I was sure that today’s lesson was at Yokohama, but thank goodness I checked, because it turned out to be at Sangubashi. Which was nice, because I didn’t have to rush as much. When I got to the Olympic Center, I found Takako-san looking at the list of groups using the building today, and trying to figure out what room we were in, so I told her and we went up together. I chatted with the girls in Genshuuzoku, and Aman-chan and Takako-san until it was time for us to go into the lesson room. I was suprised to see Anna-san, wearing a yellow t-shirt and looking very pretty, sitting at the table taking people’s cards instead of her Okaasan, who wasn’t there today. I think she has a cold. I couldn’t remember whether we put our cards on the table or in the little box, so I kind of put it on the table and waited, until Anna-san looked at me and told me I could put it in the box. I swear she started to say ‘Put it in...’ in English, which was kind of twilight zone-ish. LOL Then Namio told us it was time to start the lesson. He and Atsushi were both there today. There was also a guy with frizzy permed hair and his girlfriend, who was wearing a black top that revealed her shoulders, who sat in chairs and watched the whole time. I think they might have had something to do with ZinRye, because Atushi and Namio talked to them a lot of the lesson, and after it was over played a song for him on the CD player which sounded like it could have been the instrumental for a ZinRye original song.
So, anyway, Namio and Atsushi led exercises, and half way through Anna-san came and joined in, not at the front, but on the side, right with all of us, which I think was a first. After we finished, we did Miami. I went over to the left side of the room with all the other people who come on stage from that side, next to where Anna-san was with the sound system. Emi-chan was over there, being in the enter on the left side group, and she told Anna-san not to watch her, pushing at her. Anna-san laughed and assured her she wouldn’t, and she wouldn’t count for her either, because Emi-chan kept thinking she:d be mad at her. They laughed. The acting at the beginning was harder than usual, because I was the only person in my group, so I had to pretend to wait for someone and then run over and chat with them etc, with no one actually there, but I did my best, feeling just a little silly. I caught Anna-san’s eye and she was smiling at me. Apparently she was watching Emi-chan though, because she kind of rapped out to the beat ‘Emi-chan, look forward! This way!’, ands we all laughed. So we went through the whole dance once, for the people who hadn’t finished it last time, and then we worked on little parts, refining them. Mostly we worked on the group dance part. Namio came over and helped us with ours, because Atsushi was teaching that new member. First Namio made us work on the kicks, because he said some people weren’t really kicking, and so I tried hard, and managed to get my foot to about head level, which I was very proud of, and Namio nodded, seeming satisfied. The next thing he said was that some people were looking down and some were looking up at one move, and which was it supposed to be? But we didn’t know, so we called Atsushi over, and he said that we looked down, but then Anna-san said that actually we’re supposed to be looking up (LOL), so that’s what we did, but I had a lot of trouble doing that, causing Namio and Anna-san to laugh and keep telling me that I had to look up. When we all did the group dances to music again, and I kept messing up, and Anna-san caught my eye and smiled. Actually, I messed up quite a bit this class, especially in Miami. I think it was still really freshly dealing with Pop-pop, I was just kind of out of it for a lot of the class. But I also caught Anna-san’s eye and received a smile several times, which was nice.
We worked on another part, which incorperates the Jazz Square, but I was doing it wrong, so Namio called from the front of the room, and showed me how to do it right, as did Anna-san with him, and when I copied Namio Anna-san kept saying ‘Right, right right.’ (Sou sou sou),approvingly.
Then we did Yagyugaiden, which was easier, because it’s really inside my body now for the most part, so I didn’t mess up as much.
Lastly, we free danced to the opening (the can can song from Moulin Rouge) and the All of LoveJunx song (Shanghai Honey by Orange Range, who happen to be from Okinawa), which made me happy, because I’d been wanting to do some more free dancing, since we did Beat and Battles last class. During Shanghai Honey, I happened to be right near to Anna-san, who was also dancing, facing me, really, and it was fun to watch her, and see how she danced to the song, which has a sharper rap-like beat which invites a lot of jerky stops on the beats, and it was fun to see her taking advantage of those, and not only stopping on them, but doing a lot of leaning, and more rock-like moves like that.
After class, I had to go get my CD from Emi-chan, and she was talking to Anna-san about the Tanoshii group’s dance and asking her to make it cute, and I said, ‘Emi-chan, I don’t think there is a dance that could make you cute’, and Anna-san laughed and said, ‘Well said, A-chan!’ and I laughed because I had said it because I knew that if I didn’t Anna-san herself would say something along those lines, because that’s how she teases people. LOL
Yayoi-san and Takako-san and I were walking out of the building together, and we turned around to see Namio and Anna-san. Namio left before everyone else, and said ‘Otsukare!’, and we all said good-bye and Otsukare to Anna-san as she was waiting for the elevator. As we were walking out, I looked back again, and waved to her with a big smile, and she waved back at me with a big smile, and it made me really happy.

