Midaregami

Julia came and went. These long weekends with her are a blessing, but they feel so busy I can never decide whether or not I’ve had an actual break. Friday evening saw Jake and I driving down to Himeji to pick her up, and after arriving home in Yoka we had a delicious dinner at Casetta.

The next day was the Big Party at the Nakatas. I warned Julia she’d be put on the spot, and I was right. Thankfully, she’s even cuter when she’s blushing and shy.

Saturday during the day we mostly huddled in my kerosene-heated upstairs bedroom, playing Final Fantasy X, reading, and generally relaxing. In the evening we got into our party clothes and got ready to head down to the stunningly gorgeous Nakata estate for the matron Yumiko’s birthday party.

Some weeks before, I’d made the tactical error of letting slip that Julia was going to accompany me to the celebration, at which point Mrs. Nakata decided that the party would serve a double function—her birthday and our engagement.

Er, thanks.

I warned Julia that we’d likely be put on the spot and applauded by the hundred-odd party guests, most of whom where unknown to both of us. This did, in fact, happen, and Julia had to accept a bouquet from Mrs. Nakata, as well as a gift, in addition to congratulations from everybody in sight.

The really fun part, for me, was twofold. First, I love any excuse to get dressed up. I wore my notorious Chinese silk stoplight shirt with the coat of legend, along with my fedora and long maroon muffler—it was an extremely striking ensemble. Julia opted for a simple black turtleneck (turtlenecks are a potent weapon in any fashion arsenal) along with a Harajuku-special long, black, intricately-laced skirt. Under her long wool power coat (the kind of coat that says “money,” or alternatively, “get out of my way”) she was dressed to kill, as well.

That was only one variable in the whole Equation of Fun that was the evening. One of the others was the set I played with Grayson and Gregory; at the end we gave a song to Mrs. Nakata that Gregory wrote and the three of us arranged. Later, a fellow brought his double bass over and I don’t want to say we played jazz. It was more of a minimalist suggestion of music, the way a few lines in a sketch can hint at shading or depth. But whatever it was, it was fun.

I hesitate to say this sort of thing, lest I be accuse of own-horn-tooting, but several times I got pulled aside by various people, some of whom I only vaguely knew, and was told how beautiful Julia was. It was like a running gag. “Bijin ja nai ka” was not an uncommon comment: “Hey, she’s gorgeous.” What can I say? I agree.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 25th, 2003 at 4:53 pm and is filed under Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.