Time goes by...

Sometimes I wish that time would slow down. It has alreday been a month since I came to Japan, and I'm still feeling like it was a week ago. But so much happened since then that I couldn't possibly do it all in one week...

This week my boss took me to a banquet in one of the hotels in Kyoto. She was a panelist and gave a lecture about traditional Japanese culture, and I assisted in a chakai. When I was handing out tea bowls people would stare at me, and sometimes I was stuck talking to some ojisan and explaining my existence - I guess that besides one guy from the USA, I was the only gaijin there, and I was wearing a kimono, too. (The picture below: me and my boss.)
After the chakais and lectures, there was food (my mouth still waters at the thought of those cakes...) and performances - first two maiko and one geiko, and than a jazzband. I was able to talk to a maiko for the first time in my life, so I was quite nervous... (Below: the photo of the two maiko and a geiko during their performance.)
But the next day I had an even better occasion. The guests can book a "Japanese wedding ceremony" here at Tondaya, and a couple from Spain came. Only the girl didn't know it's a wedding ceremony - we dressed her in a fantastic kimono, and her partner in a kimono and hakama, and he proposed to her that way!
She said yes, and they had san san ku do ritual later (It's a traditinal Japanese wedding ceremony, when the couple drinks sake from 3 cups, and after that they are married). Not only he booked the ceremony, but he also ordered kaiseki ryori (a very expensive Japanese meal) and a maiko. She performed a couple of dances and talked with them. I was there taking photos and translating a little bit, so I had a chance to see how it looks like.
I admit, I was amazed. From now on I shall hunt down every idiot that says a geisha equals prostitute.


Yesterday we had a TV crew over - they were making a program about kimonos, and decided to ask me how does it feel to be a gaijin wearing a kimono. Everything would be nice and easy, but they asked me to talk in Japanese about "how my heart and soul changes when I wear a kimono" while performing a temae (tea ceremony).
So you can imagine how it feels like to talk in a foreign language about something very complex and going through some complicated moves with your body.
Basically, it was a failure... I only hope there will be only a little of me in the show...
And the recording of all this took all day - I had to do the same thing on and on again, and at the end of the day I was a corpse. Luckily, I went to see the momiji to the Tofukuji temple with Mindy and the atmosphere was so relaxing that the stress just disapeared. This year is especially warm, so the leaves are not changing their color yet - but it was fun just to sit on the engawa, listen to nice music and gossip for a bit. And the temple's garden itself is beautiful.