Mishaal is a Tokyo based belly dancer. Quite possibly the best belly dancer I've ever seen. Here's her website. I saw her at a Greenpeace event in Ebisu that Yama-chan dragged me to. Very happy that she did. More pics up at Flickr.
Technorati Tags: araku, bellydance, canon, Canon Digital Rebel, canon300D, flickr, life, photography, mishaal, sigma17-70mm, tokyo
And Saturday Christian and I (forced to abort our planned Tokyo-Odaiba boat cruise dual-itterashai-piss-up since the boats didn't start till July 1 - that'd be the day AFTER we scheduled it in) went to see Tyler play a lovely show at Tiny Cafe in Sengawa:
Anyways, Christian and Yuiko head off for Italy this week and won't be back till after I leave for India so I won't be seeing them for 2 months or so....
Friday night I went to the Araku/Ash birthday do at Araku in Golden Gai. It was an awesome night but the 4 very drunk Aussie/NZ car salesmen present reminded me of the Surfers Paradise Beer Garden on a bad day in Schoolies week and I was so happy when they finally bounced themselves out (good on ya fella's) after a particularly rowdy moment in which beer was sent flying across the room, our table and all over Sarah's leg. Yup, I'm a fecking snob. 15 years of working in clubs, etc has ruined me for life. I can't stand loud, drunk, rowdy Aussie blokes. They make me wanna scratch my nails down a blackboard. Anyway, it was a great night with great people (afore-mentioned loud, drunk Aussie car-dealing blokes excepted - though, to be fair, I hear they are nice fella's when sober...) ... and actually, an all round excellent weekend.
And in other news....
Today, I completed the last of my High School and Junior High School classes, handed my grades and student attendance records in, packed up my desk, closed my computer and bid my colleagues a happy summer.... and shed not a tear. Sadly, I'm not actually on holidays yet - there are just 17 less classes to teach for the next 2 weeks. Still have the grade one's, bless 'em... (8.30 a.m. is just tooo early for the level of genki-ness required to deal with them). And all my private students. But hey, I only have to get up at 6.30 once a week now. I do like that. And lordy, would you look at the time? It's 1.30 a.m. and guess what? I don't have to be anywhere till my afternoon classes tomorrow! Woohoo.
Bought the Lowepro CompuDayPack to travel with and started “bootcamp” today. Loaded it up with all my camera gear and paraphernalia and walked the 3.5 km's to school, then back home - via some private lessons in Kichijoji. Sweated like a mofo and my back was drenched, but I was surprised at how do-able that weight is when it's carried in a professionally designed pack. Need to trash the bag up a little, really hate traveling with shiny new things - it just draws attention. Anyway, plan to carry it around everywhere on foot to strengthen up my wasted body. Oh, and don't tell anyone, but I'm gonna buy a pair of crocs for the trip. The fashion police will kill me, apparently. But damn, they are just so practical for monsoon heat and humidity.
Only 13 sleeps. Holy crap. *SO* much to do.