concert and companion

01/25/10 room, evening- After finishing the last entry I ate lunch and worked on stuff until 2 when I started getting ready. I started a little early b/c a sudden impulse seized me and I did something different with my hair for the concert. I just left a chunk of it partially out of the braid. I thought it looked ok. I finished getting ready at 3 and puttered around until 3:20 then left for the bus stop (I gotta be more productive). I took the train and then subway to Sakae. The concert hall was right next to the subway station so I got there right on time. I found my section and sat down with Amanda and Tana. Kyu (I still don’t know if I’m spelling that lad’s name right) was supposed to sit in our section as well but never showed. The others were scattered in the other two sections of box seats. They were good seats. Tana said my hair looked nice. I said it had looked better before I had gotten on the subway. The concert started and the first set of songs was traditional Japanese ones. It was really different but I thought it was enjoyable. Then it was intermission and we all went up to the buffet floor. It cost money to get the food, which were actually only sandwiches (albeit fancy ones) and cake. Plus there was a huge line of people already standing there so I didn’t get anything. ;( Amanda braved the line and got a sandwich which she said was good but very small. “It was like a small sandwich cut in half and then folded,” she said.

I was surprised to find that a lot of the other students weren’t in nice clothes. Sam had a tee shirt and khaki pants on. I wouldn’t have cared so much if I hadn’t put so much time into getting ready myself (mainly my hair). I was peeved that most of the others hadn’t even tried. That’s it, I am done with dressing up. I hate doing it and it seems to be becoming more and more unnecessary in this day and age. So I am officially swearing it off. If the other students can get away with it so can i. On the other end of the spectrum however was Katrina, and Apiah. They seemed over dressed next to the rest of us. They live in the same dorm together and go shopping almost everyday. They were dressed to the nines. I think for some people dressing up is a hobby and for some (like me) it is a chore. Well I am going to stop talking about what people were wearing now b/c I am officially disgusted with myself and fed up with the subject. I apologize for that boring topic.

Anyway, intermission was about over so I headed back to my seat and took a few pictures of the theater on the sly b/c I wasn’t sure if it was allowed or not. Then when the music began again we were surprised to find that they had switched to modern Japanese music. I wouldn’t call it pop, not even Jpop. It sounded modern but some of the instruments were the traditional ones. I liked it, whatever it was (but I like most music, I am really easy to impress when it comes to music. If it sounds nice and doesn’t have horrible lyrics I generally am fine with it.) The crowd liked it too. There were a couple encores and curtain calls. Amanda especially enjoyed it and started a group clap for an encore. At least it seemed like she started it because after Tana and I started following her everyone was suddenly doing it. Afterwards I tried to find Satoshi Sensei but he wasn’t there. Only his assistant Kaede san was there. I will have to remember to email him about reimbursing me. Most people wanted to go to Outback Steakhouse afterwards but both Erin and I wanted to go the Oasis (big structure with a massive fountain on top, and shops and an ice rink on the bottom), and the Nagoya tower to take pictures (both of which were right next door. We were both happy to have someone to go with b/c we started talking and found out that we both have a tendency to shy away from the group activity and end up being alone. We both agreed that we didn’t mind being alone but we both had to admit that it’s not very safe. Maybe if there are two of us like that on this trip we can go off and do our own thing AND not get chewed out by our parents and other adult authority figures AND not be asocial.

We walked / danced (there was rap music playing in the Oasis and Erin started dancing to it. I made sure to get a shot of it) around the Oasis for a while and got a lot of pictures. We both took some of the other with the other’s camera so our parents wouldn’t be upset that we weren’t in any of our own pictures (we actually seemed to have a lot in common). We talked about anime and cats and cats IN anime and usually being the asocial one in the group (by everyone else’s definition) and how we both needed to get home early (like before 10 preferably). We were the ideal companions that night. We paid the lousy six hundred yen to go to the top of the Nagoya Tower and got more amazing shots (so I guess it was worth the price). Then we walked to the subway and parted ways because we were taking separate lines. It is almost dinnertime (and I am not late for meals) so I will attempt to get to the present after dinner. (18:13)