 
Last night Kara and Buri and Erika and I had our own little Thanksgiving, where we ate pudding and went around in a circle saying what we were thankful for. I have admit at first I was skeptical, I wasn't sure if I was in the mood, as I was feeling very emotionally drained. But I'm so glad that we did it, because I think I really needed a chance to step back and really think about all the things I'm thankful for, because there are so many. It was also a great chance just to talk to and be with Buri and Kara, and it really made me see them in a new light, how truely caring and thoughtful Kara really is, in a wonderful simple way, and how their faith helps them and makes them strong, and how it really can be a very good, positive thing. Most of all right now, I want to say that I'm thankful for every single person that is in my life right now, and to have had Pop-pop as long as we did, and Leslie as well, and that every single one of you helps me all the time, more than you will ever know.

EDIT: I just want to thank everyone for e-mails that have been sent to me, for knowing exactly what I needed to hear. I love you all more than I can ever say!!

 
Pop-pop passed away today at 7:30 PM US time. I got a call from Mom about it today ( I spent two hours figuring out how to return her call, and finally the Ryugakuseika let me use their phone). He was in the hospital for the past week or two, but he was going to go home today. As he was getting ready to go home, he had a massive stroke, passing away without regraining consciousness. Mom says he died very quickly and painlessly. But it:s a big shock, because it was so sudden. She was signing the hospital release papers just hours before he passed away. She and Hank are at Nana's now. I asked her how Nana was, but Mom says she says shes just numb right now. She asked if I wanted to talk to her, but I was still in shock and I didn't know what I could say, and apparently when Mom mentioned talking to me, Nana started crying. Which made me start crying again when I heard that, but she put her on the phone for a moment. I was crying and Nana was crying and all I could do was tell her that I loved her very much, and she told me she loved me as well. It's just so sudden. I mean, Pop-pop was 89, I knew he wouldn't be around forever, but it's so sudden. Tomorrow's thanksgiving, and the family is going to spend it at an Italian Restaurant apparently, and it kind of made me laugh, how can you be thankful when your husband/father/grandfather has just passed away? But Mom said that Nana said that she wants to celebrate Pop-pop's life, because he had a long and happy one, so I guess that's just what we'll have to do, each in our own way.
I don't know.

