Hanging out with Aimachi

After the Mia Michaels class, I went back to more meetings, which ended at 6pm (thanks, Jackie!).

I knew the name of the hotel and the city where Aimachi was staying, and I knew that they were going back to Japan the next morning, so I casually asked Jackie if she wanted to go out to Miamisburg with me after the meeting.   Instead, she lent me her car, and I drove off to go see my Japanese friends again before they left (especially since I didn’t get to see Chiharu on Thursday).

I love it when I can be spontaneous…!  (^_^)

Finding them ended up being a much more difficult endeavor than I thought it would be, as my initial directions led me out into the middle of nowhere, where there was nothing but residential houses around…  Confused, but not discouraged, I searched again, and through the pummel of heavy rain and a bevy of convoluted directions (all while worrying about whether or not I had enough gas to get there, since Jackie’s fuel tank was a bit low…), I finally found their hotel.

When I got there, I went into the lobby, and asked the man at the front desk if they were hosting a lot of Japanese people at their establishment (just to make sure I had the right hotel =P), to which he answered, ‘yes.’  Thank goodness!  He rang up Chiharu’s room, and a Japanese female voice answered the phone, but it wasn’t Hatsue or Chiharu.  Flustered and ill-prepared, I fumbled through my elementary Japanese to try and determine what I could do.  The voice told me that Hatsue and Shuichi had gone out, and that Chiharu was sleeping.  I didn’t know anyone else I could ask for, and I thought it would be overly weird for me to ask to stay and wait for them, especially when they didn’t know when they would be back or wake up… but I REALLY didn’t want to go back, after coming all that way, and not see my friends…

Thankfully, the voice on the other end sensed my dilemma and went to wake up Chiharu (sorry, Chiharu!).  They told me their room number, and I ran through the freezing rain to the other side of the property, arriving at their door step soaked, but relieved and happy.  =)

I ended up hanging out with them the whole night, and all the trouble was so worth it!  I shot the breeze with Chiharu for a while, and got to watch Aimachi’s semifinals performance on DVD.  Hatsue came back shortly after, and Shuichi a little bit after that (they called up his room and told him to come over).  All three were really surprised that I was there, but really happy.  =)

The night was full of partying, packing, and picture-taking, as it was Aimachi’s last day together (since they borrowed a handful of members from Pride of Cincinnati–which didn’t have a guard this year).  A bunch of the Japanese twirlers asked for pictures with me, too–I was really surprised that they knew who I was!

(Don’t be fooled by the photo, above.  That was only about a third of the people who were actually in the room at the time.  Plus there were constantly people coming and going.  =P)

All in all, it was a really great night and trip!  I met some cool people, caught up with my Japanese friends, and once again validated this path I’ve chosen for my life.  I’m re-energized and ready to take on the world!  (^_^)

Chiharu gave me a signed Aimachi shirt! (^_^)

Chiharu making Shuichi take a weird picture... =P