My Lady Samurai Naming

On Saturday, March 10th I was named at our second annual Lady Samurai Shego. A Shego is our version of the guy's shugo's (or roll-calls, as they're better known in the Air Force). It's basically an opportunity for the entire squadron to get together, tell funny stories about things that happened over the past several weeks, name the new people and generally blow off steam. We Samurai wives have only started doing namings recently, so we're still trying to catch up on naming all of the people who have been around for a long time. I have now been in Japan for almost two years so I was on the bracket this time.

Normally, when you get named you have to bring a bribe of some sort to coax the squadron into giving you a good name. For the guys that usually equates to booze, but we ladies got a bit more creative. For mine, I individually packaged up some fresh scones from our favorite off base cafe and attached a special discount coupon for a photo shoot.  It was pretty well received. =^)

 Unfortunately, the timing of the shego fell on Lisa's last weekend in Japan. She's technically not a part of our squadron anymore but we dragged her along with us anyway. All of her friends were hanging out, eating good food and laughing all night. It just seemed wrong to leave her at home alone. At first she was pretty resistant to the idea, but she had so much fun that she thanked us a lot afterward for making her go.

 After dinner, we started the namings. We had eight different people to name so it took a long time. Basically, we "interviewed" each person and learned a bit more about them and any embarrassing stories that might inspire a good name. Then friends of the namee went up front and told a funny story about them and provided a name suggestion inspired by the story. In an effort to keep the stories short, we had to dunk our hand in a bucket of ice while talking. It did not help... The whole process still took about four hours.

We laughed A LOT. It was kind of exhausting.

 After all of the stories had been shared, the person getting named had an opportunity to say which name she liked best, and to drink off a name she didn't like. Then she went upstairs while the room discussed and voted on the best name. The namee was recalled to the floor by the clash of a real metal gong. Then she was christened with a samurai sword (sort of like being knighted with a sword) and was presented with a sash bearing her new name.

When it was my turn to get named, I was really excited. Honestly, I had no idea what kind of "dirt" or funny stories they had on me so I welcomed the stories.

For the most part they had to do with my silly antics, over-the-top personality, sarcasm, and over use of emoticons. Apparently I display more emotions when I write than when I speak. haha

My friend Kara telling a story about me

Since I don't drink, they said that if I wanted to get rid of a name I didn't like I had to serenade the group on the piano. I haven't played in a long time and the only song I still remember how to play is the theme from Titanic... Most of the group had never heard me play or had no idea that I'm musical so they were very impressed with my meager attempt.

 Due to my song choice they considered naming me Rose. But in the end my constant emoticons won out as my defining trait and so they named me "EMOJI", which is apparently the Japanese word for all of those cutesy symbols. I like it a lot. It's unique.

A picture of all the lovely ladies who were named. WOOD!