Weekend musical bonanza...

From the Monday with the Terauchi concert all the way to my koto debut on Sunday - this week has been extremely musical.

Slightly tired after the previous night's Queen concert, Friday night saw the Bento Boys and others playing Bananas for the JET Halloween party. Really good night, lots of drinking and dancing - exactly what a good night should have!

Saturday morning, still feeling surprisingly genki after last night's escapades I found myself sitting in the staff room of Asahi Junior High twiddling my thumbs and thinking about the previous night!!! Quite funny, as still think I must have been slightly tipsy since I couldn't stop tapping my foot and dancing to the imaginary beat (or the telephone ringing, the photocopier, or the Kocho-sensei MC-ing the days important notices). By the afternoon, however, was feeling slightly worse for wear as I sat through the three-hour marathon that is the Singing contest.
By evening was feeling slightly better and Rob and I ended up having a drink or two at some of Asahi's world-famous watering holes.

Sunday - fully rested after the crazy previous few days it was time to get myself calm and compsed for my koto debut. For those of you who don't know, the koto is a kind of Japanese 13 stringed-harp. It would also be my first time in a kimono, which certainly proved quite a big deal for the four oba-chans who dressed me. They were arguing and pushing me around, fussing over every little knot and detail.

Despite a number of mistakes and a slightly awkward final bow (which had the audience laughing at my confusion) the concert was a great success. It felt a million miles away from both the Queen concert on Thursday and Friday night's Halloween party - dancing like an alcohol-crazed nutter.