Lestrange Me

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19

I was excited all day for Harry Potter. I mentioned it to a couple students in class, even. And my JTEs; they knew. They were surprised to hear that I was dressing up. I wanted to shake them and ask if they realised that this was HARRY POTTER on OPENING NIGHT. But I settled for them being older (I'm not sure what Ottawa-sensei's excuse is) and out of the loop. I worked a bit later than I would have liked to, but was out of there as soon as I felt I could leave.

I rushed to the hyaku-en store and grabbed my fake nails, then hurried home. Once there, It became a mad dash to get everything organized.

I had to get dressed first, because I knew that I couldn't put on my clothes over my hair. I took out my hair (which I got NO comments on today?!) and teased it so that it flared outward and wild. It looked awesome. I then dowsed it with enough hairspray to make myself a walking fire hazard. Next came make up. Fake eyelashes looked awesome here, but it took me about 20 minutes to get them on correctly(ish). I have new-found respect for the skills of my Nishi girls.

I didn't have time for my nails before I had to run off to the station. Actually, I was running late enough that I took my bicycle. I met Ginny by the turnstiles (and eager to meet up with her, given my frightening appearance – I looked down a lot.) I slipped out of my shoes and into my boot and we proceeded through the mall and over to the cinema.

Inside, they wouldn't let us into the theatre yet, so we browsed the merchandise. They had FOUR CASES of Harry Potter stuff and it was awesome. This is what American movie theatres should be doing. The most awesome thing they had was leather book covers for the seven books. But they'd only fit the Japanese books and were a bit expensive. But awesome none the less...

We were the ONLY ones dressed up. And, we got ZERO comments. We finally went into the theatre five minutes before the movie started (no line) and the theatre itself for OPENING NIGHT was only 1/3 full. There were no cheers, no reactions to anything. It was like going to a cheap-theater movie back home, except this was 7 times more expensive. Ginny reacted throughout the movie but she was the only one.

Japanese theatres keep the lights off during the credits so EVERYONE waits through the credits. We looked at the names and odd titles. So, while it was an enjoyable movie and I liked going with Ginny, it was depressing compared to the festivities I missed at home. And used to organize at home.

I got on Skype that evening off show off my hair. My mother was freaked out enough by my costume that she told me to knock it off with the Bellatrix faces. Quite successful, then!