Boke

Maybe it was a blond moment (the fact that I am a brunette has not stopped countless Japanese people from commenting on my "blond" hair), perhaps it was the cold medicine I had taken, or perhaps it was the nasty sinus cold that has had me sneezing every few minutes for the past two days. Whatever the reason, I felt pretty silly when I realized - nearly 8 hours later!

Let me explain...

I headed off to school early-ish this morning, and went with my advisor's office assitant to the museum storage space to collect a few tea bowls, illustrated scrolls, hanging scrolls, buddhst sculptures, and a few other objects. I was then interviewed for a Chinese-language publication on my university (my chance to become famous in China?!). I was asked about my background, experiences stdying in Japan, and any advice I had for potential foreign students. Then I was photographed - with my advisor, with some of the objects we had brought out, by the entrance to the university's museum...

After that I had just enough time to grab lunch and write up an English translation of the table of contents for a journal put out by the curatrial training program, and then took part in a 5 hour hands-on class on photographing museum objects. Learning how to use the big cameras was interesting, and it was fun watching what the students came up with to photograph - one guy brought in two pairs of old runnign shoes (the soles worn almost completely away), another guy spent 10 minutes arranging a box of tissues and getting the kleenex poking out in just the right shape. It was while the shoe guy was re-arranging his second pair for the 10th time that I looked down at my own shoes.

I stood there looking at my feet feeling that something was wrong but I just couldn't quite figure it out. Then I realized that my socks were odd - the sock showing through the top of my Mary-Jane type shoes had different patterns. I slipped one shoe off and tried to adjust the sock, figuring it had gotten bunched up somehow. But it still didn't look right. A few minutes more of concentrated and confused staring at my feet and I finally realized that not only was the pattern slightly different, but the colours weren't quite right... my right foot had stripes and diamonds of beige, turquoise, and brown on grey, while my left foot had stripes and snowflakes of beige, blue, and grey on brown... Yup. I was wearing two different socks.

Sigh.