Japanamania

I'm finally excited about Japan because it feels real now. It always seemed so far away and vague before, but now there's only a month left and I have an idea of what we'll be doing there. Some highlights, as far as I can tell: Harajuku (design/style district) and kabuki (elaborate theater that seems like the Japanese version of old Globe Theater-style Shakespeare) in Tokyo; climbing Mt. Fuji; temples, old architecture, and geisha in Kyoto/Osaka; Peace Ceremony at Hiroshima on the anniversary of the attack (daytime ceremonies followed by lanterns on the river at night, in memory); relaxing at a taiko member's family hotel (opting out of the hot springs because of the sulfur allergy). Oh yeah, and then there's the taiko festival the next week, our main event. I'm hoping to squeeze in a shiatzu massage and Buddhist meditation or tea ceremony somehow, too. I think everything sounds pretty amazing.

Well, everything except for the public baths (and crazy toilets) sounds amazing. Apparently bathing (as opposed to showering) is huge in Japan, and they don't mind doing it in groups (if you know what I mean ;)...okay no, it's not that kind of naked party). It sounds like something I want to avoid as much as possible, and maybe it won't be applicable, anyway, because of the sulfur allergy. I was hoping to get an authentic experience there with my clothes on, or at least a towel. I'm the girl that doesn't even like bikinis, remember?

I had a dream last night that I got there with the taiko group and we found out we barely had to pack any clothes, anyway--we spent most of our time wearing a bedsheet to cover the front of us, with our arms awkwardly holding it up like at the doctor's office (my doctor's office, at least--I don't even get a hospital style gown!). Maybe it was more of a nightmare, come to think of it.

Speaking of dreams, does anyone else ever have a dream within a dream? Sometimes I will interpret or talk about another very recent dream while I am still dreaming, as if one dream is not complicated enough (over-analyzing at it's finest). For example, on Monday I thought that my boss called me to say she couldn't come in to work and to ask if I could come in early. Well, I "woke up" in bed and started telling someone about this, and it seemed plausible until I got to the part where my phone was disguised as a Bath & Body Works antibacterial soap bottle! (Don't ask me. It was cucumber melon, though, I know that. Also, I'm a...spy?) Silly me, I realized as I was telling it that the "soap phone" meant that it was a dream! However, I was explaining that dream to no one, because I was actually by myself. When I woke up for real, I was totally confused. Did my boss actually call me? Was I late for work? What happened to that person in my bed? Maybe that is why I'm so disoriented in the morning. Yeah, we'll go with that.

Let's see what my brain has cooked up for me tonight. Hopefully it's as good as another dream I had last night...not the sheet dress, but another one that I can't talk about (might jinx it). Well, sweet dreams!