October 07. 2004 22:03

Noh masking and takoyaki party

The CG class was cancelled today, so I went to see a Noh lecture with Heidi and her (Korean) friend Cheehe, and now I'm writing this in the school cafe after a tasty piece of chocolate cake. Couldn't resist it, just this one time ^_^

I finally got the rest of the school stuff that was ordered to the art shop. I've been needing that eraser dust brush for a while. I also got some A4 manga paper, so I can start finishing that Inu-Yasha doujinshi I've had lying around for ages. After some calculations I noticed the bigger packs of Copic markers cost no less than buying them one at a time. Interesting. Anyway, I can order one of the 72 piece packs to the school shop, I just have to check which colour combination I want.

You're probably wondering what that Noh lecture was that I mentioned... Be patient, I'll get to it now. There is some kind of a lecture series featuring famous artists and this was one of those lectures. A man came to explain about noh plays, the stage and the clothes and expressions etc. It was very interesting, but even so I was so tired I almost fell asleep. Heidi took some notes with the help of her Japanese speaking friends so I was able to copy them later. (She just came back from her holiday trip to Korea, so I'm hanging with her again.)

After the lecture we were able to go and talk to the lecturer, and me and Heidi got to try on the noh mask he had brought. It was really interesting, you can't see much anything from behind it. The noh performers keep from falling off the stage by counting their steps and checking the floor boards and the wooden pillars in the corners of the stage for directions. The lecturer also explained about expressing the feelings of the character by using the fan and different poses, but that was so difficult I couldn't get the details.

In 25 minutes there's a welcoming party for new exchange students at the Kino-ryo dorm. The rumour goes that we'll try making takoyaki. I'm going there with Heidi and Cheehe and Shiori if she can make it, but I guess I'll continue writing when I get back home. Now I'll write some manga scripts ^_^ (Oh, I'm running out of notebook! Gotta start a new one then.)

...

Okay, now I'm home. The takoyaki was delicious ^_^ I hadn't eaten well this morning or at lunch, so I was very hungry and ate a lot. Now I feel bad about it, because I'm not keeping with my diet... With the cake and all... :( And every night I go past the vending machine on my way home and it takes all my power to resist having a drink. I'll have to keep on fighting. The morning work-out is going as planned, though, which is great.

All the English speaking exchange students (Tim, Laura, Dion, the Thai Ton, Noah, Tom+Yuuko, the blonde guy whose name I don't know, no Lorna though) were at the party plus a great deal of others. There was Paddy, the American girl who's a fourth year in Story Manga (she's done the whole thing, from start to finish, that's so great), a couple of Taiwanese girls and a guy (one of the girls is a Story Manga first year), this one brown haired guy from my class and a bunch of others I didn't know or get to know. And of course Heidi and Cheehe. The Japanese always get too little soft drinks in their parties, so we ran out of orange soda again, and I was so thirsty I voluntarily drank a whole can of beer. And I was surprised at how little it tasted bad. Wouldn't have had another, though.

At some point Paddy and some of the Korean girls ended up saying a few words about that good-looking Korean actor, so I was able to ask them what the thing really was. It is indeed a TV show and the man is called Sen Sung Hun or something like that (already forgot). The Japanese just call him Sung-sama, they said ^_^ At one point the Americans, Noah, Paddy and Dion, started to talk about poitics and Bush, and that was quite interesting. Dion and Paddy agree he's just stupid, and that he's just a puppet for the goverment behind him. He's the one who gets all the sh*t on him while nobody mentions the men who're really behind it. Noah doesn't think he's stupid, though, but he's alone with that view... Anyway, I'm not that into politics, so I'll drop the subject.

I found out that Tim had his birthday right after he got here and he had a big party with all the other main group. They never asked me or told me about it, I'm a bit offended... At least Laura's practically invited me to her birthday party next week. I kinda have the feeling they're not too concerned about inviting me along on their party nights... I'm not so sure it's just the fact that I live so far from them. Noah is in all the parties and he lives near here as well. I'm a bit sad, because I would've liked to make really good friends with them, but I have Heidi and her friends, so I guess I'll just expand to that direction. I'm hoping I get so good at Japanese that I can befriend myself better with some of the girls in our class, too, because I'd really love to hang out with them. Now that I think about it, actually, I'm very lucky that me and Heidi get along so well. We're quite the same type, which is really great, because I can always go to her if I feel lonely or homesick. Talking in Finnish is just so great.

I had more post today ^_^ Always happy to get letters, even though they're just official things. This time it was the confirmation of the bank transfer from Finland. I've already used half of it... But that's okay, most of it went to the rent and the school stuff. I'll get to start on that Sango & Miroku doujinshi now! ^_^ I got that package from the post office, too, but it was actually just a letter that needed a signature. It was the cash card for my bank account, as I thought it might be.

I'm very much in the mood for writing manga scripts now. Too bad I have no ideas that'd match my inspiration, besides the one I'm not really supposed to think about, because I'm saving it for the NaNoWriMo. (National Novel Writing Month is actually for writing, not making comics, but it's such a great idea that I thought I'd practice the "a picture is worth a thousand words" saying and make a 50 picture manga instead of a 50 000 word novel ^_^) I do have lots of scripts ideas, but they're either ready, too small or of the wrong theme. I should work on that animation script, but I can't think of a story. I'm kinda tempted to do a children's story, but I have to figure out a plot before I can start working on it ^_^

Endnote: My elbow is getting better, which means it's starting to ich. Not nice.