In our choir uniforms. The guy is also a kindergarten teacher at one of the kindergartens I work at.
At the young people's party, where the mischief began.
Now let me start by saying that I hope I don't offend anyone of a certain age with this post. I realize that just because someone is in their 50's,60's, 70's etc that it doesn't mean they can't have fun. But these ladies shocked the choir robe right off me on Sunday night.
I have written about choir before and how much I have enjoyed the whole group welcoming into the fold. I hate to sound conceited, but being that I am white, young, and a newly wed I am somewhat of a star in the group. I am never left to the side by my lonesome and I have been welcomed into various cliques. So much so that I was in a bit of a delema last weekend about where and who to party with.
This past weekend we had our annual Beethoven's 9th symphony performance with the Kuse orchestra. Though it was my first time they have been doing it for quite some time and it is the highlight of the year. It is quite impressive as our regular choir is joined by all sorts of talented singers from nearby towns and cities and by an extremely talented group of musicians. The children's choir joins us, too and we also have a guest conductor who I believe is a university professor (I say believe because a lot of this is explained to me in rapid-fire Old Lady Japanese).
As early as about a month ago I was approached about various "after parties" that would take place after the show. A woman who I am quite close to as she has a basic level of English and even lived in the US for awhile approached me to say that she would be hosting a "young people's" party at a restaurant bar that would include drinks and presents. I said yes to her as I knew she would help to understand what was going on and I was sworn to secrecy as she didn't want to upset any "older members" who weren't invited. I assumed this meant the 85 year old who sits next to me...
The day of the concert came and we did fairly well. I say fairly because my group of altos was directly behind the horn section and we couldn't really hear the rest of the choir. We sang our hearts out and before we knew it, it was all over. About 5 months work finished in an hour. But still it had been fun and was a nice way to end the year.
After we had all stood in the lobby of the theatre to thank the various family/friends who had come to watch, we had our first party in the entrance of the building. This was fun as it consisted of everyone and I got a chance to get to know some of my little students a bit better. By little I meant that I was at a table with a 7 and 8 year old who enjoyed toasting me with Pepsi Next (they enjoyed it because they thought the foam looked like beer- I will have to write sometime about the difference in the drinking culture in Japan). I also got to meet some of the musicians and a chance to talk to some of the ojichans (grandpas) that were amazing at their solos. Though Maniwa encompasses a LARGE area it really is a small town and several people approached me to tell me they know Motoaki's parents or my students.
At this party we were also treated to a viewing of our concert that will be on Maniwa TV later and by several trivia games. I didn't win because it took me awhile to translate the questions, but I had fun cheering people on anyway. As there were often several people with thew correct answer they settled ties in the traditional Japanese way- by playing Janken, or Rock, Scissors, Paper.
The party came to a close and seeing how it was still only about five o'clock I made my way to the next party with the friend who had invited me. They were all acting secretive as they wanted to slip away without hurting any feelings of those who hadn't been invited. I had to lie a bit as several people offered to give me a ride home, but finally we got away.
The party turned out to be in the restaurant that is hooked onto the hotel where my dad, sister, brother, grandma, aunt, and uncle had stayed in. I regret now that we never tried the restaurant out as it was wonderful.
I giggled at the "young people's party" as the woman next to me turned out to be the grandmother of my Jr high School student. Many guests got excited that I was there and told me they had wanted to invite me but wasn't sure if it would be ok. One woman in particular was very excited to see me. We had sang solos in the October concert and had often chatted at solo rehearsals. She was especially excited that I could drink beer with her and insisted on ordering several rounds. I should have known then what lay in store for the rest of the night, but as the other women were just politely sipping cocktails, I didn't think much of it.
Admist the gossip and review of the concert we made time to eat and play games. One consisted of seeing if I could accurately remember everyone's first name. There were only about 15 women but seeing as we had a Yuko,a Yoko, a Naomi, and a Naoko, I struggled. They also told me their nicknames and we all stated what had been the highlight of the concert for us. I said that for me the best part had just been the chance to perform since I missed getting to sing at university and at church.
Finally when the food had been finished and the conversation had died it was announced that the party would end but that we were going to move on to a karaoke snack. Snack is the term used to refer to small hostess bars where you can sip overpriced drinks and flirt with women. I have been to them with guy friends (there aren't many places to "go out" in small town Japan) and even with coworkers from school. I was surprised to see that this group of women would go to such a place, but I realized that they were in it for the karaoke rather than the women. It was still only 7pm so I said it would be all right for me to go.
We went to a new place called Chick and I laughed and explained to the group how fitting the name was. When we got inside I was surprised to see one of the rival groups from choir consisting of slightly older ladies who were mostly sopranos (our group had been heavily alto). I was nervous there would be "tension" or "hurt feelings" since we hadn't invited them to dinner, but it turned out that this had been the plan all along. Since the choir was too big to go to any one restaurant, people had decided to split for food and then to rejoin for fun.
Not to be ageist, but I was really surprised at the other group being out at a snack. While the group I had eaten with had the one grandma, the rest of the ladies were in their 30s and late 20s. But this older group couldn't have had anyone under 40 and probably contained a few 70 year olds. I would liken this to seeing the United Methodist Women's group at Ruby's or the WCV faculty out at a strip club. All of them drinking and shaking and grooving to the music.
Added to the excitement was the appearance of the conductor and the guest conductor. I was surprised as they are friendly but seem a bit serious. I think people were really excited because the guest conductor was the only man to show up. Apparently the men had a party somewhere else but had returned home early (this coming from the grandma at the first party who was married to one of the male soloists).
You won't believe me, but I was pretty intimidated and shy at first to sing anything as everyone in the room was very talented at singing, but after enough requests for "English" I came out of my shell and started singing. I was surprised as when I sang songs like Glee's Teenage Dream and Lady Gaga's Born This Way, the women got up and danced. They didn't really know the songs but seemed excited to participate. I had greatly underestimated their energy.
Later on I was surprised again as they put on The Wandering Gypsy, a classical song we had sang at a concert in October. I put on the Sister Act 2 version of Joyful Joyful since it is to the tune of the 9th symphony. Eventually we were joined one more guy, a young tenor (young as in 30) who I have wanted to befriend but with whom I have never talked to. He actually joined me in Gaga.
As more songs were sang and more drinks were drank things got fuzzy. Finally around 1am it was decided that we had better pack up and go home. We wished each other a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and headed out to our various homes.
I had such a great time and it was so different to what I originally thought it was going to be. Not that I didn't have fun with the ladies at choir practice before this, but it was great to see this side of them. I worry about staying in Japan long term as more and more of my friends move away and as the new teachers coming in get younger and younger (my intern was born in the 90's!!!). I sometimes feel that I might sacrifice a social life by staying here. But, having seen what these ladies are capable of, I am very happy to be here.
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