Tag: friends

tuesday – tuesday – tuesday

Last night, I went to a dance social in Tokyo.  It was mostly friends and acquaintances, though plenty of other people I hadn’t known before the social last night.  However, they were all adults, which makes the following scenario worth telling (in my opinion, anyway).  As an important matter, know that I wore days-of-the-week underwear yesterday.  And, yes, they were for the correct current day of the week.

At the social, I happened to be wearing a pair of blue linen pants with a drawstring.  As such, they consistently slipped ever so slightly downward as I danced.  With my shirt being longer than the waistband of my pants, that normally would be no biggie.  However, seeing as this was west coast swing dancing, that means that my shirt regularly would get twisted or bunched up a bit, rising above the waist band of my pants for a couple or few seconds here and there.

Now, I normally am not opposed to such little glimpses of my midriff as my shirt-pants combination were displaying.  However, since my pants kept slipping downward, little by little, in combination with the shirt going upward now and then, this meant that the waistband of my underwear was also showing on a regular basis as I danced.  I guess I am not really opposed to this either, as they are nothing sultry, but I guess it is a bit of a social taboo when in certain company.  I digress…

I chuckled when I first noticed my peeping underwear waistband, because, do recall, I was wearing days-of-the-week underwear last night.  “See?” I thought, “I am just so dedicated to my job, that I am even teaching English after hours!”  For, every time my shirt went up, “Tuesday” was visible in clear block letters all the way around my hips.

I shared this thought with a few friends, and we all had a good laugh at the silliness of the situation – that I not only was wearing days-of-the-week underwear, but was unintentionally showing them off to everyone, and found a cute little joke around its happening.  One girlfriend commented, that it was a mighty fine and creative way to teach high schoolers English, removing clothing and showing the English off on parts of the body.  I replied how I could only imagine how much the boys would love learning English.  She then said that even she would be interested in seeing that lesson happen.  After all, who could resist such a unique lesson, boy or girl, man, woman, or +?  I know I’d want to see it, if something like that happened, because that’s just too ridiculous to pass up.  😛

 

Post-a-day 2017

Coincidental Acquaintances filling the Heart

I almost missed my trains home tonight, because I didn’t want to leave the people with whom I was.  I had only just met the majority of them tonight, and only passively, but I loved being with them.  You know the people who just seem to fill your heart, and make you wish for nothing but, perhaps, more time with them, for you are fully content in their presence?  That was my experience tonight.

I met these people at the dance event/social just a few hours ago, and only barely had the chance to talk with them during the social.  And yet, here I am, genuinely concerned (well, I was for a bit, anyway) that I might not make it home tonight, for I couldn’t seem to draw myself away from their presence as we stood outside the train station, just talking.  Well, we weren’t just talking, of course, but talking and laughing and joking and expressing joy and love with one another.  And that’s exactly the point, exactly the reason I felt myself magnetized to the little group of people who, except for the one couple, had only just met one another tonight.

It was beautiful, and has not left me wanting.  For now, for tonight, I am whole and complete, and utterly content, for I belonged with an ease I felt like I had forgotten, I was loved without hesitation, and my love was fully accepted.  🙂

❤ people who love
Post-a-day 2017

Empty Nest

Who knew one could get Empty Nest Syndrome in one’s 20s and without children?

My mom hasn’t even landed in the US yet, and I already feel the emptiness in the apartment.  Going slowly from solo to four in the apartment a few weeks ago was somehow so easy, it felt like I had always lived with at least a couple others in the apartment.  They then slowly trickled away, just as they had come, my mom staying about two weeks after the other two (and the rabbit – I’d forgotten about the rabbit.).

And today, with my apartment finally empty of everyone except for me, and my book being finished, I can’t seem to figure out what to do with myself.  And all I can think about is moving into a house or flat with a couple other girls, and occasionally having tea together in the living room, talking about life and boys and girls and everything there is….

…

But I still don’t know what my job is in this scenario, which is the only thing about it that gives me a lack of ease and shortness of breath right now.
Post-a-day 2017

Eclectically Musical

Tonight, I went with my mother to a friend’s band’s performance.  The night was filled with Japanese musicians playing Venezuelan music.  Some even sang in Spanish.  We listened, we danced, we clapped, we cheered, we played with Handicorn, our fun unicorn who travels with my mom, we listened to my friend whistle impressively, and we had an overall wonderful time.  I met four different friends at the venue, and I wasn’t really sure that any of them knew the others were coming (nor was I sure that they even knew one another).  I am just so wonderfully eclectic in my taste, I think, I regularly show up places to meet with friends whose only link is I.
Post-a-day 2017

Slumber Party

Last night, I had a slumber party with a few friends.  It was entirely unplanned, and utterly unexpected. I always keep very careful watch of the train schedules, but, after having checked what felt like a hundred times between only eight and nine-thirty pm (trains home end around midnight from where we were), I finally took a break from checking the time constantly.

