IrishOboe

June 25^th and 26^th I was in Tokyo for two fun reasons. The first event was a Renaissance dance class, and the second (but most important) was to see APA and family! I can’t remember what part of the family doesn’t like their information broadcast on the web, so I won’t mention full names.

Sunday, June 25^th I took an early bus into Tokyo and met Makiko so we could go to her Renaissance dance class together. Of course she taught the class in Japanese, which gave it another level of challenge for me. Luckily, dance is visual so I was able to follow along whether I understood the instructions or not. It’s hard for me to tell now how much of communication happens from knowing Japanese and how much is context. Some days I think I’ve learned almost nothing at all and others I think I’ve got a fairly good basic knowledge, though it probably has very little of the vocabulary taught in Japanese classes.

Anyway, I borrowed some Jazz shoes from Makiko, which turned out to be nice. We learned the Basse, which is a slow dance in ¾ time. Listening to the Renaissance music got me all excited about going to Basel and studying it.

Makiko was a very good teacher and went through the dance in simple steps. The pace was about right for me since the other students had only been dancing for a few months. Most of the students were middle-aged Japanese women, but there was one male. We took about and hour and a half to learn the dance and practiced it for thirty minutes. What fun! It’s a simple dance, but there is complexity in the subtle details that make the difference between an awkward beginner and a beautiful expert. Now if only they taught this kind of thing in music history!

After the dance class I said my first “goodbye until I see you who-knows-when.” Pooh! It’s going to be so hard to say by goodbyes!

Happily, I had wonderful hellos waiting for me after returning to Shinjuku. Paying the taxi driver took all my attention so by the time I got out I was in the arms of UA! A was close behind and then AP introduced me to B and S. It was so wonderful to see family! I can only imagine what my US homecoming will be like, and then to think of our final arrival to our eternal home!

First on the menu was a visit to a Japanese sward museum, which was interesting, but I’m sure Brian would have appreciated it more. I enjoyed the conversation of B and S, who are both very interesting people one can learn a lot from.

After the museum Alex was getting tired and hungry (I was hungry, too) so we went near B and S’s place and ate a lunch/dinner at the Hard Rock Café. I had a pulled pork sandwich and French fries with a lot of ketchup. Yummy! American food tastes even better when you haven’t had it in a while!

We then crashed at the apartment then I went with B,S, and A to the Tokyo American Club to get a movie for A. It’s a nice place and I got to watch A cream the pin ball machine. If he hadn’t been so good I’d have been tempted to try, but as it was I was content to leave with the memory of his skill fresh in my mind. Wow! B bought A a shake and a Dad’s root beer for me. Natsukashi! How it brings back memories!

After enjoying conversation and dessert we went to bed. I had managed to get Monday off so they let me stay the night and spend some of Monday with them. We got up early to go to the fish market and had sushi for breakfast. The sushi was so fresh and delicious! Wow, that was one great breakfast. It was fun to look around, though it’s too bad that the auctions for the big game fish are closed to the public now.

Unlike in Italy where the people in the big cities had little patience to listen to my Italian, people in Tokyo were even more impressed with my Japanese (if that’s possible). I think it was more of a surprise that I knew any at all since they get so many tourists and Kofu doesn’t see so many tourists but has plenty of temporary foreign residents.

On the way back to the apartment I taught A how to play a Japanese variation of rock, paper, scissors. I couldn’t remember the words so I enlisted the help of a Japanese man who was watching us with amusement. He was happy to help once again I lived up to my reputation of talking to strangers on the trains. The present company didn’t mind, though, unlike my easily embarrassed JET friends. ;)

After some down time S took A out for a day of fun while S’s driver took B, UA, AA and I to see kabuki. I couldn’t follow the plot well, but I really enjoyed watching and listening to the musicians, and enjoyed the dance as well. There was a shamisen solo cadenza that was amazing. It almost sounded like American Jazz at points because of the syncopated rhythms. He also had amazing technical skill. We only watched one act and it was standing room only. It was nice to be able to watch good quality kabuki but without having to commit a whole day to it. We saw some gaijin who only lasted about four minutes . . .

After kabuki we went to Mitsukoshi in Ginza and looked at the shops, had a great dinner, then (because they saw me drooling) we visited a harp shop. They let me play a harp that had just come in that day, which I thought was a crime, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. I’d forgotten which pedals were which, but I plucked out a scale. I can’t remember any music and I miss it so much! However, I still had the feel, so I get learn again quickly. Oddly enough nobody bought one for me as omiyage . . . ;)

After that they dropped me off at Shinjuku at 4:20 and I caught the 4:30 bus back to Kofu! That, my friends, was perfect timing. I got in just in time to bike right to Bible study, but now I must go on my next adventure so I’ll have to write about that later.