00:00:14 John Daub: Fairhaven, Massachusetts, where they're holding the John Manjiro Festival right now. This is the taiko (Japanese drum) performance, part of the schedule. I'll take you downstairs in a minute but let's enjoy some taiko! The awesome festival. Let me take you outside, show you around.

00:01:06 John Daub: This is the town hall of Fairhaven. A lot of people in there. There's some students from Kochi Prefecture over there. Let me take you outside to the front lawn and I'll show you inside of the building a little bit. But if you didn't believe me, here are the stars and stripes right here.

00:01:47 John Daub: Because of rain that's going to be happening later today, a lot of the festival has been moved inside. But I'm ready to party. This is a festival I was looking forward to for quite a long time. It's not often that you'll see a Japanese festival on the east coast of the United States, away from Hawaii and California. But because of that connection with John Manjiro, and if you don't know the story, you're going to want to go in there. Go online and check it out because it is one of these amazing stories. When you read it, you're like, how did I not know about John Manjiro? I'll tell you the story a little bit about him. I'm actually making a Manchannel episode on it right now.

00:02:25 John Daub: But the town hall, look at this building. You don't expect that in a small town in the United States. Something so incredibly beautiful. And a lot of the town has been preserved the way it was back in the 19th century, the 18th century, during the time of great whaling because a lot of the money was built up because of that. Yeah, as you can see, there's the stars and stripes right up there too. They actually have yakisoba (fried noodles) going on over here, which is pretty crazy to see. I smell yakisoba. I can smell it. There's some girls from Japan visiting in kimono. Some of the high school students, this is a good time also for some exchanges. High school students from Kochi Prefecture will come here because of the relationship as a sister city from the city of Tosa Shimizu.

00:03:27 John Daub: Our X-Turbo is in the house. You see that? I'm going to take you upstairs and I'm going to show you some more of the taiko drums while it's going on because it's really cool. It's on the side here.

00:09:07 Mark H. Rudy: You can come knocking. Oh, Brandania. He's out of breath. So this afternoon they had, or sorry, just about an hour ago, they had some speeches. Great success. 18th John. With representatives from Kochi Prefecture were here.

00:09:47 John Daub: There's Jason, my friend over there on the left side. He's also in Tosa Shimizu in Kochi.

00:09:52 Jerry: Jerry, the CEO of the Whitfield Manjiro Friendship Association.

00:10:02 Mark H. Rudy: My name is Mark H. Rudy. I'm the founder and the director of the Mark H. Taiko Connection. Taiko! Yes, really nice sounds. Here, I'll give you a hint. Hahaha. These ambulance. Yes, I was born in New Bedford. Raised right over here in a cushion. And it's great to be back. Born in America playing taiko drums. Awesome. 26 years ago. So I'm celebrating 25 years of taiko. And that equals half of my life. You do the math. Say the words. The same as me. The members of the Mark H Taiko Connection here with me today are. Starting with Kota. He's a tiny. That's all. What's the first? Koyama.

00:11:41 Mark H. Rudy: We do taiko. Of course, the Japanese word for drum. It's a combination of more traditional festival rhythms and more contemporary rhythms. I'm guessing you can see that last piece was probably more on the contemporary side. A little bit of big band, a little bit of funk, playing with some cymbals and things like that. That song is a song that I wrote. Yeah, that's not normal taiko. That's awesome taiko. Next level. It's just a little bit of skin. Hahaha. Taiko is traditionally played in a lot of festivals. Most of these matsuri (festivals) they have in Japan. And of course, a lot of times they cover these dance. So at any time in this program, any time you feel like getting up and dancing, you should. Anyone, anyone. Some people in the city. Okay. So actually, I should mention this first song is based on traditional Hachijo. Based on different. That was followed by a song that I wrote a while ago called Take 15. Take 15 is a 15 count cycle. Modern taiko song. Kind of a play on Dave Brubeck Take 5. As you can see, when you play taiko, you need 15. Take 15. Anyway, the next song is also something that came about. This thing that happened in the last four years or so. Yeah. I was sitting around in my house, largely eating M&Ms and binge watching a lot of Netflix. And I was kind of not doing a lot of taiko. It takes a lot of me.

