My last Hyper class before summer was a lot better than the one yesterday. It was long and fufilling, and fun and new.
When I got to class, Kurata-san gave me a bunch of pictures from the Live and whatnot, with a message to have a good summer. It was very nice. Then Anna-san called us all over. When we stood waiting, the first thing she said was 'Ara, A-chan, kyou ha ichidan to shirokunai?' (Oh, A-chan you're even fairer than usual today. ') I said 'I am?' Because I hadn't noticed. She nodded, and said maybe it was my white shirt, after asking many people didn't I look paler. LOL It made me happy, because she commented to me.
After exercises, we did Beat, to lady marmalade. At one point I realized that Anna-san was Beating right next to me. Then Anana-san announced that we would be doing some strength training for the Live in Feb, because in order to do more dances, you needed to be in shape. Namio was our instructor for this. So this is how I came to do push-ups, and sit-ups for the first time since high school. LOL We also did leg-lifts and a squat like thing. Namio taught us all very carefully, and told us what not to do to hurt ourselves and whatnot. He was very good. (come to think of it, I think his other job is a trainer at a sports center). Anna-san, aside from saying things like 'You can get a toned stomach! Big boobs!' when Namio told us where each exercise toned, followed his intructions as well, and I was amused to see that she had a hard time with the sit ups too. LOL Anna-san: What are you all looking at? do your own sit ups!'
After that, Anna-san said that we would learn some basic moves to build our Beat repetoires. We split into feminine moves and masculine moves. Anna-san taught the feminine and Namio taught the masculine. Yuuta-kun stood by and listened to the feminine instructions. (He is so uke. Ahaha) First Anna-san taught us how to move just our shoulders. Then she was going to teach us something else, involving the wave, but I don't know how to do the wave, so I raised my hand and said as much. So she said that she would teach that from the beginning then. She asked people who didn'T feel like they really knew how to do it to raise their hand. Among those with their hands raised was....Yuuta. We all stared at him, including Anna-san, who looked taken aback, and said 'Really?' He nodded. Anna-san looked a bit at a loss. 'I was planning on having you teach half the group... Oh well. I'll just teach all of you from the beginning then. The wave involved putting one foot forward and thrusting the top of your body forward while you roll your arms backward, and rolling your body back as you move your arms forward again. I couldn't get the arms part (or the rest of it for that matter ^^;) so Anna-san came over to me to teach me the arm part. This was all really hard, because we were in the Box, which has no mirrors. After that we did some variations on the wave, the side wave, the diagonal wave and the standing up from the ground wave. This part all together made a practice dance: thrust your shoulders a few times, do the wave, and end with rolling your hips after which you down on one knee. then we switch knees, and did a getting up wave. Now, all of these looks very very cool, not to mention very sexy when Anna-san does it. However, for me at least, it's ALOT harder than it looks. When I was trying to do the getting up wave (which involves raising your butt first, and then following it with your body bending back), I lost my balance and flew backwards several feet and landed right on my butt. It hurt, and was very very embaressing. Anna-san laughed concernedly, and said 'A-chan karada hatteru nee!' (You're really using your body!) Anyway, then we did the dance to music, and Anna-san looked so incredibly cool. She is so good at the 'feminine' type rolling your body, and stopping on the beat, etc. Someday hopefully I will be able to do all that, because I think it's the coolest thing in the world. I also realized where BB got all of their trademark stop on a dime with the beat moves.
Then it was time for a break, and then we had our Hyper meeting. We talked first about things from last concert, and concerns and whatnot we had. Kurata-san said that she wanted more time to practice, and that she wanted everyone to come to all the practices, no matter what. Anna-san said she would see what she could do about the extra time, but that we couldn't make people come to practices, because the point of Hyper was that we all have different motives and emotions about dancing. and come when we can, and that it would make out the peopel who couldn't come for various reasons out to be the bad guys. Anna-san told us all just to say exactly what we were feeling about things, because otherwise there was no point in having meetings. Yayoi-san said that we should go through the basics of being on stage, like exiting and entering etc for people who'd never really been on stage before. Ai-chan said that last time there had been some people (I'm pretty sure it was the chuugakusei) who never practiced, and only came sometimes, and seemed to be treating Hyper with disrespect, and feel like they could be in the concert whether than could do the dances or not. She said that she thought that if we saw people doing that, we should try to make them want to practice more etc, because it wasn't fair to the people who were trying really really hard. Anna-san said that we would have some basic rules then, and if she saw people who were slacking off, as opposed to people who were trying really hard and just couldn't do it well anyway, she would talk to them separately about whether to take them off, or what they wanted to do. then we had a long discussion about what to do for the Feb. Live. Finally it was decidding that we would be grouped by theme (Cool Girls, Cool boys, comedy, cute idol (Anna-san: How about morning musume? Chuugaksei laugh derisively. Anna-san: but I wanna sing it... LOL), and ...singing. Waa I wanna be in the singing!) Then we decided how to split the groups: 1) To choose ourselves, but then have input and possible changes from the instructors. 2) To chose, and 'do what you want to do, no matter what!', or 3) To have the instructors chose. It was split between 1 and 3 so we decided to do both. Yuuta raised his hand during 2. He was the only one.