And then, at about the same time, a friend got in touch about meeting up with us.  I suppose my brain then linked his arrival to shortly after when he got in touch about joining us – around 9pm.  When he actually arrived closer to 11pm, I had already taken to my breather from checking the time, and so had no idea of how late it actually was.  As we were having a blast in a karaoke bar, which I didn’t even know Japan had, he suddenly asked me when our last train was.  We had missed it by not quite ten or fifteen minutes.

So, the same friend casually offered a place to stay at his home, leaving us to experience a wonderful Japanese home – there was food in the kitchen, instruments strewn about the living room (and kitchen, actually), and living plants all around.  This friend happens to be part of a wonderful family, whose loving space is fabulous.

And in this fabulous living space we all slept.  Even my friend decided he didn’t want to stay in his own bedroom downstairs by himself, and so he joined our living room slumber party.  Two friends slept on futons on the floor.  The other friend, the one who lived there, and I slept above them in hammocks.  It was fabulously tree-fort-like.  And, in the morning, this morning, he made breakfast for us all.  Stupenda.
Post-a-day 2017

A slice of bread

Sometimes it really is the little things that count the most.  Today, I did some wonderfully awesome things.  I attended art class and mused over some amazing charcoal and pencil still-lifes coming to life; I taught traditionally silent and impassive kids to play charades, and to enjoy it; I played a bit of charades with some of those kids; I had lunch with a happy group of girls, while sitting barefoot in the wonderful and warm sunlight outdoors; I attended a master class on operatic vocal performance; I was given a private lesson in my first round of drawing with charcoal, and I did a decent job drawing; I had another personal lesson on how properly to put on a yukata and a kimono, and then did the yukata all by myself; I had tea and dinner with friends and acquaintances, and was given free amazing stuff to take home with me.

And yet, with all of that, the part f the day that stands out most to me, possibly as most fulfilling, even, was when I found myself spontaneously sitting on the floor with the two girls who had been teaching me to draw with charcoal, literally breaking bread together.  We were sitting and chatting and munching on a shared loaf of bread that we occasionally dipped in a bit of Bonne Mamman, enjoying ourselves completely.  We were silly and exhausted, and entirely content in one another’s company.  We knew we only had a short time for this little pause in the ever-forward movement of the day and its activities, and it was beautiful and blissful.  (And, funnily enough, it all happened, because the one girl had shown me her moldy bread earlier that she was using as a sort of eraser on her charcoal drawing, and I realized that I happened to have a fresh loaf of bread in my bag later on.)
Post-a-day 2017

Eggs and Trilingual Songs

While dying eggs for Easter tonight, my friend and I were listening to and singing along to various songs from various musicals.  For the most part, this was all in English.  However, when I decided that, judging the songs and musicals we’d had so far, it was time for a bit of Frozen, this all changed.

Frozen, you see, happens to be one musical that this friend doesn’t know too well in English, but really only knows in Japanese.  I, naturally, picked up all the words in English due to the extreme cultural love of the songs back in the US.  And, to make things more exciting, and to test our true knowledge of the songs, I happen only to have the soundtrack in French. (I know, I’m a special one.)

So, what does that all mean?  Well, it means that my friend and I had a grand ole time singing along in Japanese and English to a song in French, both of us laughing regularly as we did our best to focus on the words we knew that we knew, but seemed so incredibly difficult to get out.  I’m not sure that I have ever focused so much just to sing along to a song before tonight.  It was somewhat intense and absolutely delightful.  I’d totally do that again.  😀
Post-a-day 2017

Japanese Verlan

Tonight, I learned that Japanese has its own version of French’s verlan.  For those unaware, verlan is, for the most part, splitting a word in half, and then putting the second half first.  So, the word l’envers, splits to l’en and vers.  Keeping in mind the pronunciation of each part, you switch them to vers+len, and then alter spelling to keep the same sounds, giving you ver+lan, verlan.  Thus you have the word for backwards, l’envers, in verlan.  As I mentioned, I learned tonight that Japanese has its own version of this same concept.

The sentence I was given was the following:

I ate sushi with a woman in Roppongi.

Onna to roppongi de sushi wo tabetta.

That is the original, normal version. The slang version was then as follows:

Naon to ginroppon de shiisuu tabetta.

