Come Rain or Come Shine

Please listen to this mp3 while you read the text.

In America, umbrellas aren't really that special besides the fact that you're not supposed to open them indoors.
It's supposed to be bad luck. Now, I'm not superstitious, but when my student Mari showed me her new umbrella at the cafe in Ikebukuro a couple weeks ago, I was very reluctant to open it.
Now, why am I talking about umbrellas, you ask?
Well, this is not your average run-of-the-mill umbrella. This is a Japanese "wagasa" we're talkin' about here.
A beautiful, heavy, exquisite work of art that can cost you up to $400 US...Yeah, it's not something to be made light of in my opinion.
From an American point of view, one glance at an umbrella like this will bring flashbacks of shows like Lady Snowblood, an old Japanese mini-series about a beautiful woman, highly skilled in martial arts, bearing a katana and a heavy grudge (See picture above right).
I remember this one scene where she uses her wagasa to block an enemy's attack, and another where she uses it it to keep more than 10 men at bay. To an American's eyes, this kind of stuff is just way too cool.
I love my country and I love my culture, but Japan just has so much mystery and beauty, and the wagasa personifies that sense of mystery and beauty perfectly.

Mari traveled 3 hours away from Tokyo to Kanazawa to buy her umbrella from a man called Hiroshi Matsuda (Matsuda, left. Mari, right).
Apparently, it can take as much as one day to finish making just one wagasa. Which isn't surprising. If you just look at it, you can tell it wasn't just slapped together in a couple minutes.
Each one is unique. Probably the only one of it's kind in the world.

The outside's all shiny with that fresh-paint smell (left), and the inside looks like a "komorebi" on a sunny day.
Just imagine looking up through the leaves of a huge oak tree on a beautiful day (below).

So, naturally, I took a picture of myself holding it to show my parents.
Funny thing is, when my dad saw the picture, he very non-chalantly said, "I like those Japanese umbrellas. I want you to send me 2."
Two?!?!? Considering the price, I can't even send you ONE! hahaha.

単語と表現の説明 (Vocabulary and Grammar Explanation)：

superstitious ＝　迷信を信じる

reluctant　＝　（人が）（...）したくない

run-of-the-mill　＝　（略式）標準の

glance　＝　一瞥

personifies　＝　（物・事）を擬人化する

slap together ＝　（物）をあわてて作る

non-chalantly　＝　（副詞用法）屈託のない

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