At one part Anna-san winked and gave a peace sign to Marilyn in response to something she'd said, and then started do all these other cute/funny poses. Finally she said 'Someone stop me!' So Atsuko-san gave a stop sign. Anna-san: Arigatou...
at one point there was this weird guy looking in the window. Then he came ot the door and started ranting something about how we should all leave already. Namio and Yuuta and Atsushi rushed over, and had words with him. It was kinda scary. Then he left. Anna-san's mom said that it was over, but Anna-san, who was on a roll, said, 'Wait, until 9.'
After it was over, I went and talked to Anna-san. I told her that I wasn't going to be here for the Live in Fec. She seemed very suprised, and asked me when I was coming back. She was even more suprised when I explained that I wasn't coming back until college is over. She said, with a smile, that I can join in the lessons, and learn the dances with everyone anyway. I also gave her the message I had written for our homepage. She thanked me, and said 'Oh, so you're A. I thought so.' (A tte yappari A-chan nanda)
today I felt some Namio/Yuuta vibes. They kept laughing together and stuff. And when Namio was showing us how to do push-ups, and how not to push our butt up, Yuuta went over and went to push his butt down. But Anna-san go there first. (Anna-san: That was kind of like a chikan wasn't it? Rushing to grab his butt before Yuuta.) So Yuuta touched his arm instead. Also, there was one moment where Namio was looking at Yuuta, and he actually looked....*gasp* sexy. For one moment he was no longer asexual, and I could see the possiblity of Seme!Namio.
I also realized the answer to the mystery of so long ago when I first met Anna-san, and how she had had this sad/worried expression on her face as I talk to her dad. That is her listening intently to everything you're saying face...
On the way home I twalked to the eki with Tomoko-san and the girl who's her friend who joined recently. We talked about MAX, and Aki, and whatnot. The girl said that my Japanese had gotten a lot better and I was using bigger words now. This made me very happy.
In other news, I also finally found out where the word 'Piman' (Peppers) comes from. French. Piment.
I love Hyper! Hyper roxors!!
And! MAX TOMORROW!!!!!

 
Today was my second to last Hyper before I go home for Summer. For some reason it seemed to go very fast.
Class began with all of us lined up, and Anna-san saying that there were a lot of young people here today. Then she asked everyone who was in their teen to raise their hand. A few people did, including one girl who Anna-san let out a shocked 'Usoo!' (No way!) about. She then did the same to the next person and I laughed, because she was so suprised about everyone's ages. She asked why I was laughing so much. Then she said 'Oh, so then we have to 30-somethings...' I raised my hand, and said that I was in my 20s. Once again Anna-san was surprised, because she thought I was in my late teens. I said '21sai desu yo, chanto.' She asked 'Sono chanto ha nani wo arawashiteru no ka. Toshi wo gomakashitenai, tte koto?' (I can't really explain this exchange. it has to do with chanto.) Then Anna-san explained that we would start the lessons for the next Live in October. This time Hyper might have more solo dances though, so she wanted us to maybe start a little earlier. (Namio: So it might start on Sept 28. LOL) She said some things about choreography and getting a feel for it being important, and that so today we would do some choreography. Then she talked about how it's important to envision an audiance, and she wanted us to envision our audiance as we did Beat. First we Beat to 'Who let the dogs out.' Anna-san Beat too. Then we Beat to the Can-can song from Moulin Rouge. This is hard to dance to. Anna-san watched us this time, squatting on the floor. I guess she was being our audiance? Then we split up into groups (Hard Boys Yuuta, Hard Girls Atushi, Easy Girls Namio. [all of you juvenile people stop snickering.]) I was chose the Easy Girls group. It was pretty much the same group of us as the last time Namio taught. So we all said we would do our best again. Then he taught us the dance. he was a better teacher this time, and he's good because he's easy to ask stuff, since he's personable. Anna-san came again and helped us out, and encourgaed us. She told me that I had it right, and I was doing well. I had a feeling that i could actually do this dance. This feeling disentrated rapidly though. LOL Also the last part was this strutting walk, and I guess I was thursting my legs and whatnot out in a funny way, cuz Anna-san laughed. ^^;
Oh well.
