Yesterday I was about 20 minutes late for class, because my train came 15 minutes late. it was also raining and freezing cold and the wind was so strong I had to hold my umbrella in front of my face like a shield so the unbrella wouldn't get blown inside out. LOL When I finally got there, it was break. Ai-chan and Marylin came up and said 'A-chan hisashiburi!' and high fived me. Tomoko-san lent me the Fun Factory CD so I can tape House of Love. Atsushi (who I thought was Kou for a wild moment) and Yuuta came back and apparently they are going to be in the live with us. Once again I was suprised at how beautiful Anna-san looked today. Her hair was especially brown and shiny. She explained that we would now have 15 minutes to work on our group dances. People that at the moment didn't have group dances, 'like A-chan' could take the time to work on House of Love. So Anna-san led me over to work with Maiko-san. So Maiko-san taught me the House of love dance, one on one. Maiko-san was so cute, singing as she ran through the steps with me. First we did it side by side, but then she moved in front of me like a mirror. She would sometimes say things in her cute little Maiko-san accented English, like '(Are you) Okay?', and teaching me in cute English where I had to correct her 'before?' (mae) to 'in front' and whatnot. She was so cute and understanding, and comforting. When I got things right she's give me high fives, and hugged me from the side at one point when I got overwhelmed by my unability to do a particular step. There's one part where we have to wave one hand back and forth, and she said to me, 'I know that you've got you're wits full trying to remember the steps, but you're really really stiff right now.' (A-chan, furi wo oboeru no ni sei ippai no ha watteru kedo ima sugoku katakunatteru) and showed me how I was doing it. I laughed and promised to ganbaru. During this whole time they were playing MAX's Feel So Right, because one group is dancing to it, and it made it hard for me to concentrate. LOL Then the 15 minutes were over, and Anna-san announced that we would run through the opening, Run DMC and House of Love. I didn't know the openning which we apparently did in the 20 minutes I had missed. So Maiko-san told me to just watch, and she put her arm around my waist for a moment. The openning song is a pumped up version of 'Hey Mickey'. Anna-san stood in the middle and did her MCing (Welcome to the first Love Junx live! etc). Then she introduced Atsushi, Yuuta and Maiko-san who ran out and did cool things. Atsushi and Yuuta did flips and break dance type things and whatnot, and Maiko-san danced (complete with her really sexy body roll, run hands down her body thing which I rememeber from Okinawa. It fit the song perfectly). Then the hyper class was all introduced, and danced around. Then when it was over, I realized that Anna-san was introducing the Run DMC song so I ran out into my place, hurriedly, and Momo-chan laughed at me. We ran through the dances. During House of Love, Maikos0an told me I could just do the parts that we had gone over,so I did. The whole runthrough left me with a huge sense that i had to do better and not just be a bother to everyone. else. Then we did a cool-down, and class was over. I brought my tape over to Anna-san, and waited while she and Maiko-san and Yuuta talked about some meeting they had had which Maiko-san had missed or something. When I asked Anna-san about the Run DMC song, she said that she forgets what the title is. LOL But she gladly said she was would make me a copy of it when I asked her to. I think Maiko-san might be singing at our live. Maybe that's just wishful thinking, but they did mention somehting about Maiko-san's 'part'. So I hope so. When I left, some girl who's name I don't know offered to walk back with me, but then she forgot her card, so she told me to go ahead. As I was leaving, I heard someone calling 'A-chan!'. It was the two obasans, who wwrre hanging over the railing of the 2nd floor, and asked me if I was in a hurry. I was, because Okasan had told me to come home as quickly as I could, because we were going out for yaki-niku for dinner. So I said I was, and apologized.
The lesson seemed very short, because I missed 20 minutes of it. LOL But it also gave me a sense that June isn't actually all that far away.... I have to work as hard as I can....

