Yesterday Anna-san had her hair down for the first time. I think this was the first time I'd seen her with her hair down, except for in pictures. It just reaches her shoulders, and flips up at the ends. She looks very pretty with her hair down, even more than with it up. She also looks younger, which is actually saying a bit, because in general I think she looks younger than 31 anyway. So with her hair down, maybe she looks about 24. It also moved around while she danced, with was cool looking. She also wore a t-shirt for the first time. It was also black. So far she's worn black every lesson, although actually for two lessons she wore the same clothes, and I think her pants were the same, so it might just be that she only has a few sets of dance clothes. But I wonder if she wears black all the time,like Makino-sensei does. LOL
I saw Namio-san coming out of the bathroom (I think, or maybe buying water) and I said 'Konnichiha', but he just kinda smiled a little. Then it turned out that he couldn't move anymore, because he was sick (I think he was constipated, or something). So only Anna-san (who smiled brightly at me as always when I came in) taught us. (Namio returned at the end of the lesson, sitting on the floor, and looking quite miserable. I asked him if he was ok, but he just kind of nodded, and gave a tiny pathetic smile. Poor Namio-san.) After exercises (I realized that the ones we did on Sunday were slightly abbrieviated, BTW, also only Anna-san could look as cool (and sexy, and cute, which I think was due to her hair being down) doing exercises... ) After exercises, Anna-san said that we would go right into dancing today, because if we didn't work on 'Seigi no Mikata', we were going to get too behind. So we started to work on the first dance, the name of which I'm not sure. All I know is that the first line of the song is 'Mind over matter!' LOL The light group was basically me, Midoriko-san and this other girl who is really nice, who's name I don't know. So we all tried to do the light part, and didn't really know what we were doing, exchanging many sighs of 'wakaranai!' and 'muzukashii!'. LOL Eventually Anna-san had a lead student help lead the hard part, and came over to teach us the second part of our dance, which no one was clear on, especially me, having not really have learned it yet. ^^; So we ran through the dance a couple times with Anna-san. Midoriko complained that she couldn't do it, and Anna-san told her, as she had told me, 'That's because it's not in your body yet. Don't worry, you've got until June.' We had a few breaks in between, and us easy trio practiced a bunch during the breaks too. Sometimes while I was practicing, I'd see Anna-san, who would smile at me, and then I'd get self concious because I was pretty unsure of the steps. I really don't want to be the one that sucks the most. ^^;;
After we did the dance a couple times with the music, all together, we moved on to the mysterious Seigi no Mikata. 'Seigi no Mikata', turned out to be another dance, to a song by SMAP. (This is the first time I've heard a Japanese song at Hyper so far). The dance is very cute, with a lot of gestures going a long with the lyrics, and old style moves that Anna-san explained as 'old idol' moves, and then laughed and said that she guessed people in their 10's and 20's wouldn't know them. I personally thought the dance was kind of corny and dorky, but it actually fits the song really well, because the song is kind of that way. It's very nostalgic, about a boy at school, who wanted a 'seigi no mikata' (champion of justice.). It's a cute song though, and I guess a cute dance. However, I can say with confidence that Anna-san is the *only* person in the world who could ever make this dance look cool! LOL It was actually a lot of fun though. Anna-san also mentioned Maiko for the first time in class, because I guess at the end of the dance Maiko and Namio are there in the middle.
At the end I talked to some the women in their late 30's, and they explained to me about Free Time, which is when you got together with your group and practiced. They also said something about picking a song you all liked. I don't really know anythign about that, having not been assigned a group. Today I saw a sign-up sheet for the recital ('live') in June though, so I think it may have something to do with the fact that I have not signed up. They said to ask Anna-san about Free Time, so I did. (She was getting ready to leave. I think we actually ran over time alittle yesterday.) She explained that it was time when they had rented out a space and you could go, without instructors, and practice, for example, if you'd made a plan to meet and practice with people.
