Tsugino Shingo WO Hidari ni Magatte Kudasai!

My imagination has prepared me for more experiences than I can possibly cram into one lifetime. If I'm ever handed an Oscar, for instance, that brilliant acceptance speech delivered with the utmost humility will not be quite as extemporaneous as non-relatives in the audience might think. Ditto for the Nobel Peace Prize, Grammy, Emmy, and Congressional Medal of Honor.

Yet I was completely unprepared for my assignment at the Ikebana holiday program held at the New Sanno Hotel in Tokyo this month.  They asked me to don a Santa Claus hat and stand on a busy street corner across from two subway exits in the world's most populous city, holding a placard bearing the words 'Ikebana International' in both English and Japanese.  Fortunately the three to seven people most likely to be mortified by this sight currently reside on the other side of the planet. 

Had I known about the hat in advance, I could have set the alarm for twenty minutes later and foresworn the hair ritual.  This miffed me enough to insist on a speaking role.  "I ought to tell them to turn left at the next major intersection.  How do I say 'Please turn left at the next light' in Japanese?"  Bi-lingual Midori-san grabbed a notepad and wrote it out for me.  In Japanese.  "Um, sumimasen, but I can't read these little squiggles."  She re-wrote my line in romaji (Roman letters) - Tsugino shingo wo hidari ni magatte kudasai - and then had me practice reciting it faster and faster until it sounded like this: Tsuginishingo WO hidarinimagattekudasai.  A long-suffering bellhop served as my dress rehearsal audience and then I marched a quarter mile to my appointed corner, nodding benevolently to the thirteen hundred rush hour pedestrians I encountered enroute.  Fortunately the three to seven people most likely to be mortified by this sight currently reside on the other side of the planet.  Oops!  I already mentioned that, didn't I?

Every single Japanese member and guest turned left at the next light and arrived at the New Sanno Hotel in time to see and hear the Kinnick High School Show Choir perform.  That was gratifying, certainly, but having mastered this Japanese tongue twister, I am now searching for opportunities to repeat my performance.  With or without the hat.

This one's for Kate




Miles and Andrew flank the Queen Bee

 The Show Choir sang like angels, especially Mimi's son Andrew, a senior, and a miniscule freshman with a pure and powerful voice.  His last name is Davis and his mother named him Miles.  Trust me, music lovers have not heard the last of Miles Davis.

The next time you turn left at a light, I hope you will think of me.