Monday, June 16, 2014

KAIR Closing Party & The Teary Speeches




After two and a half glorious months, it was time to say goodbye. To all our new friends, to KAIR, to Kamiyama, and to an experience that has profoundly affected us. And just as KAIR organized a welcoming party, they put out all the stops for the farewell.

This year, it was decided to have the residency closing party at the theater where both Nik's and Suskens work was hanging. Tatami mats, tables and chairs were brought in and a banquet of all things delicious. It felt like being in a fire-lit log cabin with 50 of your best mates, snuggly, warm, and cheery to the max, surrounded by engulfing art.

Unbeknownst to most, Nik and I and Sayaka and Manus arranged to be outfitted in kimono, the official black tie of Japan. A sweet old lady sweated out 45 minutes of wrangling me into this gorgeous silken number. Yanking, pulling, hoisting. At one point I had to pantomime to her that I needed room to eat dinner, so she loosened it up a bit. We certainly caused an appreciative commotion when we arrived. (I spent most of the evening trying to keep Hopper's foody fingers off the silk!)

The night was a lovely emotional tribute to the intimate bonds we forged over the time together. We all gave speeches, even me all teary and choked up, and you could feel the love in the room. And just like any special party, it was over too quickly and we were off to the dresser's house to disrobe.

I've lamented for months how to adequately encompass the overwhelming gratitude I have for this organization and its lovely people. I cannot possibly put into words how magnificent the whole experience was, the magnitude of generosity and support. I cannot thank everyone at KAIR enough for inviting Nik to do what he loves and graciously welcome our family. Kamiyama and everyone there will always hold a special place in my heart for reasons too great to list here, and for that, on behalf of myself and my family, thank you thank you thank you.


lovely intimate atmosphere

Yu, Rufus, and Ira


Nik's speech with translator

Hopper did a lot of speech bombing! 
Nikolai

Keiko assisting Hopper photographer


Mori-san

more speech bombing

Yu trying to wrangle Hopper in the wings



us with Sayaka and Manus, missing Susken

Ominami-san, director of KAIR

Nikolai, Sato-san, us, Keiko, Mori-san

gorgeous obi





Sunday, June 15, 2014

Papa & The Piggies




Though Hopper is now fully capable of complex sentences and ideas, the concept of Father's Day was slightly lost on him. While we were making pancakes for daddy this morning, I told him to paint a picture for daddy's special day and he walked off talking about Today is Daddy's birthday! At least he got the gist that today is the day to be a little extra nice. Which of course lasted but a nanosecond.

We all could've stood for a little extra nice today. With all the World Cup "footy" madness around here, we've been up late watching matches so have been a little worse for wear in the energy and nice departments. But despite fatigue, we hopped on our bikes to join Fede and his kids Boris and Maria to feed their pigs in Ouderkerk.

Not sure what to expect, we pulled up along the idyllic Amstel river, to a small farm nestled under some trees. And there they were, 4 smelly piggies all super squeally and excited to see Fede with his basket of food. We spent about 45 mins there, watching the pigs gorge themselves, sometimes fighting over bananas and apples, but mostly snouting their way through a massive bucket of slop. 

Hopper was impressed but scared. Pigs really do oink, and the bigger the pig, the bigger the oink. (Should this be a euphemism for something?) These guys were not only big oinkers, but pretty aggressive about their share of the nibbles so we stood back and watched. Boris and Maria are there quite often and rather enjoy petting them, laying their hay, and helping out with filling the seed dispenser. 

We then headed back to La Maria (Fede and his wife Rohan's restaurant) for some lovely vittles. Which being that they're closed on Sunday's, means we get free roam of the kitchen, wine and play park across the street.