Ganbare!

Many things happened this weekend; oh where to begin?

On Saturday, it was pissing rain. HARD. As in, if it were snow, it would be a blizzard. But this is Kyoto and we don’t get blizzards; only genteel snowfalls (I want a blizzard!). And I had to meet up with some students to interview about their Machiya Light-Up project for Kyoto Journal. It turned out pretty ok for a preliminary interview in my halting Japanese; we will do a more comprehensive one in English, so I can record it next week. I was also invited to their bonnenkai (End-of-Year) party; I might go for an hour or so this Thursday.

That evening, I met up with Emily and we went to the old dorm where Colleen used to live for a Christmas party Emily was invited to; she asked me to come because she didn’t know anyone besides the guy who invited her and she didn’t want to be rude and turn him down. We ended up socializing/eating/mingling for about an hour or so and then we went back to my place (I live 5 minutes away), knitted and watched Grey’s Anatomy Season 3.

Yesterday, Emi my jazz singer/songwriter friend performed at ShinPuhKan. On my way there, I noticed that Higashioji-dori was blocked by traffic; after a few minutes of musing, watching people and reading kanji characters disjointedly, I saw the runners and realized, “Oh! It’s the Kyoto Marathon!” and asked the police officer. Actually it wasn’t; it was the national high school race or something like that. I saw the leader run by me; as runners passed, people shouted “Ganbare!” “Run hard!”

The concept of “ganbare, ganbatte, and ganbarimasu” can be applied to any situation requiring luck; so while it means “Good luck” generally, it can be translated to mean “Work hard” as well, dpeneding on the situation.

At ShinPuhKan, Emi’s whole family was there and it was really sweet; Emily and I were the only “non-family” people there. The songs are the same but it’s always fun to see her perform. After, Emily and I went back to my place: more knitting, more Grey’s Anatomy. My baby blanket is getting bigger and I can’t tote it around anymore. I started working on socks for my “tote about town” project.

Speaking of knitting, I got a nice little surprise today and just in time for Christmas! My package from the Kawaii Swap came in today: in it was a pack of Hello Kitty Christmas themed stickers, a small box of chocolate (which I promptly ate, yum yum!) and a amigurumi stuffed cat, with a letter on Chococat stationery. So adorable! I think I will name the cat “Neko-chan.” (“Neko” means “cat” in Japanese).