00:13:31 John Daub: Let me take you down here. He's going to play more of a bunch of music. He's going to play a traditional song. He wrote some taiko songs. He's been playing, doing taiko for 25 years. I've been living in Japan for 25 years. What a coincidence. Let me show you some. They might be watching the taiko. Just for a minute. And I'll take you in to see the taiko for a minute later. But in the back room here, they would be doing this outside, but because of the, and here they are doing kendama (Japanese cup-and-ball toy). Oh, that's pretty good.

00:14:14 John Daub: In here, if you tell them your name, they will be able to tell you your name. And they will write it in kanji here, which is pretty crazy.

00:14:31 John Daub: And this is Jason. He's traveled all the way from Kochi to be here.

00:14:37 Jason: Yes. Yes.

00:14:39 John Daub: How are you doing?

00:14:40 Jason: I'm well, yeah, man. Yeah. Not jet lag, actually, but you know, busy, busy.

00:14:47 John Daub: Oh, this is a solar bus. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. Oh, you can charge it. Can you try it? Whoa. You want to try your hands at it? Oh my gosh. It's like katsuobushi (dried bonito shavings), which is a bonito fish, but it's, oh, that feels so satisfactory. Oh, that feels so good. Be careful of your fingers. Be careful of your fingers. That's a... That feels so good. You got some... So I think those guys on top are the ones that you shaved. Look at that. Oh, wow. So, wow. So this is from Tosa Shimizu, which is in Kochi. And it tastes very good. Thank you.

00:15:36 John Daub: So in here, there's some Japanese students that are doing calligraphy. So again, you tell them your name and their challenge is to find the kanji, Japanese characters, to put it in there. Very cool. Look at this. They're researching the kanji right there to make sure. They're researching the kanji right there so that it's quite a challenge to get it right and in a positive way because not all kanji are equal. Oh, the taiko drum started. Let me take you back upstairs. See you later. Take care. Secret door. Secret door. Okay. The sticks in here are awesome.

00:20:40 John Daub: For the yakisoba, it's still long. Lunchtime. Everybody's having yakisoba. But this is a pretty cool event. This is held on the first Saturday of October every year. I believe it's the first Saturday, but this year it's on October 7th and this event has been going on I think for a couple of decades now between the sister cities of Tosa Shimizu and Fairhaven. And a lot of students come here to exchange culture. All of this coming from the friendship that Captain Whitfield and John Manjiro, Nakahama Manjiro, had back in the 1960s.

00:21:29 John Daub: He was shipwrecked fishing from Kochi and his friends on the island of Torishima. And they were there for several months almost starving when a whaling ship came in and they found these boys trapped on the island. So they took them in on the whaling ship, dropped them off in Hawaii, kind of figured out who they were. But John Manjiro, one of them, decided that he wanted to stay aboard the whaler and he continued along with Captain Whitfield all the way to the island. And he went back to Massachusetts where he was the first Japanese in the United States. Not a story that a lot of people know about. And that connection has continued today because when he returned to Japan, which was crazy because you couldn't leave Japan back then. It was a closed country. And so when he went to Japan, he was the only Japanese who could speak English and understand Western culture. So he was a pivotal person in the history of modern Japan. And he was a big part of the story behind the scenes because people didn't trust him because they thought he was a spy in Japan. Well, he wasn't a spy. Or was he? I don't know. But that connection between Japan and the United States is very strong. One reason is the result of John Manjiro and the captain's friendship from this town, Fairhaven.

00:24:24 John Daub: So let's take a quick look at this yakisoba being prepared. It smells like a Japanese festival out here. Wow! Now there's a line there. It's sort of a line. I don't want to cut in line. I could just put my face on that grill. I would be happy right now. It's not too chilly. It's very comfortable. I got a sweatshirt on. Autumn is here for sure. But get the right camera here.