Then we showed our dances, and then did ending exercises. I was suprised that it ended so quickly, but then Anna-san told us all to sit down. She told us that she had some news, first some bad news. Apparently we got booted out of the Rapport festival in October. She said that there were many groups that didn't have events on their own, like LJ does, so we got cut for them, and we told 'Do an event on your own'. Namio made a fist and punched the air. Anna-san looked at him blankly. 'What?' 'I'm really looking forward to this!' He said happily. She looked at him. 'Were you listening to me? We cut got.' Namio stared at her. 'No way!!!' She nodded. We all laighed a bit, because obviously he hadn7t been listenig to what she was saying at all. 'Well,' Namio said after a minute. 'Can I take the place of one of them men performing then?'
Anna-san said that although we didn't have the event in October anymore, we could now use the time to work even more on the Live in february, so we had to think positively. She also talked about how (on Oct 12 I think) there's gonna be a party for LJ's first anniversary, and it will be a costume party at Kurata-san's house. There was an amusing moment when the chuugakusei didn't understand the word for costume (kasou) and Namio trieds to explain, and they got even more confused, and said 'Huh? a funereal?' She would like us to do a little show for Pop at the party. At the meeting tomorrow, we will talk about that, and about the Feb. Live. The Hyper part of the February Live is completely undecided as of yet, so tomorrow, she said, we could think about that. There are many things we can do: Bigger groups than last time, smaller groups, or do the whole thing as a story. Namio: How about Namio and Juliet? Anna-san: Marilyn can be Juliet. Namio noticably lost enthusiasm after that. LOL
BTW, Anna-san looked very cool today. She had on khaki windbreaker pants which were tied up att he knees and a tight olive green tank top. Once again I marveled at how thin and hourglass shaped she is. (PS, white bra today. Pretty Anna-san. Ooh )
Today's lesson felt really short, and a bit unsatisfying, I'll have to admit. I hope tomorrow's is better. Also, it made me get a bit depressed, because I won't be here for the Feb. Live! I have a feeling this will be a bit of a problem for me now, makiing me lonely and whatnot. I kind of feel like I want to talk to Anna-san about it, when people really begin Live lessons. Because I can't be in it, but I still want to take lessons of course, so I don't know if I should just join iin on the Live lessons, even though I won't be able to be in the Live.

 
Yay!! I'm done with classes!! Done with finals! Done with papers!! Woo hoo!!
Also had a dream that I was taking my kanji exam from Snape....
(I forget if I was Harry or Malfoy)

 
Our official Love Junx Page!
http://www.npotoybox.jp/intora.html
everyone go look at it! See my Anna-san, and AtsuYuu and all the rest!!
At some point I will translate it for y'all. Yay!

 
For some reason, class on Saturday was the same time as Friday classes, 7:30 PM. It was in the Box, which is harder than when we have classes in the SubArena, because the Box, true to it's name, is smaller, and has no mirrors. It was also my first Joint class with the Advanced pop class. From Hyper, Yayoi-san and Odagawa-kun, Ai-chan and Marilyn, all of who I hadn't seen in a long time, were there, as well as a newer girl, Mika-san, who's really nice, so that was also a lot of fun. (The girl from Okinawa, who's name turns out to be Minami was there as well) The day's lesson was also just as jam-packed and satisfying as the one on Friday. Once again, Anna-san started the lesson with Since it was all the Pop kids, and also since she'd talked to most of Hyper the day before, the explaination was a lot shorter. But I liked it, because there wasn't so much for me to forget. LOL She said that the important thing was to really give it everything you've got. 'A song is only 2 or 3 minutes long, but in that short time, I want you all to put your souls into your dancing. I always says 'For other other people', but you can't do anything for others, until you learn to do it for your own sake.' (in other words, you can't entertain others unless you yourself are first having fun.)
Then we did Beat. Today again, Anna-san herself joined in the Beat, and she was amazing to watch, because she really let go. She was really dancing (and lipsynching) with all her heart, even more than before. I also gave the songs everything I had, and it was a lot of fun!!