 
Today was a holiday, although I’m not sure what holiday, so we had no school. So, like most holidays, we had Hyper class. It was early in the morning, but luckily it was at the Olympic Center today, so I only had to get up at 9 AM. Maiko-san was here today, and when I walked in, she said ‘A-chan! Good Morning!!’, in her cute English, with a big smile, and held out her arms to hug me, so we hugged. Yay. Still in English, she asked, ‘How are you?’ I said ‘Good. How are you?’ She paused for a moment, and then said. ‘Good! GUUUU!!!’ with a big grin, saying that that was as far as her English went, and tried to get Umi-chan, a little 2nd grader Hyper member to say ‘Hi’ in English, but she was too shy. LOL So we all talked for a while, and then finally Anna-san announced that the lesson would begin. Apparently both Anna-san and her okaasan have colds, and Anna-san has been sleeping all the time she hasn’t been teaching this past week, but I was suprised to see both Anna-san and her okaasan had those cold masks on. Anna-san did about half the lesson with the mask on, and about half with it off. Today all the instructors were there, Namio, Maiko-san, Atsushi, and even Yuuta, who at one point was doing his spinning on one hand helicopter move he did in our Live in June. LOL. This lesson the TV crew who are apparently filming stuff for the documentary which is supposed to be shown on TV next Spring, was there, and they spend the time filming Atsushi and Yuuta and this Pop boy Yuuichiro, whom they were teaching/practicing a dance with, as well as more pointless seeming things. Poor Anna-san got filming with her mask. I was happy because at one point Yuuta has his hair down, so Yuuta with his hair down will be preserved on film. LOL But I jump ahead. So, anyway, today the exercises were lead, suprisingly, by Maiko-san, and Yuuichiro-kun. Once again, it was really fun to watch Maiko-san do the exercises, because she really does move so expressively, and there’s such an innate femininity/sexiness about her movements. So even the old exercises look new and interesting. Then, Anna-san announced that since we hadn’t done any freestyle dancing in a while, we were going to do Beat. This made me happy, because I was just thinking we’d only done Beat once since I came back from the summer. So I grinned, and Anna-san saw and grinned back at me. We did Beat to two songs, which was a lot of fun, and after, we did Group Battle. I Battled with Uchida-san, which was fun. Maiko-san did a really cool sexy move during the battle, where she squatted down with her arms up over her head and did a little thust thingy. She’s such a good dancer, especially free-style, you can so tell that she was the leader of B.B., she’s so good at battling. After, we worked on ‘Miami’, polishing up the group parts, and things like that. My group (Anna-san has finally rememebered the name for it, as she said with a smile today) had to do ours a couple times, mostly because our facial expressions looked so frantic. LOL Anna-san danced a little this class, for example, Sachiko-san was the only person in her group, and not really sure on the dance, so Anna-san went over it with her. When Emi-chan’s group (which was only her and Atsuko-san today) went, Emi-chan messed up or something, because Anna-san told her, half-laughing, ‘You don’t have to look so scared, I’m not going to get angry!’ There was one part of the dance we all went over, where we do a jazz square, and bend down for part of it, where we had to keep doing it, because ‘someone’, kept doing the entire thing bent down, as Anna-san did an imitation of. The ‘someone’ turned out to Atsuko-san, who laughed about it, and we all laughed and it was amusing. Then we went over Yagyugaiden, because Anna-san said that it was starting to look a little rough-edged. So we went through the whole thing, and also various pieces of it. I decided that I should pretend I was Tom, from Last Samurai, being the only gaijin in a very Asian song (we’re supposed to be ninjas), but unfortunately this did more to amuse me than it did make me in a serious ‘fighting’ mood, so I kept randomly smiling during it. At times during our breaks, and sometimes during what didn’t seem to be our break, the puppies and Yuuichiro would take over the floor to be filmed doing their dance. It was actually fun to watch Atushi, who had this great smile on his face, and looked like he was having fun. It was so cute. Yuuta wasn’t smiling as much this time, he looked more serious. He was also the one who asked Anna-san if it was getting better.
After class, Emi-chan came up to talk to me about our group for the individual groups dances. Our group, the Fun group, is mostly made up of the chuugakusei and even younger kids, and we haven’t even figured out a song. So Emi wondered if we should have Anna-san choreograph our dance etc for us, because it didn’t look like we were getting anywhere, especially with everyone being so young and the chuugakusei being very opinionated and clique-y. So we decided that might be best, and went and asked Anna-san, who said that she would. When I was going to leave, Maiko-san came over and squeezed my hands and said ‘A-chan otsukare!’ And when I said Otsukare to ZinRye’s direction, they all said Otsukare back, even Atushi and Yuuta, which was cool. But we ended up riding in the elevator with the Anna-san, her okaasan, and the Instructors. Anna-san was standing next to me, and she asked, ‘A-chan, does it look like you’ll be able to be in the Live?’ I said no, because of the airfare. And she said, ‘That’s such a shame.’ Which made me happy, because Anna-san wants me to be in the Live! Hee hee. Then Uchida-san said they were trying to think of a way to get me over. If everyone wants me to be there so much, and I want to be there so much, I shouldn’t give up yet.
On the train ride home, Sachiko-san and I talked about how Namio and Maiko-san are too much alike, both wanting to stand out, and be in the center of things, and loved and all of that, and so that’s why Namio seems to be in a bad mood when Maiko-san is there. Because he wants to be important and stand out and all, but Maiko-san was the leader in B.B, so she’s ‘higher’ and plus she’s a natural instructors, whereas...well, he still has a long way to go, in terms of instructing.

