Back from Nagoya! I had a great time wandering about with my host family, hitting up Nagoya Castle, Osu-Kannon, Atsuta-jingu, the INAX museums, AND Tokoname all in under 48 hours. No Pokemon Center visit, but then I didn't mention it to the family (I saw the building it was in though!). I didn't want to impose. XD

I'll write in more detail later, but for now, I want to do this meme everyone's doing.

You know how sometimes people on your friendslist post about stuff going on in their life, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute? Since when were they working THERE? Since when were they dating HIM/HER? Since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you should already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.

Please copy the topics below, erase my answers and put yours in their place, and then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration. One-Word-Answers seldom help anyone out.

( my answers )

I AM REALLY EXCITED ABOUT YAMI NO MATSUEI VOLUME TWELVE COMING OUT IN JANUARY EVEN THOUGH IT WILL PROBABLY MAKE LITTLE SENSE. Just so the series no longer ends on tentacle rape fffff

Going for an overnight in Nagoya with the host family!

will probably not drag them to the Pokemon Center there

Amazing Engrish today:

"The Lovers of Yogurt: Actualization of new taste and healthiness with new lactobacillus"

and

"Bistro bear is the best gentleman of a British tradition. He is cleverly refined, is very stylish and kind. Ladies enjoy conversation with him."

I went to McDonald's today and got a Mew! They're having a week and a half long promotion where you can get a special 10th anniversary Mew if you go to a McDonald's Nintendo Zone with Heart Gold or Soul Silver, so I dragged myself out from under the kotatsu long enough to take advantage of it.

And holy crap, my Mew is like, in love with me. It has little hearts when I talk to it and hugged me and did a dance. Even my starter Pokemon isn't that happy with me. It's so cute~ ♥

Busy busy weekend!

On Friday I went down to Kyoto, where I delivered my after-お茶会 letter to my tea teacher (who was half-dressed in her kimono - at least she gets tired of it too). I wandered around, finally picking up WISH volume 1 (they re-released the manga, but the covers are drawn in CLAMP's ugly new style, so I went to Book Off to get all the older covers instead), before going back to the Kanbaikan and the AKP Thanksgiving party. What a party! There were decorations and handprint-turkey name tags and everything - I think their student council actually does stuff this year. I had a lot of fun seeing all the AKP students from Carleton (they're so cute!), and seeing my old host parents (they were the ones who invited me). Cone-san was also there, and I finally got her e-mail (she's currently studying at Urasenke School and I met her during the tea trip to Shigaraki). And the sensei! Yoshimura-sensei did a very otoko-yaku-esque farewell, clapping me on the shoulder and saying, またきて in her commanding voice. *swoon*

I woke up bright and early Saturday morning, and braved the cloudy, windy weather with my host mom and Yoshimi, traveling all the way to Takarazuka! We got there just in time for the 11 am showing of Casablanca by Sora-gumi. It was a fantastic show! They really kept the spirit of the movie alive while adding their own Takarazuka take on the story. The costumes were, like, exactly the same as in the movie! Ozora Yuuhi made a great Rick. ♥ There were some awkward moments... like how Sam is in the show... and how he's black in the movie... so... uh... Takarazuka version of black face. ;;; The actress was really good! It was just... uncomfortable. Oh, and I felt so bad for one of the Nazis (yes lmao) because when they were doing a song/dance number, four of them had to run to the side of the stage and do a little dance, but they were in the really high boots and she slipped and fell on her butt. ): She got right back up though, very smoothly. I still felt bad. OH and the Nazis got a car! Like... an actual car that they drove around onstage (not gasoline powered, obviously, but it still moved)!! And during the mini revue at the end, the Nazis had sparkly uniforms (well, minus the swastika armbands). I just... sparkle Nazis. But yeah it was really great, and I'm so excited to see it again on the 26th~

Yesterday I went to Tengachaya to see Yoshimi doing a mini-version of the school day with her students - they were so adorable! Little first graders doing presentations about comparing things. ♥ I went to Umeda afterwords to get some lunch, and had amazing cheese curry udon~ So good. Then I chatted with a sweet old lady who worked at a wagashi store and bought some wagashi from her.

I'm finally working more on my Amity essay (yes, still), and it's going pretty well but I am feeling a bit lost as to what it is I really want to do in life. I don't know.

But I had a good weekend!

I went in to Kyoto today to pick up the seventh issue of Rinka (which the people at dan bookstore kindly ordered from the publishers for me ♥), and while there I stopped by Stardust, my favorite UFO catcher store. One of the store workers, who I recognized as working there back when I was at AKP (and not the ojisan who was nice to me all the time - this is a different guy), also noticed me and we had the following exchange.

Guy: It's been a while!

