Yesterday I went to my first real Hyper lesson. When I came in, Anna-san smiled and "Adrienne! Ohisashiburi!" Then Namio told the class that they had a new member, and a girl who was coming for a 'taiken nyugaku' (free trial lesson). He asked me to give a jiko shokai, and so I told everyone my name, and that I was studying for a year abroad in Tokyo. Anna-san told everyone that if my name was hard to say, they could call me 'A-chan' (Ei-chan). Anna-san gave me a nickname! Hee hee hee. She also told them that I had come from America to see Actor's in Okinawa too. She said, "This means that we're now an international class." The taiken nyugaku girl, who seemed to be friends with the 3 shorthaired highschool girls was named Aimi, and she was 15. Anna-san said, laughing at herself. "That's half my age....plus one year..."
Then we did exersizes. Anna-san said at the beginning of class that she couldn't turn her neck, so today she was going to be all talk. ('Watashi ha kubi ga mawaranai no de kyou ha kuchi bakari desu! (laughter) ). After the exersizes, we did 'Beat'. Anna-san explained what beat is for me and the other girl. "You just dance to the music however you want. Don't try to think about looking cool or dancing well, or anything like that; it'll just make you nervous. Just have fun, and get as wild and crazy as you can!" The song was some Latin beat, it was a good song to dance to, so I got into it. I decided that I didn't want to be embaressed or anything. And it was actually easier than I thought. I think it was combination of three things. 1) This isn't my own country, and you can always be bolder in another country. 2) I don't know anyone there, so I'm don't really care if they think I look like an idiot. And 3) Anna-san is there. She's so enthusiastic, and warm, and she always looks like she's having so much fun. Speaking of which, despite what she'd said at the beginning of class, she did dance. During the beat, she came and danced around people, and she came and danced around me, saying , "Ooho Sugoi!" I guess cuz I wasn't being embaressed or something. (Either that or I looked stupid. LOL) Then we did 'Onigokko Beat', which I had to have Anna-san explain. Namio tried to explain, but I don't know what Onigokko is, and he didn't know what it is in English. He asked Anna-san, and she said 'Tag.' She came over, and they acted it out for me, with Namio being It. Or, as Anna-san said, in her perfect American accented English, 'So, he's the It." (It was so cute! It's so strange when she makes grammatical mistakes like that, because she really does have an American accent just like you or I! ) So, basically, it's tag, but instead of running, you dance. Although, it actually turns out to be mostly skipping with all of us, since it's hard to run and dance at the same time. LOL. After that, we did...Battle! Yes....the infamous Battling of Actors! Namio and a girl in my group tried to explain it to me as fighting through dance, but then decided that I should just watch, and then I'd understand. You get into two groups, and one person from each group skips out into the middle of the floor where they meet up, and dance around and at each other, while everyone claps, and Anna-san counts out the time. It's hard to explain, but if you're good, it looks really cool. This is one of the things I saw B.B do during their lesson at Actors. I thought I'd be embaressed, and I might have been, but my partner was this older woman, so I wasn't really, and I just did my best,and even did a little spin. When I got back in the end of the line, the girl next to me said 'Sugoi'. Anna-san smiled and looked impressed, or taken aback, maybe because I wasn't being embaressed like I'd talked about in my letter to her, or maybe just because I looked like an idiot. LOL
Anyway, after that, we did the choreographed dance. Annn-san explained that it was for the concert in June, and that today we'd split into two groups. People who hadn't done the dance before, or weren't really sure of themselves, and wanted to learn it again from the top would go with her, and people who were confident that they were moving along well would go with Namio. At first most of the people stayed with Anna-san, I think because they thought that Namio was doing only the hard section of the dance, until Anna-san explained. Anna-san and Namio tried to get more people to move to Namio's group. Anna-san asked the 3 short haired sporty girls "You guys know it well, don't you?" Namio said, 'Who do you like more, me or Anna-san!?" A little boy was over in Namio's group, and Anna-san tried to get him to come over to the easy group, saying, 'Don't you like me?' Finally his mother came and pushed him into Anna-san's group. LOL. (Just as an aside, I was suprised by the little exchange above, because it reminded me of Yuki-san's book, but I guess it didn't bother Anna-san herself.)
