KagenamiQ (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} jttr) wrote,@ 2007-03-13 14:53:00 |
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| Current mood: |  excited |
You only live once...
First, here's a photo from the "58 Karat" Gojyo/Hakkai event a couple weeks back in Asakusabashi: amazing customized Pinky's figures as Gojyo and Hakkai! The photo is unfortunately crappy, but you get the idea...
The rest of this isn't related to Saiyuki. But I've got to write it down...
On Sunday night, stumbling around Japanese sites, I checked one I hadn't in a while...and read that this spring, a Tokyo music school would be offering a course of 10 voice lessons, for groups of three students at a time, from one of the great anime song performers and a longtime favorite of mine, MIQ (who performed the theme songs to L-Gaim and Dunbine and Bismarck, and several songs in Xabungle and the original Area 88 OVA series and...well, heck, will embed a YouTube clip with her "Men Of Destiny" from Gundam 0083 Stardust Memory at the bottom so you can hear her; she performed as MIO prior to 2000).
The news, posted in mid-February, included a message from MIQ: Even if you're tone-deaf, even if you have no rhythm, she can help you move up at least one level. She held this class once before--four years ago in Tottori, over in western Japan--where one of her students was 70 years old. So, urged MIQ in English, "Don't worry, just do it!" Prospective students would be interviewed on Sunday, March 18.
I got chills, thinking about what an amazing experience that would be. To get to learn from MIQ...wow. Maybe I could learn how to grow lungs down to my knees, like she has! Heck, just learning how to control my voice would be great; any time I try to sing, it's a crapshoot what will come out. The cost for the 10-lesson course was about US$300. If I was super-careful and ate cup ramen for the next six weeks, maybe, maybe I could take a try at it...but could I handle a class all in Japanese? Would they consider accepting a foreigner? Even though they encourage people who aren't very good, what if it turned out I was the only person who isn't very good, and the other students have been studying voice since kindergarten?
Then I saw the deadline, and the musings slammed to a stop. Applications had to be received by last Friday. End of dream.
But Monday morning, I mentioned it at work--and was assured that it wouldn't hurt to try calling the school, just in case. I was chicken, but O-san wasn't. He unfortunately wasn't able to get an answer, though; the staffer who could answer the question was away on business, but would be back on Tuesday.
Today, O-san called again--and was told that I'd be welcome to submit an application (!!), but they'd need to receive it by tomorrow.
A specific application was needed: a "rirekishou," with a photo. I ran and asked my boss about it, and he very kindly not only explained--a rirekishou is a fill-in-the-blanks resume/personal profile form that can be purchased at a stationery store, or even at a grocery store or convenience store--but also let me take the afternoon off to work on it (did I mention that my boss is a big L-Gaim fan? ;^) ). Biked to the local grocery store, got a packet of rirekishou forms and then got photos taken in the automatic machine outside the store, and then scrambled back to work and set up camp at a table in the lunchroom...where I struggled for the next three hours, screwing up four forms but finally coaxing my crappy kanji penmanship into something sorta-kinda presentable on the fifth try.
Name, date of birth, residence, contact address, education history, work history, licenses, favorite school subjects, school clubs and sports, interests, and why this application is being submitted...fill it all in, attach a little photo of yourself with the double-stick tape thoughtfully provided with the rirekishou forms, put it in the special envelope also provided, and get it on its way. An hour before the deadline to get it to the courier, with the fifth-try rirekishou nearly done and me starting to wonder how long it would take by bike to get it wherever the courier service was, my boss phoned from his car; he'd forgotten to mention before hurrying out to a meeting, but he had explained my situation to his secretary, and she would take the completed rirekishou to the courier service on her way home!
And now it's well on its way. The school staffer said that when it arrives, they'll call with the exact location of Sunday's interviews, which start at 3pm. I was planning to be in Tokyo that day anyway, for Haru Comic City at Big Sight in the morning and then Utau-zo in Shinjuku, which also starts at 3pm. Am hoping like crazy that Utau-zo will still be going by the time I get there...and that I won't be feeling lower than a worm fart after the interviews...
So, this'll be one more nutso week, trying to prepare to do my darndest this weekend. After that, it'll be back to real life; ready to roll on some fun updates to Journey To The Rest...including the return of Saiyuki Reload Gunstock! Thanks so much for your patience!
