Hula Show

A few weeks ago, I was in my second hula show here in Japan. I waited a while before writing this post hoping that Mike would send me the pictures he took. But, I’m sure he is just busy (or exhausted) with his adorable little baby girl, so I am forced to show the pictures from my camera. I asked one of my adult students to take pictures for me, and as you can see, I think she may actually be blind judging from these pictures: 70% wall and ceiling, 25% other people, 5% me. So, the first picture, well the first one is Sumi getting into the hula spirit the night before! The second picture shows, with no cropping on my part, the quality of pictures taken. The rest, I fully cropped, ‘till you can almost see each pixel. But, at least I have some pictures of me. Last year, Scott did a great job getting photos of me, but he moved Hokkaido. I will be visiting him in a few weeks.
I was in five dances, including a solo. I chose to do a Tahitian aparima, which looks similar to hula awana. This year, I was much less nervous than I have been in the past. My self-confidence is definitely building. Another song I did is called, Leinani. Of course it being so similar to my name, everyone thought it was actually my namesake. Plus, I was dancing on the floor, with all the other members behind me on stage, so that thoroughly convinced people the song was all about me. And if you look real close, you can see the French whore make-up they painted on me. But, really it was a fun show, and I had a great time.
This, of course was my last show here in Japan. I will continue my hula lessons through July, until I leave for California on August 4th. Unfortunately, I will miss many lessons due to me trying to pack in all the last things I want to do in Japan before I leave. This coming weekend, I will stay at a Buddhist temple in Koyasan. In two weeks, I will go and visit Scott in Hokkaido. The last weekend of June, my friends (and neighbors) Matt and Hitomi are getting married. July seems less busy for now, but I will be packing and preparing for my last big adventure here in Japan – hiking Mt. Fuji! I will go to Fuji-san the weekend of July 19th, hike up during the night on Saturday, and *hopefully* make it to the top for a sunrise Sunday morning.
So if it takes me a little longer to get back to your emails, I apologize. I am quite busy with work (for a change), and getting things (mostly cats) in order to move back.