00:25:09 John Daub: I just did want to share just a little bit of the festival with you. There's going to be a dancing at the end at 4:30. And then the festival is finished. So it goes on between 10 a.m. And then the festival tonight. When they started with this really amazing flute artist came in a full kimono. And it was just fantastic. He played the national anthem of Japan. And then the United States. Which is really great. And, you know, I drove in here yesterday kind of jetlagged out of my mind. And I'm still kind of in shock that I'm not in Japan. I'm in the United States, right? This is America. America man, but it smells like Japan because of that yakisoba.

00:25:59 John Daub: The leaves are just starting to change here in Massachusetts. And right now I'm starting to feel the raindrops coming. This is a reason why the events are usually held outside, but the rain's held up pretty good. Unfortunately, it will rain and then in that case it will be glad that everything is inside. But a festival just it seems better to be outside. It just seems like a fairyland this whole town. I don't know. I really like it Fairhaven. The downtown the town hall built in 1894. This is after John Manjiro. John Manjiro was here in the early decades of early to mid 1800s.

00:26:42 John Daub: But you guys remember Jason he was in a live stream when I was in Kochi at these what do you call at the roadhouse? Michi no eki (roadside station) in Kochi. He kind of showed us a little bit there, but in general it's a pretty cool festival and it's a celebration. This festival is a celebration of the relationship that Japan and America has and it's one that I'd heard about before. But I really wanted to come this year because I am making an episode on it. So that knowledge that I shared with you comes from someplace. Okay, he comes from research from the last six months. Researching this festival and knowing that Fairhaven is a very important city with the relationship between Japan and the United States. Today even today the Emperor himself signed the book when he came to Fairhaven because he knows of its importance and for the longest time in history John Manjiro didn't get credit for the work that he did. He was the interpreter to Commodore Perry on the black ship and imagine like because Perry knew that John Manjiro had lived in the United States they could feel a little bit of comfort knowing that there was somebody who understood America.

00:28:15 Local: Oh you do. Hey, I'm from this town, but I lived in Japan for 16 years and we moved back a couple years ago. So I was like I saw you inside. Yeah, I got a check and then I went to the channel. So you're there. I was like, oh my god. Yeah, this is really cool. What are you doing here? Like out of all the places, how did you end up here?

00:28:34 John Daub: I'm covering I'm making an episode on the Manjiro. Okay there is an important city and I grew up here. Yeah, that was because a Manjiro. I ended up in Japan. These two were both born Japan. We lived in Hamamatsu and she's a worker. Wow that's awesome. You did the wrong way, but how's the yakisoba? You don't know how to use chopsticks.

00:29:00 Local: That's the Hamamatsu there's a lot of Brazilian bami if you're watching I'm on you YouTube now!

00:29:10 John Daub: That's awesome! I don't know if you know much about Hamamatsu itself. Hamamatsu? Yeah yeah yeah. There's a lot of Brazilians and Peruvians. I used to live in Toyohashi. Did you? Yeah just one stop on the Shinkansen away from there. I was there 16 years. My wife's Peruvian, Japanese-Peruvian. Oh wow! She's not here unfortunately, she's working. I was there during the World Cup 2002. Okay, I lived there in 2005. My first year I lived in Maisaka. Oh right. Right down the... Yeah that was pretty cool. Because of all the Brazilians. The World Cup was best seen in Toyohashi. I was there for the 2006 World Cup. Okay. So there was a lot of Brazilians. But it was held in Japan. And of course I couldn't go to any of the venues. They're all sold out or expensive. Oh okay okay okay. The Japan-Korea one. Gotcha gotcha. Yeah. Cheers! What's it for? Alright well tell everybody how does it taste because I'm not eating on camera yet. The line's too long. How does it taste? Pretty good? It's pretty good. I'm pretty good too. On a scale of 1 to 10? 10. 10?! That's the top! Better than pizza? Better than ramen? Or you just had miso ramen last night so that's a really high ranking. That doesn't leave room for anything else.