Me: Oh, yes! Hi!

Guy: How long have you been here?

Me: Oh, I'm just here until December...

Guy: So you left and now you're back?

Me: Yeah, looking for work and stuff...

Guy: Oh cool. I hope you find a job!

And we also made small talk about Ohio. I was really surprised he remembered me! And pleased! Except that means that I really did waste a lot of money playing UFO catchers ;;;;;

jfkldjsaklfjdsa

As my host mom came to get me to eat donuts, a huge spider appeared out of nowhere like right next to my leg so I screamed and flailed a lot and my host mom came in and killed it. Then I did the heebie-jeebie dance while babbling incoherently in Japanese at her.

Yesterday I woke up at six am to get down to Kyoto barely in time to make the tour bus with my tea ceremony friends. We all went on a day trip to Shigaraki, which is famous for its pottery. I had so much fun!! On Monday night I was kind of nervous about going, because it seemed like a big hassle and I wasn't sure I would wake up in time, etc. But I had a lot of fun and saw all my tea ceremony friends and made lots of good memories!

We first stopped at a pottery place where we got to make our own tea bowls! It was a lot of fun, though kind of hard at first. The old guy who ran the place liked telling people when they were doing stuff wrong and then muttering some half-English directions at me, which was harder to understand than the Japanese directions (he didn't know I'd been spending the past few weeks in the company of small children and a host father who is the biggest mumbler I've ever met). I managed to make a pretty awesome bowl, though, so I'm excited! While we were waiting for the guy to come around and help us with the final shaping, Genta, the younger Ochi-san, another woman at our table, and I all made miniatures out of the left over clay. I made a tiny mouse and a yatsuhashi. Genta eventually gave up and just made little balls of clay, which he proclaimed were various fruits. I get my bowl back (they need to glaze and fire it for us) in early December, so there will be pictures!

Then we went to a Shiitake farm for lunch! I am not a mushroom person, but I tried my hardest and tasted the mushrooms for the sake of the trip and fall memories! I sat with the elder Ochi-san and... another girl whose name I'm blanking on. We got to gather six shiitake each and then take them back to our seats and grill them on little tabletop grills! We each got a big plate of veggies and beef and chicken to go with our mushrooms. I ate two of mine and brought the rest back for my host family. The food was so good!! We stuffed ourselves silly, and then they brought out soba AND rice! It was all outside in a tent, so it really felt like fall. Yesterday was pretty cold, but I was bundled up, and it made the fire feel especially nice!

After lunch we went to a biiiiiiig park. We split in half, and my group (A group) got to do the tea ceremony first. We sat outside on tarps, while Tanaka-san picked up leaves and pretended to be the wind, scattering them picturesquely on top of us. We had three sweets (one spicy read bean mochi sweet, one leaf-shaped sweet, and a chocolate mushroom), and in each group, one person "won" if they got a mochi sweet that was extra spicy and hot. Guess who won? I tried to bear with it, but my group was like, "Libby, you don't have to eat it! Poor thing!" As a reward, I got to be the principal guest for the ceremony. The tea bowl was reddish with a very nice thick white brush stroke across it. It felt very autumn-y. After tea we climbed the Stairs From Hell to a little museum, which had some lovely tea pottery on display. I will... look up the name of it later. It was really pleasant!

We did some shopping at a store with really good prices (1250 yen for a tea bowl?! yes please!!), and I chatted with one of the other foreign people there. Then we took the bus back to Kyoto, and I headed home to Osaka. I had so much fun, and got to meet my tea teacher's husband, who is exactly the kind of person I could see her marrying. I got to see all of my friends, and had a lovely time. On the bus ride back, we even passed around snacks and candy, and looked for the full moon.

And now to wrap up, a meme:

1. Comment to this entry saying "ICONS!" and I will pick 6 of your icons.
2. Make an entry in your own journal and talk about the icons I picked!

And if you want to ask about any other icons of mine, go ahead. XD

mikomichan picked:


( my explanations )

( music meme from Sam )

Shichi-go-san was really fun! But as a result I was wiped out yesterday afternoon and evening. Today I did a few errands (finally got a new prepaid phone card for my phone, so yay making sure I get to keep my number), but mostly just stayed at home with Harune and Akane and watched Kiki's Delivery Service for the thousandth time. My presents went over really well with the two kids - Jiji for Harune and an Arceus Pokedoll for Souma. Souma held his Arceus all throughout lunch (which was at a really nice tofu restaurant!). And today Fumi-san showed me a picture where Harune had placed Jiji on top of a Swiffer duster, since it looked like a broom.

Tomorrow I'm waking up at the crack of dawn to go in to Kyoto and spend the day with my tea teacher and students. I'm really excited, but not for the waking up at the crack of dawn part.

