Chuong: Luong has volunteered to play the taiko this Mid-Autumn Festival so this will be interesting. This also means mooncakes! I don't like the traditional style ones with the lotus paste and salted duck egg yolks in them since I prefer snow skin mooncakes, which is similar to mochi with ice cream.

Zax: Eeew! That's what's in the traditional mooncakes?

Chuong: Yes and traditional mooncakes tend to be extremely dense! That's why like most people, I lean towards snow skin mooncakes. Zax, you have no idea how good and wonderful snow skin mooncakes are and why Mid-Autumn Festivals are amazing.

Zax: Take me with you then!

Chuong: Don't forget that mooncakes are meant to be eaten with a special fork and knife for them and consumed with warm tea for the best experience. You'll understand and I'll help you out on that.

Luong: If your schedule allows it, you can come and see us during the festival. I know for sure I'll drum along the Taiko Tigers.

Leo: I think we can arrange that. You can see them practicing there.

*The Taiko Tigers are on the White House lawn with several flutists.*

Tom: What's that symbol on the drum there?

Luong: Ryo tells me it is a tomoe, which has something to do with the religion involved in Sumo wrestling, Shinto. I don't know anything about that religion, though.

Leo: Neither do I. I just bang on the drums to pound the stress out.

Luong: But I do know that the tomoe is s a comma-like swirl symbol used in Japanese mon (roughly equivalent to a heraldic badge or charge in European heraldry). It closely resembles the usual form of a magatama.

The tomoe appears in many designs with various uses. The simplest, most common patterns of the device contain from one to four tomoe, and are reminiscent of similar designs that have been found in wide distribution around the world. When circumscribed in a circle, it often appears in a set of three, with this design known as the mitsudomoe; that's what you see on that drum.