Why I Love Weekends

Last weekend was pretty fun. Saturday three of us met with our friend and she took us to the city. She knows a woman who does traditional Japanese dance so she asked her if we could come in for a short lesson. The woman had recently broken her arm so she couldn’t make it, but her daughter (24) was there. It was really nice. They dressed us up in some FABULOUS kimono and we learned a dance to a song called Sakura. After strapping us into our kimono, it was hair time. Lucky for me, fros and flowers are a big hit or they were just intimidated by the prospect of the sheer magnitude of this beautiful mystical creature on my head. So, my hair was left alone. The dance was very easy, but there were some serious details. For example, you had to move with your toes turned in to keep from looking like a “man”, your head has to tilt at the right times, and you have to keep your center of gravity whenever you bend your knees because bending at the waist is impossible wearing a kimono. My friend told the instructor that I’m a salsa dancer so she wanted a demo class. So, there we were, dressed in kimonos, doing the basic step and turns and shimmying shoulders because the kimonos restricted all other movement below the arms. After the lesson, the instructor treated us to some tempura for lunch. The restaurants here are so cool. A U-shaped counter, folks frying the goods in the middle, and placing them on your plate as soon as they come out of the grease…mmmmmm, grease! After lunch, our friend had a hair appointment so we were left to our own devices for a few hours = unnecessary shopping! To justify my purchases, I bought things to wear to work…i.e. in order to keep from destroying my nice oxfords, I bought polos for the summer.

Sunday, I woke up early to run errands. Here was the checklist:
Get stupid bike tire fixed
Buy sweat catchers at the pharmacy cuz sweat ain’t cute at a business meeting
Go to the bank to support your habit (shopping, that is)
Get paint supplies from the dollar store to support your other habit (not being bored)
Buy desert for rendezvous later
Remember French

Once all this was finished and I was at home, I finished painting my bathroom (from blue to green)…a project that I started on last Monday. I cooked some summer rolls with peanut sauce, but I didn’t have time to eat any because I was supposed to meet some folks at 1. A friend of a friend has a friend who speaks French. So, we all met at the friend of a friend’s house. His friend’s French was really good and she was really nice. We all discussed our travel and language experiences over sweets…in French, Japanese, and English….talk about cross-cultural communication!!! The friend of a friend said that there’s a part in the [remake of the] movie The Parent Trap where the main character is speaking French and he wanted to know if what she was saying made sense. So, we watched it. I excused myself by saying that I had a meeting and had to leave at 4:30…a meeting with the paint roller and my bathroom. The friend of a friend’s mother came home. She added raw corn to the snacks on the table. My first thought was, “Ummm, I wonder what this is going to taste like.” Raw sweet corn tastes surprisingly a lot like a fruit or some kind. Then, she offered us some watermelon but I don’t like watermelon and I was about to leave so she gave me an ear of corn and welcomed me to come back whenever I liked. The funny thing is, I think I might actually have more fun with her than with her son…LOL! After painting, I finished packing for my conference/travelscapades, went over the itinerary I made for myself, and cleaned up. The conference is in Kobe and I’ll be going to Kyoto and Tokyo for the rest of the week.