More rambling about shows that probably makes no sense~

Last week on Numb3rs, both Goliath AND Buster guest starred! And now Ted the Laywer is on this week's episode (it just finished downloading, so I'm watching it now).

My Halloween has consisted of cleaning my room and eating nabe. Not too seasonal of me, but fun nonetheless. And now Numb3rs, of course. 8)

This week's Ohitorisama was really good! I want to eat Teppei's cooking~~ And leave it to Japan to have someone's greatest fear be eggplant. Also, Maya Miki playing with cats was adorable.

I also watched this week's The Office, which I thought was pretty good! The Halloween costumes were awesome lmfao Ryan as Edward Cullin and Michael as a Dick-in-a-Box guy. And Darrell making up what everyone was. Book Face.

Yesterday I took the train in to Takarazuka, and saw Tsuki-gumi doing Last Play/Heat On Beat! It's sad to see Sena Jun go, but she's had a wonderfully long run. Last Play was... kind of muted in its energy (even though Kiriyan started it off RUNNING onstage in huge heels), but entertaining in its own right. Even when characters got shot, it was funny, so at least Tsuki-gumi was still somewhat in their element. :) Oh god, but youth = mullets apparently because Sena Jun had a mullet wig on at the start. Oh, and right before the show started, some other Takarasienne came and sat down to watch!! So exciting. More on that later~

So Last Play was a lot of antiquing and gangsters who wanted customer lists and talking about empathy and people getting shot and having amnesia and piano prodigies. The final showdown was actually pretty hilarious, and they kind of threw in as much slashy stuff as possible between Asa and Kiriyan. The whole play had very much the Top-Star-retiring feel to it. I kind of want to work for Takarazuka to write the English summaries, though, because somehow I don't think, "A man is lonely. He has no home to return to and is losing track of himself. Another young man, who is also lonely, saves him," quite cuts it.

Heat on Beat was fun, featuring a barefoot solo performance by Sena Jun. \o/ Unusual, I thought! She was all in black, too. ohtori_tsuki, I know your opinions on leg ruffles, but what are your thoughts on ridiculously enormous arm ruffles? There was one part during Asa and Kiriyan's duet, where they were dressed in tuxedos and having fun being the best combi without a musume-yaku (poor musume-yaku ;;), and they stopped along the front walkway, right in front of where the other 'sienne were sitting. They went kind of back to back, cheating out to the audience, and there was a pause in the music right before they sang the last line of the song, and they turned their faces towards each other and made goofy kissy noises at each other. I was vastly amused.

So after the show I followed the fanclubs to the stage door, as I was a bit uncertain as to its location, and waited around for a while. No one from Tsuki-gumi came out before I left (it was getting late and I was hungry ;;), but I found out the identity of one of the Takarasienne attendees! None other than Mizu Natsuki!! So that was a nice surprise. :)

FFFFFFFFFFFF DEAR GOD I WILL GIVE FAMILY MART MY FIRST BORN CHILDDDDDDDDDD

So today I woke up to a big hug from Harune (she usually starts the day in a good mood, which is fun), and I read to her a little before we had lunch (which was a bit more difficult). We had yaki-imo for lunch, which are basically little baked bits of heaven.

After lunch I was determined to get to the post office and mail off the Pokemon stuff I sold (plus a keychain for Julia~). As I was leaving, Harune exclaimed that she was going to take the Shinkansen to the park. The Shinkansen usually costs around $100 one way, so you can see how this was hilarious.

I love Japanese post offices. They're so friendly and patient and awesome. When I finished my business, I decided that since I was out, I should go to Lawson and try to get a ticket for the current Tsuki-gumi play, because it's Sena Jun's last Takarazuka play. I should definitely have purchased the ticket way in advance. I tried pretty much every showtime on every day I was available, and they were all sold out. In despair, I bought a Casablanca ticket (Sora-gumi is doing Casablanca in November/December and I didn't want the same thing happening then) and some chips. I decided I may as well continue walking, and see if I could walk all the way to Kyobashi without Yoshimi to show me the way (I later discovered that I can't).

A little down the road, I saw a Family Mart, and remembered how you can also buy tickets there. I went inside, hoping that maybe Family Mart's reserve of tickets had not been completely depleted. AND LO AND BEHOLD A LITTLE O NEXT TO THE B-SEKI TICKETS FOR TOMORROW AT THREE!!! JUST WHAT I WANTED!!! Granted it's in the buttcrack of the theatre, but I DON'T CARE BECAUSE I GET TO SEE TSUKI-GUMI!!!!! I bought that ticket so hard, and was so excited even the cashier told me to have a good time at the show.

