Today I was holding down the fort since Kuniko had to go to work early in the morning. Theoretically, I was supposed to do cleaning of the area around the apartment complex with the other residents, but since it was raining so hard, they postponed until tomorrow. That means that I won’t be able to sleep in on either weekend day – that sucks. Since Kuniko also doesn’t get to sleep in on either day (she’s gotta work), I guess that’s fair.
Today they had a manzai group over at Ito Yokado. Manzai is like stand-up comedy in Japan, except that there are two people – one plays the fool, and the other continually gets tripped up by him. It’s very hard to understand for me – they talk fast and I usually can’t catch what they are saying. Kuniko really likes this pair, called Waraimeshi, and they are often on TV and pretty famous. Certainly more famous than Nishi Futami.
They were doing two shows, so I went over for the first one, and there was a whole lot of people waiting to see them. I parked over on the side and watched the crowd grow and grow. After a little while I noticed where they were moving people to the stage, and before I knew it they were walking by and they ducked into the little preparation room they had set up. I noted the time, since they had a second show later in the day. I figured I could set up in this area again and take some pictures of them as they walked by.
Their performance was OK; I couldn’t understand really what was going on, but everybody in the audience was getting a kick out of it. They kept saying “no pictures” before the show, but once they got on stage everyone took them anyway. So, I joined in. The comics even joked about it, wondering out loud if everyone had heard the anouncement or not.
While they were on, another ALT that lives in the next town came by and we chatted. His name is Chris Yap and he’s originally from Hawaii. He looks a lot like one of the guys from Waraimeshi, so he came to see if there really was a resemblance. I took a goofy picture with him to show Kuniko.
After a little while I came on back and spent more time memorizing words and cleaning house a little bit. Just before the next show I went over to Ito Yokado, set up in a good spot, and waited to snap a good picture for Kuniko.
It was just like in the movies. They start walking towards me, I’m the only one there who knows who they are, they both smile and nod in my direction, I push the camera shutter, and the screen says “Check camera battery”.
I couldn’t help but smile. Oh, well – it made a good story.
Tonight Kuniko made up homemade okonomiyaki, and it was delicious. While she was cooking I was in watching the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica.
Tomorrow we’re pretty much on the same schedule. I’m hoping for rain in the morning so I can go back to sleep and get some more rest. If not, I’ll be out there cleaning while Kuniko is out working.
