Sunday was a very long, very tiring day. The reason for this was that Sunday was the final recital for my Japanese dance class, which I have been taking all school year. The performance was on an actual Noh stage, and for the occasion all six of us exchange students were dressed in beautiful kimono that we were able to rent for free from a bridal company with which our teacher has a long-standing relationship. Mine was bright red with a rose pattern, and my obi was gold and dark brown. Everyone looked amazing. The only thing is, once we were dressed, we could not eat or slouch or use the bathroom. For almost six hours. The first piece that I danced was called ‘Takasago’, which was the dance that we’d all learned during the spring semester. Five of us learned it, but we were split into two groups, one with two people (my group) and the other with three. The most difficult part was staying the same relative distance away from my dance partner the whole time, especially because I had about four inches on her in height. The second piece that I was in was ‘Sakura’, which we’d learned during the fall semester, and which also went very well. In between the two dances, and then between ‘sakura’ and the end of the program, there was a very long time spent sitting still in full view of the audience, on a bench, where we were supposed to wait. That was the hard part. After a couple of hours, my back got very sick of being held stiffly in one place, and my legs hurt from trying to sit without crossing them at all. I only realized that I was ravenously hungry when we finally got undressed because the obi was extremely tight. I don’t believe that I’ve mentioned here my beer saga. Because we were able to rent our kimono free of charge, we were told by our dance teacher that we were to get a gift of Asahi beer, the price to be split between all six of us. The gift was supposed to come from a nice department store, where they would wrap it nicely and put a special sort of paper on it called a ‘noshi’ that would have all of our names on it. I volunteered to find this beer, and for the week leading up to the performance I went to every major department store that I could looking for a packaged Asahi beer gift of the correct price, to no avail: everywhere I went was sold out. Finally, I asked my dance teacher if the gift could come from the somewhat less than glamorous Liquor Mountain, which I knew would have a decent stock, and might even deliver the beer (it was going to be a significant amount, about two cases) to the theatre itself so that I would not have to attempt to carry it myself. This was okay, so I went there, bought the beer, told them to wrap it nicely and have it delivered. Well, when it arrived at the theatre I was shocked: in a country where wrapping things is quite culturally important, the two plain cases of beer had been wrapped in hideous paper that didn’t even cover the whole box. The stickers from the delivery service were prominently stuck onto the top of it, and I could tell from looking through the wrapping that they had only put *my* name on the noshi paper. After the performance, I brought the beer down to show to our dance teacher, so that I could apologize for its hideousness. My teacher looked at it and said ‘Ah, you bought the actual beer? Not a beer ticket?’ I wanted to cry. We took off the paper, everyone wrote their names on the noshi, and then, because our teacher said that it was too heavy for her to take to the kimono rental place herself, she asked us to get it there instead. Now, the rental place is within easy walking distance of the theatre…if you aren’t carrying two cases of beer. I volunteered. I got about two blocks before my friend said that I should just call a cab. By the time I got home my whole body ached and I was positively starving. My host family had been kind enough to come see me dance ‘Takasago’, and even gave me a congratulatory gift when I got home. It was a learning experience, but I’m glad that it’s over.
-Make sure that you completely understand your instructions before attempting to carry them out.
-A case of beer is very heavy. Two cases of beer together are much *too* heavy.
-Liquor Mountain wraps things like a frat boy, do not buy gifts there.
-‘Toraya’ (a famous Japanese sweets store, most famous for its red bean jelly) has service that makes you feel like someone very important, but don’t go there in a hurry, as it seems to take the entire staff to ring up and wrap two gifts.
-When in doubt, buy food at the convenience store.
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