tonight you are like a gentleman." This sentence would be a scene-setter for romantic moment in a badly-written novel (hitting your book stores in 2007- "love in the paddy field", the story of how a wild and enigmatic English wooed the locals in a small Japanese town before finding true love with a midget with a hair lip) but no, it was followed with, "you are drinking slowly and look different". I thought blow-drying my hair would be a nice touch seeing as I was wearing a suit, and I did make an impression when I arrived, but I think they preferred the "strong heavy drunker" look. They soon got their wish...
Saturday night was the teaching session- the seminar I agreed to in January for which we've had lots of discussion and preparation, the seminar for which I had to choose a theme song, and the seminar which I was beginning to worry about. I was collected from my apartment by a taxi at 7pm and driven to the Riverside hotel where we briefly went over the details again and at 8pm it began. With my theme tune. Now, I had the perfect idea for a theme tune. Remember the sitcom "Hangin' With Mr Cooper?", well that's what I wanted. But I couldn't find a decent quality version, so I made do with GoldFrapp instead. And it was appropriate as I really DO want to ride on a white horse. So I walked into the room to the sounds of Goldfrapp feeling like a slightly bewildered game show host. The session was fun- we practiced self-introductions, practiced the group's creed and then went on to a question and answer session, where they asked me questions in English and I replied in Japanese. Except I tried to. The most memorable question was "do you like Japanese hot springs?", to which I replied, "no I am too embarrassed, but how about you?" The man replied, "no. I have a small body". He was almost my height and not skinny, so I can only assume he meant something else...
The session ended and as is the way here we went into an after party where food (tuna sandwiches- heaven!) and lots of drink was served, although this is where my gentlemanly behaviour was commented on. So I supped up quick smart and was soon trolleyed with the rest of them, chatting away in incorrect Japanese and then, hey! We're off to Karaoke!
Well, Katsuyama's karaoke salon has pulled a blinder (done something amazing). Despite the fact that the booths are close to falling down and are held together with gaffer tape, they have managed to install a new karaoke system whereby the lights dim as the song starts and come back on when it finishes. So with this lovely technology in place we set about singing songs we all knew. The group came up with the fabulous idea of singing Japanese cover versions of western songs and then having me sing the original version after. Although with a few more pints in us we just started singing random songs again, and the only woman there was made to sing duets with me. "A whole new world" is definitely the duet of choice in Japan. Stopping for oden on the way home I prepared mentally to watch the DVD they'd given me of the Kuse television documentary on me and Tara. Except I hadn't actually prepared mentally, I was just trolleyed, so I watched it twice laughing all the way through and then went to bed. I can't bring myself to watch it again...
Sunday was a quiet day of recovery, the only point of note was going to see the film "Yamato" in Kuse. In Japanese. One of my elementary teachers kindly bought me a ticket after we talked about the film at school a few weeks ago. It was about the crew of the Japanese warship Yamato and was probably very heart rending and emotional if you could actually understand any of what was going on. The end didn't need much explanation though as the warship got blown up and almost everyone died in the most graphic of fashions.
Yesterday I woke to what I thought was bright sun through the curtains, and I was almost right. It was moderate sun reflecting off the bright snow which brought temperatures down again. At school they prepared for graduation and I sat at my desk drawing all day and arranging for a JoyFull evening with Nickname Pending.
Today it was the students' graduation and the third grade have most definitely left the building. Under cover of more snow. I wonder if it ever will stop. Still, I can't say I'm too bothered. It's very nice.
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