sooooo... the weather was forecast to be terrible, as in typhoon terrible. i had made plans to go with some friends from the islands to the mainland for a good-bye party with many of our mainland friends in an attempt to start the inevitable good-bye process. this would be a one last chance to see those who i had grown closest with on the mainland and have one last good hurrah with them. i made these plans prior to knowing about the typhoon. i had also made plans, or rather they had been made for me, to have my debut with my taiko team for the 20th anniversary of our team's existence. the good-bye party was saturday night and the taiko performance was sunday afternoon. this meant that i would have to catch an early boat sunday morning in order to make it back in time to perform, for the first time in front of people, with my taiko team. okay, i can do that, i can make it happen i thought to myself. no problem. this was before the typhoon forecast too.
after i head about the typhoon i started to doubt the possibility of all of this happening as i had planned. on one hand there was missing the good-byes to consider and on the other hand there was missing my debut with my team to consider. still on a third hand (i know there is no third hand in life, but just go with it okay!?) there was the typhoon to consider. we rarely have weather really pan out to what it is forecast to be, so when everyone around me is telling me a big typhoon is coming i tend to not really believe them. upon investigating it myself i found that they just might be right this time. just maybe.
i really, really, really wanted to go to say good-bye to my mainland friends. after all this was kind of the one last time where they would all be there together and a final chance to see many of them. i wanted to go if there was even a chance i could do it. i also really, really, really wanted to be able to perform with my team after all of the months (I've been practicing with them for 18 months now) of work and i didn't want to let them down as they were counting on me to be there. what does a girl do?
i woke up saturday morning early to check the weather and finally decided that it just seemed like it might be too big of a risk to get on a boat because having them canceled on sunday would be devastating for me and my team. i let my friends know i was going to stay put and sent them off with hugs for everyone i was going to miss. sniff sniff. then i had a little pity party for myself and tried to get excited and focused on what i wasn't going to miss.
as saturday wore on the typhoon slowly came on full force. the rain pounded down and the wind made being outside nearly impossible. it raged on, as i knew my friends were too on the mainland. i wished i was there with them, sent my love to them from here and tried to sleep. i woke up sunday morning to the island intercom man announcing "ohio gozaimasu. good guess work beth. all of the ferries for the day are canceled. no one is getting on or off this island for awhile." (okay, he didn't really say that, but he did tell us that all of the boats were being held.) a HUGE sigh of relief. if i had gone i wouldn't have been able to make it back for my performance. yesssssss!
sunday was fantastic. i spent most of the day preparing for the party with my team who thanked me again and again for staying and giving up my party on the mainland to perform with them. i couldn't believe how much they actually cared. they repeated this thanks in front of all of the guests later at the party after we had given a really fantastic performance. the kindness of these people really is just astounding some days.
so there it is. the time i made the right choice. not easy, but i just listened to my heart and the weather report and decided i should stay. what is not so easy right now is dealing with the choice i have made to go come august. I'm sure this will all work itself out, but for now I've got a lot of goodbyes to get on.
leaving you with some pics of my team practicing last week and from the pre-party last night. trying to get the video up of our performance last night. gambarro.
hope life is letting you know you're on the right track too, whatever track that it. and if you find you're not, take a chance and skip onto the next one.
love love
ps-sorry about the photos that arent right side round. i still cant get my computer at school to do as i ask. appologies for my lack of kanji skills.
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