 
At the moment I am slightly deaf out of one ear. LOL. This is because I was in the second row at Livy's little live show, and the speakers were reallyt close to me. Also, Livy's current music is all hard rock kind of stuff with tons of bass, and screaming and whatnot. Livy was so cute. She's really tiny, maybe as tiny as Namie. She had her hair, which is reddish brown now, in two high pigtails which curved cutely, and her bangs swept to one side. She had tons of smugey black eye shadow all around her eyes, like she had black eyes or something. LOL She wore a black negligee type dress, which had a puffy lace skirt, with white lace peakign out from the hem, and a black satin bra which you could see a lot of because the top of the dress was a bit big. On her right arm was a star drawn in black marker, and a spiky black leather arm-band. She came out holding a piece of cloth with ' save the animals' written on it in black marker.' The first song was 'dress me up'. It was really rock like, with her yelling instead of sing for some parts. For example, she'd sing part and then scream the rest. Ex. ' Why aren't you give me A CHANCE!! why are you being so DAMN CRUDE!' And you could tell she was reaching on the high notes. Other songs she sang were 'mint' (the 'they're coming to get me...' one),'sea me', and 'solarhalfbreed'. She sang about two songs I didn't know that might have been covers, and her new song, which doesn't have a title yet, but says something like 'the devil's in me'. It was hard to understand the words, because of all the scream-singing. During the instrumental parts she would dance around almost Beat like, and do strange stumbling movements. She looked like a manic pixie or something. She's so free and alive and confident in who she is, and so natural and crazy-insane. She was very cute when she taked during the MCs, in Japanese, with some English mixed in. Her first MC was about zoos, and how she is against them, and she asked us to free one animal everytime we go to the zoo. She said that she went and freed one the other day. 'I took him from the orangutan cage' she said, pointing to her guitarist. LOL. She told us that she would have another mini-album out in summer, with all new songs. She also said she has anouther live event next week, but she wasn't sure if she was supposed to be telling us. She asked us all to please come, because without us, she can't do anything. (anata-tachi ga inai to watashi ha nanimo dekinai).
When she came out for the encore, her band didn't come with her. She looked around, confused and unsure of what to do, laughing a little. 'Watashi no band ha doko desu ka?' she called into the wings. When no one came out, she yelled in english, 'HEY! GET YOUR FRICKIN' ASSES OUT HERE!' LOL then they came out. Her younger brother plays guitar, his name is Jeff.
I have to say, as cool a person as I think Olivia is, I don't know if I'll buy her new album. Because I really don't liek hard rock music. For the most part the music all soudned the same, just head banging stuff, and like I said, she more screamed than sang. If this is the kind of music she wants to do now, then that's great and more power to her. But I think it's a shame, because she has such a BEAUTIFUL voice. It's so pure and clear and crystalline, and she can sing such beautiful high notes. And I'm afraid that with all this yelling and belting out, she'll ruin her voice.

 
Yesterday I moved into the dorm, Senshin Dormitory. It is very pink. The building itself is made out of pink stucco, and the curtains and sheets and whatnot are pink too. It's all a very pale, almost peachy pink though. . My room is number 206. Outside the window is a huge cherry tree, and it's wide spreading branches fill my whole two windows. On one side the blossoms are so close that if I reached out my arm out of the window, I might be able to just barely touch them. The rooms are really spacious, because all the rooms in this dorm were originally doubles, and are now used as singles. They still have two sets of furnitures in them: two beds, two desks, two wardrobes. It took me a while to figure out how I should move everything. On one wall there is a really strange set of cabinets. The cabinets are huge, and supported by legs. On the other wall is a bookshelf.I pushed the desks together in front of the window, and pushed the wardrobes up against the corner of the left wall, by the windows. The beds are one on either side of the room, up against the wall.
It was quite a job for Okasan and me to get my suitcases down from the third floor to the first, and when we had got them down, the taxi arrived. Okasan held my hand, and said she would miss me so much. I'll miss them too. But I'm going to visit them on Friday, after Olivia's concert. My taxi was driven by ' Jun-chan', as Haru-chan calls him, who is the driver who drives her to school sometimes, and the one who drove us to Haru-chan's music night. So I chatted with him. When I got to school Buri-chan and Kara were there, and they and two other girls helped me move my stuff in. Then we went on a trek to the 100 yen shop in Ikebukuro, where we bought stuff for our rooms.
When we got back to school, about 3 hours later, we had dinner, which was niku-jaga It was good. They leave your food out for you and then you reheat it in microwave, and when you're done, you wash it and put it away. There is a big (well, long) tv that everyone watches during dinner. There are also bout 5 lap-top computers connected to the internet. They are very slow. But they said that you can connect your own laptop there if you want, so I may try that. Then we (including Eileen and the other ryugakusei who just came yesterday, EZ Hyung from Korea) had a meeting with the woman who's like the dorm mother, and the leaders of the 2nd and 3rd/Dorm and 4th floor leaders, who are Ikue, -------, and ------. Ok, so I only remember our floor leaders name. They are students like us. Around 11 we had a meeting with just our second floor people. We have Ikue, Yukko, Ai, Mari, Rieko, Tsucchi, Nito, Aspy, and Masami. I may be fogetting one girl. And today 6 first years will move in. Everyone seems very nice.
Then I went to bed.

