32th Anniversary.
For you who may not know, the Matsuyama social group I tend to associate with frequently is known as "The Family," not to be confused with the ultra conservative religious group with the house on C Street in Washington, but just a very friendly and loving group of friends.
So the first "Family" event of the year was last night. It was Miyachan's birthday party and involved DJs at a club and T-shirts and dirty English lessons and gratuitous male nudity.
Somehow, Japan seems to have an unspoken rule that in parties of 20 or more people, one man must take off an article of clothing at some point in the night. In this case, it was Miyachan himself and the article of clothing was all of them. He actually spent his entire DJ set dancing naked, while most of us girls did our best to dance and not look at the DJ. I know, we're such prudes.
After having worked all day, and being tired from our six-day week, Amy and I had walked to a shopping center (Jow-Pla) for some retail therapy after work. We ended up buying new outfits and wearing them that night.
These outfits proved Japan's infinite tolerance of anything-goes fashion. Amy's ripped-up pants displayed patches of red-plaid under the rips, her tops consisted of a striped gray shirt and a red plaid flannel over shirt. Her shoes match them but not color with their pale yellow plaid cuffs and tongue. My outfit involved many layers including black velvety pirate boots, maroon plaid stockings, a polka-dot mini-skirt, a black tank-top covered buy a black and purple striped sweater with lacing up the back, and a polka-dot hoodie with animal ears and woolly sleeve cuffs.
As tacky as our outfits sound, we received a number of compliments. Since I discovered every time I've attempted tacky in Japan, people have said how cute I look, I've decided to embrace the tackiness and now rely on my cute face and hair to allow me to get away with anything fashion-wise. Perhaps I'm picking up some of the elven glamor that allows Japanese people to look attractive in anything they wear.
The T-shirts made and on sale for this fun occasion, featured Miyachan's face replacing the ghost's face on the "Ghost Busters" logo and said "Miyachan Busters" underneath. The back resembled a band tour or event T-shirt. With a number of Japanana (what's the Japanese version of Americana called) images with Miyachan's face on them underneath, the writing read:
"Miyachan
32th Anniversary
1979 <> 2011
January 31th"
"Hey, his birthday is the same as my mom's" I said to Amy as Miyachan danced on a chair in the DJ booth. Though we had fun when the music was good, at one point in the night, the music switched to Reggae so unacceptable that our Jamaican friend Rodney said, "If the DJ played this in Jamaica, he'd be booed. If you're gonna play old stuff, play Bob Marley" We didn't stay for the whole party as exhaustion set in around 1 or 2.
So the first "Family" event of the year was last night. It was Miyachan's birthday party and involved DJs at a club and T-shirts and dirty English lessons and gratuitous male nudity.
Somehow, Japan seems to have an unspoken rule that in parties of 20 or more people, one man must take off an article of clothing at some point in the night. In this case, it was Miyachan himself and the article of clothing was all of them. He actually spent his entire DJ set dancing naked, while most of us girls did our best to dance and not look at the DJ. I know, we're such prudes.
After having worked all day, and being tired from our six-day week, Amy and I had walked to a shopping center (Jow-Pla) for some retail therapy after work. We ended up buying new outfits and wearing them that night.
These outfits proved Japan's infinite tolerance of anything-goes fashion. Amy's ripped-up pants displayed patches of red-plaid under the rips, her tops consisted of a striped gray shirt and a red plaid flannel over shirt. Her shoes match them but not color with their pale yellow plaid cuffs and tongue. My outfit involved many layers including black velvety pirate boots, maroon plaid stockings, a polka-dot mini-skirt, a black tank-top covered buy a black and purple striped sweater with lacing up the back, and a polka-dot hoodie with animal ears and woolly sleeve cuffs.
As tacky as our outfits sound, we received a number of compliments. Since I discovered every time I've attempted tacky in Japan, people have said how cute I look, I've decided to embrace the tackiness and now rely on my cute face and hair to allow me to get away with anything fashion-wise. Perhaps I'm picking up some of the elven glamor that allows Japanese people to look attractive in anything they wear.
The T-shirts made and on sale for this fun occasion, featured Miyachan's face replacing the ghost's face on the "Ghost Busters" logo and said "Miyachan Busters" underneath. The back resembled a band tour or event T-shirt. With a number of Japanana (what's the Japanese version of Americana called) images with Miyachan's face on them underneath, the writing read:
"Miyachan
32th Anniversary
1979 <> 2011
January 31th"
"Hey, his birthday is the same as my mom's" I said to Amy as Miyachan danced on a chair in the DJ booth. Though we had fun when the music was good, at one point in the night, the music switched to Reggae so unacceptable that our Jamaican friend Rodney said, "If the DJ played this in Jamaica, he'd be booed. If you're gonna play old stuff, play Bob Marley" We didn't stay for the whole party as exhaustion set in around 1 or 2.