Then I got lost and ended up walking to Tambabashi, which is... definitely not Kyobashi. The good thing was that it was a lovely afternoon, and I was going to see Tsuki-gumi, so I didn't care. I found the Keihan station and went to Kyobashi, where I bought some doughnuts for the family (the lady selling them said I was good at Japanese because I said むっつ to indicate I wanted six doughnuts).

So, we have learned that the route to Kyobashi is not as straightforward as it seems, you should always buy tickets well in advance if a top star is retiring, and Family Mart is awesome.

The family is getting ready for Shichi-Go-San, which we're attending on November 1. Two teeny kimonos are hanging in the living room, one for Harune and one for Souma. I bought the two of them little stuffed animals (Jiji for Harune and Arceus Pokedoll for Souma) and then decided to do some research as to whether it's okay to give presents.

In my search, I found this article, which begins relatively normal enough:

Shichi Go San or Seven-Five-Three Festival is a very special time for the children of Japan. It is one of three major celebrations in their life. The first celebration is their birth. Shichi Go San matsuri or festival is the second momentous celebration. The third and last is their marriage.

And ends on this impossibly creepy note:

Visit a Shinto shrine when in Japan on November 15. The children in their colorful kimonos are beautiful. Why not join the proud parents and snap a few photographs to remember the occasion? Don’t forget to say a couple of prayers to bless the little ones.

...

So the above picture, that is no doubt messing up your friends page, is of me and my host sister this evening surrounded by all of the lovely ladies of the New Half Show House in Namba, Osaka. For those who may not know what "New Half" means, it's the term for transgender M->F people in Japan. I'm pretty sure all these women had had surgery (there were some, ahem, revealing outfits in some of the dances that all but confirmed this), and so weren't doing straight up drag, I don't think? In any case, we went to the bar after eating at an izakaya with the male members of the family. We received a warm greeting and were led to our table, where we ordered drinks and chatted with two of the women. The woman behind and to my right in the photo was one of them, and it turns out she's 39 and has been doing shows for nineteen years.

Then the lights went down and the sparkly curtains went up. The show was a mixture of comedy and sexy!dancing, complete with songs from Lady Gaga and Britney, cutesy idol songs, lots of sparkly dresses, fake body parts, corsets, flirting with the audience, birthday celebrating, and parodies of Japanese entertainers who I didn't know. It was a lot of fun, even with a drunken old man flirting with me during the Boob Rangers song (I managed to wave him off, don't worry).

I was told I have nice skin and asked if there are gay bars in America too. Oh, AND this is the bar where Haruna Ai got her start! She's a famous New Half idol who got popular for her lip syncing with other idol music. Oh and there was a couple celebrating their wedding there, and they were called up to come on the stage and get pictures taken and kiss. They were also asked what their favorite sex position was. Oh my.

So I had a ton of fun, and Yoshimi did too. She asked the ladies who sat with us lots of questions and got excited when she found out the other one was her same age (30). It was a great atmosphere (except for the smokers) and I had a lot of fun with her. And coming home we saw sumo wrestlers! And got a picture with one! He was HUGE!

Anyway, so that was one of the most daring, adult things I've done so I feel proud of myself. Aren't the women gorgeous?!

Pick any of my RP characters and I will tell you:

01. Full name
02. Best friend
03. Sexuality
04. Favorite color
05. Relationship status
06. Ideal mate
07. Turn-ons
08. Last sexual experience
09. Favorite food
10. Crushes
11. Favorite music
12. Biggest fear
13. Biggest fantasy
14. Quirks in bed
15. Bad habits
16. Biggest regret
17. Best kept secrets
18. Last thought
19. Worst sexual/romantic experience
20. Biggest insecurity

RP characters: Hisoka, Ritsuka, Ken, Youji, Riku, Kazahaya, Kakei, Gingetsu... uh... anyone else? sob why so many shotas

fjdlksajfsd s-so tired

After lunch today I rushed off to buy emergency omiyage, because I went into Kyoto for the afternoon! The Keihan took longer than I thought, so I ended up being really late to my chat with Sparling-sensei but she understood, and we did get in a good half hour or so. I also said hi to the AKP staff I could find - Oyama-sensei and... ahhh I forget the other teacher's name oh lordy THE ONE WHO I HAD THE MOVIE SEMINAR WITH... I THINK HER NAME BEGINS WITH A K?

EVIDENTLY, ohtori_tsuki, our Takarazuka performance was really popular because so many people keep mentioning it to me. First my host mom (Kyoto) said that at the farewell party last year, the host moms were all just a little disappointed there wasn't Takarazuka that year. Then my host father (also Kyoto) always goes, "Oscar!" when he sees me (which is apparently something that sticks in people's minds, probably because I yelled it at you while playing Andre). Waka-chan did the same thing when I went to my tea lesson today. THEN I found out from Oyama-sensei that Yoshimura-sensei's daughter still believes that we are 王子様 oh my god ajfldj it's like Disney magic only ten times more ステキ!!!