00:30:22 Local: Like I said I grew up here. I hosted exchange students in high school. I went to Tosa Shimizu when I was 17. Okay. I came back. I kinda... I was doing computer science for a couple years. But I just decided I wanted to go back to Amherst. Major in Japanese. Did a couple more years. And then I went on Jet Program in 2005. Okay. And I'm just staying there. 16 years. 16 years and now you're back? A couple years ago.

00:30:45 John Daub: Do you know Jason? Jason grew up in Massachusetts but now he's been living in Tosa Shimizu for like 10 years. Really? Yeah. No I didn't know. Which is crazy yeah. I'll introduce you. He's got the western guy with the hoppy the Japan. Like what I'm wearing. Yeah. He was... oh there he is right there Jason. Oh okay okay okay. He's also a local Massachusetts... Alright cool. Massachusettsian. And I went there Tosa Shimizu in 97. Okay. Wow. It was different. Actually it probably doesn't change that much. Over the years. I tried to go back in 2007. Yeah. With me and one of my buddies with another ALT. We made it down to Osaka because there used to be a ferry. When I went there there was a ferry. An overnight ferry to get there. Right. But they had stopped the services. And we were like alright actually we support the festival. So because it's one year here one year there. Right every year it alternates. Next year is in Kochi by the way. Not here so don't come. Come here go to Japan for that one.

00:31:46 Local: Hamamatsu that's Shizuoka-ken right? Yeah. Shizuoka-ken. Show you how she is. Hey I'm on camera for the first time on YouTube. I think that's your third time because I just can't. How's your life at Sun? They're good they're at the onsen right now. I know it sounds strange to you but it's strange to ask that way but. No no they're at the onsen right now and I'm slightly jealous although I'm here. But they're in the bath right now. Well they're sleeping right now but they're soaking. Shout out to Ellis thank you we drove right by you buddy. So we kind of waved from the highway. Yeah so Fairhaven this is a big deal for the town huh? I mean for the people who know yes. I mean it is a very big historical thing. Supposedly it's the first Japanese person to ever live in America. You know whaling used to be a big thing here. Right. If you go next door to New Bedford there's a big whaling museum which I highly recommend.

00:32:32 John Daub: Yes that's where I'll be stopping in next. So yeah Captain Whitfield was the captain of a whaling ship. Found Manjiro and I think the other four guys he was on the ship with were four brothers. And so they got off but. They said they took one look of Hawaii and like no we're staying here. You wanna John you wanna get on a whaling ship? We're gonna stay in Hawaii and that's where they ended up. So he I don't know I guess him and Whitfield must have liked each other. And we decided to stay on the ship came all around. Keep in mind back then the Panama Canal was not here yet. Right. So we had to go all the way around Brazil come all the way back up. Yes. It's quite a ride. I think he lived here for about ten years. Yeah. Manjiro was here for ten years. He learned everything western culture. I don't know if you know the story. Western girls no maybe. He was on I guess it was a whaling ship and you know he wasn't so high level. But just to show you how smart of a guy he was. I guess supposedly the captain got really sick and like went a little crazy. And so Manjiro kind of became the de facto captain for the rest of the trip. And he was really respected because he knew his stuff. Yes. I think Manjiro had this same adventurous spirit not everybody does. His four friends didn't have that spirit but he did and he was really curious. He definitely you know Japanese didn't know anything about America. He wanted to find out and I think because he had that I don't know that connection with the captain. But more than that the captain knew that he was quite deeply interested in learning about this kind of stuff. And that's why he came and offered his house and family. I mean so after ten years here he went out to San Francisco during the gold rush. Right. And he found a bunch of gold paid his way back to Japan. 49 right. Yeah. After the 48ers. The 48 no 48 he was there in 50 he was in 50. I don't know if he's remember these. I remember the San Francisco 49ers it's because of the gold rush of 49 but I think he was there a year after. But he still was able to make $500 I believe to get a boat from Hawaii. Don't worry about it exactly. And he got back to Japan. This is really fast I got a whole episode of this coming it's just really fast. I believe I read he did stop in Hawaii to see if those guys were still around and. He did see them into bird. Well a couple of them had died. Okay. I think there was one or two were left I think one wanted to stay and one came back with him. Maybe to Japan. Maybe yeah I think one of them did come. This is the thing people will discuss this back and forth I'm meeting like there's a great love for John Manjiro. And the discussions go on back and forth but the yeah. I'm not exactly sure but then when he got back Japan was still Sakoku. Japan was closed he snuck in via Okinawa. I guess the local Shogun Daimyo must've liked his story. Kept him there for a while then when Perry came. Tried to force them open up nobody in Edo spoke English so. Get Manjiro he can speak English. All this from a fishing boy who got ship wrecked. And then later on in life this fisherman got killed at the end of the day. And remember, this is still the age of the samurai, right? Yes. So you would not rise as a fisherman's son or actually, I think he was making rice or something, but he was doing fishing. He didn't want to do what his dad did. He wanted to do fish, not rice. So he ended up becoming a master of that. And then this little fisher boy ends up being a high ranking government official. Yeah, he actually did get promoted to samurai after that. He got promoted to samurai. That wouldn't have happened. That's how fate works. And that's what you're still... Sakura, Sakura, that's pretty crazy.

