Japanese dance!

Today was an awesome day :-) I found a Japanese dance teacher/studio! I found her on the web through the yahoo Japan yellow pages actually almost two weeks ago. I went to visit her studio one weekday afternoon, hoping to meet somebody, but nobody was there. I called the studio on the phone once, but got scared when nobody picked up and the answering machine went on, so I hung up before leaving a message. This morning, I finally had the guts to call again and have an actual conversation with the teacher (Hanayagi-sensei). She was surprisingly friendly and said that since class was happening that afternoon, I was welcome to go and visit. So I showed up on time at 1:30pm (actually, that was a half an hour early), chatted with the teacher as much as I could, and watched as some of the other students came in. The first student was a 6th grade girl who didn't say a word throughout the whole lesson! It was a little bit odd to me. The next was a very nice lady who is a Japanese teacher at a different university in Matsuyama. Though she didn't speak any language other than Japanese, because of being a language teacher, she was very good at interpreting and anticipating my broken Japanese. I was going to stay just for her lesson and then go, but then the teacher lent me a kimono, obi (sash), and all the undergarments. By then two or three more students, both middle-aged oldish ladies had arrived and dressed, and they all urged me to give it a go! So, one of the other ladies took me to the dressing area and helped me put on my undergarments and kimono, and two of them tied my obi for me! One of them even lent me an extra set of her tabi (those Japanese toe socks) and silk ties.

By now, somewhat past 3pm, I started having my own mini-lesson. The teacher picked a maiko-dance for me, asking me "how would you like to be a maiko?" After ascertaining that I actually knew what that was (maiko are basically cute little geisha-in-training), we started the lesson. It was so much fun! Certain movements were familiar in an a-ha! sort of way. It's amazing what an influence your childhood has on you. I'm remembering certain body positions, ways of holding the fan, opening the fan, etc. It was exhilarating. I think in December I will pay the fees and become a regular student, two weekends a month. For November, I think I will go be a student with a bunch of tiny little kids, partly because I don't have so many free weekends in November, and partly because the lessons for the tiny kids are free, and I'll have a bit more time to decide. But basically, since Hanayagi-sensei is lending me all the dance accessories, I won't have a huge outlay like I expected. Her lessons aren't terribly expensive--10,000 yen a month, which roughly comes out to less than $25 per lesson. Considering that the adult lessons are one-on-one, it's not a bad deal. The lessons are rather variable in length, however--mostly less than an hour. The students just show up whenever they want during the designated afternoons and wait their turn. It's an odd, time consuming system, but I suppose it facilitates socializing among the students.

Oh, and another random thing: my teacher way back when in the US was also Hanayagi-sensei. Apparently Hanayagi is the largest school of traditional Japanese dance in Japan, specializing in Kabuki-style dance.

Again, I am amazing by the warm welcoming attitude from everybody, even complete strangers with no vested interest in me, such as Hanayagi-sensei's other students. I can't get over the random gift of the tabi.