Ahem. After chatting with Sparling-sensei (who saw BeruBara/Exciter!!) and saying hi to a few AKPeople who I knew, I booked it over to Soei-sensei's house and had my first tea ceremony lesson in a year and a half. Ahhh it felt like I was back home!! We chatted for a while before everyone came, and I FINALLY gave her the tea I got her in Paris. She showed me pictures from this year's hatsugama - the MCs wore COW hats this year and some of the old ladies sang the Ponyo song. Soei-sensei also decided to have a more serious/contemplative sort of entertainment, so she had ten people illustrate a Zen story about going to buy a cow. At the hatsugama, they read what each illustration represents in the story. I got to see all the illustrations (Soei-sensei had saved them) and she explained them all to me. It was fascinating! Though she said now they're pressured to do something cool this year too. She's thinking of a Michael Jackson tribute.

Then a bunch of the usual gang from okeiko showed up, including Waka-chan and husband, Itoi-san, Tanaka-san, Ai-chan, and a few people I had met before at ochakai!! It was really fun to surprise everyone and to have a lesson in what has been over a year. I was mostly in the guest role but Soei-sensei had me do temae once during the lesson! I've forgotten a lot of things, but not as much as I had thought. My legs are definitely not used to seiza though. ;; But I had a ton of fun and will be joining them for an all day field trip in early November - we're going to picnic and make our own ochawan!! I'm so so so excited, and happy I get to see all my tea friends again. :)

I saw コインブラ物語 at the Umeda Arts Theatre today! Yay Hoshi-gumi!! The play starred Maikeru Todoroki Yuu as Pedro, the prince of Portugal. Aono Yuki starred as Inez, Pedro's love - and I just looked her up and found out that she's going to be the next top musume-yaku in Tsuki-gumi starting this winter!! Yesssssssss she and Kiriyan are going to be so awesome ffffff I really liked her. She had a really lovely voice, and her transitions were super smooth.

So in the play, Pedro is in love with Inez, and they drink from this little well of love to show their everlasting love, which I've decided is the wrong thing to do, because both couples who drink from it end up unhappy and/or dead, and the one couple that doesn't drink from it gets to go off and live happily in India so. DON'T DRINK FROM THE WELL.

Unfortunately, Inez is... I don't know too pretty or something, so Pedro's father is opposed to their love. He wants Pedro to marry Constanza, who in turn is in love with Bimenta. When Pedro protested, it prompted a great exchange between the king and queen:

Queen: King, please listen to Pedro's feelings. This is a new generation. In our day, we had to listen to our parents and marry any weird stranger they told us to...

King: ... I was a weird stranger?!

Except then the King was a dick and decided to get Inez killed. So he sent his guard as an assassin to kill her, but at that moment she was out of the house and the Black Wind pirates had just tied up her servants for some reason and the sister of the pirate leader happened to look exactly like Inez (played by the same actress) and happened to loot one of her dresses and was wearing it out by the GODDAMN WELL where THERE WAS A FULL MOON SO SHE'LL BE SAFE and gets killed. The servants decided someone was after Inez, so they hide her with some nuns. Meanwhile, Pedro learns that the Black Wind supposedly killed Inez (when in fact the guy who was in love with Miranda, the pirate girl who was really a princess? didn't hurt anyone and was really upset ;_;) so he goes and kills them all and is sad. ):

In the second half, Pedro helps Constanza and Bimenta escape to India and discovers that his father was the one who tried to kill Inez. He also learns that Inez is alive and goes to find her at the convent, while also getting the throne offstage because his dad was really guilty. Though she still loves him, Inez tells him they can't be together, because Miranda was killed because of her, and because of their love.

MICHAEL, as Jessica I'm sure is impatiently waiting to hear, played one of the manlier nuns, but in the first half played an adorable servant to Pedro. And Jessica, I see what you mean! She's really invested in her characters, and plays reactions really well. I was very impressed!! She had some fun parts, like bringing in Inez and then Constanza and Bimenta to see Pedro in order to get the whole love situation sorted out. And generally looking very pleased for Pedro when his romance is going well. So cute~ Next time you write to her, tell her I say hi and that I loved her!!

All in all, I enjoyed the show, and am excited it starred Todoroki Yuu because hopefully that = DVD release. I found some favorites, but am very excited about Aono Yuki's future transfer because oh my gosh she and Kiriyan will sound so pretty together. ♥ I liked the pirates a lot and was very sad they all died. ): They came through the audience even (and now that I think about it, Aono Yuki was one of the people near me!!) and sang their happy song that got less happy when they all died. ): But they came back as other ship people in the second half, so that was nice at least. XD;

A fun day! I spent too much money I don't have on doujinshi and Pokemon though. ._.

