She had been in Japan for approximately three years and had a love-hate relationship with Japan.  While she was absolutely head over heels in love with tea ceremonies and reiki, she could not stand Japanese girls who were her students in the language school where she worked.  She could not imagine that Japanese girls her age would still behave like thirteen year olds - not only in dress and style but also how they looked at the world.  

Despite this, she hung out with her Japanese students a lot since she kept getting invited to parties regularly.  Very soon she obtained an invitation for me as well as she spread the word about me among her students that she had a French friend who was new to Japan and was interested in exploring Japanese culture.

The first party I went to was in a nearby town.  Monica had warned me that parties for young people in Japan were not just about getting together with friends but a lot more about showing off - dressing up in your best and pretending to be cool, especially if there were non-Japanese people around.  This was a group of about 15 young women, some of whom were Monica's students while others were their friends.  The party was supposedly organized to celebrate a girl's birthday and it had a Mickey Mouse theme.  We had assembled in a private room of a hotel and it was a little uncomfortable for me to imagine being in a party while sitting on the tatami floor.  When I looked around the room, I realized that other guests had been looking at me with a lot of interest.  I could see signs of interest emerge on everyone's face as they welcomed me to the big room.  No wonder I was smiling more than I usually do since I did not know what to say.  I spoke slowly and interspersed my speech with a few words of Japanese that I was gradually picking up.  I think that helped break the ice somewhat.

This was one wild group of women that I had ever seen.  The absence of men was striking to me since I was not used to going to parties without guys.  However, I found the women to be more comfortable and relaxed in the absence of men and I started to enjoy the unique atmosphere.  This was a very fashionable group of people and I felt slightly under-dressed despite my black top and a white skirt.  It was clear that everyone had dyed their hair - while some were more conservative with shades of brown, others were outright blondes.  While my father would have been interested and pleased, some of these women actually wore white and green lipstick.  May be he will be in Japan for a long time convincing his company to start manufacturing white lipstick.    

Next part:  A Disney theme party