Then I went back to the locker room, where I'd put my stuff for the first time, and everyone was changing. This si the first time it occured to me that most people come in their regular clothes, and then change into their dance stuff there. I just go already in my dance stuff, and it never occured to me to do otherwise. ^^;
Not that I'd have time to anyways, what with the train schedule being what it is, I always get there exactly as class starts. So I got my stuff, and as I was leaving the locker room, Anna-san came in, and smiled at me. 'Otsukare-sama!' I said it back to her, and then left, slaming the door open by accident. ^^;; I think Anna-san must change in the locker room too. We must have run over a bunch, because usually she seems to stay much later than the students. I will admit that I kind of wished I could stay, in case she changed, but of course I couldn't and didn't. I'm going say in my defense though, that it wasn't a sexual thing! It was a pure, 'Anna-san's body is so pretty in clothes, I bet it's even more beautiful out of them.' kind of thing. ^^;;;;
But of course I could never change in the same room with Anna-san, because I would so look. And then I'd feel bad, because I don't know if this is a respectful thing to think about your teacher, especially Anna-san who is so nice and lovely.

 
My cross-cultural finding of the day: Mailman suck in all countries. Namie's fanclub is doing another (final) fan-club only release of her concert DVD from 2001, so today I had Okaasan call to find out how to order it for me. When she called, at first they told her that they didn't have me listed. It turns out that they send me my stuff for both MAX and Namie's fan clubs, but because I forgot to put 'care of Mutai' on the address, the mailman said that no one of that name lived at the address, and the stuff was shipped back to the Fan Club. Which I would never have known if Okaasan hadn't called. I would have been waiting for my stuff (which I should already have if not for the sucky mailman - just leave the damn package dude!) forever! What were they gonna due with my $100 I paid to join!!! They should have called the phone number! Anyway, Okaasan sent the money and an order form for me, and told the fan club to sent the Namie and MAX stuff again. *sigh* Thank goodness I had her call...

 
Yesterday I was about 10 minutes late for my Hyper Class, because I couldn't figure out how to get to the fourth floor. (Only the center of the building went to the forth floor, the other part only went to the 2nd floor). When I finally found the room, they had already started and there was all these lights and a video camera filming, so I wasn't sure when I should go in.I finally entered the room when they finished the exercises. Anna-san and Namio-san looked pleasantly surprised. I didn't see Midoriko, so I asked Anna-san if she was here. Anna-san said she had said she was coming, but she hadn't. I explained that she had told me about the lesson, and apologized apologized profusely for being late, explaining that I had gotten lost. Anna-san took me to the side, and told me that I'd have to do exercises alone because I'd missed them. I thought that she meant I would have to just make them up on my own, but she actually lead me in them. So I got to do exercises wiht just Anna-san, only about 3 feet away from her. She had to correct me on the swivling hips part, cuz I was swiveling my upper body, but... ^^;;
I asked her what they were filming, and she said one of the students father's was filming it, because it was his hobby. I said 'Wow', and she laughed and said, 'Honkaku-teki desho?'. It was neat to do exersizes so close to her. She really is very pretty, and so alive. Today I thought she was sexy for the first time. I mean, I love Anna-san, but I don't associate her with sex. But doing the stretches, I could see it. I also thought again to that she has a really nice body. And I really don't mean that in a sexual way. It's just really beautiful. These thoughts, btw, where brought on by how prettily hourglass shaped her figure is, from her shoulders (back) to her waist. By the way, she is really thin. She's thinner than I am, I think. But she's also quite a bit shorter than I am. I'd sya she's probably 5'2 or 5'3 maybe.
Anway, then we went over to the side. She explained that the rest of the class (there were only about 5 people today) were doing the hard part of the dance, so she would teach just me the easy part. So I basically had a private dance lesson with Anna-san!! She taught me slowly, step by step, speaking in both Japanese ('migi, hidari! ') and English (Kick with your left foot.') She helped me with just the feet first, and then the arms. When I got embaressed or something over something, she explained 'You can just do it slowly at first. The dance steps aren't inside your body yet, so you have to think about them alot, don't you? Once they're in your body, you'll be able to go faster.' When I did things right, or remembered steps, she said, 'Ok!!', and 'Sugoi!' and stuff with a big smile. She told me, 'With most people, we start from just moving around and that kind of thing, before we go into the actually dancing, but you have to start right off from the dancing, so I think it's amazing. (Sugoi to omou yo).' After practicing with me a lot, she made me do it on my own a couple times. And when I got it all right, she high fived me. There was one part where you have to move your arms in a clock like motion, with the right going up and the left going down, but I kept doing them both going up, so she took my hands and showed me. The real move has you lock arms with the person next to you, and one time when we did it, she accidently hit me in the forehead. Everyone laughed, and we both laughed and she apologized purfusely, still laughing.