Then Anna-san taught us the dance. There's one part where you have to clasp hands with a partner, and then you spin and switch places, and my partner was this girl with short reddish hair named Midoriko. I couldn't get the feet right, so Anna-san came over and helped me. That's my biggest problem, I think, remember if I'm supposed to be doing things to the right, or the left, and with the right foot, or the left. ^^;
It all looks so easy when Anna-san does it. Although, I guess for Anna-san, it is easy. LOL
At one point, when we were running through the dance, it hit me. 'I'm here, dancing, and up there teaching me is Anna-san. I'm in a dance class being taught by Anna-san. This is what I've dreamed about for so long, and it's actually happening!' It was kind of a surreal moment.
Then we switched places, and did it to the music. It's much easier to dance with the music, even though I kept forgetting steps and whatnot. LOL. After that we did cool down, led by Namio.
Oh, during class I talked to some women in their late 20's/ early 30's who had friends in Boston.
At the end of class, Anna-san announced that since it was Valentine's Day, she had chocolate for everyone, from one of the women in the class. The woman, smiling and embaressed, kept saying, 'It's from Anna-san'.
After class, I went over to Anna-san and gave her my form, and payed the money for 5 tickets ( = 5 lessons)
I thanked her for answering my letter, and she said, 'iie, iie.' I told her how I'd never thought she'd answer, because she's so busy, and that I was so happy when she did. She smiled and said 'Tondemo nai desu'. ('Don't mention it.') She asked if it was really ok to call me 'A-chan', and I said I didn't mind, and that my parents called me 'A'. She laughed. Namio asked how old I was. When I told him 21 he was suprised that I was younger than him. I asked him how old he was, and he said '22'. I was suprised! He seems so much older. He asked me when I had gone to Actor's, and Anna-san and I said 'Last year.' He said something I didn't quite get, and I said that I'd just gone to check it out.
Then I waited for a moment until I had Anna-san's attention (who was busily doing paperwork/money kind of stuff). Namio said, 'Anna-san, she's waiting again.'
I said, 'I think the day after tomorrow is Maiko-san's birthday, isn't it? Could you tell her Happy Birthday for me?' I guess I was being kinda quiet, cuz Anna-san said, 'E?', and so I repeated. 'Could you tell her Happy Birthday for me?' Anna-san looked faintly suprised, but said she would. Namio asked how I knew it was Maiko-san's birthday. I told him a friend had told me (Anzu-san). Then I left, saying 'Bye-bye!' loud enough to get both Namio and Anna-san's attention. They smiled, and said goodbye. The other students still there said 'Otsukaresama!' and I said it back.
Then I rode the free bus back with Midoriko, and I talked to her a little, because we rode the subway together (her stop is one before mine (Shin-yokohama). ) She said that Anna-san was a lot of fun. She has been in Hyper for a long time, and she goes to every class. Like, if there's one one Fri, Sat, and Sun, she goes everyday. Because she said we have to recital in June, so she has to learn the dance. There's a lesson today, at 3:30-4:30. But I think I may go to the one tomorrow, at 8:30-9:30, because it's in Shibuya, which is way closer than Yokohama.
All in all it was a really fun lesson. I had a really good time. It was tiring, but it was a lot of fun!
The only bad thing was that I began to worry that Anna-san might think that I'd just written that letter to get her attention, or something, or that she thought I was some weird stalker girl, or was in some way wary of me, or not like me. There wasn't particulary and reason to feel this way though. Even going home, when I tried to figure out why I felt that way, I couldn't. I don't think that it's really grounded in fact. I think it's just because I want her to like me so much. I think that the more you like someone, and want them to like you, the more sensitive you are to tiny things that mostly likely don't mean anything. And I want her to like me so much. So it scares me to think that I might have weirded her out, or pushed her away somehow. Which is actually quite an understatement. The whole last night, and even this morning, it's been obsessing me, pressing down on me, choking me, strangling me. I have to go to class tomorrow, and make sure that it's all in my imagination. I have to. I can't wait another week.