?@?@Today I met Yayoi-san in Yokohama and we walked to the Rapport together. It seemed like ages since we?fd done that. On the way we talked about fairy tales and Disney and random pissed off groups of people set off by Disney?fs Disnefication. Well, most it was just me rambling I guess. LOL.
Then we got to the Rapport, and I chatted with a bunch of people before class. When the Pop class let out, Anna-san came out to have a drink of water, and I almost didn?ft realize it was her at first because 1) she almost never comes out to take a drink, and 2) she was wearing a big windbreaker jacket over her tee-shirt. She kept the jacket on the whole class, even though it was pretty hot in the room. She mentioned on the BBS that she was coming down with a cold, so I guess that?fs why. She also didn?ft move as much this lesson. For example, Atushi and Namio led the exercises, while she sat on the floor and wrote in her notebook with her chin in her hands. Atsushi who was in front of me, had a baggy t-shirt on, so it wasn?ft as fun to watch him. Also, Maiko-san wasn?ft here today.
After exercises, we showed the many people who?fd never done/ only done half of Miami the dance. Then we practiced it a few times. Then Anna-san told us that there was so much acting in Miami that if we just acted as we walked out to the front of the stage for our group dances, it made things look really unorganized, so she would make up dance moves for each group to get them up to the front of the stage, which she would come around and teach us. While we were waiting for her to come around, she said, we could teach the new people in our groups the dance. When she was telling people who were in my group they were in it, she said, ?eWhat was the name? Gen...what zoku??f and so I said from the back of the room. ?eGenshuuzoku!?f and everyone laughed, and she said ?eGenchijin...shuugakuryoukousei....kazoku....genshuuzoku.?f. I?fm so happy that she?fs actually using my name for it! Yay.
However, I was not as happy because she didn?ft end up coming around to the groups, really. She taught the Gal group, along with Namio (who did the dance in line with the group members). So she did dance a bit with them. Atsushi who seems to be the Genshuzoku tantou, taught us. He seemed to be in a good mood or something, he kept smiling while he was teaching us. It was so noticible that one of the chugakusei commented on it on the bus to the eki after class. Our up to the front of the stage dance is kind of embaressing, we clasp our arms behind our backs and basically skip from left to right. When we showed it to Anna-san, she told us we had to make wider steps because we needed to get all the way up to the front, but we were only in middle of the stage. So Namio demonstrated, leaping up to the front in about 5 steps, with a huge fake grin on his face. It was so funny. So we tried to do it more like that, except I got so into trying to skip big that I was still skipping when we started our dance, and I caught Anna-san?fs eyes and she was laughing at me. LOL
She told us that we had to concentrate of putting our strength in our legs, not our faces, which apparently were fierce with effort. LOL
Atushi had also taught my side when we were reviewing the beginning part of the dance, but kept forgetting parts, which Anna-san would point out to him, and he would kind of laugh embaressedly, and fix it.
Anna-san gave us pointers on the part where we all form a circle, because she told us that we have to move each arm separately, because if we sweep our arms together over our heads, it looks like some weird tribal rain dance, or something. LOL
When we stopped for a moment, Anna-san noticed that we were all out of breath, so she gave us a little break. After the break we did Yagyugaiden once.
Then we had a little meeting about whether we should class on the day after our Christmas party, and it was decided we should, but it might have become a Free Time, I?fm not sure. I hope it?fs a regular class, because I would rather that be my last Hyper class then have the Christmas Party be my last LoveJunx thing.
I had to pay Anna-san?fs Okaasan for the ticket for the X?fmas party, and when I was going back to give her the money, I passed Anna-san, as she was leaving the lesson room, who smiled and said ?eOtsukaresama!?f then when I was leaving it, I passed her again, and so I said ?eOtsukaresama?f, even though this was the second time, and she kind of said ?eUisu!?f with a little smile
So i guess this might be the beginning of Anna-san?fs no intensive movements period. it?fs kind of samishii, but on the other hand, I really did think, ?eAnna-san doesn?ft need to dance, as long as she?fs here, that?fs enough.?f today, so I guess that?fs good. Also, I?fve decided to ask Mi Madre about the medical aspect of the validity of the connection between the no hageshii ugoki and pregnancy thing. Because she should know. Speaking of which, today I was thinking about it, and decided that maybe there was something kind of sexy about a woman being pregnant. And that if that really is the case, I might be able to accept it, also because I know Anna-san would be a wonderful mother. I still hope that?fs not what it is, but....
