I will post about, salsa, bachata, beauty, fashion, photography, and life in Japan. I want to share everything that I find to be interesting, beautiful, and fun. I studied Theatre Costuming and Japanese, graduated from WVU in Morgantown West Virginia, and moved to Tokyo in 2017 to pursue my many dreams. I studied abroad in Nagoya at Kinjo Gakuin University in 2011 and you can read about that in my older posts here. I currently work as an English teacher using theatre.
After I finished work on Saturday night, my husband came to meet me, and went to karaoke after a longish time of not going. You can set it up where it rates how well you do a song and gives you a percentage, along with showing your previous percentage to compare (if you have an account login). I often get 90 and up, never 100 because it's pretty strict, particularly DAM. Anyway, all of my songs were worse than last time and it bothered me! Singing is one of the only things I truly feel confident that I am good at, but I just wasn't that night. So instead of revisiting old favorites, I tried to learn a new song and technique, a Japanese enka song called "Tsugaru Kaikyou Fuyugeshiki". The Japanese itself is hard enough, but to sing enka, there's this type of technique called kobushi in Japanese, and the closest I could find to what it is in English is either warbling, melisma, or tremolo. I found that none of these seemed to truly directly translate to kobushi. Anyway, I couldn't do it, but I improved a little, and I'm glad to have a singing technique to practice and a new song to learn!
Sunday, October 15th
This morning began with Midsummer rehearsal. This is not meant to be a musical, but we have some songs and dances, especially for the fairies (which includes me). Lately these dance we've had to learn for the play, I feel like I'm doing sub-par. I mean I always felt like I wasn't that great at dancing when I was young and taking lessons, but I'm with other people who also haven't taken lessons and dance isn't like their main focus, but they get the dances quickly and I feel like I'm struggling and just ungraceful. It's probably not actually that bad, but I feel like it is. I'm just feel like I'm old and I've gained a bit of weight and feel blah about it. And I don't wanna, so I need to work harder! I want to make my body stronger.
This morning, we went straight into the finale song and dance. Oh that's another thing, singing and dancing at the same time WHILE wearing a mask, I feel like I can't breathe, and I either forget to sing or mess up the dance in the process. But anyway, I totally messed up everything and felt awful. Later when practicing the more difficult Lullaby song and dance (mostly focussing on the dance though) I felt like I was a little better.
After rehearsal, I had to quickly catch a train and head to a swing dance event located between Yoga and Futakotamagawa stations. I went to this one before, and it was really chill and lots of fun! This time there weren't so many people and about an equal number of leads and follows, so I was dancing non-stop for a while. One guy came who I guess used to come often, but hadn't for a while. I've found that (me included) a lot of the long time swing crew and slowly trickling back into dance after covid. We chatted for a bit because he knew English well and lived in both the US and Australia.
Then I went to meet my friend in Kawagoe for a festival, but that will be in a separate blog post because I took so many pictures!
I got to see Choom! We walked by the salon she get's her hair done at and saw another friend there getting her hair done, so we dropped in to say hi. What are the chances?? Also, one time I was randomly walking by there alone, and the hairdresser literally ran out and told me my hair was cool and he wanted to have me hair model sometime, and I was like OK, actually my friend is one of your regulars 😄 Anyway, Choom came to my place, helped me organize my disaster of a room a little more, and then we wandered around and did a mini photo shoot, and had a long chat about life while on the swings at at park. The kinmokusei were just past their peak of full bloom.
Sunday October 10
This was quite an eventful, fun Sunday! Husband was in Osaka with his band, so I tried to have fun anyway. It started out with rehearsal for Midsummer, and I helped our new fairy learn her part in the songs, and we practiced the dances a bit. After that, we went for lunch and drinks at a nearby Izakaya with lots of fish. I was in a really good mood, and I was having so much fun I didn't want to go, even though I had a swing dance event from 3.
Tomato hai
Table charge food. The fish is shishamo which I have gotten used to eating, even though it has a head and eyes
It just landed like this. Lucky, right?
I ended up leaving right on time to make it to swing dance! I went to this monthly event before, recently. In fact, I think that this event, pre-covid, is where I met my best friend Mo! Anyway, I was a bit self conscious about smelling like izakaya, but since I was a bit tipsy at that point, I was fine, and jumped right into that prime dancing mode without the awkward warm up time.
