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Hirakata, Osaka: September 29, Monday Nothing much. Went to class. Class ended. Went home. Ate dinner, did homework, went to sleep. Hirakata, Osaka: September 30, Tuesday Nothing much. Went to class. Class ended. Went to the Manga Union. Hester-sensei showed up. O_o;;; How unexpected. Went home. Ate dinner, did homework, went to sleep. Hirakata, Osaka: October 01, Wednesday Japanese class was terrible. I thought it was going to be the exam but I was wrong-- thank goodness! The practice test we had instead floored me. I did terribly on it. I missed about half of it. ACK! I went to my other classes, went home, ate dinner, did homework, and went to sleep. I spent most of the day rushing about-- it was one of those days where you're running just a little late for everything, so rushing about. Every break I had was spent preparing for my next class. It was a good night to just collapse and sleep. Hirakata, Osaka: October 02, Thursday The Japanese exam wasn't nearly as difficult as I'd expected it to be. Hopefully that's a good omen and not optimism... I picked up my ticket for Takarazuka! YAAAAAAY! Then I went to Seattle's Best (which we have on campus, right by McDonald's...) and had coffee with Sontian. Tasty cookies and cream coffee. I also tried his green tea 'java kula' because I'd been curious about it before but hadn't had the guts to spend money and try it for fear that I wouldn't be fond of it. But it was good! Went to the Manga Union meeting and finally started getting an idea for a short comic... where I might FINALLY get to use one of my oldest and favourite characters, who was created but never got properly put to use: Pyrite. Hirakata, Osaka: October 03, Friday From 9 to 10, I checked e-mail and vaguely studied Japanese From 10 to 11, I had my usual coffee with Huey, Ashley, Amy, and Robbie. Robbie's and Amy's friend showed up this time as well-- a cute, punky girl I'd seen around campus quite often but hadn't ever talked to. Class was okay. Learned some new grammar. Japanese class from 11 to 11:50 is my only Friday class, so I went home after it. Okaasan was supposed to take me to the bank so I could pay for my health insurance, but I guess she forgot because lo and behold, her friend came and drove us to Izumiya. O_o So I went shopping because I'm REALLY sick of wearing the same clothes all the time. Izumiya definitely was not cheap, but it wasn't expensive, either. I got a dress and a shirt, and even though Okaasan had said we weren't on a time crunch and to take as much time as I wanted, she seemed to be rushing me along, so I hurried up. Afterward, we went out to dinner with two of her friends. I was starting to feel a little out of sorts, but not much. Just enough to worry that I might get sick just before Takarazuka. The main problem wasn't a cold, though: it was that I'd switched bags to a lighter load for the excursion, and forgot to pack my inhaler. In the car, I was having the hardest time getting enough air, so I was feeling lightheaded and queasy, and I kept coughing. Just as it was starting to get bad, though, we arrived. I got out of the car and was able to get some fresh air. Hirakata, Osaka: October 04, Saturday Sometimes, I hate it when I'm right. I spent the day being sick. After waking up late, I finally hauled myself out of bed, feeling terrible. Okaasan and I went to Nagarebashi, a bridge in Yawata where some battle scenes were filmed-- I think it was in the assassin drama Orin, but it might have been for something else instead. We had udon, tenpura and tofu there-- all hot foods because my throat was so sore. Afterward, we got on a bus and went home. I think I spent most of the rest of the day doing homework because I know I did my Japanese assignment and wrote my paper for Cross-Cultural Psych, but I honestly can't remember anything. I was too out of it. Upon rereading the paper, however, it seems to be coherent. Presumably, at some point I ate dinner and went to bed. I can't remember. Oh-- I think I e-mailed Hester-sensei back and forth a few times on my cell phone, because the cell phones here have e-mail addresses. O_o Wonky. (Somehow, I ended up having regular exchanges with two of the instructors here. One is Reggie Pawle, my cross-cultural psych professor; we e-mail back and forth a couple of times a week, sometimes about the lessons and sometimes about other stuff. The other is Jeffry Hester, who teaches several of the gender studies courses and who allowed me to piggyback on their field trip to Takarazuka. Hirakata, Osaka: October 05, Sunday Miscellaneous back info: Takarazuka-shi (city) is located in Hyougo-ken (prefecture). The capital of Hyougo-ken is Koube, where Huey and I went for the Great Romance of the Three Kingdoms exhibition. The Takarazuka Revue was wonderful! I was still sick, but *SO* much better than I was on Saturday! I ended up missing the train I intended to take at Yawata (to Hirakata-shi) by about two minutes, so I was stressing about meeting everybody on time. I did get to Hirakata-shi a few minutes before the Tokkyuu (special express) arrived, fortunately. We rode around and had a few transfers before finally arriving-- yay!