Monday, April 10th, 1989

Note:  This is a series of journal entries from my two years living in Himeji, Japan (1988-1990).  I'm archiving them electronically through my blog.  Last names have been deleted and replaced with first initial only.  For details on this series of blog entries, see this post.

Friday was the opening ceremony for Hinomoto...boring!  It lasted about an hour.  After that we took staff pictures...

...then had an English faculty mtng. 

Saturday I met Dave in Sannomiya.  He was 30 minutes late.  I hate waiting (but for him okay, and he had an excuse, so...).  We went to Hankyu Theater and saw Jodie Foster and Kelly McGillis in "The Accused".  It was really good.  Foster deserved the Oscar for best actress.  The rape scene was horrible!  After the movie we went shopping.  Dave looked at futons and bought a CD holder.

After going to Tokyu Hands we went to Chico's & Charlie's for dinner. Dave bought (because he was late, and consequently I couldn't get to the post office to get money).  We had margaritas and had a nice long chat.  I rode home on the shinkaisoku, and Kimberly & Mitsuko were here when I got here.  (I gave Kimberly my extra key).  We stayed up watching videos & talking until 12:30.

Sunday was D-Day.  We got up at 6:30, and met the E.S.S. girls at the Shirotopia main gate at 8:30. 

We went around to the employee entrance by the Friendship Pavilion and rehearsed till 9:30.  Everyone in the place listened when I sang "Love in Any Language".  It was great!

 Performer's Ticket

After rehearsal Mitsuko, Kim & I went to McDonalds for breakfast, then to the castle to watch 100 women in kimonos play the koto.

We then went to Shirotopia and looked around for awhile.

It was really crowded, so we didn't go to any of the shows.  Our performance was at 1:10.  None of the Hinomoto faculty came.  Surprise, surprise.  Ree, Makiyo, & Masami were there.  They gave me a wonderful bouquet afterwards.  The show went well, but the acoustics were really bad.  It was very hard to hear, and the music wasn't loud enough...otherwise it went well.

After the show we went to the Shirotopia office, and they gave us a gift (a gold coin) and a framed certificate to hang at school.

Then Tomoki, Kim, Mitsuko, & I trekked off to the station.

Mitsuko, Kim & I took the shinkaisoku to church and had choir practice.  Only five people were there (more joined at church time to make a total of about nine).  After choir I picked the evening hymns, then K., M., & I went to Sun Kotobuki for coffee, except no one ordered coffee.

Choir sang in church.  We sang "Seek Ye First", and it went well.  I left right after church because I was exhausted.  I was too tired to even be embarrassed at pulling flowers out of a locker at the station or carrying them home on the train (they're a big bunch).

I went to bed at 10:30.

Today, my only real day of vacation, is being spent cleaning, washing, shopping, writing retreat stuff, teaching Kayo, preparing for classes tomorrow...aaaaaah!