ナオンとギロッポンでシースー食った

The funny thing to me about this slang, is the users of it.  The friend who was informing me of this slang mentioned later that “[h]igh school students don’t say that.  Elder people may understand. Remember this.”  And so I have learned the slang of the current 30+-year-olds in Japan.  We think, anyway.  He told me to test it out, so I could see who understood it.  We’ll see how well that goes over – I had a fancy Japanese word to use at the hanami (Sakura-viewing picnic) this past weekend, and everyone just assumed a mishearing or misunderstanding had taken place on their side, because why would a foreigner know such a fancy word, hmm????  😛  But I think this one has better potential for fun.  🙂
Post-a-day 2017

Dating Mr. Perfect, or Being Perfect?

Today, I met someone who has lived so far what I consider to be an awesome life – one which I quite envy.  While the specific locations were different than my own desired locations, the situations all beautifully aligned with a growing-up that I at least want for my own children, since I didn’t have it for myself.

In an odd way, I was grateful to find that this person had a girlfriend, and so was unavailable for consideration.  Why is that, exactly? Well, a good chunk is the usual part of just wanting to be friends with an awesome person, without the hassle of dating potential getting in the way at any point, as is usual when meeting awesome guys. (for me, anyway)  However, upon further inquiry, I discovered within myself something surprising.  I wouldn’t want to date him, because he is so awesome.

See, as I was thinking about all of these things he has done and all of the accomplishments he has (and how there are likely plenty more of which I have currently heard nothing), I noticed that, if he were available, I wouldn’t actually want to date him.  With all of his awesome background and talents and such, I would feel so below him in a daring situation, so to speak.  As friends, I’m okay with his awesomeness.  But not in dating.

What’s with that, huh?

I have begun to see that, perhaps – just perhaps – I not only do not want to date someone superior to me, but I want to date someone to whom I feel superior.  If I were to date someone who had done all the awesome things I have done in my life, it would take away a huge portion of my pride from my uniqueness of experiences and talents.  Does that mean, then, that I am actually looking for someone to whom I look down, despite my conviction that I want to be able to respect my partner in a somewhat-looking-up-to sort of way?

This then leads me to a question of whether this 1) is something I actually want for my future partner, and 2) is playing a role in my having been unable to find someone.

I feel almost as if a whole section of my perspective and being has just been shattered, and sh**’s about to get real, you know?  It is time for some true and genuine reflection on an area of myself I never even understood to exist.  Yockers, this’ll be interesting, for sure!
Post-a-day 2017

A taste of my own medicine

At a beach in Okinawa one Sunday morning, I noticed a solo western culture guy arrive with a look of curiosity and interest in the various groups of people already at the beach.

A short while later, as I was playing down at the water’s edge with some of the guys (that is, some of the friends with whom I was at the beach), I noticed the same solo guy attempting to be casual quite near to us, though, in my eyes, totally trying to make contact with us somehow.

“You can talk to us,” I said, smiling.

“Huh?”

I repeated, we chuckled, and I asked his name.  I gave him my own first name, and brought him to the guys, sharing with them the fact that he, too, was Canadian (which I am not, but most of the guys are).

At the end of the beach hangout, I mostly was the only one who talked much with this guy, but I knew he was vacationing solo for a month+, and it was clear that the communication and interaction were appreciated on his end.  So, I learned a little bit about his educational background and aspirations, and told him how we were all in the JET Programme in the same prefecture as one another, and that I lived near Tokyo.  Beyond that, I told him almost nothing of myself.  Some impressions of living and working in Japan, yes, but no facts or figures about me and my life.

When we said our goodbyes, I wished him well on his travels and for his future.  We exchanged no contact information.

A few hours later, when I diddled with my Facebook, I saw that I had a friend request from him.

Wowzer.

Kind of freaky, right?  I checked with my group, and none of them had talked to him when I hadn’t been present, and none of them was friends with him on Facebook.

I was amazed at the feat.  Though, I suppose I could have been weirded out, it was only flattering to me, really.  How many times have I gone through what has sometimes been hours of researching, just to find someone (usually a guy) online?  People regularly tell me that I am a fabulous stalker (and that I fortunately use it for good, rather than evil), I am so good at it.  I meet a guy in a bar, having learned only his first name, and I can find him online, supposing he has some kind of Internet presence.  But that is also part of why I am so careful about what I share about myself with people I don’t know – so they don’t easily find me online , if I don’t want them to find me.

However, my skills of stalking and research led me quite quickly to a way this guy could have found me.  I won’t give away all my secrets, but it has to do with photos allowing you to tag locations on various social networks – I think he found me because of the photo I took at the beach, and then put online.  Clever, clever boy.  Or perhaps he was just lucky.  I still haven’t asked.  😛

But, I must say, it was, albeit a bit weird and freaky, quite exciting having a taste of my own medicine used on me – the stalker is stalked!  Sort of, anyway.  😛
Post-a-day 2017