My regular customer, Mr X, came to Hachioji with his family.

The customer, Mr X,who had organised my 1st anniversary celebration as a geisha came to Hachioji again with his wife, daughter, her husband and their son (who is only 6 years old).

When most of the ozashiki parties were cancelled due to the M9 Tohoku earthquake, I sent an email to him to seek his help. He did his best to live up to my expectation and sent emails to his friends in a bid to organize an ozashiki party, however in the end he gave up.

He said to me that his friends had replied saying that it’s inappropriate to hold an party when many people had died and were still suffering from the earthquake and tsunami.

Essentially, many events were cancelled throughout Japan to mourn the victims of the M9 Tohoku earthquake.

So Mr X invited his family to an ozashiki party.
I knew that he sometimes talks to his family about me.

At first he asked me about my schedule and whether the traditional Japanese restaurant, which is our regular restaurant, would be open in Golden Week.

In addition, he asked me whether I could eat dinner with them, because his wife and daughter wanted us to enjoy dinner together.

Such a request is very unusual, so I confirmed with my geisha mother whether I could have dinner with them. She said we could have an ozashiki party however she wouldn’t give her permission for me to eat dinner with them.
She said to me that it’s very difficult to entertain them while I’m eating.
I agreed with her thinking, so I expressed our decision to Mr X.

Finally the actual day came.

He called me to ask whether we could start the party earlier than planned. I quickly confirmed with the restaurant if it was possible and replied to him that it would be no problem.

To tell the truth, on that day I had a fever, so before the ozashiki party I went to the hospital and got an injection in order to lower my temperature.

When I talked about my condition with my geisha mother, she asked whether I would cancel that ozashiki party. I said I didn’t want to, because I knew Mr X and his family had made a special appointment to see me.

Fortunately, the medicine too effect, so my temperature went down.

They arrived at the restaurant a bit earlier than the reserved time. The restaurant’s staff asked them whether they were ready for me to enter their room, and I opened the fusuma, the Japanese sliding screen.
They watched me with big smiles on their faces, so my nervousness disappeared.

At first I greeted the youngest member and asked his name. The 6-year-old boy answered my question and he also introduced the other members of his family to me. He was very polite. His parents and grandmother also looked very polite and kind.
We quickly entered into a pleasant conversation.

The 6-year-old boy suddenly whispered something in my ear. He said to me that the dinner was very delicious and he wanted to come again.

How cute, I thought!

I told everyone what he had whispered and they all laughed.

After we enjoyed more talking the boy said to me that he wanted to teach me an English dance which he had learned at his kindergarten.

He taught me the dance by drawing some pictures. When I saw the pictures which he drew I was very surprised, because they were easy to understand.

I decided to perform his English dance first. Everyone looked very happy and his parents took many photos.

He was inspired by drawing the pictures to show me the dance and he continued to draw many insects and flowers which he gave to me.

It was the first time for his family to see him draw many pictures in earnest.
So they were surprised.

It was also surprising for me, because he really captured the essence of the insects and flowers.
He also drew my portrait which he also gave to me. I was very glad.
On top of that made a sketch of the party room on his last piece of paper.

I was really surprised at his creativity and his ability to concentrate.

In the middle of the ozashiki party, I played 2 songs on the shamisen, and explained about the shamisen a bit.

Since the daughter had learned the piano for a long time and my geisha mother was in the next room, I got tense. Nevertheless I played well.

Mr X’s wife gave me a gift. When I opened the small box, I felt very happy.
In the box there was a cute mirror and a lipstick brush.

We all felt that the 2 hours went very quickly.

As soon as that ozashiki party finished, I was called to another party in the same restaurant which was attended by a customer who I made met a couple of times previously.

My body temperature increased again after the 2 parties, however I felt very happy.

Mr X sent me an email to express his gratitude for the party.

It was a very special ozashiki party as it made me feel so happy to be a geisha more any previous ozashiki parties.