There was a jam session for people who came from afar for this event. There were a few people from Tochigi, other parts of Japan, one guy from abroad. I figured swing people already knew me, so I was safe, but the cute blue-haired, super amazing lead girl pushed me forward, because it ended up being kind of a foreigner jam, so I didn't argue, cuz I'm a Leo and get to be the center of attention, and then I get to dance with everyone 😁 Right before this, I was asked to dance by a Japanese swing-dancer guy I hadn't met before. After the jam, we danced, and he was amazing! Then, he asked for a second dance, which my proud self was glad to accept, that this super awesome dancer actually wanted a second dance with me?! I talked to another guy after, and then we danced and he could kick so high when we did Charleston, I was like, my old ballerina skills better come back and beat this man's kick! The funniest thing was we were all speaking only Japanese during the event, but actually, they both knew really good English! I didn't find that out until later, when I met another cool Canadian girl who was new to Japan. I am glad that they spoke Japanese to me at first though! I want to have more chances to actually use Japanese, you know living in Japan and all, and most people are very quick and eager to try to speak whatever English they know, which often is not a lot, so it makes it hard to get to really get to know people. For me, personally, at least. I'd rather that you dive in with Japanese, I follow the best I can, which is pretty decent, and getting better, then if I'm reeeeeally lost, I will let you know, and then, we can try to figure out the English. I don't want to just be an English language partner, I want friendship, no matter what language we do it in!
Anyway, after the event, one of the guys finally invited me to the after party! I finally had my chance to break into the swing friend group. They now knew I know enough Japanese to communicate, and that I'm truly interested in swing and permanently gonna be in Japan. It all starts here, and man, was it a good start! We went to grab some craft beers at a local brewery. I talked a lot more deeply to everyone in English and Japanese. After the brewery served their last orders, we ended up on the way to the event leaders' home after stopping to grab some drinks to bring with us. They cooked us dinner, and I talked and listened and learned a lot about the swing community.
Here's to some more fun theatre rehearsal and swing dance adventures!
Which will be this weekend...and a festival...will be posted here! 😉
This weekend was actually pretty packed, but I'd have to say this is pretty typical for my weekends living and working in Tokyo. My days off are Sundays and Mondays, which is common for eikawa teachers.
Sunday October 2nd
Sundays start off with going to rehearsal for Midsummer Night's Dream! I'm costume designer, and also cast as the fairy, Moth. After that, we usually go for drinks and lunch, but this day, we went for a quick burger, but then had to go to husband's parent's place to pick up their car.
We took the car to meet Yama-san of Yama Japanese restaurant that we'd worked at together in Morgantown, West Virginia, the only true Japanese restaurant I've found outside of Japan. We picked him up at his hotel, and the original plan of steak changed to either yakiniku, sushi, or a type of grilled fish restaurant that had a specific name in Japanese that sounded like robot, but I forgot (asked husband, it's robata). I wanted to do the grilled fish, so that's what we decided! We found a place in Sangenjaya, and it was maybe one of the best restaurants I've been to in a while! Info for it here. Maybe I'll make a Tokyo favorite restaurant guide....but anyways. I digress.
They had sashimi that just melts in your mouth...
And super delicious, crispy grilled salmon...
And weird things that I didn't want to try...
Did you know the liver of this shell-fishy thing was curly and green?? And people eat it????
Monday
We went to my husband's parent's house again, to pack up some stuff to bring to our place. Not super exciting or out of the ordinary, but I love having my family here, something so regular and comforting, to spend time and eat yummy food with.
Hey! So after yet another dancing hiatus (thanks, covid), I've jumped back into the swing dance scene!
My summer break this year was shorter than usual because I had to make up time from my previous, uhhhh...covid vacation last winter. I can't complain too much because at least I didn't lose money, but it sucked working on my birthday. Anyway, I decided to look up swing dance events going on during my week off. I'd been occasionally checking the Facebook events, but they always fall on Saturdays when I work, or Sundays when I have play rehearsal, but can only maybe make it later in the day. During summer vacation, I was able to go to 3 events!
Event Number 1 Aug 11
First one was on the Odakyu line, Soshigaya in Setagaya. I chugged a 5% chu-hi for a bit of liquid courage on the way from the station and followed Google maps. It lead me to some neighborhood house's parking lot. That couldn't be right, so I tried looking it up again and changing it a bit, but then I got a different address about an hour away! I could make it in time for the dance, but I wanted to go to the lesson first to meet people and brush up on my dancing. I wandered a few minutes trying to figure out what to do, when an older man came up to me and asked me in Japanese if I was heading to this swing dance event, and I was like yes! Yay, so I'm not the only one who ended up confused in front of someone's parking lot. So we (he) asked a neighborhood person where the hall was, and it was actually one street down, right behind the parking lot!