00:36:06 Local: Yeah, well, that's great.

00:36:08 John Daub: You have a beautiful town and I'm happy to be able to show people a little bit around. I bet some people in Massachusetts don't even know about Fairhaven. So many dogs here! For college, I was at UMass Amherst. I went to Hokkaido University for an exchange and I didn't know until I got out there. They were both created by the same guy. Oh, really? If you know the boys be ambitious, Clark. Like, I guess, um, yeah, go ahead, get into this. When UMass was first created, it was an agricultural school. And so I guess when they were looking, when Japan took over Hokkaido, officially, they. were looking to build an agricultural school there. I don't know why out of all the people out of the entire world, they chose Clark. What year was that? Was that the era of Manjiro? Maybe the connection? A little bit later. A little bit later, yeah. Then maybe there was some sort of connection, I think. Because, uh, yeah, you know, after that, even now I see government officials coming here. The emperor has been to Fairhaven. Yes, that was, uh, I was probably nine years old. The emperor came to Fairhaven. You saw it? Nine years old? Wow! Literally just learned, I thought it was the Showa emperor, but it was actually Heisei. Right. That came before he was, right before he came. Because I think his father died in 89? Right. In 89, he came like one year before that. And they had donated a sword to this library over here. Oh, that's not the library. Yeah, that's the Millicent Library. Oh, so it's just a library. And they had a samurai sword for the emperor inside of there? It used to be. It was stolen. By who? We don't know. They never found it. So I guess they did get a replacement or something like that, but it wasn't the same. I actually came a few months ago asking if they had it, if they ever found it, but they said no. Interesting. Well, thank you so much for sharing your stories. Great to meet you. Great to meet you, too. Nice to meet your family, too. You have a, say goodbye to everybody. Bye, bye, my friend! Bye, bye. Oh, sorry. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.

00:38:01 Patrick: Sorry to keep you waiting. No, I'm Patrick. I live up in Nashua, so I drove down here for this. Oh, good. First time? Well, I used to live in South Shore, so just South Boston area. So I've been down here several times, but not for this. Even living that far away, like here, I didn't know about this until you mentioned it on stream last week.

