performances, parties, and other such things

we had our first musical performance on saturday night in niigata city. it went surprisingly well despite the lack of preparation many of us felt we'd had. the party following that at immigrant's was the usual fun-though-too-hot-too-crowded.
shibata's show was the next day and i think that lots of people were a bit exhausted and hungover from the night before. it might have lacked the spark of the first performance.
i had to do a thank you speech at the end and whilst fumbling with the microphone i managed to drop the flowers that little merin and nina had handed to fumie and me...anyway.
the highlight of the day was standing outside after, thanking all of the people who came. i heard justine sensei! justine sensei! and glanced down and saw the two smiling faces of my favourite shogakkou students (first graders from tennou sho). they were giggling and grabbing at my legs and when i crouched down they both smothered me in hugs. their mothers took out their k-tais and took photos of us. every time i go to tennou sho i play with these two little sprites at lunch time. (i've posted their pic before too, below somewhere in the january archives). i hadn't expected them to show up and when i saw them it just made me so happy.