japanese drumming troupe

I was part of a group of Japanese people who were performing for some dinner guests at a Japanese restaurant in the Newcastle mall. We walked up the mall and into a hall where there were a couple of restaurants. The master of the troupe led us up the stairs toward one of the restaurants and I wondered if we were going to the right one. Once there, we filed into a private room where the important international guests were seated. our master announced that we were two hundred drummers welcoming them. I sat with the master at the table at one end, and two women of our party sat with the guests at the other end, whilst one after the other of the drumming troupe came into the room and stood in neat rows close to the table. They were all wearing white and they began to drum a complex rhythm on a variety of instruments including small traditional drums, wood blocks, and other things, some placed in front of them and others hanging about their necks so that they beat their chests. Most of the drummers were quite young: children or youths, trained from a young age. When finished, one of the women sitting at the opposite end of the table read out a beautiful poem and riddle, appearing not to need her script. She spoke in a deliberately slow and calm voice, full of authority. I saw the master scribbling something hastily onto a plate at my right, and when she had finished he passed the plate to me. The crowd waited. I looked at the plate but could not see anything written there as there was food covering it, but when I tipped the plate, I uncovered the message. I began to read it aloud, slowly, not so much imitating the first reader as slowed by my ability to understand the cryptic sentences. I do not now recall exactly what was written, but I remember, as I read, some of the words turned into pictures, photographs of people, so that I had to interpret the meaning and convey it rather than just follow the script. I heard my voice and it sounded sure although I felt so uncertain that I was reading it correctly. When finished, the master of the group of dinner guests commanded our drumming troupe out of the room and everyone quietly filed back outside except our master, the two women and me who remained seated at the table. I wondered at the hierarchy of both groups and though I would not last long having to be obedient and subservient. I was given a plate of food to eat and I felt grateful. The dinner guests' master then ordered that I should go into the adjoining room known as the lounge room. I checked with the drumming troupe master to see if I should go, and he nodded and left the room. I went inside and the other man followed me in. I tried to sit but knew that I lacked the grace and modesty of the other women trained in this way. My kimono opened at the knees and my trousers underneath showed through. The man then demonstrated ways in which to practise precise and discreet movements. He lay on one of the lounges and did exercise akin to childhood somersaults. He then cam over with a pair of chopsticks and playfully stabbed them at me, aiming at my ears. I did not like it but humoured him so he would not become aggressive, and did my best to exit the room. I had to keep pushing him away, treating him as though he were a badly behaved child.