This is when the strange thing happened. At about 1 AM, my keitai rang. I picked it up, and it was this guy. At first I thought it was Ko, but then he wouldn't say his name, just 'boku'., and started asking me about 'ecchi'. It turned out that he was this Osakan dude named Hiroaki, and he thought he was calling Ayumi. I explained he had the wrong number. For some reason, maybe because it was really late at night and I was half asleep, and maybe because I was lonely and it was nice to talk to someone, and he had a nice voice, I ended up talking to him for quite a bit. And somehow the phone call turned into phone sex. Well, sort of. Because I wasn't doing anything, or even saying much of anything, just agreeing with what he said. (I did learn that even guys say 'ittemo ii'.) Then he hung up, saying he would call again sometime. It was all very strange. Because I have no idea who he was. And while I feel bad about it now, and it makes me feel yucky, and vaguely like 'I'm not a phone sex worker!', and whatnot, at the time it didn't occur to me to hang up. I mean, I was only really half listening, and most of what I said was some variation of 'hai', or 'wakatta'. LOL But still. Now I wish I'd hung up on him. I mean, he was perfectly nice, and yet...what kind of guy randomly does that while on the phone with some random girl? I kind of had a feeling he would have done that no matter who he was talking to. I mean, because he seemed to have been leading the conversation in that direction when he thought I was Ayumi too. *sigh* I just feel rather used, and like it didn't matter if I has said anything or anything, because he was just talking for himself,and it didn't matter who was on the other line. Plus, my only other experiences of phone sex, Real phone sex, were with Yuna, and were something that happened because at the we were quite in love,and it was all tat we could do, because of the whole long-distance thing., so it was something really special. Of course, I guess you couldn't even compare this,because it really was just him doing stuff, and me asserting the appropriate affirmative comments. It was all quite surreal. But I think if he ever calls again, which hopefully he won't and I will tell him not to call me again, and to call a telephone sex hotline. God knows they have enough of them in Japan. Because another thing is, especially now that I'm in Japan, the phone is really important, as a connection to everyone.And on the whole the whole thing just makes me feel yucky and gross, and used, and vaguely slutty. And that's my confession for today. *sigh* I guess I should never have permiscuous sex. Not that I was planning to, but if just this made me feel so icky and whatnot, and I didn't even *do* anything, I can't imagine how it would mess with me if I actually had physical sex with some random person. LOL

This morning we had to get up at 8 for Souji. I was in Rieko's group and we cleaned the stairs. We have souji at 8 AM every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. *sigh*

But other than the strange experience last night, and having to get up at 8 AM, it was a good day. I think dorm life will be fun.

Also, I think I will decide not to do sexual things of any nature with men. Because I always end up feeling gross, and used and submissive and vaguely slutty. Not that I actually have done that many things with men . But what I have. I think it's because I don't care about them. Also because even if I'm doing something, I'm very passive and not into it at all. I just don't care about them at all, and don't want to do things to (because it's more of a to than a with) them, and yet I do for some reason. But there's no connection, and I get nothing out of it, which makes me feel depressed and slutty. So I will just no do things anymore.
Not that I've ever done things with women I didn't care about like that, but somehow I think it might be different. Because I think I would care more. Or at least I would be enthusiastic and want to be doing what we were doing,and it wouldn't just be an obligation kind of thing.Lately I've noticed I'm quite hypocritical when it comes to things concerning woman vs. men. But I guess I can't help it. And maybe it's not really being hypocritical, maybe I just don't really like men that much and so I have a really different tolerance of what I would do/ like/could accept from them.

