I swear I'm not dead

I did slightly sprain both feet (no, for real), but I am still alive. Spring break is just wrapping up and I spent most of it just sitting around with ice on my feet. But they're really much better now, and I actually went into Seattle today to go to the International District. I wanted to go to Uwajimaya/Kinokuniya, so I took the bus down. I bought some Mitsuya Cider, a Pocari Sweat to share with my family because the name still cracks me up (it's a sports drink), and some MeltyKiss chocolate because it's delicious. I didn't buy anything in Kinokuniya, but it's always fun to poke around. Even more so now that I can eavesdrop on the Japanese customers.

What I am going to buy soon, somewhat related, is a book about Takarazuka. It's called Takarazuka: Sexual Politics and Popular Culture in Modern Japan and I've heard some good things about it. Its primary focus seems to be on how the Revue sheds light on issues of sexuality, nationalism and imperialism in modern Japan, which is a really interesting topic. Takarazuka is very strange - a little old-fashioned, but also massively progressive. They actually do proper stage kissing and some pretty extensive groping now, which is amazing given that they used to just take the fade-to-black approach. Of course, they were formed in 1913, so the fact that they existed at all was pretty impressive. People (me included) think Japan is pretty male-dominated now, just think about the pre-war period and then this all-female theatre company managing to hold its own when traditionally theatre was all-male.

I also want to buy Mizu Natsuki's new photo book FEVER, mostly because she's really hot and the book (according to a little review thing I saw for it) focuses on her dandyism. So basically it's a book of interesting photos of a really hot drag king, interspersed with interviews and such. Come on, you can't beat that.

All of the above aside, I've been super busy lately. We had powwow on the 14th, which is where the extensive damage was done to my feet because I've started learning fancy shawl dancing from Nikki and did way more than I should have without any down time. But, it was so much fun. I love powwow - I know most of the vendors now and am treated almost like family by some of them. I was given a couple of gifts and I bought a pretty necklace with turquoise. Phillip took some pictures, and I snagged a couple of them off Facebook to show it off a little.

To the left there is part of the grass dance competition. That's Josh (Nikki's fiance) in the blue. He didn't win, but he's pretty out of practice and some of the grass dancers were crazy good.

And to the right are jingle dancers. Not part of a competition or anything, just one of the dances during the course of the powwow. There were more jingle dancers than fancy shawl this time around, and their regalia makes fun noise.

And in both of those photos, you get to see a bit of the lovely Willamette University gym. It's not the best venue ever, because we don't have a good place for dancers to change into their regalia, but we make up for it (according to the vendors, anyway) by being massively helpful and welcoming. The vendors don't make much money at our powwow, because we're so small, but we're inexpensive to vend at and we do a ton to help them out and make them feel wanted. The big comment we get is that we're really sweet and it makes them want to come back every year. It's nice to hear, considering that we run ourselves ragged organising and running this thing.

This year, I'm just the NAEA events manager, since I was in Japan and there's this weird co-presidency thing going on, thus negating the need for a vice-president, but it's looking like next year Nikki and I might be back to President and VP. She and I do most of the work for NAEA regardless, so we'll probably be back as the official heads for our senior year. As some of you will be able to attest, I wasn't a club person at all in high school, but I got roped into NAEA because Nikki really needed my help and it's sort of become my thing. After Nikki and I sort of made things up as we went for a year because neither of us had run a club before. Yeah, it was pretty special.

And that's really all I've got. I'm getting into the last six weeks or so of term, which is scary, and then I have to find some sort of employment in our fail job market. I guess, if I don't find work I don't find work, but I'm a little nervous about the whole thing.

To close this up, I'll give you another Zuka video. I searched youtube and found Ai to Shi no Rondo (also the subtitle of the show - The Rondo of Love and Death), from the beginning of the musical. I'm running out of stuff from this show, though, so I'll be forced to move on soon. But, fear not, there are plenty of Takarazuka clips on the internet.