This evening I met up with Kuniko after work at Kobe station, and together we headed over to Kobe Culture Hall to see a concert performed by students from her school. On the way we caught some dinner at a little Japanese style restaurant. I had a good tempura donburi, and Kuniko had eel donburi that was pretty tasty, too. From there, it was on to the show.
I had been to the Culture Hall once before, as part of a JET seminar, so I was familiar with the layout. We met some students at the door, and Kuniko introduced me to a couple of them. They were all giggly and excited to meet Kageyama sensei’s husband. One of the girls had spent some time in Los Angeles, so she made a point to shake my hand and tell me all about herself.
One thing about shaking hands in Japan, is that there are a lot of people that don’t know quite how to do it correctly. The thing that bothers me most is, some people don’t let go of your hand right away, they hold on to it during the conversation. The principal from Takanan did that, and this student did it tonight. I was standing there talking to her and holding hands kind of involuntarily, and it made things a bit uncomfortable for me. Finally she let go, and Kuniko and I went inside to see the show.
The concert started out on the weird side, with some strange choices of music. There were pianos, organs, marimbas, and woodwinds, and they performed in various combinations. There was a full orchestra near the end of the show that was quite good, and the highlight was the chorus at the end – the students did really well on that. I wanted to get a recording of the song – it was that good.
On the way home we resisted the temptation to shop at the import food store at the station, and so we got back at a reasonable hour. It was nice to go out and take in some culture for a change, and it was fun to make an appearance with Kuniko in front of her co-workers and students.
We’re closing in on the end of the week – just a few more fun things to do before the weekend.