 
Today I move into the dorms. However I am strangely in a good mood. It's another beautiful day, and in a little while I'm going to go and pick up my pictures and go to Seven Eleven to buy the new Popteen. The new neighbors stopped by to give an aisatsu, akthough i was the only one home. I got an e-mail from Kou, who is coming home (?) to Tokyo for his spring break. I asked him to bring the Yokohama concert video, but he didn't mention it in his reply, so he probably will forget like he did when he came to N.Y. Oh well, it will be fun to see him. Maybe we can go karaoke. I haven't heard back from Anna-san about the title of the Run DMC song, but then again it's only been a day since I sent the e-mail. Anzu-san has updated maichin.com with new pics of Maiko-san, and a new song in the music section. Everyone go listen to it! I myself have to find a computer that has sound first. Otosan's sound is broken, and the computers at the computer lab at school are set so they don't have sound. LOL
I'm almost completely done packing. Okasan was sad to see my stuff was gone from the bathroom, and was very happy for me to leave my shampoo here, because she said 'Then it will feel like you're always here.' It makes me so happy that Okasan and Otosan and Haru-chan are all as sad for me to move into the dorm as I am to leave them. But I will come and see them often, for example, this Friday night, because I don't think that I will get home from Olivia's concert (woo hoo!!) in time for the curfew at the dorms. Spekaing of concerts, I just applied for a ticket for a globe concert in Tokyo Dome this July. Yay Keiko-san! Yay Marc! Yay TK! Oh, and yay Yoshiki-san! (although i don't really see what his point is, because he only wrote one song on their new album).
P.S the computers here have sound! So I could listen to my Maiko-san! It's a very nice song! It's really simple and pretty and her voice sounds very clear and pure. It's a different sound that her usual strong voice, but it's still beautiful!
Oh, the URL is http://www.maichin.com/2003music.htm

 

Outside the window where my desk is, I can see a sakura tree over the roof and satellite dish of the house next to this one. It's really beautiful, pale pink, and fluffy with all the hundreds of blossoms on it. The weather today is absolutely gorgeous. The sky is blue, and there's a light spring breeze, and it's deliciously warm. It's one of those days when just stepping outside makes you glad to be alive. It just feels so good.
However, I at the moment am not outside, and while I'm still glad to be alive, I'm feel a bit lonely and out of sorts. I'm writing this during a break from packing up my room. I always hate packing, because it's so depressing, especially packing up your whole room like this. Technically I'm not packing up the whole room, because I'm leaving some stuff, my heavier sweaters, the manga I've already read, the knick-knacks that have accumulated in my drawers; But it's still close enough.
I know that I'll have fun in the dorms, because all of the ryugakusei except Caroline and Aileen will be there, and also I'm sure I'll make a bunch of Japanese friends, but at the moment the assurence that things will eventually be fun isn't enough. I can't help remembering how damn lonely dorm life can be sometimes, sitting alone in your room with only your brooding thoughts. And that even happens at MHC, where I have all my wonderful friends, who save me from my blueness if I can just go out of my room and find them.
At the moment I'm perfectly settled in and comfortable and happy at my host family's ; By now we know each other's schedules, and whatnot and it's so nice to come home to all of their familiar faces. It's so nice to at least have a family and a house in this country, it really is. They don't seem to want me to go either, Okaasan and Haru-chan keep telling me to come home all the time ('even everyday!' LOL). So that's really nice.
I'm not sure how I feel about the timing of it all, that we have to move into the dorms right before we have to deal with all the stress of classes, especially classes all in Japanese. But I guess it can't be helped. And at least the other ryugakuse will be there. I guess I have something over Buri-chan at least, she's never lived in a dorm, so that will be completely new for her. But then she seems ready not to live at her host families all the time.

