performances at the UC Davis Quad to publicize team open practices and team try-outs. Open practices started on Oct 8, and anyone was welcome to come and learn how to play taiko. Those who felt ready then went through our try-out process where they learned and eventually played Renshuu in front of the returning members of the team.

Returning members after evaluating try-outs on Oct 26.

After much deliberation due to such outstanding candidates, we finally found our newest group of Bakuhatsu members, Generation XVI! Congratulations, Jonathan Gong, Blythe Nishi, Michelle Boutell, Michaela Tan, Tomoki Masukawa, Hiroya Mizobe, Quynhmi Nguyen, Thao Hoang, Christian Richmond, Cayce Badiola, Daniel Lavados, and Yuki Igarashi!

Generation XVI during Bakuhatsu's Fall Retreat Nov 10-12.

The returning members along with the new generation then spent a weekend together in Dutch Flat cooking, hiking, learning how to tie shime, finding out about their mentors, and bonding through lots of laughs and good times,

After Fall Retreat, the team got to work teaching Generation XVI their very first songs, Matsuri and Shio No Michihi, while also learning and polishing songs like Matsuri Hanabi, Inu Shoubu, and Kujaku. The team ended the quarter with a Secret Santa gift exchange before heading off in various directions for the month-long winter break.

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Full list of Fall 2016 performances:
Sept 4 - Inuyama Sister City Race
Sept 19 - UC Davis New Student Celebration
Sept 23 - Asian, Pacific Islander, Desi, Middle Eastern Fall Welcome
Sept 30 & Oct 7 - Bakuhatsu promotional flashmobs on the Quad
Oct 5 - UC Davis Involvement Fair
Oct 14 - College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Fall Welcome & UC Davis 104th Annual Pajamarino

​Written by Shai Nielson. BTD Historian 2016-2017