I caught a cold this weekend. Well, really I was catching it over the previous week too. Somehow, I don't really mind though. It's a good excuse to do nothing on a Monday holiday like today. I managed to wait until after my amazing debut as a Japanese pop star anyway so that was good.
sad to have lost the pic that was here, it was me & my wifey after our "concert" at the international center. we looked hot.
One of the greatest moments of my time here in Japan was walking off that stage and having a little old lady with squinty eyes and no teeth shake my hand and smile like I was a "real" star. Someone worthy of being proud to say "I shook hands with her!" about when she went home to her grandchildren. And then the whirlwind of Pin and Sarah hugging me and saying "You were great!" over and over. Like a dream. Just like Nana. In the cold rain of the afternoon I could think of all the mistakes I and my accompanists made during the performance, but no matter how many times since then I've pointed them out to someone they've all just laughed and said I was being too critical. It's nice to be loved.
Thanksgiving came and went. No food pictures yet, but many were taken. Much was eaten and all who attended seemed to enjoy themselves. The hole left by those who were absent was almost unnoticeable. Almost. Still, Sarah was happy with things, so I was too. I made use of my ninja skills as best I could. The mistress makes the guests happy, the ninja makes the mistress happy so that she can do her job right. And catches the chocolate sauce when she squeezes the bottle too hard and the top pops off all over someone's pumpkin cheesecake.....
The thing that made me the most satisfied with this Thanksgiving was in the end my friend's 7 year old son Kai. He's a shy little guy, probably owing at least partially to the fact that he's one of the rarest minorities there is: African American/Japanese. His mom asked me if he could sit by me while I played DS when they first got there since we get along pretty well, but he hadn't brought his for some reason. Lucky for us about 4 of our other friends had theirs so we stole Sarah's for him while she was cooking. Soon enough we had a 4 player MarioKart tournament going and when I had to go back to the mistress I knew he was in good hands with her boyfriend, his own father, and a couple others who he'd started to accept by that time. I couldn't play with him much after that, but I got the best video of the night when he started playing battle tops with 2 of the guests on the kitchen floor. He was laughing like I'd never seen before. He almost sounded like his dad when he throws his head back and opens his mouth wide and everyone can see he's completely at ease and in love with his surroundings. Seeing Kai-kun cheer and yell and giggle like a real kid warms my heart like nothing else.