Switching topics and subjects, then there's her news this morning. Her first kiss. (I want to state for the record that I totally didn't French kiss my first kiss. My how times are changing. I feel old.) Not only that, but now she's 'kind of' going out. And she might be 'almost in love'. I'm not really suprised about who the other person is. I mean, I guess I could have seen it coming from what I know of them, from e-mails and stories that she's told me about. I'm also not suprised that she doesn't feel as strongly.
I'm also not surprised about how the news effected me. About the fact that it's messing with me. Because I remember wondering many years back how I would feel if/when she finally found someone she liked, and started going out. (Of course, then I had always imagined it would be a boyfriend, but there you go.)
I'm not even sure what my own feelings are, in regards to all of it. They can't be very happy though, because I almost started crying at one point. And all I could do was give her bitter advice to be careful and make sure they both were clear about what exactly there relationship is, and what they really mean when they say I love you. I should really be happy for her, I suppose. But I don't know if I am.
All of a sudden I feel so old. Not only that, but she seems so old now. I mean, she's really growing up. I think part of it is that I'm afraid of that. That she'll grow up and away from me, that she'll have all thse experiences and feelings and relationships that I don't have any part of, worse, ones that I don't have any experience with myself. That somehow, she'll become older than I am, in some ways. I know that age isn't measured by sexual or even romantic experience, but still. It's all a part of growing up.
I think a big part of this is that, as awful as it sounds, I'm jealous. Of both of them. I'm jealous in the sense that I don't want anyone to steal what I have with her, to make her grow and change away from me, especially now when I'm so far away anyway. In a way it's the same feeling I always feel when she's away at camp, that fear that she'll be changed by the experience, changed in a way that our relationship is somehow different. Only it's a deeper fear this time, definately less clean cut, darker. But it's that sense of jealously guarding our relationship. And then I'm also jealous of her in the petty sense that she will now have had her first girlfriend at 17, and although it will end up being a long distance relationship, it began when they were together, and here I am, at 21, and all I've had is meaningless relationships with guys, only one of which I was actually going out with, and a confusing lesson about what happens when you don't make sure exactly what your relationship is and how dangerous it is to put people's feelings above your own in high school, and then my brief, passionate, rather one-sided relationship with Yuna freshman year, my first love, which it took me about 2 years to really and completely get over.
I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm over-analyzing everything, after all in her own words, she thinks that N. feels stronger than she does, and she's thinking that even if this doesn't last, at least it will be a good introduction. LOL So I guess I haven't got tooo much to worry about. But then again, it's only be a day since everything happened. Everything could change, in so many ways. I just hope she doens't end up getting hurt. I can't say that I'm particularly wishing for them to have a long and happy loving relationship, which is probably horrible of me, but I do truely hope that she doesn't end up getting hurt. Things seem a little dangerous to me, with a girlfriend with strong feelings in general, loving her more than she feels for her, and where they aren't exactly clear on what there relationship is in general. Also she's 20, a year younger than me. Somehow I don't quite like that. But then again, I don't suppose I'm in any position to lecture anyone about vaguely illegal relationships; after all Yuna was 16.
And I mean, deep in my heart, I think I know that nothing can really change how we feel about eachother, and how close we are, because as I try to tell myself, you can't judge your relationship with someone again their relation with someone else, because everyone is different, so no one can have the same relationship with different people. Each relationship is special and unique. What's more, no matter how close we are, and no matter how close she and N. get, the relationship between lovers and sisters is fundementally quite different, so I guess she couldn't really steal my relationship with her, because I think that sisters have a bond that's really different from any other relationship.
But it all of that doens't really help me from feeling lonely, and worried anyway. Because on some level I'm always worried that while I'm not there, or she's not there, she's change, and she won't need me, or love me the way she does now. But then again, if I bet that she was feeling the same with me being in Japan, I bet I wouldn't be wrong. Because I remember Cathie telling me that Em was worried about that when I went to Japan for three months, that I would change and our relationship would be different. So maybe we're both in the same boat.
Still....this brings up so many issues for me, in regards to myself, as well as to her....

P.S I feel alittle better now, because I wrote her an e-mail, which relieved my feelings, and made me realize how silly and childish my worries are. Also, Thank you Yuki-kun and Kyou-kun for your happy Anna-san related comments. They made me happy! (If you can't tell, one of my goals is to spread the Anna-san-ness and make everyone love her as much as i do!)

 



