Tomorrow morning at 8:45 am, I'll be on a bus bound for Kyoto for four days. This is balm to my spirit, as lately I've been feeling a little crappy. I've been having weird dreams and terrible nightmares; in the weird dream category, one of the strangest was when I discovered that I was some sort of wonderous beast that, when milked, gave orange juice instead of milk. My cowrorkers were lined up with glasses and arguing over who got to get the juice first. I think I was some sort of weird-looking creature, fuzzy and orange in colour, part unicorn, part goat. I remember feeling vaguely embarrassed that my coworkers didn't recognize me as Endrene, and now they were going to drink my juice. In the terrible nightmare category, I awoke in a dead panic two mornings ago after dreaming that my dad was drowning in some sort of filtration pond, and I couldn't save him. I phoned home right away to make sure he was still alive (he was). Mom asked why I was having these awful dreams (I had phoned her two days previous, with a nightmare of her hating Christmas... which is impossible!).

Well, the rug is moving under my feet, as it is apt to do. My boss (and good friend) Maz, is leaving Nova in a matter of days; I've already had my final shift with her. That means I am now the senior staff member at my school. What?! Have I ever been the senior anything? Also, two days a week I'll be working at the other school, which means that I will no longer be teaching my favorite kids classes; I'm tearing up just thinking about it. I love those little booger munchers. I'm also on pins and needles awaiting approval from head office so that I can renew my visa. Without it, I'll be back in Canada in January, and I'm not ready to go. To top it off, I seem to be having a somewhat severe attack of homesickness... 'Christmas' (or Kurisumasu') in Japan seems to me to be a farce, a completely commercial holiday. Not to say that it isn't similar back home. However, at home the commercialism would be tempered by advent and the contemplation of the coming of Christ's birth. I can't claim to be as completely Catholic as I once was, owing to the fact that I think all forms of spirituality and thanksgiving are good and equally valid. But I am a girl with a yen for ceremony and deep meaning, so I find myself aching to go to church in a way that I haven't felt in years. I want to sing some expectant carols and smell incense and pine and hear the story of the baby in Elizabeth's womb leaping for joy. You know? I've made do with the purchase of a pointsettia and two Christmas CD's which I have been playing ad infinitum.

So, there's Kyoto to look forward to, to take my mind off of things for a bit. It's still Autumn here; the leaves have just hit their peak in terms of colour and splendour, so I couldn't have planned the timing of this trip better. I'll be meeting up with Ume and her mom at Kyoto Satation. We're going to see the famed Golden Pavilion, and some garden that was featured in Memoirs of a Geisha (dunno which one) and then it's on to Nara to see the Daibutsu (giant Buddha) and hopefully the little deer... and then... Takarazuka! I can't believe how excited I am about Takarazuka!

Taken from Wikipedia:

The Takarazuka Revue began in Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan in 1913 founded by Ichizo Kobayashi, the president of Hankyu Railways, who had the idea to boost sales by staging Western-style musical shows using only young, unmarried women. The name of the troupe comes from the Hankyu Takarazuka Line in suburban Osaka. The Revue had their first performance in 1914, and by 1924 the company had become popular and obtained their own theatre, the Dai Gekijō. Currently Takarazuka performs for 2.5 million people per year. Most fans of the group are women.
Part of the novelty of Takarazuka is that all the parts are played by women, like a mirror-image of Kabuki. The women who play male parts are referred to as otokoyaku (literally "male role") and those who play female parts are called musumeyaku (literally "daughter role"). The costume and set designs are incredibly lavish, and the performances are melodramatically emotional.

How cool is that? I'll be writing all about it following my return next monday... until then,

Namaste

Endrene