January 14th, 2009
New Year, old friends, manga, cookies, and swords
Last weekend, for founder’s day I got a chance to visit with Nami and her husband Taka at their home in Sumiyoshi. Nami and I have been friends since the first day I came to Japan, so she and I have quite a considerable amount of history. We met at the 2002 IWEC workshop in Makuhari. At the time she was studying art at an applied media school while I was starting my internship with ATR.
I’ve always been a fan of her doujinshi (fan published manga), the vibrance and exotic nature of her style always electrifies me.
For our New Year’s party I decided to make some cookies to share. The most fun part was decorating them.
Taka and Nami both wore kimono for the occasion, and I was fortunate enough to be able to try on Taka’s outfit after dinner.
Wearing hakama (divided skirt worn by males on formal occasions) feels pretty cool, actually. I put on my best Final Fantasy-inspired pose. Can’t you just imagine me overcoming all adversity to save mankind and more importantly, the heroine?
[Yes, technically if I was indoors I'd have my wakizashi out instead of my full length sword, since I'd very much be likely to get it stuck in a rafter during a strike, but this just looks cooler and my daimyou wasn't around.]
