Thursday, September 20, 2007 So: Chopstick stuck in a geisha’s ear By Michelle P. So Caught in the Net
THERE is another use for chopsticks: they make great hair accessory of a geisha.
A geisha who comes from the house of Sun.Star Cebu sticks a chopstick in her hair to make her look prettier than she already is. And if she has short hair, like really short that she can’t comb it into a bun, she can cradle a chopstick in her ear like a pencil. She can, of course, choose to stick it in her ear but she will have to bear the consequence.
A geisha from the house of Sun.Star Cebu has to do all her personal necessities before she dons her kimono. The ceremony of wearing a kimono can make one wish for the era of Adam and Eve when clothing was so simple that one simply had to pick leaves if she wanted to change fashion. But that was a long time ago, before Globe Telecom had the costume contest in its Cebu Press Freedom Week party last Monday.
A geisha from the house of Sun.Star Cebu can shuffle her feet and hide her foundation-caked hungry look behind a gold-dusted fan when watched by a crowd. But when away from the eyes of most people, she can dart from one end of the room like a ninja to chow down. She knows better than to use the chopsticks in her hair to pick food from her plate. She’s relieved that there’s no tea to serve the Chairman, who is seated at a table near the stage.
A geisha from the house of Sun.Star Cebu can flutter a fan with a curtsy-like move but can also do it with the half-genuflection of a confused or irreverent Catholic. She does this because she can’t see how the other geishas move their legs underneath the kimono and she can’t hear the instruction well because of the chopstick stuck in her ear.
A geisha from the house of Sun.Star Cebu can find her armpits damp from the heat from wearing a thick and heavy kimono. She has to watch the trail of her kimono lest she trips over it at a turn. There is no Glenn Soco to catch her fall. Without the kimono, she has a better chance at getting John Pages to dance. John once wrote that his “bones act like chopsticks” when dancing.
A geisha from the house of Sun.Star Cebu can instantly salvage anything to come up with the look, or at least the closest look, of a geisha in three hours.
She relies on the help of her gay-siya friends like Joseph and Gelo of marketing department to put on her make-up.
Fourteen geishas from the house of Sun.Star Cebu are a hands-down crowd favorite. In their multi-colored kimonos and white-caked faces and in single file, they are a sight to behold in the parking lot of the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and in a dim-lit room. They are what they are not in newsroom life.
They have drama and fun on their hands for one night. By midnight, they have P20,000 hidden in the sleeves of their kimonos. Arigato gosaimas, Globe-san.
A geisha from the house of Sun.Star Cebu moves on after the party. She gets her stories, submits them to her editors and lets her newly rebonded hair down. She keeps speakers like Bigfoot CEO Joe Mercado and Capitol consultant on information Rory Jon Sepulveda company while waiting for the forum to start but misses the most part of what they’re saying to her because the geisha is tired from wearing the thick and heavy kimono the night before.
And now, the geisha has to wash the kimono and return it to the executive publisher. She now finds another use for the chopsticks: to prop her eyelids. She’s counting the days when the 13th Cebu Press Freedom Week is over.
Today, some of the geishas will be at the UP in the Visayas Cebu College at 9:30 a.m. and at the MBF Cebu Press Center at 1 p.m. You’ll know them by the chopsticks stuck in their ears.
