School of Rock

Our School Festival began on Friday afternoon, and I had SO many students come up to me and ask about my performance the next day. I couldn't figure out how they all seemed to know about it until I saw the posters that were up around the school, highlighting me as the special guest. That was when I started to get pretty nervous. But when I saw the program and our songs listed, it helped me realize why they had probably asked me to begin with... not because I'm that great of a singer! They probably didn't want the songs to come out as "Livin on a Player" (as listed here in the program!) or "It's my Rife." (The ever-present "R/L" challenge.... it is actually the same sound in Japanese, not two distinct sounds like in English.) I woke up on Saturday morning with a sore throat. So I did what most professional singers do... a few shots of whiskey before the big performance. (Not really... although I actually DID have a roommate in London who did that before a big solo performance at her church!) I drank some herbal tea, had some losenges, and downed a LOT of water. Fortunately, rock music is supposed to sound a little raspy. And at 10 in the morning at my conservative high school, a band by the name of Michigan started rocking...




My nerves were gone immediately because it was almost like a real concert. Meaning that it was DARK and I couldn't see much out into the audience (except for the students who were moshing up front!) and it was HOT and SWEATY as it was a small room with lots of people packed in. I nearly forgot I was at school and technically getting paid! After our first song, I introduced the band members and worked the audience a little. I surprisingly had a lot of fun up there, and there was some really great energy in the audience. (That is what the Japanese call "high-tension," which is a very positive thing, unlike the English meaning.) Three of my friends (Nancy, Dave, and Mako) came to watch and it was great to have their support & see them rocking in the audience, too!



The boys in the band also surprised me with a bouquet of flowers to thank me for being the special guesto, so I was quite touched.
The next bands were also very "high-tension," and I was really impressed by the talent of these students. They rotated bands, and some of them played guitar in one, drums in the next, and sang in yet another.
Can you catch the sign in the background? My friends and I weren't sure about the meaning of "Live of Fantasist," and we didn't THINK the smaller phrase under it, "Rock turns me on!", meant what we think it meant, but that is the beauty of "Engrish" in Japan. Sometimes it makes absolutely no sense or has a completely ironic or just downright inappropriate meaning, given the situation. (This calls to mind an older Japanese man walking around with "HOOKER" in big letters on his t-shirt, or cute little Japanese girls with "Shooting is the way to being free" written on their backpacks.)

Nancy, Dave, and I walked around the school to check out the other parts of the festival. We had free "bubble tea" (made from tapioca balls, which is very popular in Asia) at one of the student cafes, saw the art club`s exhibition, played random games testing our skills at things like picking up beans with chopsticks, visited the biology club`s "Aquarium," a haunted house, photo gallery of student life, a post office for the school, and the other creative and zany things students had turned their classrooms into.

The girls in the English club had been putting out a few different bowls of sweets every hour, but it was always gone within a short time, despite the fact we stressed it should only be one piece per person! Anyway, it seemed to be a popular place, too.
Overall, it was a very memorable School Festival, especially since I sadly know it will be my last...
I apologize if this post looks different. Unfortunately, my Dell notebook is having problems again (after just having had it repaired when I was home and spending a LOT of money) so I am using my new Mac and having to write a lot of the HTML myself. That's the good thing about having two computers, I guess! Believe it or not, at the moment, there is a TYPHOON raging outside. This is typhoon season in Japan, and we get a lot of them in this part of the country. They`re usually just a lot of wind and rain, but I heard 9 people have died from this one so far. All of the trains, planes and buses have stopped, and there are winds of up to 200 km/hr (120 mph) so it IS a little bit scary... The electricity went off twice earlier (but came back after less than a minute both times) but I still think it might be best for me to get off the computer so I don't risk frying another one!
"Livin` on a Player," indeed!