Then she announced we would do some choreography. We split into 3 groups (advanced (hyper and pop) boys - Namio), advanced girls (hyper and pop) - Atsushi, and elementary girls and boys - Yuuta. I chose Yuuta's group, a long with Mika-san, and a couple of other Hyper, and Pop members. Minami-san came over to help. We all stood in a circle in front of Yuuta, who was again wearing his reggae style hair band thingy. Yuuta asked us if we had a song in mind. No one did. He asked if we wanted a slow or fast song, and played us two examples. We decided slowish might be good. Then he stood there, and did the thing that Anna-san does sometimes, standing there and going through the dance in his head, just giving the vaguest hints of the steps with his body. It was very cool. Kurata-san bowed, and we all bowed with her and said 'Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!' Yuuta was apparently going through the dance in his head still, or something, because he simply stared blindly off into space. Kurata-san cleared her throat and said 'Yuuta-kun?' We Yoroshiku'd again, and Yuuta blinked, and bowed saying 'Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!'. Then he taught us the dance. It was a very easy dance. Because even I could do it. LOL But he was a good teacher, as well, frequently asking if we were ok, and if we go it, and asking us to show it to him. Then we all showed each other our group dances. Our group went first, because Yuuta lost to Namio and Atsushi at Jan Ken. LOL Atsushi's group did a dance to 'Mickey' and Namio's a complicated dance with break dancing. It was cool. Afterwards, Anna-san saif that we'd all done great, and then we did Beat again to end up the class. We danced to a new song, by a Japanese female singer that apparently was a relatively new track. I'm betting it's called 'Freedom' or something, because it said 'Freedom' in the chorus. While it was new to me, it obviouslt wasn't so to Anna-san, who lipsynched along with all the words. She happened to be Beat'ing in front of me, so I got to watch her again, and once again she was amazing, just so much love, and so much passion, and joy in her dancing. At one of the 'Freedom' parts of the chorus, she stretched her arms out wide, and threw her head back. It was such a pose of freedom, and joy that it made me catch my breath, and all of a sudden I realized that the joy that BB has, their way of moving, their freedom...it all originated with Anna-san. She's the original Actor's student.
After class was over, when we were changing, the girl who's the Da Pump fan showed Anna-san (and Minami) the newest Da Pump members solo photo book, Ken Book. (I get such a kick out of that title for some unknown reason) As Anna-san flipped through it, she kept exclaiming 'Okinawa da-! Okinawa-!' (the photo were taken in Okinawa). I think that she probably missed Okinawa a lot when she thinks of it. I mean, Tokyo's so different, climate wise, atmosphere wise, etc...
Afterwards, I ended up going out to dinner with Yayoi-san, Yumiko-san, Mika-san, (and also Uchida-san, Ai-chan, Marilyn, Emi-chan, etc, altho they were all at different tables). We talked a lot about Hyper, and explained to Mika-san about Beat, etc, and what Anna-san had said the day before, since Yayoi-san and Mika-san hadn't been there. We also explained all about B.B, since Mika-san didn't know anything about them. Also, Kurata-san had a pamphlet for a concert they're having next week, as well as a news magazine. Apparently they are starting to debut in little groups. Yuki, Atsuyo, Yui and Rina are debuting as a group called 'Lolly Pops' and they are in Bob Sapp's calender. Minami-chan is debuting as a solo singer, and in a men's magazine wearing a bikini. (I knew she had a big chest!) Wakane and Nami are touring clubs around the country as a group called...er One Stic or something weird like that. I'm not sure how I feel about all this. what happened to 'we cut our ties with the entertainment world', etc? I don't know, I'm going to try not to think about it too deeply. Speaking of BB, apparently there has been an edict set at Actors.
Emi-chan has always been both an Actor's student and a Love Junx student, but apparenly recently Actor's stopped fitting her. And apparently at Actor's, this became Love Junx's fault. And now Actor's students are forbidden to have any contact with Love Junx (read: Anna-san). And apparently when Marilyn, Ai-chan and Kaori when to a recent Actor's (BB?) event, they were given very cold stares. And they have now decided not to have anything to do with Actor's/B.B. Which is a big thing, because they were huge Actor's fans, especially Marilyn. Some how, I'm not so surpised that this whole thing happened though. The sad thing is, I am sure Anna-san is being made in the villian over there now (at Actors).
Let's see, we also talked about how apparently Anna-san is a completely different person at Love Junx, than she used to be at Actor's. I'm not exactly sure how, but apparently she was quite strict there (and I'm better a lot more serious too). This all makes sense, as before she was training people to debut, and, as Yumiko-san comment 'She debuted twice, and failed twice, so she knows how tough it is to make it'.
She also explained something Takeshi had said once about the word 'shinken' which was very cool. I will explain it later. :)
Anyway, I had a really fun class, and dinner, although I ended up missing the last subway and had to take a taxi home from Ikebukuro. LOL