Shinsaibashi Fun!

Purikura

I haven’t been to Osaka in awhile, so today I went and met up with my friend who lives there.  We went shopping in Shinsaibashi which is a sprawling shopping district where SO many people squeeze in to shop!  We did a bunch of window shopping and a little real shopping, as well.  I think my favorite shop was Bodyline which had a large assortment of frilly cute skirts, dresses and accessories.  Even their shoes were adorable.  God, I wanted to wear the whole store!!!  In the end, I liked so many things that I didn’t buy anything!  Alas!  To end the day, we did Purikura.  I’m so bad at using Purikura machines, but it was still really fun.

三船祭!

Kurumazaki Jinja Mifune Matsuri

Mifune Matsuri was amazing.  I arrived at Kurumazaki Jinja around 11am and was able to hear sensei play for the ceremony before kami-sama embarked for Arashiyama.

I took Randen to Arashiyama and enjoyed the many boats on the water.  There was bugaku, a maiko-san, court dancing and of course gagaku  I was able to snap some pictures, though my distance photos are a bit blurry since I don’t have good enlargement capability on my phone.  Anyway, I haven’t uploaded any to wordpress yet, but I did put some of them on facebook, so I will attach the link here!  Please enjoy:  Mifune Matsuri

Miyako, bread, and Mifune!

Strolling in Gion

It has been awhile since I last posted!  Seems that time just keeps moving so quickly…and I can’t stop to catch my breath!  Beautiful life.

I think since the last post, I attended Gion’s Miyako Odori.  I sat in the tatami seat section on the right so that I had a view of Maiko musicians across the theater.  Those seats ended up being my favorite; I really enjoyed the view from above.  Moreover, the seats are so comfortable because of being able to position oneself comfortably.  Some of Miyako Odori was very moving – I particularly felt moved by the 大物浦判宮船出 act.  It was very beautifully danced and I felt at times that I might cry at the pathos or at other times frightened by the storm and conflict.  On the day that I attended, some Kamishichiken Maiko and Geiko attended as well and I was fortunate enough to be served tea and sweets next to them beforehand!

Some time after that, Teruyo and I traveled to Ikoma-shi in Nara to study bread making from a sweet obaasan that she knows.  We spent the entire day baking and eating.  What a fun experience!!!  Here are some pictures of our bread:

BREAD in Ikoma!

Finally, was able to restart my Manyoshu lessons (万葉集レッスン) with N-sensei.  As usual, the topics during lesson day tend to range from poem analysis to 古典 grammatical structures and tangent into early Buddhism and Zen Buddhist philosophy (one of sensei’s favorite subjects).  By the end of our 3 hour lesson, I remembered how much my brain feels like it ran a marathon!  (笑)

Additionally, I have been continuing my ryuteki lessons.  I’m finding it difficult to adequately practice since I work until evening every day and have various other obligations during my “free time.”  However, I try even just to practice the uta (in my head) on my train commutes and that is good for my sight-reading practice.  Currently, I am learning 雞徳 (Keitoku) which has some tricky passages that are longer phrases requiring better breath control.  We practiced with sensei’s wife (who plays Sho) and that added an extra layer of complexity – tuning during ensemble playing.  Seems I need to practice more!!  頑張ります！

Speaking of ryuteki, I am attending tomorrow’s Mifune Matsuri in Arashiyama.  My teacher will be playing ryuteki in a gagaku ensemble on one of the boats.  Naoko and I will meet up at Kurumazaki Jinja and follow the boats as they travel on the river.  I’m really looking forward to it ^__^

I’m still catching up on so many things, so I haven’t uploaded any photos from Odori programs.  I hope I can do that sometime soon, but I’m not sure whether or not it’s possible.  Seems that these days when I have free time, all I want to do is relax and have a drink.  Haha! ^___^;

京をどり

Maggie visited me from Tokyo this weekend and we attended Miyagawa-cho’s Kyo-Odori dance recital.  It was fantastic.  It was my first time in Miyagawa-cho’s kaburenjo and it was really beautiful and small enough to feel intimate.  I had a seat along the hanamichi so I could get a good view not only of the main stage but also of the seated jikata geiko.  What a treat!!

I was particularly excited to see 菊つる-san dance in person.  I’ve always loved her style and elegance even since she was a maiko.  She makes a stunningly beautiful geiko and she hasn’t lost any of her eye-catching charm in the transition.  It was a pleasure to see her perform <3 <3 <3

I’ve been lazy lately about uploading photos, but expect to see some scans from Kyo Odori and Kyoto and Asuka hanami pictures sometime in the (near) future!!

Got sick of Japanese hair dye with its bleaching properties, so I begged Maggie to bring me some American hairdye and I successfully dyed my hair back to my favorite blue black tonight.  Voila!  It’s my first time to dye my hair when it’s this long…I was pretty nervous!!!  I’m glad it didn’t make a huge mess!!!

blue black hair

Weekend Bliss

Since I started my new job, I now have weekends free again!! Not only am I extremely pleased about this (and my body, too, with the extra sleep!) but I’ve had more time to do things again — such as cooking! Tonight I made a curry. It’s an Indian yellow curry base with lime juice, zatar, cayenne pepper, and chopped green chiles. I added chicken and poached egg (温泉卵). I topped it with more zatar. I can’t get enough of that spice! Not a great picture, but take a look!!

I will miss them AGAIN!!!

UGH! I can’t believe I’m going to miss them again ;____;
I promised myself that this year I would attend all the Odori for the hanamachi in Kyoto, but somehow Kitano Odori crept up on me again. Their last dance is on the 7th and I’m not paid again until the 10th, so once again I will not be attending. I’m extremely bummed out about it ;____; I want to go *pout*
北野をどりに行けへん；＿＿＿＿＿＿；とほほ…

new start!

Back to my wonderful black hair…though I think it’s still mad at me for bleaching it earlier ;____; Gomen, hair!

Started my new job and am really enjoying it so far. A lot of new things to learn, so I’m feeling both anxious and excited for the upcoming month.

Everyone got food gifts to take home today – they were all different – radishes, yuba, cucumbers, dried fish, mochi….I have a GINORMOUS sakura mochi sitting on my shelf now I can’t wait to devour it with friends! Yatta!!!!