Today was a proud day for my quest to get everyone in the world addicted to Numb3rs.

First, I woke up with what appears to be the beginnings of a cold, so I think I'll get to bed before long. I flitted around this morning, and joined the family for lunch, which was a rice porridge made from the leftovers of onabe - mostly green onions, tofu, and a miso based broth. Very yummy~ We also had some lightly fried Satsuma imo, which were then covered in a sugary syrup and sesame seeds and is basically made of crack.

After lunch, I helped Yoshimi study English for an hour or two. It was really rewarding! She's really smart, especially with verbs, which I think are difficult to explain, so that's lucky for me. ;; We then walked all the way to Kyobashi, picking up matching 生茶 with panda keychains along the way. We went to Muji, UniQlo, animate, and Tsutaya, and then to Garb Dressing (yes, seriously), which is a nice little open air cafe. I had an amazing chocolate roll cake, and Yoshimi had hot lemonade. At animate, I ended up getting this month's Zero Sum.

FYI LOVELESS people - this month is a more detailed flashback of Kio's first time meeting and becoming friends with Soubi. IDK if Kouga Yun is retconning or not, since I was only able to skim through it, but I will post details as I translate. I don't think I have a scanner available, but I can try to take photos of the pages if it's slow in coming out.

We walked home in time for dinner, which was tempura vegetables and croquettes, along with an avocado salad. Yummy~ Harune and her family came back from their trip to Shikoku and said hello. ♥ I showed some pictures of my 2005 Japan trip, and then we gathered for the first episode of this... Meiji-era drama about a doctor who lost his memory for some reason. He's fighting cholera and at one point he used a ballpoint pen to write on his hand. Uh, historical accuracy fail. Sa-kun also stood in line to get a REALLY famous roll cake so we had that (a-a second roll cake in one day!) while we watched. It was really delicious!

THEN we gathered 'round the TV to watch the first episode of Numb3rs season one! I recommended it to Yoshimi while we were in Tsutaya, and she rented the first disc. fffffff I love that series so much. Yoshimi and Sa-kun seemed to enjoy it too, because we watched the second episode immediately after! Sa-kun also thought it was a movie during the first episode, which is a testament to how awesome it is. Yoshimi said it's really good so far, though very heart-racing. Her favorite is Alan, Sa-kun doesn't know who his is, and my host mother likes Don the best (she came in near the end and thought he was really cool and handsome). I'm so glad they like it!!

Last night was the debut of Ohitorisama, which is a new drama with Koike Teppei. I was actually awoken yesterday morning by my Kyoto host mother calling to tell me to turn on the TV and watch Teppei's interview on Hanamaru. He apologized for the 迷惑 caused by his fever during the 感謝祭り the week before (he had a 102 degree fever and had to leave midway through the show). We got to see pictures of his homecooked hamburger and potato salad, and get an introduction to his favorite ramen places. We also saw a picture of the futon where his dad sleeps when he comes to visit Teppei and gets drunk.

The drama itself was really cute - a 33 year old woman is living a happy single life as an all-girls school teacher, and then a 23-year-old teacher joins the staff (Koike Teppei). Yoshimi guessed that Teppei's character is actually the son of Maya Miki's character, the principal. Given the nature of dramas, I have to agree with her. There are lots of other teachers and students who like Teppei's character, but the main character is frustrated with him, because he doesn't know how to be a teacher and is always causing her problems. It's very cute so far, and I like both Teppei's character and the main character, so I'm definitely going to keep watching.

Before that we half-watched the new drama that Yankumi's actress is in - she's a journalist for a third rate journal trying to get the truth. It was kind of scary and confusing! I don't know if I'll be watching that one next week. ;;

I never did finish my update from forever ago. ._. Time flies by so quickly. On... Saturday the 3rd (augh two weeks ago!!), I got up early to take the train in to Kyoto, and made a friend in transit. :) I met up with Ayumi and Krys, their AKP student for this year. We did a lot of shopping, and had delicious omelets and tarts from Berry cafe. That evening we joined my Kyoto host parents at the Chinese restaurant they always went to, and then came back home to watch TV and sleep. Ayumi taped the TV special with Aran Kei's last day for me, so we watched that, among other things. :) I also got to meet Ayumi's hamster! Hamu-chan. I had a really fun time, and it felt great to be back with everyone. My host father has gotten even more hilarious, and now will pull out his phone and pretend to call "his friend, Obama" any time you mention the President.