We went in and were just on-time. I was hoping to see at least some people I met years ago when I was dancing before, but I did not. The teacher spoke some English and asked me if I'd danced before, and I told him yeah, but not for a while. Then, the man I met outside previously started speaking to me in perfect English! It turns out he wasn't Japanese, as I'd assumed he was, with his mask on and good Japanese language ability. He is also from America!
The lesson went well, I realized I remembered a lot more than I thought. Dancing came right back to me. Me and me new friend hit it off, not only conversationally, but dance-wise. We have good dance chemistry! His specialty is west coast swing, but most circles in Tokyo tend to be east coast focused. We had a shortage of leads, but still I was dancing quite a bit. I met another few foreigner people, a girl and 2 guys who were nice. I wanted to try to break into the Japanese group and speak more Japanese, but I was too shy.
At the end of the dance when it was me and the Japanese girls cleaning up, I lingered a bit to help out hoping to connect with someone, and one comment kinda bothered me. Maybe I am overthinking or misunderstanding something, but one girl complained something along the lines of all the leads being "gaijin". The word "gaijin" can be taken or meant in a negative way. The kanji literally translates to "outside person", while the true word for foreigner is "gaikokujin" which is "outside country person". The word gaijin is short and sweet, and we even call each other that, no hard feelings. I have no problem with any "bad" words on their own, but I got the feeling her meaning behind them was a bit stronger. Idk... It bothered me as the only obvious foreigner in the room who lingered behind offering to help, and like she just assumed I had no idea what she was saying and acted like I was invisible.
Anyway, I still was hopeful that someone would try to include me or talk to me or something. One girl was talking about getting drinks together after, and I was there, but at that point I really felt invisible. Whatever, I don't wanna be negative, but I wanna be honest, and this was how I felt at that time... Maybe they need to get used to me and realize I wanna be there and be friends. I gotta speak more Japanese and overcome my shyness? I am glad I went. I met a couple of cool people along with a person who makes me look forward to and feel passionate about dancing again. I also learned that here's a lot I need to learn dance-wise. A lot of the Japanese women there were EXTREMELY good dancers. As leads, follows, everything. Like, I'm ok. I'm a good enough follow, but I learned that there's so much more I need to learn! I left this day feeling inspired and slightly sad.
Event number 2 Aug 14
Zoshigaya in Toshima-ku. This one seems to have a monthly, same location. I decided to skip the lesson, but I came early enough to watch some of it. They were doing a solo jazz routine thingy, and my new swing friend dude was there. Also when I checked in, I recognized the check-in guy and he did me too! He said "hisashiburi" which is "Long time, no see!". That was nice. Then, me and my friend started dancing as soon as the lesson ended, and I got a little video for you! We danced A LOT, and I saw some people from the previous dance too.
Event number 3 Aug 20
This one was near Futakotamagawa. I was lucky that my work location this day was nearby. I could take a quick bus to get there. I, again, grabbed a quick chu-hi before-hand. It was so much fun! I met a girl who had her own drink, and was planning to hop onto another dance event after this one and she was a GREAT lead when she'd asked me to dance. The teacher knew English really well, and my new friend was there too. I danced until my whole body was sore!
Event number 4 Sept 11
After work started up again, and my friend wasn't able to come, but I met some new interesting people. I had rehearsal for Midsummer Night's Dream with my company that morning, went to eat Yakiniku nearby, then left. At the event, I got to join only the last bit of the lesson. One girl was one of the leads, and she was really nice and complemented my outfit. This event also included a Balboa circle, which I don't know at all, so some of the leads were I guess newish to the swing crew or at least new to me. Anyway, after the lesson, I found out that that girl was really good at English, so I'd asked her why she joined swing and she said she was into musical theatre, so I told her about my theatre/English job and the show I was working on that morning, and she was like wait, I know your job.... she had been a student at my company for years up until right before I started! She knew the people I was with that morning! What a small world!
Anyway, after that, I was a bit shy because there wasn't anyone else I knew well, and then she left. I think everyone there thought I was totally new and only learned what we did at the lesson which was suuuuuuper basic Charleston, so every lead I met at the lesson who asked me to dance assumed that was all I could do and didn't try anything else with me. All the others who came later didn't ask me to dance, and I don't ask people, I wait to be asked. So, I didn't dance much. But then I made another friend who was from Colombia, but unfortunately doesn't live in Tokyo. She likes Japanese fashion, music, and has been into swing dance for years!! How is it possible to meet someone so interested in these specific things like me? XD She is a student and lives far away, so I just hope our paths line up again someday. She seemed to have found and liked every cool place in Tokyo I also frequent after only being here for a short trip.
Anyway, those ar my recent swing dance adventures! I've got some more coming up again this weekend and later in October 😉
