Today I joined 'nomihoudai karaoke on Monday'. I heard a lot about this from my friends, but I couldn't go, because it was Monday! In this week, luckily tomorrow is a national holiday, shunbun no hi, so I decided to join. This was a first time.

 

For going to Himeji around 5, I walked to my company in this morning. Every day I go to my company by bicycle, it takes only 5 minites. Today it took 15 minites, so I had to wake up earlier. 10 minites in the morning is so important for me!! (I'm not a morning person.) After I finished work, I got on the bus from my company, then I went to Himeji by train. I reached at J-karaoke at 5:30. This is unusual. I was in Himeji at 5:30 on my working day!

 

Karaoke was nice. I sang 2 English songs that I sang before. I practiced new song for today's karaoke yesterday, but it was not there. TOO BAD. I have to find another new songs... : ( 

 

During karaoke, I was hungry, I wanted to eat something. Steff gave me some snacks. It was nice!! (She had many snacks. When I meet her, she always eats something. I don't know why she is still thin...) When we ate snacks, Jo said only skinny girls ate foods. (It was not exactly, but I couldn't remember because it was too fast for me. haha.)  Jo made my new nickname. She named me chi-chan, it was from my nickname CHICKEN, it means too skinny like chicken legs! I don't like 'chicken', but I like chi-chan! It sounds lovely.: )  If someone ask why she is called chi-chan, don't tell its meaning!!  

Last Sunday I went to Kyoto with my friends. We wore kimono! I was so happy to have a chance to wear kimono, because last time that I wore kimono was 3 years ago, and I wanted to walk around in Kyoto with wearing kimono for long time. So this was a good opportunity for me.

 

We wore kimono in Himeji, then we got on the train. We attracted a lot of attention at Himeji station and on the train, especially Jo, Jon and stephanie!! Some people tried to talk with them and corrected their Obi. I thought people in Kyoto were used to seeing foreigners, so there would not be so many people to see and talk with them. But it was different. Some people talked to us and asked 'Would you like to take a picture with us?' So strange thing!! I forgot that people who walked around famouse places were tourists come from another city, they were not used to seeing foreigners. We took  pictures with someone that we completely don't know. And another people come close to us and took a picture, some people said to us 'beautiful' and waved their hands, but some people took a picture without saying something. I didn't feel good. I think it is strange that people that we don't know have our pictures.

 

We did special things, riding on jinrikisha(rickshaw) and watching dance of maiko-san. That was a first time to see maiko-san. If we want to see them, we have to go to special Japanese restrant and pay a lot of money. So we were lucky. And it was also a first time to ride on jinrikisha. Its fare was expensive, but we wore kimono, we could ride for free! So lucky! If I went to kyoto with only Japanese friends, I have not done this kind of special things. Kyoko and Miho organised this trip wanted to experience Japanese culture for Jo, Steff and Jon, so they tried to plan to ride jinrikisha, and Kyoko, Miho and I also enjoyed Japanese culture. They were so nice!! :)    

 

Today is Girl's Day. We called Hina matsuri (Dolls Festival). My mother decorated my Ohina-sama, it's like following photo. My grandfather and grandmother bought it for me when I was a child. It has 7 steps, and on the top of that Odairi-sama and Ohina-sama is there, and on the following steps there are some people who has foods, musical instruments, a bow and etc, and there are some furniture. Their cloth is special kimono that people had worn in Heian period, 13th century.

 

Some foreigners asked me 'Why does it have 7 steps?' I said I didn't know. Then I read something about Hinamatsuri, but still I don't know. It is said that at the begining of Hinamatsuri people decorated only 2 dolls, Odairi-sama and Ohina-sama. After that, people tended to decorate more dolls, I think it was for showing how rich they are, and finally it has 7 steps, I guess.

 

It is also said that if you (mothers) leave Ohina-sama there after 3rd March, their daugter's marriage will be late. So, mom, hurry up!