 
Yesterday I had a huge shock when I went to buy my Vivi magazine, right there near it was one of those half manga half photos of bikini idols men's magazines, Shonen Sunday, I believe, and who should be on the cover, but.... Minami-chan!! Minami-chan from Actor's the amazing dancer with the amazing heart, smile, and the amazing body! So of course I had to look in it, and it's photos of her in a white bikini that actually looks more like underwear than a bikini, in some pretty sexy poses. She's really beautiful. Which is not the point. ahem. There were about two paragraphs by her, talking about how she wants to move people through her singing and dancing, but...considering the pictures, it was just kind of sad. According to the little blurb, she's 18, which I didn't know (hadn't actually thought about her age. I suppose it's better than it could be since this is the country which has 16 year old bikini idols, but still....) and she's also coming out with her first photo book and DVD in December. I had heard a rumour of this earlier. However, I have also heard that her debut single was supposed to come out this month, but of course there was nothing about that. Which makes me mad, because of course only her career as a bikini idol is going forward, while her singing career, what she actually really wants to do, what she is quite talented enough to do, is getting pushed aside, put on hold, whatever. Not given precedence, at the very least. Which is just so typical. This just makes me angry. And what about Makino, with all his 'I'm children's ally' stuff? Doesn't he mean 'dirty men', or 'people out to use girls for quick cash'? What about all his 'the entertainment world is dirty and corrupt' stuff? Isn't he letting his students get involved in arguably the most dirty and corrupt part of it? I mean, posing in underwear for men to jerk off to? The thing is, this is one of the 'entry ways' to the entertainment world, and, if you've got the body Minami-chan does, a much better sell than singing. And I'm sure she's just doing this to get her foot in the door, to get popular so she can have a chance at what she really needs to do. But I think it's below Actor's, or at least, Actor's as it used to be. I mean, I'm pretty sure she's not doing this against her will, I don't think they could force her into it, if she didn't like it, she didn't have to sign a contract, could have refused, could have even quit Actor's if she wanted, but still. I just wish she didn't have to do this. Didn't think she had to so this. I mean, this doesn't make her a bad person or anything, it's just...she's so much better than this. (The thing is, I will probably be a hypocrite and buy her photobook, because well, maybe if she suceeds, they'll let her debut as a singer, and I mean, if she wants to be doing this... Plus, she doesn't come to Hyper anymore, and really really like her. We'll see. This is so hypocritical it makes me ashamed of myself, but what can you do? There's no hypocracy you can't justify, if that's what you want to do.)


Also....they've ruined my Atsuta fantasies!!! Apparently Yuuta has a girlfriend!! Not just any girlfriend, apparently he's dating Minami-chan!!!Apparently they've been dating for a while, and it may or may not have something to do with Yuuta leaving Actor's, because students aren't allowed to date each other. Apparently she says at his apartment when she's in Tokyo, and the first day she came to Hyper, she was wearing his dancing clothes and his sneakers. And she's the one who braided his hair in all those little braids that one time, etc. Also, apparently he knows that she's a bikini idol, and apparently he doesn't care. I really don't know what kind of guy wouldn't care that his girlfriend's in magazines in bikinis for other men to drool over, but... The consensus at Hyper is that he is probably proud of it. That his girlfriend is that hot. I mean, how could you bear it otherwise? If you didn't think of it as something to boast of? Also, they are both trying to get into the entertainment world, and might do anything if it gave them the chance to debut. Maybe he has a different sense of this kind of thing, maybe he's desensitized to it all. I don't know. At any rate, I'm still shocked that they've going out. But I guess it's the best match it could be, because I like both of them a lot. And they would make a damn beautiful couple. (LOL) And it doesn't change how Yuuta acts with Atsushi, so I will keep on slashing till the bitter end. LOL

Aside from this shocking tidbit, I learned a bit more about Atushi and Yuuta etc today. First, we were talking about Maiko-san, and how good an instructor she is, and that apparently Anna-san really wants her to continue to be one, because she's so suited to it. And this lead to how she doesn't seem to get along well with ZinRye. For example, Namio only speaks to her when he has to, although Maiko is polite and sometimes tries to talk to him. Apparently Maiko is very easily hurt, because she's so nice, and works hard to be polite to them, which is making her a bit stressed out. But, people were saying that it didn't used to be like this, that at least in the beginning, they were close. Apparently before Namio bought his own apartment in Tokyo, he and Atsushi and Maiko-san slept side by side on futons in Anna-san's house. (Which is such a cute image!) (Apparently Yuuta came to Tokyo the same time as Atushi, but he went back to Okinawa for a bit to finish getting his driver's liescience) Also, there was a period when Atsushi and Yuuta and Namio all lived together, sleeping in the same tiny room in Namio's tiny apartment.