Today was the first Sangubashi class for a long time, and also what will be the last one for awhile, since we don't have any in Sangubashi next month. I got there a half and hour early, because I forgot how long it take to get there. On the way to the Sports Center I ran into Tomoko-san. She said that she thought Anna-san would have just arrived, because she had happened to be on the same train. I said Anna-san must walk pretty fast, but Tomoko-san explained that she had had to buy somethign at the conbini and had told Anna-san to go ahead. I told her that I'd taped a song for our group dance, and she said that she'd talked to Anna-san about it after class yesteday, and Anna-san had said that she wanted me and Midoriko to get better at the 3 dances the class does together, and so she wasn't going to put us in a group. This actually made me really relieved, because I'd been feeling a lot of pressure over the fact that I'd have to learn another group on top of the other 3, while I was still struggling with them. Thank goodness for Anna-san being able to realize that. (In other words, she thinks I suck, but since I do, that's ok. LOL)
When we got to the lesson room, which was pretty small, at about 9:45, Anna-san and Maiko-san were there. I explained to them that recently my parents had sent me a bunch of pictures from home, so I'd decided to send them a bunch of pictures, and asked if I could take their pictures. They both smiled and said ' ii yo!' Then they bustled around doing stuff. Today Maiko-san wore a strange silver suit over her workout clothes. I'm not sure what it was for. Maiko-san said my camera was cute, and asked if I liked pink. I said that I did, but I had hated it when Iwas little, and only started liking it in high school. She said she understood that. I asked if I should take the pictures later, or if I could take them now. Anna-san said, 'But don't you want the rest of the class?' and I said 'Both.' She offered to take the picture but I explained that I wanted her in it. So we had the obasan at the desk take it for us. Then Anna-san took a picture for me of me and Maiko-san. Then they did stretches. I sat down, and did the stretches Anna-san had taught us that one class. Maiko-san said 'A-chan ganbatteru ne~', and I said that I basically did them everyday. They asked what I meant and I explained that I sometime didn't do them. They laughed. Maiko-san talked to Anna-san about how there was a lot of singers named Ai, and rappers named Dil now. I asked about the whole AI debut single thing, and Maiko-san said that she had probably released the old album on some indies label. Then somehow the subject changed to jeans. Anna-san complained that she always had to cut the bottom of jeans to make them fit, and that she'd go into a store where they had a model whereing the jeans in a magazine and think how cool they looked, but then she would have to cut the bottoms, and they wouldn't look cool anymore. Maiko-san talked about how Fujiwara Norika made jeans for Japanese women and that they were good. I said that I had the opposite problem. Anna-san said it wasn't fair. (Zurui!)., and I apologized. LOL I showed them how my workopants are vaguely too short (they stop somewhere at my ankles), and they laughed and said 'hontou!'. I explained about my hips and how I could never find jeans that fit me either.
Then Tomoko-san came in, and stretched. We talked about how early it was. I told them about having to get up before 6 and walk to the bus with the moon shining down. Maiko-san remembered going to school, and then said 'I didn't really go much!' (Which is probably true, considering she was an instructor at 14).
Maiko-san tried to do hand-stands and whatnot, and she and Anna-san talked about how flips and what not were hard, and that it was a question of balance, and also being scared to flip over, which made Maiko-san not be able to do it.
Then the short haired Obasan who's name I forget again came, and the older balding guy, and a new girl (well, new to me) named Maiko . (It's so bad that I don't know anyone's names).
Then we did exercises.
At some point the other guy came in, and explained that his brother was getting married. Anna-san asked him not to talk about marriage. LOL She made some comment about how old she was, and how not married she was. LOL Tomoko-san laughed, and Anna-san laughed, and said, 'What's with that relaxed smile?' (Nanda, sono yoyuu no hohoemi ha?)' You're 25.' Tomoko-san explained that she was still 24, until summer. Anna-san laughed and said that she was 31 until winter, and then she would be 32. (Fuyu made ha 31sai) She then told us that the other day she had been mistaken for 19! She said that she was talking to this boy, who had been 19, and he asked how old she was, and when she said 31, he said 'No way, I thought you were my age!' and she said 'I love you!' (Anata ha ii ko da!) LOL The boy may join Hyper, because we don't have many boys. LOL
After the exercises we did Beat. Then we rested. Anna-san was tired out, because it was early. ('Minna, tsukarenai?) We all kind of laughed.
Then we did beat again, and took a break, and then did beat again, and took at another break. LOL At one point (during a break?) Anna-san was streching. She was doing a split, a really wide split, with her legs almost in a straight line. She stayed in the split for the whole break, chatting away happily. It was very amazing. LOL
On of the Beat songs was 'Come on over Baby', by Christina Aquilera. After it was over, Maiko-san kept singing little rifts, like she wanted to sing.