00:38:31 John Daub: 100%. And Manjiro's like the most unknown story, although it's massive when you figure it out. Almost everybody knows about like Commodore Perry and all of that stuff. Right. The black ship. And they open it up. But nobody knows about like this. The impact that this little town had on the world at this point. Right. So it was just really interesting. And when they, like, definitely sold it for me when they said they were going to be doing taiko. Oh, yeah. Did you see it? Yeah. Okay, good. I've traveled all kinds of places just to see taiko. Like 20 years ago, I ended up in the middle of Sado. Kodo. Yeah. Yeah. That celebration. Didn't know they were, didn't know it was going to be happening. Ended up being there for a weekend and was like, oh, hey. My friends at Kodo are going to be happy to hear that. Just feeling the drums like here when they play is just. It hits you. Yeah. That's why I like going to the Aomori Festival, the Nebuta every summer up there. They have the floats, but the taiko drums and the haneto (festival dancer) dancing, it sticks with you the whole year. It's like power coming into you. It hits you right here. Yeah. You can just feel it even if you're like way, way far away. Right. That year they had like, because it was up at like, like the temple, like up top and they had like a Romanian brass band playing along with them because it was like the Earth Festival or something. And they every so often they have. Oh, they do an international exchange. Yeah. Last year was from Africa. And the last time they did it was from Korea. Drum master from there. So it was some crazy experience in the middle of the night for like a taiko drum and Romanian brass at the like. Oh, that's fun. And that island is crazy at that time of year. Yeah. It's just getting across the island was weird because my buddy didn't tell me I could have gone to take in the South Ferry. He told me because we, I was in Niigata. Right. So I took the North Ferry. I could have just taken the train down. Oh, and then to get over. And to get over would have drawn me off at the right end. And to get as Ogi. Yeah. And then trying to take the buses across the island. That's not so easy. Not so easy. But. And, and, and then now here we are in Massachusetts. All connected by Japan, which is crazy. And Manjiro brought me here.

00:40:38 Patrick: My bags. I have a, you found me card for me. My bag's upstairs. Oh, wow. I know, I know like according to your stream, your dining, but you're from around here and I don't know if you've had Needham's in, I don't know how many years. I have not. But it's, it's made maple sugar. Oh wow. So like, you know. This will give me some energy. Don't need it all at once. Oh, that's good advice. Well, thank you for this. Yeah. My brother lives in Vermont. I haven't, I hadn't had much of the maple. I'm from Maine, so there's always the Maine maple versus the Vermont maple. Which one's better? Oh yeah. I know what you're going to say. Maine. I have to. There's no difference. That's not what my brother in Vermont says. I might say. But yeah, you know, I'm a big LL Bean fan. So I'm a big LL Bean fan. I like Maine too. So I do like Maine, although I have not been there yet. That's for the next trip. Oh, to the, you haven't been up to Maine? The big LL Bean outfit. Yeah, I know. Right. I gotta get up there for the pilgrimage. Where my clothes come from. Yeah. I ran into people in Tokyo Station once who looked completely lost. They happened to have LL Bean backpacks on. So I just walked up to them and I'm like, do you guys need to know where to go? Cause I've been staying in Yokohama for about a month at that point. Wow. And they were just like, they're about to get on an express going in the wrong way. I've done that. I've done that before and I lived there. Because Tokyo Station can be very confusing. Yes. If you're just there for the first time. Yes. Down a level or two and you don't know where to go. You go the wrong direction and then. Well, that's how you learn about the city. Getting lost. Yeah. That's the best way to do it. Or trying to find your way back to it. Yeah.

00:42:17 John Daub: I'm going to, let's go. I'm going to go inside and just sign off. I want to sign off for everybody joining us. I'm going to go out with some taiko drums and then I'll film the rest of the time. This episode will be coming out in December and we'll, we'll, I'll show you a piece of the festival, but some of the history and background with the CEO of the Friendship Association. I think it's going to, it's going to introduce you to a lot of that connection that Japan has with this little town. And we caught the ending. It's good timing. Well, thanks. I hope I could. It was nice to share just a little bit of the John Manjiro festival happens every year. Fairhaven. Thanks so much for watching. Leave me your comments below. If you live in Massachusetts and you missed it, let me know what you thought of it. And if you're coming the next time it's held every two years here. Next year will be held in Japan in Kochi. Thanks for watching. I'll see you again in the next live stream. Look at that. There's a New Bedford whaling ship. You could, you could, you could taste the fish, the whale here. That's the history, the background in this area. See everybody.