Speaking of which, Anna-san mentioned on the BBS how the Pop Pro Class was very sympathetic about the whole thing, and they told her not to work too hard, and that they would ?eprotect her?f, which was so sweet. It really made me think, those kids are so much better than I am... Really. If only we could all be as selfless and loving...

 
MAIKO-SAN IS BACK!!! Woo hoo!! Maiko-san is an instructor at LJ again!!! I had gotten an e-mail about it last night from Atsuko-san, but it didn’t take away from my suprised happiness when I walked into the Kanagawa Sports Center and saw her sitting in the lobby with Anna-san and Anna-san’s Okaasan. They said ‘Ohayou!!’ and I answered ‘Ohayou!!’ as I walked over to them. Maiko-san, with her big beautiful smile said, ‘A-chan! Hisashiburi!!’ and we hugged. Behind her, Anna-san laughed and said ‘Ooh, American [style]!’ , and Maiko-san laughed to and made a comment about trying to be cool and American. LOL Then we said ‘Hisashiburi!’ again, and Maiko-san told me that she was was ‘back in action!’ (fukkatsu da yo!) and I was very happy, but all I could say was ‘Un!’ happily, so she laughed kindly at me. Then she said something I didn’t quite catch about telling me something later or something. Then Anna-san told me that everyone was already upstairs, so I told them I’d go up ahead, and I went up. So I chatted with a bunch of us there, including Ai-chan, who said that she’d send me a video of our live if I give her my address. Momo-chan decided she wanted Iori and I to think of a nickname for her, because we were Ii-chan and Ei-chan. I suggested Peach (piichi) to which she replied, ‘That’s English.’ LOL At this point Maiko-san had come up, and so we asked her and she also suggested Peach, so Momo-chan became Pi-chan. Anna-san informed us that we were one floor above, so we climbed the stairs to the top floor. The top floor was a huge, well, gymnasium, complete with basketball hoop and colored tape on the floor, and it brought back all this memories of Gym Class. LOL Iori and Momo-chan and I were playing with the white board and looking at a drawing of a mermaid Iori had drawn. We heard a peal of loud mirthful laughter, which when we turned around, had been Anna-san. She and Maiko-san were taking turns running and jumping up to see how high they could hit on the thing on the wall. It was so cute, and Anna-san looked so playful. Eventually Momo-chan found a volleyball, and started playing basketball with it, which turned into a game of ‘how many times can we hit it back and forth’ with she, I-chan, Ai-chan (Volleyball club experience: 3 months), Maiko-san (Volleyball club experience: 2 weeks), and me. It was a lot of fun.
Then finally Anna-san came, and said ‘Ready to start the lesson!?’ and we all nodded enthusiastically. When we had all gotten in some semblence of lines facing Anna-san, Maiko-san and Namio-kun, Anna-san was about to start the lesson, and was reminded by Namio that she should introduce Maiko. So Anna-san ‘She’s acting like she’s been here all along, but Maiko is back!’ We all clapped. ‘You see,’ Anna-san explained, ‘I’ve been told I can’t do any hard exercise/movements (hageshii ugoki ha shicha dame) for awhile, so I asked Maiko-san if she would help out until the Live. And she said she’d actually been looking for a reason to start back up here again, so she was happy to oblige.’ Maiko-san bowed and said ‘Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!’ and we all bowed and repeated it. I’m going to skip over my thoughts, etc on Anna-san’s annoucement for now, and talk about that at the end of this, so for now....
We did exercises. I had been worried Anna-san might not even be able to do exercises, but she did, just the same as always. Today she was wearing red windbreaker pants and a tight back tanktop with the words ‘Angel Baby’ in red. She looked as beautiful as ever, and I watched her even more carefully because of her announcement. Also, it was really interesting to watch Maichin (note: I think everyone knows but Maichin = Maiko-san) , because she has such a distinctive way of moving. Her movements are really big and bold, a lot of movement in them, and there’s also a very feminine air to them, in a sensual sexy way. Maichin was wearing a baggy grey t-shirt and tan (navy?) windbreakers. Her hair was up in a ponytail. It’s pretty long now. today I was struck once again with how beautiful Maiko is. She has this really exotic feminine beauty to her, and her eyelashes are soo long.
