Snow White and the ten dwarves

Well, as you can see by the title of today's post, we watched a Japanese production of Snow White in the weekend.  Our 'local' (half an hour away - as local as it gets out here) friend Emma was playing the part of the Queen when she is dressed as a witch, off to kill SnowWhite (in an effort to include everyone who auditioned, they had two entirely different casts and most of the leads were played by two different people!).  The first half was odd, as we tried to follow along with the three mirrors, weight-lifting queen and ten dwarves, but we were thoroughly rewarded by Emma doing an awesome turn as the witch.  Apparently she had spent hours and hours getting her Japanese lines down and it showed.  The only one to rival her for stage charisma was the totally off time but enthusiastic smallest dwarf.  Go Emma! 

In other news... we bought a camera!  Yay!  Very exciting!  It's an 'entry level' Nikon SLR that came with two different lenses and a Mickey Mouse camera bag.  And... being Japan... we also got 'service' - eg. freebies.  In this case, two Adidas bags and two dinner plates, one of which is also Mickey themed.  Foolish Jeff looked SURPRISED at receiving free dinner plates with his camera.  Myself, I laughed at his naivety.  Over a year living in Japan and he still expected the freebies would be relevant??? 

Now we are super excited for November - Jeff's mate Steve will visit from NZ and we will go to Kyoto.  Autumn in Kyoto... is there a better time to have a new camera?  I think not! 

Actually, talking about people visiting, when I called home in the weekend (to wish Harry a good flight as she embarks for America!), Mum said, "What's this I hear that you may not be staying in Japan a third year?  We are planning to come visit you again so you can't leave!"  I was all, "What...??"  First off, who told my Mum we had made any decisions??  Those don't come until February (Feb 10th to be exact, when we have to resign by)!  Second, a second visit??  This is unheard of!  (hmm... please don't hold the excessive punctuation in this paragraph against me!)  She has already spent a month here and she is, apparently, serious about returning.  I was so surprised.  I knew my parents loved it here, but I assumed it was because they don't get out much and they were just enjoying not being in NZ.  I didn't realise that it was Japan in particular that they were so crazy about. 

So far we have already had Kate, Geoff & Sandra and my parents visit.  Now we have Steve coming next month and it sounds like my parents will return!  They never visited this much when I lived in Hamilton...  But in all seriousness... if there was an award for the JETs doing the most for Japanese tourism, I think we would have it in the bag.  Now I'm waiting on Megan, Yi-leen, Heather, Rikki, Chris & Gemma, Hannah, Sam and anyone else who expressed an interest in Japan/likes to travel to visit us!  I'm still working on Laura, too - I think Mum and Dad should fund her a trip here (as of the end of the week she will be the only chick still  in the Draper nest!).  The only problem is trying to get her to fit Japan into her schedule :S

Hope everyone is doing well,
Charly