The main thing is that Mom was here recently and left for home today. She stayed about a week and overall we had a blast. We went to Ito for the dance festival, like I mentioned before, and it was crazy. All these foreigners (Americans, British, Chinese, Russian, Irish, etc.) crammed into a tiny rental shop somewhere near downtown Ito (which has a pretty coastline and quite a scenic train ride. It strikes me as a cross between the Mediterranean and Costa Rica. It's really weird to think that I look out to the ocean and I'm staring in the direction of California). Anyway, I was led up a steep set of stairs to a tiny room crammed full of kimonos, wide-eyed foreign women, and Japanese ladies yelling and grabbing and tying and wrapping and bending over and hanging up and pinning and re-pinning...the usual, standard scene when 5 Japanese women are trying to dress 20 foreigners in 6 layers of kimonos in a space that is about 15 ft X 5 ft. I hooked on my starched, white toe socks (for thong sandals), and then was told to take of my clothes, which were promptly lost under the carpet of kimono layers that were tossed on the floor. For reasons unclear to me, I was dressed and re-dressed 3 times by 3 different ladies. But all I had to do was stand there in front of a mirror while the rental shop ladies did the work. If this was just a kimono, I wondered what the wedding gear was like.
While I was being dressed, I asked Mom to locate my clothes. By now she was looking great in a green kimono that had the same flower design as my red one. We then realized that bending over in a kimono is a nearly impossible task, because they are tied so tightly and so much fabric is looped, wrapped, and stuffed around your waist. Mom managed to snag my clothes with her toe. (Rescued!) Meanwhile the ladies were pinning my hair with kitchen rubber bands. As far as using the bathroom, well, suffice it to say that no one went.
Downstairs the Chinese girls were doing a much better job of dancing than the Americans. An old Japanese man in a kimono hummed a tune while we awkwardly tried to pick up the steps. After an eternity, and me realizing I couldn't even sit down in my kimono (much less bend over), we were handed shoes and walked through town to the "starting line" of the parade. Luckily an older Japanese lady was in line in front of me, so I had a skilled dancer to demonstrate the moves. Once the parade started I was able to pick it up pretty quickly. It was a rather short routine that repeated over and over. We had about 3 water breaks total and I think we danced / paraded for about 1.5 miles. I've never had so many action shots snapped by strangers in my life. I was exhausted by the end of the night, so the fancy outdoor onsen was a welcome respite after being shrink-wrapped in thick silk. After a hot bath I collapsed into bed. What a cool experience.
But the relaxation didn't last long. Mom and I had to leave our lovely hotel for the speech contest in Numazu, an inconvenient 1.5 hours away on a private train line (oops!). However! That also turned out to be fun, because I saw other ALTs, and most importantly my student won 2nd place! So she will continue to the state / prefectural rounds, and I will continue coaching her after school. The next contest is on October 15.
Unfortunately, with all the commotion I didn't have a chance to take photos. But Mom did, so if she emails me pics I will post them.
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