After exercises were over, we went through Miami, and spent most of the lesson working in our Miami groups. First we worked on our group dances. Maiko-san taught my group. (I was happy; when Anna-san was calling the name of our group she said, ‘We gave it a name last time, I forget what it was though.’ and I said ‘Genshuuzoku’, and everyone laughed, including Anna-san who said, ‘Oh, right! Genshuzoku) The only thing was, Maiko-san didn’t really know the dances, because of course she’s just come back, so a lot of it was us teaching her, after which she would check us. LOL Even in that situation though, she’s a really good teacher. Which is great, because well, Namio isn’t really. Anna-san was teaching the group next to us (tourists, maybe?), and she was doing the dance wrong, which one of the members told her, and she laughed and had them correct her. (Anna-san actually did a lot of teaching/dancing today, just the same as usual) So we did our group dances to the music for a bit, and then Anna-san said she wanted us to work on firming up our acting bits. So first we worked on those separately, and did that with the music, after which Anna-san decided that we needed more work on it, and see split us up into our groups (first she split us into some littler groups, then back, and then into littler groups again.)
So in the end she decided that my group would split further into kazoku, shugakuryoukousei and genchijin for the acting at the beginning. I was happy because when she came over to explain what my group, the genchijin (natives) would do, she kept saying ‘A-chan-tachi ha...’. So she explained that Akiko-chan and I would be waiting for Marilyn, who we were supposed to meet up with, and when she came up to us, high-five and greet each other, saying ‘Hishiburi! Long time no see!’ (I was disappointed, because she said that Long time no see in katakana type English). She also struck a ‘hip hop’ pose and said ‘yo yo!’. LOL After, she explained, Akiko-chan and I would go back to our Genchizoku group, and Marilyn would go with Otagawa-kun over the the Gal team. Anna-san went closer to Marilyn and looked straight into her eyes with serious, apologetic eyes and said, ‘You really are becoming a guy in this, sorry about that. If you want, you could be his girlfriend?’ But Marilyn said she didn’t mind. I thought it was really sweet of Anna-san to be so worried about hurting Marilyn’s feelings or something. Afterwards, Anna-san was helping Iori, who is a shugaku~ (a kid on a field trip), who is supposed to sit down and be really loud and obnoxious until the tourists come, when she is supposed to look at them like WTF? and run away. I happened to look over at them because Anna-san was demonstrating how to be loud and obnoxious, with a big smile on her face, and a shrill laugh. She really is such a good actress. I remember at one point she mentioned in the BBS that she actually may even like acting even better than dancing. She’s so good at becoming other characters.
So, anyway, we practiced our beginning acting to the music. But the timing wasn’t exactly right, so Anna-san who sat on her knees on the floor with her eyes closed, looking like she was meditating, figured out the count/timing for it all in her head, and fixed it all,
We also spent a lot of time on the part we had learned last time, changing the part where we skip in a circle past the audience. Because it turned out that skipping fast like that takes a lot of energy, so we decided to change the timing. Anna-san suggested walking slower and pausing to pose every so often, which she showed us in a very hilarious example, with a huge idol grin on her face and exagerated poses that made us all laugh. We tried a lot of different ways, and ended up with a mix of fast and slow. This lesson, so many people caught my eye and waved or smiled at me, which made me feel really happy and loved. Also Emi-chan hugged me too, so I got two hugs today! It’s a record for Japan! LOL
Today was an extra long lesson, and we were supposed to use the last 45 minutes to work on our Group Dances for the Live, but all of the fine tuning of Miami took so long, we never got to. After we practiced the whole of Miami several times, we all voted on the way we wanted to end the Miami dance. I noticed once again how much Anna-san’s eyebrows draw together when she’s in her sympathetic and attentive listening mode, almost making it look like she’s sad or worried. So anyway, the ending we decided on was everyone making one line (and maybe posing altho we haven’t got that yet) So we did Miami one more time to test the ending. it worked well. Then to one of the member’s requests we did Yagyugaiden once.
Then the lesson was over. It turned out that Atsuko-san had brought a cake for Yuuta, for his birthday last week, but Yuuta hadn’t been in class, so we all ate it together, even Anna-san, Maichin and Anna-san’s Okaasan. It was really funny though, because we didn’t have a knife or plates or anything, just little plastic spoons, so we all dug into the cake with the little spoons. Everyone attacking the cake with spoon just seemed so uncivilized and animalistic to me, it was so funny. For a moment it flashed on me that there would be something very sexy about eating a cake like that with just spoons with Anna-san, except that there were so many other people eating that there really wasn’t LOL. After the cake was eaten, I talked a bit to Maiko-san. She asked when I was going home, and I told her on 12/22. She asked when I was coming back. And I said someday. She said, ‘Oh, so like, this is the end of your study abroad then?’ and I nodded and said I might come back next summer, or most likely after I graduate. She said that she really wanted to do a home stay in the US, but it was so expensive. She told me that her friend had suggested she just do a search online for people to stay with, but that was dangerous, so she wasn’t going to do that. I said that she could stay with my family, and told her how we live near N.Y or Boston. (I had to explain about where Boston was since she didn’t know). She said that she really wanted to come, and held my hand.. I said that she really should, and squeezed her hand. Then she said that she’s going to Chicago next year with a friend (I wonder if it’s Keito, I think her mother lives in Chicago), and that I should e-mail her at any rate. Wouldn’t it be so cool if Maiko-san came to stay at my house?? I think I might die!