In the middle we took a break, and we talked. She asked me where I lived. I thought she meant in the US so I said Boston, but then she clarified 'now.' So I explained that I lived in Itabashi-ku with a host family, but I would move into the dorm in April. I explained to her about ryugaku program. She asked me when I'd come, and I said in January, and told her that my birthday had been the 29th, and it had been my first birthday in a foreign country. She asked if my parents had been with me. I said no, and she asked if I had been lonely. I said no, because I went Karaoke with a friend. She asked if it was a friend from boston. I said no, and she asked if I already had friends in Japan, and I explained about how I'd gone to Bunkyo for 3 months in between college and high school. She asked how I liked Japan, and I said it was a lot of fun, and it was nice to be in a big city. I told her baout how I didn't have many classes, and had lots of free time, and explained how I hated kanji, and how huge the difference between what i could read and what I could write was. She said that Japanese people also have a big difference between that. I explained about how Kou had come to my house for Christmas. She said she rememebered him saying he'd gone abroad. I explained how he'd said he was coming to the US but didn't have a place to stay, and she kinda of half laughed and shook her head and said, 'Uzuuzushii nee'. So I explained how he'd come to my house for Christmas. She asked what he'd come to the US for, and I said he'd mentioned going to a dance class. She asked what I wanted to be when I graduated, a teacher? And I said I wasn't sure, but that I had thought about being a translator. She asked, what about Okinawa? Wasn't there talk of you going there, to Dream Planet? And I explained that my parents had said I couldn't go until after graduation. And she said, so you may go then? And I said that I wasn't sure. I was really surpised that she brought up Okinawa, and Dream Planet, and that she seemed to think it was an ok idea if I went.
The the heavy group danced for awhile. Anna-san explained about how there was a heavy dance, a middle dance and a light dance, and that people could chose which dance they wanted to do, because in Hyper (when whe was talking to me, she pronounced all the English words in English, like HYPER de ha, instead of Hai-pa- de ha). I said that I really like Hyper, and explained that in the dance class I'd taken in Elementary School it'd been mostly my classmates from school, and so I'd really compared myself to them and stuff. She nodded understandingly, and said, 'There's no point in dance if it's not fun, is there? So, shall we?' And we continued to practice.
Later we did the dance with the whole group. Anna-san introduced me to a girl (in English) saying, 'Her name is Tomoko. She's an English teacher, and she living in NY, so she can speak English too.' She also explained that Namio was from Actor's. (So I guess he's one of the other people who, like Maiko, chose Anna-san). After Namio was done dancing at one point, Anna-san said to him, hald laughing, half scolding 'Right now, you're only dancing for yourself, aren't? You're not dancing for other people. You're completely danicng for yourself. Normally, you'd try to slow the dance down, and dance so the students could understand what you're doing.... '
Anna-san also beckoned me up the front of the room to explain that I was supposed to move down, etc, and she called me 'A-chan.' (She called me Adrienne most (all?) of the other times though.) She and Tomoko tried to teach Namio how to say the R sound for 'Free', with Anna-san going 'Frrrrr....' and Namio trying )and failing) to copy her. It was cute. It really hit me today that Anna-san is really bilingual.
Then we did the dance with the whole group, and the music for a couple times. Anna-san and Namio figured out the spacing and what not, and Anna-san explained where to go to everyone.
After the dancing was done, we all clapped and stuff. Then Namio lead the cool down. (Anna-san explained to me that we were cooling down.) Namio said the dance had been hard on people's legs, so we would do mostly leg stretches, which were 'itai-kei'. (painful-type) Anna-san laughed and said 'Kei wa iranai...' (You don't need to add the 'type'.) During one stretch where we had to grab our knee with our legs, and balence without our hands, Anna-san half fell over, and laughed.
I gave her my picture, and she said they'd make it into a card and give it to me next class. They were all cleaning, and Namio mentioned how no one ever cleaned, so I asked if I was supposed to clean. They explained he meant the people who used the room before us, and Anna-san laughed, asking if I had thought Namio was mad at me, because of how he'd said it. Then I said good bye, and they all said good bye and I left.
At first I wished I hadn't come, when I couldn't figure out how to get into the room, and I didn' want to disturb them,a nd I thought tha they were filming somehting important and I wasn't supposed to have come. But I'm so glad I did! Because it was once in alifetime experience, I think! The situation jus thappened to be how it was, so I got to basically have a private lesson with Anna-san!! Not only that, but I got to talk to her about a bunch of things, and have her know me a little more. She really is so nice! So wondeful! I love Anna-san! It was so special!