Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!
The aidols are slooowly getting through their jet lag, but they’re still pretty toasted. We stayed up too late last night playing games, them, Yuki, and me. It was lots of fun, but at about 1 AM I said we should probably get to sleep, and we did so.
Someone said “Sharekoube”.
I’m not sure who, but there was a LOT of giggling.
Then I said “Lycopene”.
Sabby waltzed like Sawa-chan-sensei and told us to shut the heck up.
That was hilarious.
We did not hit her with a pillow.
Sawa-chan-sensei is pretty cool. Sabby is scary.
I’m glad they’re familiar with K-on. It just makes things that much more hilarious. Too bad there aren’t any shrines around, I would so run towards one yelling “God please grant the wishes of these fair maidens!” Just to see what would happen. I told the girls that and they laughed and said “better not.” Sigh. They’re right. Real life isn’t anime.
Anyway, all that aside, they seem to be adapting alright. They’d never been to the US before, so they got really confused by the faucets, and all the other basic stuff we take for granted. But once that was all worked out, they’re having a pretty good time. I took them to get fast food for lunch, and they gobbled it down like you wouldn’t believe. Yuuko ate two hamburgers. How does such a little girl fit that much in her???
But she ran with me, so I guess she burns it off. Girl is just a bundle of energy. Minami’s a bit lazier, and Mariko is somewhere in the middle. But it’s okay to be lazy on a vacation, right?
This is Texas. We don’t have mountains. We, ummm… have trees. Lots of trees. And some rocks. So we took them to see the famous Round Rock. It’s a… rock. A round rock. They just stared at it, then looked at me, then looked at the rock again, then looked at me. I shrugged. “What did you expect? It’s a round rock. It’s exactly as advertised”, I told them. They giggled, and got photos of them with the rock in the background.
Yeah, it’s a real thing. The entire city is named after a rock.
This evening we took them all to the shop to get some pastries and see what all the fuss about Sabby’s (maid cafe) bakery is about. We all went in and they kind of looked around in awe. “It’s just like in the pictures,” they said.
You know how in some animes the main character just says.. “eh?” “What pictures?”
“The ones on LINE.”
Ummm…
“Yeah, someone came to see Yuki last month and their pictures went viral. They especially liked…” and Mariko pointed at cat-girl, who.. just looked confused. She was saying all this in Japanese, after all…
I giggled. “Hey, cat-girl, you’re even more famous in Japan!”
She laughed. “Maybe I should move there”
I cringed. “Maybe… not.”
She looked thoughtful. “Yeah, maybe not.”
As we were sitting there eating pastries and Japanese sweets and chatting, a Japanese tourist came in. His eyes lit up as he saw us… not because of Yuki, surprisingly enough, but just because we were all speaking Japanese. We made some room for him and he told us he was visiting from Hokkaido and heard that it was like an actual maid cafe, with maids and everything.
I giggled and told him I was part owner.
He jumped up and started bowing.
I laughed and told him to sit the heck down, there’s no need for that. We all introduced ourselves. The part-owner of the cafe, a former very famous Japanese idol, and four random high school girls who no one know from anyone. What a crew!
Anyway… he didn’t know who Yuki was!!!
I couldn’t tell if Yuki was pleased or annoyed, it looked like more of a combination. He just showed up because he saw all the pictures on LINE. It was kind of like all the people that make that pilgrimage to a school in Toyosato, when a place becomes famous you just go for the sake of going. He was doing the Route 66 trip and took a detour to see Dallas, and came down to visit our cafe.
That’s pretty cool.
We set him up with a few pastries for the road. Dedication like that should be rewarded, I think.
We finished our pastries and just watched the proceedings. There was nothing scheduled, but some drunk person (they don’t get drunk there but they come there drunk sometimes) went up and tried to do a comedy bit. It didn’t go well. But we were laughing hard because it was going so badly, so maybe comedy is one of those things where if it goes really bad it goes right to good? Haha!!! We let people use the mic though if they really want to. Most people are shy so it really doesn’t matter.
Turns out Minami, as lazy as she can be, is not shy though.
She got an instrumental version of her favorite j-pop song, plugged her phone into the amp, and just belted it out. And damned if she wasn’t good!!! Yuki actually went on stage and did a duet with her, and everyone there (which wasn’t a lot, it’s a Monday night, after all) clapped. Turns out she’s in the choir club at school.
Anyway, they had a lot of fun. Yuki’s “concert” is Saturday night and we’re all going to give her moral support. Not that she needs it. Yuki actually is considering teaching Minami some of the moves if she can learn them in time and going up with her. Don’t tell Minami, though. She might have a spare idol costume though. Her parents are coming here to visit her in a couple of days, she called to see if they could bring over another.
It’s not like she’ll have a huge audience, but I think Minami will have fun.
Everyone else is just happy watching.
It’s pretty cool. That could never happen on a Japanese idol stage with 20,000 fans all waving glowsticks. In a small live music venue in Texas with about fifty people? Yeah, that can def happen.
Beth will probably be a little jealous, but she’s still learning. She’s not as good. But she’s making some good progress. And the shop will be here.
Hah, not only that, but we could bill “Takahashi Minami” too. After all… that is her name. Haha!!!
Anyway… I guess I should sleep too. Tomorrow we’ve got some fun stuff planned.