Obon (お盆) is an annual Buddhist event for commemorating one's ancestors, whose spirits are believed to temporarily return to this world in order to visit their relatives during Obon.
There are 3 surviving Japantowns in the US: in San Francisco, Los Angeles and in San Jose.
I have visited the San Jose Obon festival and it was quite memorable visit for me. The views, people, food but most of all I was impressed, actually quite mesmerized, by Taiko performances. In particular by the group from University Of California, Berkeley.
Their high energy performance is an art that combines music, dance, martial arts, athletics, and culture.
Taiko has enjoyed not only a resurgence of interest in Japan, where there are over 4,000 Taiko ensembles, but also transplantation and evolution in North America. It is a quite recent phenomenon in the US increasing in popularity on College Campuses mainly in the last several decades.
Taiko literally means “drum” and has been an integral part of Japanese ritual for centuries. Used in a military context around the 6th century, drums were then incorporated into Shinto and Buddhist religious ceremonies, festivals and theatre performances, and the instrument itself became regarded as sacred.
Taiko can produce sounds topping 130 decibels, a sound level that is on a par with the noise produced by jet airplanes. Sounds can be heard over a distance of several miles. In fact, in ancient Japan, taiko drumming was even used to signal soldiers on the battlefield.