Then the Pop Kids started coming and and everyone got busy, so we all left. as we walked to the bus stop, Atsuko-san explained that we would have a suprise birthday party for Anna-san on the Hyper after her birthday (Dec 5). except that it isn’t actually a suprise anymore because Atsuko-san accidently blurted it out to Anna-san. LOL (who said uwaaa ureshii!! LOL ) I taught Nori-chan how to say things like Camellia and Ginko etc on the way there. On the bus we all chatted. First we talked about Marilyn’s afro, who showed us a picture of her in Junior High with straight hair in pigtails. She looked like a completely different person! Then we talked about Anna-san and the Super Monkey’s (someone mentioned anna-san’s comment on the BBS about training for the SM when she was 19), and someone (Ishimi-chan?) said that she’d seen a show many years ago about Actor’s which had talked about Anna-san and how she had been an idol at one point but then became an instructor, and had showed clips of her with the Monkeys. then people talked about how at the time they had said that Makino made all of them, even Namie do the karate thing etc to sell his daughter, and Marilyn said that in Okinawa, Anna-san had been the main, being an ex-idol, and Makino’s daughter, etc but then when they got to Tokyo they made Namie be the main. Then we talked about SPEED, because Yayoi-san went to their concert last month. Marilyn talked about how Hitoe’s dancing is very sexy, and she can do the ‘shake’, and she has a certain distinctive style to her dancing, and how Eri is ‘futsuu ni umai’ (just really good), and Yayoi-san talked about how SPEED have calmed down now, and before they had such a power that came from all their energy, esp Hiro, who now has calmed down the most. Marilyn agreed and said that she didn’t want SPEED to keep getting back together, because they were so good before, and she just wanted them to leave that memory unspoiled. LOL then she and I talked about MAX, who she said were amazing dancers, and good singers as well, and that Li-chan was cute, had a cute personality too. Then Marilyn went off shopping, and the rest of us went to eat lunch.
I sat with Ishimi-chan and Takako-san. We talked most of the time about Maiko-san (and how she and Namio don't seem to get along) , and Anna-san’s announcement and what it could mean that she has been told she’s ‘not allowed to do hard exercise’ until at least our live which is in February. Ishimi-chan said that they had been talking about it earlier, and everyone has their own ideas. The two most popular are: 1) She has some sort of ‘feminine illness’, which I gather is something having to do with the female reproductive system. Cervical cysts or that kind of thing, although it’s not bad enough to need surgery. or 2) She’s pregnant. This had been my first thought as well, I have to admit. but I protested that she didn’t have a boyfriend, and Takako-san said that it seemed like she might have someone,because Namio had said she was getting more beautiful, like implying she was in love, and she had gone for a drive by the ocean one day. I think this is pretty flimsy evidence, but the other two seemed to think she must have someone. Then again, I am obviously extremely biased against possible reason #2. I mean, I suppose if it was a choice of her being ill like that or being pregnant, I’d rather it be that than her having to have surgery or something, but still. I know this is selfish and also pointless because it’s not like I have a chance with her anyway, but I don’t want her to have a boyfriend, and I especially don’t want her to be pregnant. Or get married. Because, well, we all agreed that if that was the case, she’d be sure to come back to work as soon as she possibly could, but...still. Her having a baby and being married would just make her ever farther away and even more inaccessible to me. Plus the whole, Anna-san’s beautiful body being changed by pregnancy. (Although Namie looks exactly the same now, even after Haruto, but she was also 20 when she had him) I know this is all selfish and anti-feminist, or whatever, mysoginistic, and I feel I’m horrible, like that famous Japanese author who worshiped beautiful women so much that he made his wife abort their child because he didn’t want her body ‘ruined’ by pregnancy. But still. I can’t help it. Mostly I think it’s a fear of things changing. Also, there is a 3rd explaination, suggested by both Okaasan and Uchida-san that it could be stress related (Uchida suggested maybe she was hurt by the whole Takeshi thing). Who knows. I wish I knew one way or the other. It’s so silly to get worked up when it could be anything, and there’s really no proof either way, but it’s hard not to.
So, sticking with what I do know about reality. I love Maichin! I'm so glad she's back