Then we Battled. I was paired with Maiko-chan (not to be mistaken with Maiko-san, or as Anna-san calls her,'Maiko', who kept answering to it, prompting Anna-san to say 'Since when do I call you -chan?' They bouth laughed, and Anna-san began a chorus of Mai-chin, Maiko-chin.) It was hard to battle with Maiko-chan,. because she didn't look at me or engage me in anyway. I tried though.
Then we did the Run DMC dance (which is the one I first leanred). Then we practiced our light middle and hardparts (which today were called 1, 2, 3). I got really confused, and thought that we were doing House of love, so when Maiko-san said that only Maiko-chan was in group 2, I said I was too, and went over. (Atashi mo niban!') Maiko-san said 'Atashi mo niban?' And they asked if I wasn't 1. Then I realized that we were still doing Run DMC, and I felt embaressed, and explained that I had gotten confused, and mixed it up with my group for House of Love. Then we practiced our easy part (me and the short haired obasan), and Anna-san asked if we were ok. When we said we were, she asked us to show her, and so we did.
They we did the House of Love dance. Or rather, I everyone else did it, while I tried and completely failed to do the house of love dance, because I don't know it at all. ^^;
Maiko-chan said that she had never done the dance, so Anna-san told her to follow along with Maiko-san.
Maiko-san: But...I'm kind of shakey on it too (Demo...atashi mo ayafuya de...)
Anna-san: You're not allowed to be shakey! (Anata ha ayafuya de ikan!)
Maiko-san: But I wasn't there when we did it.... (Demo...yatteta jiki ni ha atashi ha inatakatta...)
Anna-san: That's doesn't matter! (Kankei nai!)
Student: Anna-san, kibishii!
Anna-san (laughing): Atashi ha hito ni yasashiku jibun ni amaku (I'm strict on others and easy on myself)
During the HOuse of Love dance, Anna-san danced randomly around. (Although she looks really cool just dancing randomly around!) She did this one move during the rap part when the lyrics said something like 'Come on and get it, come on, baby!', where she did this hip-hop like come hither, vaguely masculine move that was so cool it made my heart skip a beat! She looked incredibily cool! She has such a talent for knowing what kind of moves go with what kind of song, and really getting into the song, and into the character of the song. So does Maiko-san, I suppose. Although I guess this is one of the things they teach at Actor's, so it makes sense.
At some point one of the women asked me what I did everyday, and I just said "uuun', so she laughed and said 'Should I not ask?' Anna-san asked from across the room whether I had a part time job, and I said that I couldn't unless I'd been here three months.
Then we did the Seigi no Mikata dance, which is the one I rememebr the best. Anna-san was so cute and starry eyed during the part when we're supposed to pretend we're getting our allowence (where the lyrics go 'But the one thing that brightens my life.....my allowence!'), and so eagarly expectance looking where they go 'Motto, agete yo, motto agete yo, motto....' LOL I think she would be a really good actress; she gets into character so well. I just rememebred Maiko-san's hen-pecked okasan from the same song, so I guess the same goes for her, although I think I'm basically repeating what I said up a paragraph ago. LOL
The Pop Class kids were peering in at the windows by the time we finished, so then class was over.
Speaking of the Pop Class, Anna-san had a conversation during one break about how it was sometimes scary to dance with the littlest ones, because she was afraid they're arms would come out of the socket, and whatnot. (This was complete with many pantomimes by Maiko-san and Anna-san of how the kids arms would bepulled back so far, or how they would get so rattled if Anna-san jumped to much when she was holding their hands, etc.) Anna-san said that sometimes it was very scary. (Kowaii yo!)
At one point Maiko-san did some handstand thing, and then Anna-san explained to the lady at the desk what it was, and then said, with a little laugh. 'Shitsurei?' (I guess cuz she though the woman might have known already?)
Also, somewhere else in there, someone was talking about something - maybe marriage again, or age? I forget what, and it might have been the desk lady, anyway, someone was joking about that, and Anna-san said, with a smile,
'Damatettekureru?' ('Could you keep quiet?/ Could you shut up?')
Anna-san said this alot, in a joking way, when someone's teasing her or something. It's cute.
Anna-san is so joyful and smiley and cool and beautiful, especially with her new short hair, and her sharp sense of humor. I love all of Anna-san's expressions, her big enthusiastic smile she gives us, and the Pop Class, and her joyful smile when she's dancing, and her cool expressions when she dancing, and her teasing smile that softens her sharp sense of humor and lets you know it's all in good fun, and all the other ones I can't think of. Everything except her sad expression, which I think I've seen twice, once when she was talking about the Pop Kids and some of them maybe not being able to be in the Live, and I think that I also saw it when I went to Actor's that January, but I'm not sure why. I just vaguely remember her looking kind of sad while we were talking to her and Makino. It might have been my imagination though.
Also, I realized that I can't really imagine Anna-san on the train or at a conbini, or in regular clothes or anything. LOL I can only imagine Anna-san in Hyper Class.