But I'm past the halfway mark, and today, Thursday, is Sharpening the Saw day. If you know The Seven Habits (and here in school, it's one of our bibles), it's our favorite habit.
"If you’re overworking yourself and your productivity begins to fall off, common wisdom says to take a break, maybe even go on vacation."
- Exercise
- Improve your diet
- Educate yourself (read, listen to audio programs, attend a seminar)
- Learn a new skill
- Join a club
- Meditate
- Write in your journal
- Have a deep conversation with someone
- Set some new goals or review/update your old goals
- Organize your home or office
- Go out on a date
- Clear out a bunch of little tasks that you’ve been putting off
The besssssst.
Today we are "sharpening the saw" by browsing through the wonderfully entertaining pictures of Harajuku girls and boys on the net.
Because -- and I'm giddy about this -- our monthly Thanksgiving party's theme this January is "fashion show." Reedley Fashion Week, if you will.
Each group has been tasked to come up with their theme, music and clothes for the Friday party. And in the grand tradition of Reedley competitiveness, we decided to "career" this little project.
And our group, in an especially inspired move, decided to go sashaying down the catwalk, Harajuku style.
I first came to know about Harajuku when I was still working for Mabuhay magazine. We had a feature on Tokyo, and our editor insisted on a sidebar featuring the different districts in Tokyo.
Like Manila, where we have -- Quezon City, Pasig, Makati, in, Tokyo they have -- Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ginza, Roppongi and others. Each district has its own personality.
But it's not like Manila, where each "district" is just a variation of the other -- Makati is a more upper scale version of Ortigas etc. Their districts are like brothas and sistas from different mothas. Hahaha.
They're very different and wayward and attractive in their own ways. Like I know Shinjuku is the luxe hotels/shopping district, while, Roppongi is the nightlife/expat area.
But the most interesting by far, fashion-wise, is Harajuku.
It's like the Teen Capital of Tokyo because of the very screaming fasyon statements that their teens parade around in, when they hang out in the streets.
According th WikiHow -- Harajuku is very slippery to define and categorize since it is by its very nature, a rebellion against cookie-cutter couture.
But there are some threads running through their threads (hehe). Some loose categories are as follows:
- Gothic Lolita involves wearing gothic, feminine and elegant clothes, to the extent that you look like a living Victorian doll
- Japanese punks, inspired by the punk movement that began in London in the 70s, magnify rebelliousness with over-the-top clothes, accessories, makeup, and piercings.
- Cosplay entails dressing up like your favorite cartoon/anime or computer game character.
- Decora style favors bright colors, flamboyance and accessories from head to toe. You decorate yourself with plastic toys and jewelry, and it's not uncommon to have so many that you can hear them click together when the person moves.
- Kawaii (literally translating from Japanese to "cute") places an emphasis on childlike playfulness--anime characters, ruffles, pastel colors, toys, and so on.
We've managed it so that each Harajuku style is duly represented. And we've compiled our music already -- a mixture of Gwen Stefani and System of a Down and Teriyaki Boyz.
It's so competitive that we have to hold covert meetings since we share the same work spaces with members of the opposing teams. We drop false leads by talking about whips and leather so that an eavesdropper will think we have an S & M theme. We even have "Polaroids" of our "models" wearing their designated outfits.
I think this is part of why teaching high school has been such a fun ride. The dressing up, the talent competitions, choral recitations.
When you organize events in the corporate world -- you have so many things to think about. The stakes are higher. There are clients to please and customers to cater to.
But here, it feels like playing dress-up with your siblings. You did it because it was fun.
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