The fourth, I shopped around in Shijo after far too long away, and then hurried back to Osaka, because the Ises met me at five for dinner!! They visited a bit with my current host family and then we went to an Italian place in Kyobashi. It was me, my parents, Izumi, and Izumi's husband. They were wonderful as always, and it was fabulous getting to see them.

Last week was... the typhoon, and going to 秋の包容 at the nearby 来通寺 temple. That consisted of prayer for maybe half an hour? Followed by a lecture given by one of the monks. It was really fascinating, and I took notes, so I could try to figure out more of what the monk was talking about. I think a lot of it had to do with traditional values, as well as the identities of Amida and Hotoke-sama.

Friday I went with Harune et all to the clinic so they could get flu shots (already got mine! ha!). This ended, predictably, in many tears. We actually went back again this week to get another shot for Akane-chan, who cried a lot but fell asleep in my arms on the car ride back (!). Last Sunday the family went to Souma-chan's preschool sports day, which was beyond ridiculous. We had homemade lunches and I got a little sunburnt, but it was fun. Souma-chan was in the panda team, and he seemed very focused on trying his best. So freaking cute. Then last Monday, I went with Yoshimi, Sa-kun, and Hidemi's family to Oizumi park, where we walked around and picnicked and gathered acorns. Sa-kun biked the whole way there and back, and when we passed him in the car we cheered very enthusiastically for him.

I also got my ticket for コインブラ物語 for Tuesday of this week, and have been working on my Amity app. I talked with Tug on Skype for a while the other day, and we talked about how it's been tricky trying to motivate myself without much external pressure. But I'm trying, slowly but surely.

Oh, and I got an e-mail reply from my tea teacher, and I might get to go to the lesson on Wednesday!! So excited. I need to e-mail her back (and a bunch of other people too)!

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH I'M LATE BUT HAPPY BIRTHDAY lonesheep!!!!!!!

Oh my what a busy week it's been! I'll try to summarize as best I can and then finally get working on my Tokyo reports. While also applying for jobs.

Woah, deja vu.

Let's see, on Thursday last week, I went with Okaasan, Fumi-chan, Akane-chan, and Harune-chan to Harune's Parent-Child Exercise class, which was adorable. Harune-chan was very reluctant to participate, and ended up getting Okaasan to do it with her (otherwise she didn't want to exercise). It was so sweet seeing all the moms with their little 2-year-olds bawww. I took a video that I might upload to YouTube? Then we had lunch at an Italian restaurant that was really quite good.

Friday was awesome. I woke up bright and early and grabbed an umbrella because it was raining all day (not quite as awesome). I was wearing my long purple dress, which you may or may not remember as the dress I wore the day I went to see Mary Poppins, when I waded through ankle deep rainwater in Cleveland. It wasn't quite that bad on Friday, but I did get somewhat wet. I made my way to Takarazuka Station, enjoying the group of four old ladies who were all chatting and laughing and definitely going to see the show. I browsed the bookstore in the station and adjoining mall, and then got a nice lunch at Sarah, the English tearoom. It was nearing showtime, so I started down the Hana no Michi, trying to keep my dress from the rain. I bought a tea sweet at the cute store Maureen and I went to back in 2008, and the old lady was very kind. As I neared the theatre, suddenly, a ステキ person entered my line of sight! Tall, fashionably and androgynously dressed, with that unique poise of a well-seasoned ballet dancer and a smaller woman accompanying her - a Takarasienne! We crossed the road at the same time, and I locked eyes with her and gave her a smile and demure bow. As she started to walk towards the stage door, I called after her, "お稽古で頑張ってくださいます。" (I-I can't decide if that's wrong or not for some reason.) And she turned around and bowed to thank me. The only problem is that I'm really really terrible at identifying 'sienne, but since it was close to curtain, maybe she was in Hana-gumi??

The show I came to see was near the end of Hana-gumi's Takarazuka run of Rose of Versailles - Andre Version/EXCITER!! And my goodness, rain or no rain, am I glad I got to see it. I spent an ungodly amount of money in QR, as usual, and settled into my balcony seat (which actually had a pretty good view!). It was my first time seeing BeruBara in person, and Hana-gumi didn't disappoint. I thought everyone did a really lovely job, and Matobu Sei is really hot. I adored Aine Harei as Oscar - she had a wonderful balance of strength and softness. Oscar getting drunk and getting into a brawl was so cute. ): Bawww. And Andre's speeches of eternal love were so hilarious, I loved them. I also mouthed along with that scene, as I'm sure Maureen could also do.