Lastly, I learned a bit about the puppies from Odagawa-kun, who is one of our Hyper members, and also a Pop instructor. He said that Atsushi is so cute, and will call him at 3 AM and say, 'Let's chat'. I guess he gets lonely. He said that Atushi won't make it in entertainment though, because he's selfish. He goes to a lot of auditions, and gets picked for a lot of them, but turns them down because he decides they aren't what he wants to do. (Apparently he was picked for the live action SailorMoon, but turned it down! Aww, imagine he could have been Tuxedo Kamen!!) The problem is, he has too much pride, and isn't willing to do anything where he has to hide his own individuality/character, so he can't get into roles enough to act.
As for Yuuta, Odagawa-kun says that he has more of a chance to make it, because he has something really distinctive about him, but who knows. He also said Yuuta has more female friends than male. (ooh, playboy!Yuuta? LOL)
We've decided that maybe the puppies are spoiled from being the top members in B.B WAVES for so long, and they can't understand the thought of having small parts now, or that you have to take jobs you don't really want to do so you can then get to the jobs you want more. They don't understand what it's like to work really hard at something you don't like. I mean, they're very very good at working amazing hard at what they do like. But...for example, neither of them have jobs, other than being instructors at LJ. They did have part time jobs in the beginning (I know Atsushi worked at a bakery), but they decided it was 'kitsui' (too tough), and they quit. Both of their families send them money from Okinawa. Said, Otagawa, who hadn't slept in a long time, and seemed very bitter today (calling Anna-san 'Makino Anna' when he referred to her), as much as he likes them, they are less than most people because they don't know the meaning of hard work (at something they don't like) and they don't have any real job skills. But I would take what Odagawa-kun said today with a grain of salt, because like I said, he was very overtired and bitter.

Speaking of Anna-san, we've decided that it must be stress that's making her physical problems, because she really does everything herself, and works so hard, and doesn't relax enough. There was also a bit of talk about how she has to decide everything herself, and likes to have people around her that won't disagree, which sounds a bit like her father, etc, but this doesn't actually suprise me, because she definately is her father's daughter in many ways, many good ways, so it would make sense that she had some of his not as good qualities as well, but also because I really don't think you can have spend half your life in charge/ instructing, and not be that way. On the train, Tano-san and I also talked about the whole thing with her and B.B, and how if you working with her all the time, you were sure to butt heads at some point over something, and how she is so stubborn that she would never give in. Which can also be a good thing. We also said that she's a lot better off now that she's away from Makino. From all accounts, even her own, she is definately a much nicer person now. And, I mean, as you all know, she's a wonderful person. I mean she really has a wondeful heart. This something that Hank, who appears to be a very insightful judge of character, picked up on, the same time he picked up on the fact that Makino was a bit slippery and sleazy, etc, back when I worshiped him. She's a really sweet lady; she's golden. That was what he said. And it's really true. But I guess that point is that I'm just accepting that she's not perfect. Or something like that, because we all know I would keep on loving her no matter what anyone said.

Let's see, more tidbits, her older brother, who Anna-san loves very much, and who was always the sweetest brother ever, according to her, worrying over her, and sending her care packages when she was being an idol in Tokyo, is named is Akihiro (born when Makino was still 'normal' and not yet obsessed with America LOL), and he was called 'Mackey' in his International School. Also, apparently Makino has two young children (I wonder if they have 'American' names like Anna-san), who are in elemetary school, with his new wife, which I had no clue about. So he hasn't actually pretty much disowned ALL his children. Yet. Speaking of his children, we were talking about Takeshi, and how bad we feel for him, stuck playing beach football,and not being able to dance, and how he really must want to quit, but he can't, for a lot of reasons, one that Makino would never let him go, because he's practically Makino's adopted son (I mean, for awhile his stage name was 'Makino Takeshi', and because he's just too nice, and indepted to Makino so much. Also, Tano-san said that Takeshi said he felt betrayed by Atsushi, because he said he was quitting Actor's to become a model in Tokyo, but them he came here and is still dancing and an instructor at LJ, and Takeshi doesn't understand why he had to lie. But Tano-san theorized that it wasn't all a lie, because apparently he did try to become a model in the beginning, but it didn't work, and so Anna-san picked him up from it, and plus, he had to give a reason like that, or Makino would never have let him go.