Entries this day: amy's_going_away_party

amy's going away party

10:25am JST Saturday 20 February 2010 (day 14577)

Amy, who did live painting at The Pink Cow with Keiko more than a few times, is leaving Japan for what may only be a few months, so she had a going away party at which she did live painting behind a genki guy on guitar and even genkier girl on drums, rivaling Rina of Johnson's Motor Car.

The party was at Cafe Cherir, near 池尻大橋 Ikejiriohashi on 田園都市 line. Ai was taking money at the door; she introduced me to Shun with whom I spoke a few minutes before he invited me to sit at the bar between a woman who didn't respond to my saying HI and a couple in conversation, so I finished my orange juice (one swallow) and went to the other side where Leigh and Hide were hopefully finished smoking.

Chatted with Leigh about his plans for hair cutting business. Basically wondering if it's going to work out (though he's only been advertising for two months; I was like, "give it some time, dawg.")

The band Lapanui started, so we wandered back that direction. The place doesn't exactly have stadium seating, so we were on the steps that lead down into the restaurant, and then I moved down to the floor cause I don't mind sitting on it. After a couple of songs that, while technically good, I couldn't really distinguish, I got two paperboard things from my backpack (which Shun had put up on the refrigerator near the entrance) and marker from my pocket and started to draw a maze. I slapped down a couple lines here for the start or finish, and あっ they kinda looked like a vulva, so I adjusted them a bit, and then was more careful to draw regular hexagon-like shape for the finish or start. Slapped down a bunch of lines all around, most of which did not touch one another, and slowly put connections down to try making the maze a bit more complicated, in just the right way. I don't yet know a way to do this particularly quickly, but I've determined a few things.

• If lines are only connected at one end, no matter how long nor curvy, there's definitely a way around them

Okay, well, one thing, but it helped make the process faster.

When the band finished, I looked up from my mazes and noticed they (the band) had two extra members, including a cute genki girl on drums.

I had made two mazes, with relatively different styles. The first of which had many dead ends, but still many solutions. To make it a bit harder, I added a start point and three targets to reach in order. Still it's not that difficult. Leigh was able to solve it in about 5 minutes. The second has zero dead ends, two big round spirals, two big squarish spirals, and a round spiral in the middle, and "Lapa Nui" on the back plus the date 18 FEB 19 FEB 2010 and an inscription like "Thank you for the inspirational beats!" and my email address rob @ this domain. On the front are four areas containing 1, 3, 4, and 2 dots, respectively. Ai was able to solve it in about 5 minutes. Her friend wouldn't even attempt it, though. He said it made his eyes go グルグル (spinning like dazed cartoon characters).

I gave the spirally one to Lapanui after showing it to Amy who was like, "you should give it to the band!" and I was like [blink], and she goes "here, I'll introduce you.." and I was like, [blink] "yeah!" and gave it to the band. I couldn't explain that I'd be even happier to give it to them after I had registered it on art.robnugen.com, so I just signed it and gave it. There's part of me that's hoping my art becomes famous so someone can track down the piece with my description above and it'll be registered later. Or maybe I can get Amy to help explain it all. Anyway...

Anyway, the next performance featured two belly dancers, whose amazing gyrations had my eyes going グルグル. They traded turns dancing on stage, and after each one went off stage, I turned to Keiko on my right and was like, "okay go go go" pointing to the stage. She laughed each time and was like "一緒に、ね," (together, ね). I'd say "okay!" and start wiggling / squirming while seated on the steps. The second dancer's second dance included her calling Amy onto the stage and they got down a boogied a bit. I grabbed Amy's camera and took about 5 or 6 pictures. If I see them on facebook I'll think yeah; I took those.

The last performers were the genki drummer and guitarist who had appeared on stage while I was drawing. I don't know their name, but I sure enjoyed watching her smile. Kumiya (shamisen sensei) had come in, and I commented to her and Keiko (Amy's friend who was standing in front of me on the steps during the performance) that the drummer was totally cute. Kumiya agreed, and then the drummer got on the mic for a bit, and I completely lost my interest. She was too cute. Er, I'll rephrase that to "obviously too young." 「あの、ね？みんなさん来てくれてとてもうれし、ね？」 and then she went on about stuff I couldn't really understand except she was giving props to the various performers and her friends who had come to the event.

Have arrived in Shinjuku; need to change trains to GET Challenge: Museum Madness.

11:23am JST Saturday 20 February 2010 (day 14577)

Got a seat on yamanote line from Shinjuku to Takadanobaba.

The final songs went past when I wanted to go home to get the 500 yen seat at 11:40pm in Shinagawa, but I got to say HI/Bye to Amy, Kumiya, Keiko, Ed, and Hide, but not Leigh; I wonder where/when he went. I'll see Kumiya again on Sunday for Japanese Lounge Night at The Pink Cow, but not sure about the others.

Ah dammit we just passed Takadanobaba (I was filling in the final paragraph about the cute drummer and got sidetracked), Meijiro, and I noticed in Ikebukuro!!

Fortunately I left a lot of leeway to arrive on time.