Oh my God oh my Gawwwwwwd, Awa Odori starts this Wednesday!! I’m so nervous!!!

o________O;;;;;

Our last practice was tonight.
I’ve been practicing really really hard!
So hard, that I pulled something… my right leg is all screwed up, as is my lower back. I have to stretch really well every day just to be able to do normal stuff. Ow ow ow. いたいいいい

But oh my goodness is it ever exciting! I can’t wait to wear my purple kimono and my giant taco-shaped hat and dance like nuts! Every day now I wear geta when I’m not at school.

And speaking of not being at school…
Today I woke up, and it was typhooning. We were getting hit by the edge of tropical storm Etau, and it was amazing!!! So much rain, so much lightening and thunder!!! Nature is really really powerful!

I thought to myself, “Oh, I can’t be bothered to go through this storm just to sit pointlessly at my desk”. So I mailed my supervisor to ask for holiday leave. Stupid! I should have said “Oh no, a typhoon! Abunai!”

But now I have to take one of my holiday days. Mottainai! What a waste!!

Although, it did clear up and I could have gone in for half a day, but I am a lazy bum and couldn’t be bothered.

Yesterday I saw an amazing musical play put on by a local musical theater group. One of my students was in it, surprisingly.

The (original) story was about three girls who meet two girls who may or may not be magical, and for some reason, they decide to go back in time on a flying broom (one of the girls is a janitor, one is a makeup artist, and one just likes history for some reason?). So they go back and meet somebody who may or may not be Genghis Khan, and help some people get a scroll and a princess, and then there was a huge song and dance number.

Then, they went to America to try and stop Kennedy from being assassinated. For this half the play, almost everyone spoke a ton of English, and they were all pretty dang good with their accents and so on. The girls made a jazz group, and performed for Jackie O, and tried to warn her. Jackie O said she would tell Kennedy, but she lied! (for some reason, she was a complete bitch, and she couldn’t see the two magical girls. Who knew?)

Undaunted, the girls use their showbiz connections (3 more extremely tall girls in sparkly Supreme’s style dresses) to get an audience with Kennedy. They warn him about getting shot, but he says that danger is part of being President, and the people of Texas are his people too, so he can’t avoid the trip. Realizing they can’t stop him from taking his path, the cast sings “Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory” in a very moving style, giving Kennedy one last performance.

In the audience, we had already looked at each other several times to say “No way”

But wait, there was more to come. John and Jackie got on their car and were on the motorcade, and the girls came and stopped time, to try and save him again. They told JFK that they were from the future, and that we had a black President, and that there was a bullet in his future. But JFK said that he was the President of the United States of America, and he was going to do his job.

Then he was shot. (In the audience, we looked at each other and said “No Way” again).

Then the janitor girl held up a flag in a spotlight against the curtain, and the Supremes stood in the balcony and sang something along the lines of “Where have you gone, JFK”. (I’ve been unable to figure out what song they actually sang).

Then they went back to the present time, accidentally inspiring young Steven Spielberg to invent E.T. THE END.

Like I said. It was amaaaaaaazing. Not often am I really weirded out and very moved at the same time.

File that under “Oh, Japan”.

Dear Typhoon Sinlaku:

Donde esta the typhoon, hombre? Where is the rain? Where is the wind? Where is school getting cancelled because it’s too dangerous for students, but not teachers who must take paid vacation time if they want to avoid danger and stay home?

We were seriously looking forward to a day of cancelled classes and goofing off in the staff room, Sinlaku. I had a nap I needed to take, and a whole pile of papers I needed to grade. But no, you just rained a bit, taunting us through the windows.

Yes, Sinlaku, I understand that a really bad and dangerous typhoon would have been terrible. I do not wish for homes to be wrecked or cars overturned or people killed. All I wanted was some awesome rain and a free day at school. That’s all I ask! Is that so much? It’s only 5 in the afternoon and you’ve fizzled out. Where is the dedication?! Where is that can-do typhoon spirit?

I talked to students after school, and asked them, Are you happy or sad that the typhoon is over? They said, “We are sad!”
“Even though you would have had to walk home in the pouring rain?!”
“Yes! We were so excited! Now my heart is breaking!”

You hear that, Sinlaku?

Breaking the hearts of high-school girls. You player! Way to go! You think you’re so great, what with your dark skies and spooky thunder. You’re all hot air… er, cold front!

In other news, I’m totally exhausted and want to go home and die, but I can’t because of previous obligations to parties/excursions/tea ceremonies.

xoxo

Emily

I’m alone in the staffroom right now… because everyone else is at the staff meeting.

There is a lot of stuff waiting to be said about Tokushima. Where the heck do I start? Well… I know I say this to everyone I talk to, but THE HEAT. I simply can’t believe it. It affects everything you do (or rather, makes you NOT do things that you otherwise might, such as going for a run, or even leaving the apartment). I refuse to put on my air conditioning, because I want to toughen myself up, and also as a general principle.

Despite the heat, I do go outside. Girls here carry umbrellas to beat the heat, even on their bikes. I tried that this morning. On my way to school, I was trying to go around a slow-moving guy who was taking up the sidewalk, and I wound up crashing into the fence that borders the road. Not quite as embarassing as the time I flipped over the handlebars in front of my roommate’s mom (it was a truely cinematic slow-motion catastrophy), but none the less… I can do without that sort of stuff.

I’ve explored a bit around the area, getting horribly horribly lost after an old man put a voodoo curse on me. Ever since then (Friday night), I haven’t had a single peaceful outing. Mostly, the area is overwhelming. I bike and walk for hours, and just can’t take it all in by myself. I haven’t yet been brave enough to go to a cafe and eat out by myself, but I will soon.

Until then, I’m trying to beat the heat and beat the blues. I’m really happy to hear from everyone so far, I miss everyone a lot. See you soon, I’m sure!