Voyage Junkie

For our group Halloween party, we decided to go to Nagoya.  We dressed up and headed to a soba restaurant, which ended up being extremely traditional and as such not amenable to doing something gluten-free past plain 100% buckwheat soba and tofu with salt.  The cook actually told me that if he made vegetables without panko (bread crumbs), they wouldn't be delicious, so he wouldn't make them for me.  I was halfway through the food they would bring me when the irony hit me: salt tofu and plain soba was definitely much more delicious without non-breaded veggies than it would have been with said veggies.  Oh well, I'll just stick to making my own soba from now on.  The party was still great fun! Matt went as Harry Potter, which you can see close-up to the left.  He dressed up for school on Monday, too, and his kids went nuts for the costume.  My costume requires a bit more explanation: I dressed as the titular role from the ballet Giselle . ...

Matt as the hungry crocodile. On October 16th, Matt and I worked our second English Concert.  It was great fun, and yet another opportunity for us to engage with the community in a meaningful way.  I was asked to choreograph another ballet, this time to "Think of Me," as part of the "Phantom of the Opera" skit.  I also played Tinkerbell in "Peter Pan," which involved a lot of flitting around and setting off the magic wand at opportune (and inopportune) times.  Matt made a star turn as the crocodile, then came back to play Monsieur Armand in "Phantom." Here I am, pointing out Peter Pan's hideout to Captain Hook (who also played Peter Pan's shadow) and Smee.  The wand, which I borrowed from one of the girls in the ballet, made a ridiculous musical sound when turned on.  I made sure to flip it on whenever I wanted to motion with it, so it rang out with each move of my hand.  Annoying?  Potentially.  Luckily, the skit (and my...

Matt and I attended a Halloween-themed English production on Sunday night. We proudly donned our costumes again and headed out in quite a lot of rain for a three-hour show (yes, THREE HOURS). A mom of one of Matt's students runs a juku ( cram school), and asked me to choreograph a little dance for three girls as part of the show. They wanted to do "Chinese Tea Dance" from The Nutcracker, and I was happy to oblige with a little Western-influenced ballet. The girls are amazing, as you can see from the video. I set the dance in one rehearsal of less than an hour, and practiced it with them only one other time for about a half-hour. What I wouldn't give to be this talented! Check out the video, linked via youtube: Our new ALT friend Tony, who actually taught at both of our schools last year, came and participated as well. He played Sherlock Holmes in one skit: Tony also created "animal charades" where teams of one parent and one child ...

This weekend was full of Halloween fun. Matt and I celebrated like we were kids again, which we haven't done in... well, quite some time. We both dressed up for classes on Friday - I was a pirate and he was the Devil - and then we went out for karaoke on Saturday. Matt stayed the Devil and I became a 50's pop star or something. First, my costume for school: I borrowed Rachael's shirt, put it over leggings, tall brown boots, and a chocolate miniskirt. I added a silver undershirt and a silver headscarf, mis-matched earrings, many bangle bracelets, and old-fashioned necklace, and a black eye. Everyone kept asking me what happened to my eye! They were amazed it was make-up, or as they say, "make." We started spreading a rumor that I got into a fight with the vice-principals (both of them). I gave candy to all my teachers, saying, "Trick-or-treat!" and "happy Halloween!" They loved it. Next, karaoke: We went out with so...