Tensions were running high yesterday as we gathered at Terminal Kyoto at 1:55PM. We had about 3-4 hours of practice with Mitsue-san, our translator, before the actual presentation. For some reason, I kept calling it a performance; I still don’t quite know why, but the stress present was very similar to one. I’ll have to admit, there was not much time to take pictures this day!
Before practice time, Joanne and I met at around 10 to once again review our presentation, which we did the night before as well in a group and edited as well. As all the shops around Teramachi opened at 11, we had quite a bit of time, but didn’t manage to leave until around 11:30 due to various hold ups (though, mostly on my part). We hit up Loft briefly, setting brisk schedules for each store. I bought some false eyelashes and good eyelash glue, neither of which I probably needed, but they’ll probably come in hand for cosplay. Loft itself seems just like a classy lifestyle department store. After Loft, we trekked over to Tokyu Hands, where I had to buy some holographic paper, yet again for a cosplay. It’s quite blurry in my memory now, but there was likely a Daiso trip somewhere in there, because I have a bag from yesterday from Daiso with things inside, as yet again I probably made some gut purchases. I went back with Joanne so we could change, and it was rather giri-giri but we managed to grab onigiri and fried chicken from the Lawson 100 and set a brisk pace to Terminal Kyoto.
We practiced thoroughly with Mitsue-san, who I have so much respect for, as she was able to make fluid translations for everyone’s presentations essentially on the fly, which must have been very difficult. Kagaya-sensei and Sachi-san helped a lot as well. After this time, we took a quick break and stress ate some snacks, and then finally came back to the Terminal to do our presentation in the tatami room.
Honestly, the only thing I can say about the presentation was that it went by very fast. We were each up there for about 30 minutes, including translations, but it really didn’t feel like 30 minutes. The whole 2 hour event was really quite short, and before I knew it, it was over. That was definitely for the better. I was actually very glad for the practice we had before, because it ironed out a lot of things that would have become difficult otherwise. We had a very attentive audience that I was very appreciative for, and Takabayashi Shinji-sensei and Monica Bethe-sensei came to watch our presentation, which I was very happy about, as we presented about our reactions to their workshops and lectures. It is definitely with their help, and the help of Monomo, that I was able to experience all of these Japanese traditional arts and crafts on a much deeper and more appreciative level.
Afterwards, the afterparty! We had incredible catering from a place nearby, that had also catered last year for the party as well. It is called BARMANE, and the food was absolutely delicious. We had potato dishes, paella, bread, fish on toasted bread: I wish I took a picture or could tell you the exact names of the dishes, because I went for seconds and cleared my plate, something I don’t do often. But if you’re in the area, you can find it on tabelog here: https://tabelog.com/en/kyoto/A2601/A260201/26027551/ and also through Google! It’s also a small restaurant that is cozy and friendly as well, definitely great for travelers.
At this time, I, as well as many others, definitely felt freed from stress and ready to enjoy ourselves fully. While I loved learning about everything, the pressure really mounted, and it was good to have this party and talk about all of our time together. And get some cute pictures!
We wound down, and I had a nice talk in the table with Kagaya-sensei, Takabayashi-sensei, Kei-san, Leah, and Breelyn. It was good to be able to talk to them using my Japanese skills, and I was a little bit surprised at how I could express my ideas and questions fairly fluidly. I like to think that I am improved with my Japanese bit by bit! But, I definitely still have a long way to go, as Leah and I also talked about our forgetting of simple kanji, and asked each other vocabulary questions of words we definitely should have known.
After the afterparty was the… after after party. Kagaya-sensei gave us one request: don’t get in trouble with the police or have her get a phone call from them. That seemed easy enough to fulfill! But, it was a wild night and it might be better to not upload photos (not that I have any) just out of respect for people there because it was a Time. Yes, capital T. However, here’s a small list of “highlights” with names censored:
- Somebody using the karaoke table (it was a private room, but regardless) as a runway while singing
- Desperately moving glasses away from said somebody using the table as a runway
- At least 3 glasses spilling and multiple table items falling onto the floor
- Surprisingly, nothing broken!
- Realizing that we were mainly just singing breakup/love songs
- Talks somewhere along the way about the nature of romantic relationships
- Somebody putting in unravel from Tokyo Ghoul into the karaoke queue
- Watching somebody act the most like a drunken salaryman that I’ve ever seen
- Yelling
- Screaming
- “I literally can’t sing anymore”
- Drink bar and ice cream!
Well, that’s my recap! We got back quite late and I even showered but wasn’t in bed until around 3AM. Otherwise, it went well!
