When you don't have a back yard... there's the rooftop.

So what didn’t happen this week?

First Snow

We experienced our first snow day. This past Monday night freezing temperatures and rain clouds convened to create treacherous conditions the following morning. Watching the snow fall Monday night, I kept checking my phone for school closure notices but nothing! Chase got as far out as down the street when I finally got the notice and in my true “Ghetto-style” I was able to open the balcony window and yell at him to come home, school was out today. To which, I swear, he did this sideways leprechaun kick and raced home as fast as he could.

I love how days like this have a way of “putting you in your place”. No matter how determined you are to do something or go somewhere, The Powers That Be will play the weather card, or the car-won’t-start card, or sick kid card and you have to adjust and get through it. I was going to just take Chase with me to TAC (Tokyo American Club) for my 80′s Aerobics class. I was really surprised at how icy and treacherous the roads really were. Big snow clumps and ice falling from skyscraper ledges is nothing to take lightly. We made it to the first major street where we normally hail cabs and there were barely any around. When one finally did stop, he asked where we needed to go and then he very politely said, “Not going there”. So Chase and I had to turn right back around and walk/skate our way back to the apartment.

As far as we got on Snow Day

As we were walking back, Chase and I thought it was so strange that here in Tokyo, Japan, year 2012 we saw men trying to clear the streets using sticks, makeshift looking shovels, and brooms that looked like something the Wicked Witch of the West would ride. Just another ironic moment in Japan.

First Show

In some ways, it was probably a good thing the day was completely canceled because I had a lot of things going on and I had woken up thinking, how the hell am I going to do all this? That evening was also rehearsal night for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat aka The Spring Play. We rehearse every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday evening and as we get closer, we will start working on Saturday and Sunday. It has been a really terrific experience for me to be involved in the project. I was really worried I was just going to be some lame extra appendage to the whole process, but the director seems to like having me around and it’s nice to be part of the Drama Club again. It’s all so Jungian. Last night we were working on the “Hoedown” song. The music director and all the boys were doing it all so beautifully and the soloist had a voice like an angel. It was all wrong. Evidently at this international school, hoedowns are just not part of the list of festivals. There is no “Redneck History Month”. So being the only “Southern” Korean in the room, I proceeded to explain Western Culture and Country music. I referenced Bonnie & Clyde, Young Guns, and Deliverance (just kidding there) and asked the soloist to do some research by listening to some Jerry Jeff Walker (knowing Cliff just came in handy). I asked if any of them had ever heard a Southern accent and they all said no. It was a shocking revelation. So at one point, I had this Broadcast News moment with the soloist where I was standing next to him while he sang. I was basically speaking the lyrics in a Southern accent a beat before he needed to sing it so he could remember “forget” is pronounced “furget”, it isn’t “paradise” it’s “paradahhs”, it isn’t “dead” it’s “day-ed”. It was really funny. I guess when there’s no one in the room from the South, that “new Korean girl from Georgia” will just have to do.

Still from The Gunfighter. "Day-ed as a doornail"

First Toe

As in my Hallux (medical term). Some of you who have been with me from the beginning of this adventure know of my pain. That first and only mani-pedi I had almost 5 months ago. You are also aware that as a result of me trying to get the “most out of my money” on this I gave myself a good case of double black toe. Right now, my big toenails are barely hanging on. I don’t have the guts to pull them off so I am coloring them silver to hide their horrifying color and make them look normal. My secret desire and hope is that one or both of them fall off in one of my yoga classes so I can earn extra yoga points and make Koreans look even more badass. Everyone already thinks I am super serious and hard-core about my exercise and yoga, but I think watching me “tough it out” and having my big toenails fall off during a vinyasa would be the stuff of legends. I’ll keep you all in the loop if this happens.

Ashtanga Instructor from Under The Light

Namaste’

Until next time…