EXCITER!! was... incredible. It encompassed revue hilarity like nothing I have ever seen before. FIRST of all, in its title, it is identified as a SPARKLING SHOW and boy did they deliver. I think I might have been temporarily blinded (like Andre!!) by all the shiny. There was even a SPARKLE MANTLE that Matobu Sei put on. WHICH WAS PRECEDED BY A SPARKLE KNIFE FIGHT. I AM NOT LYING. I just can't even. And more candidates for Maureen's Gay Airlines, my goodness. AND OH MY GOD HANA-GUMI IS LIKE SEX TROUPE OR SOMETHING. There was this lounge sequence where Matobu Sei and others not only grabbed some musume-yaku thigh, they went like INSIDE HER DRESS HIGHER. I was excited though because the musume-yaku got to be sexy too! Literally, some of the roles are identified in the program as "sexy man" or "sexy girl". Then the girls left and Matobu Sei molested some otoko-yaku for good measure. And then in COMPLETE AND UTTER CHANGE OF PACE there was this OBSCENELY ADORABLE sequence with Matobu Sei as Mr. Yu, an impossibly dorky worker at a fitness company who invents the hula hoop... after it's been invented. And gets mistaken for a chikan, which led into a sequence where they sang about how chikan suck. It seriously was the revue of random English, pelvic thrusting, flirting with the audience, grunting, dork, sex, and sparkles. And one briefly painful moment of leg ruffles.

Mr. Yu oh my god The Hana-gumi part is a joke thrown in for the first performance, and the last few seconds is the chikan part - watch the guy on the left.

lmfao this perfectly contrasts Matobu Sei's Mr. Yu voice and her Andre one

So I bought some of those cookie things in a Takarazuka tin, and every time I show the tin to Harune-chan and ask who her favorite it, she always points to Mizu Natsuki. Hee~

ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

SO I SAW AIDA YESTERDAY.

ARAN KEI USED わ AT THE END OF HER SENTENCES.

IT WAS VERY SURREAL.

Speaking more coherently, AIDA was fantastic. I saw it with Yoshimi at the Umeda Arts Theatre Main Hall, and our seats were on the third floor, in this little box off to the very left side. It actually curved around so we had a pretty good view of the stage; plus we were in the front, so only the bar was there to block our view. |3 AIDA starred Aran Kei as the titular character, with some dude named Irei Kanata as Radames and ANZA as Amneris. ANZA you may be interested to know, starred in the 1993 Sailor Moon Musical as Sailor Moon herself, and sang the song "Mienai Chizu" from the Cardcaptor Sakura anime.

The set was really cool - a pyramid that broke into two pieces which could be moved around, and which had small openings that cast members could crawl in and out of. Large stained-glass style backdrops would occasionally lower down for scene changes.

I'm going to look up the actual plot of the show soon, which is something I probably should have done before seeing the show, as my grasp on what was going on occasionally led me into amusing territory. At one point, Radames was having this song soliloquy in the middle of fighting the Ethiopians, and I wanted to say, "Radames, it's a great song, I'm gonna let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best songs of all time." Or, in other words, "Radames, this is neither the time nor place." He had doofy expressions, but a pretty powerful voice.

Amneris was... kind of a bitch. There was one part where she told Aida Radames was dead in order to find out if Aida and Radames were in love. Then she was like HAHA JOKE'S ON YOU HE'S ALIVE. She had pretty costumes though. ;;

There was also Kevin (his name always sounded like Kevin), who was Radames's best buddy and also sang in the midst of fighting the Ethiopians. And the Ethiopian king had a dove for some reason, and then got angry and yelled at Aida.

But Aida, oh Aida. Aran Kei must have been so excited to only have three costume changes the whole show. No, seriously though, she was fantastic. I was a bit surprised at first given how feminine she was, but Aran Kei is so awesome that she was totally perfect as a woman. Her voice was slightly different - she had more of a musume-yaku cadence to it, but it sounded fantastic. Her high notes were beautiful. I love how Japanese musical theatre uses such a healthy way of reaching high notes, because it sounds incredible. AND SHE WAS KISSED. ONSTAGE. FOR REAL. Yoshimi agrees that Aran Kei is amazing and thought she was too good for Radames. XD;; The musical had a very Japanese-style end, the lovers dying together, and Yoshimi and I talked about how our chests/hearts were full after seeing the show.

We, the audience, gave them six ovations. The conductor was really funny and sweet, clapping along with us and goofing off with the orchestra. Around the third ovation, Aran Kei said a short speech, talking about how the Umeda run was half over... じゃない? And how they were going to がんばる for the rest of the run, so everyone should... いらっしてください. Her pauses were so funny. By the sixth ovation, just Aran Kei came out and she said, お帰って下さい (Please go home) which got a big laugh from the audience.

I feel so lucky to have gotten to see Aran Kei performing once again, and I feel happy that I got to support her continued theatrical endeavors. Out of all the Takarasienne, she is by far my favorite, my one and only Aran Kei.