-- in Takarazuka. It was rainy, but that's okay-- I don't care. I'm a Portlander, after all. (More or less. I only actually lived in Portland for two years, but the Portland-Metropolitan area.) We were there an hour early (to account for any unexpected incidents that might have slowed us down otherwise.) This was good, as it gave us time to run around and eat lunch and visit the shops. I got a tin that features the star otokoyaku from each Takarazuka troupe, and inside the tin are individually wrapped chocolates that are super tasty. (According to my host parents. I gave them the chocolates as souvenirs, and kept the tin for myself. Okaasan doesn't like Takarazuka-- she says it's "kimochi warui." -.- I did keep a couple of the chocolates for myself to try but on account of my cold dimming my taste buds, I'm holding off for now.) I also bought the program as a memento of the specific showing that I went to. ♥ Then, we took our seats, and the show began. Our show was called "Paradise Prince," and performed by the Cosmos troupe. (Top otokoyaku: Yuuga Yamato, who was quite lovely indeed) It was a cute story about love and dreams, and had an amazingly Western philosophy for a collectivist society: it was all about pursuing your own dreams and grasping your fate by your own hands, even if it means going against what everybody else wants or expects of you. It was about two artists: Stuart Green Menfield and Katharine White, with antagonist Anthony Black. Anthony was lovely! Katharine bored me, as she was a really generic "good girl" and Stuart was fun-- spunky, cool, but sincere. (The main character, he was a very successful fine artist who had left the profession to finally try and pursue his own dream of working in animation.) Anthony was awesome, though. XD Stuart's art agent, he's not actually an evil person-- he's just willing to do whatever it takes, and go through anybody he has to, to bring Stuart back into the world of fine arts. He's very much a cool, dark, suave business tycoon, but I just loved a) how slick his actress was, and b) how he had people all over him all the time. (Of course.) Naturally, most of Anthony's admirers-- who he'd occasionally sing or dance with, as it was a musical-- were female, but there was one lacky in particular who was male. XD So it was always Anthony, and on one side of him a lovely woman, and on the other side of him a lovely man. There was one part in a song-and-dance routine where he does a little dance spin, leans down to where the woman is at his waist and kisses her, and then he does the same dance spin and leans back to the man behind him and kisses him. XD The audience was very amused. Anyway. It was a really cute show with a happy end. There was then a half-hour intermission, and then we went back for the rest of the performance. There are two aspects of the show that makes the Takarazuka particularly unique in Japan. One aspect is the all-female cast, in contrast to traditional all-male kabuki theatre. The other aspect is this part, after the intermission. So, you know those musical extravaganzas with sequined outfits and enormous feathers and the like? Lots of glitter and flair-- shimmering staircases, bright lights, top hats, masks, song and dance and such? That's the second half of the Takarazuka Revue. From a modern-day perspective, perhaps a bit over the top-- but unforgettably remarkable. It was absolutely gorgeous. To be honest, I don't always like the singing of otokoyaku, whether it's in the Takarazuka Revue or seiyuu. I think something about it just sounds kind of off-- forced and not quite there. But most of the time, I still like it anyway. (Ogata Megumi, yay! And Orikasa Ai is always cute...) After the show, I chatted with Hester-sensei and two of the other students a bit and headed home. As I was changing, Okaasan made me dinner-- which was a surprise because usually she just covers and sets aside whatever she and Otousan had for dinner. But I could see why this was a different case: she made me kimchee rice! Of course it was different from when mom makes it-- not as spicy, and the kimchee flavour wasn't as... strong? infiltrated? Um... something. It wasn't as... everywhere? But that's okay-- it was still very delicious, and I'm happy she made it. (The reason this is a "different case" is that although Otousan and I love kimchee, Okaasan doesn't. She doesn't like spicy things. She hates wasabi. XD) After dinner, I took a shower and went back upstairs to find that Hester-sensei had e-mailed me. O_o Checking to make sure I got home all right and enjoyed the show. ^_^ So I replied and went to sleep. Post a comment in response: |
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