Second to Last Club J for a While

 Hi guys!

So, Club J is the Hiro Taku twice-a-month Monday night social dance event, and September is gonna be the last of it (for a while, at least) 😭 The yearly Halloween event/performance date and location has been decided! It's gonna be October 29th at a place called Ever in Aoyama, and apparently they made a deal with the place where they are going to be having monthly events there, which is awesome...except for the no more Club J part 😢 

I love the fact that we can now have a monthly big event with performances and maybe live music sometimes, but also, there's something special about Club J. We can practice dancing with people that we know and are comfortable with from our classes and the other HTDC class members at our own pace, we can bring our own food or drinks, and coming to Studio J already feels like home for me, so Club J is like our friendly house party! 

Anyway, about this day! I had an online English lesson with one of my long-term awesome adult students. Then I had to meet the director for the production for this year to find costume stuff. I am the costume designer for the second time ever. This year we are doing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. We had to go to a warehouse in Machida to find useable costumes, fabric, and props. I got destroyed my mosquitoes 🥲 Then, I went to dance! 

I actually really enjoy the weekly beginner open lessons a lot, even if I'm just helping out as a follow, and I can't practice leading. Taku will sometimes use me to demo what they are learning and what they can learn in the future, and it's really cool to think that I was a student in this beginner lesson not so long ago, and now I'm good enough that I can understand and follow well enough to show newer students what to do. It's really fun to help new people learn salsa, and to see them improve and get it over time ☺️ And, to be honest, I like showing off for the newbies, which Taku sometimes likes to do too 😆 

Actually, this is kind of off-topic, but also related to the topic, so I wanna share it cuz I thought it was cool. I went to Osaka with husband and Motegi Smith Band (this blog post and photos are still being worked on but they will happen). Anyway, I can't sleep well when I'm on vacation, so when I was trying to sleep, I had a weirdly realistic dream that I was at the HTDC Monday open beginner salsa lesson, and Taku was teaching basic turns to the beginners, and decided to demo them with me. Then, to show off, we did a double turn, and THEN he said let's do a triple turn, which I'd only recently been able to do successfully, but only like 50% of the time... I felt the dream-adrenaline strong, of wanting to show off, and also not sure if I could do the triple turn well, and I woke up right before doing the turn, but I had all the emotions, and I had no idea where I was when I woke up because of how real it felt XD But, the weirdest part is that this dream came true! Not this day, but at last week's Monday open lesson. It wasn't exactly like the dream, but after learning the basic turn, Taku was talking about how when you learn the lead and follow well enough and quickly execute it, you can do a triple turn, and then suddenly demonstrated with me, and I NAILED IT👌🏽 

Anyway, after the lesson was social dance! But, not many people came at first. A lot of the new beginner people stayed, so I helped them practice the stuff we did in the lesson, but sometimes I wanted to...like, you know, have a bit more of a challenge! I did get to have some dance challenges with Taku. And then, Mr. Mori, the dance legend, walked in while I was dancing with one of the new salsa dancers, and I was like 😱 "Woaaahhhhh, hi!" and he was like, "is this person that amazing?", and I was like, "Yeah!" and then Hiro noticed and said that I was like "ohhh someone who can dance well has arrived" 🤣 And I took advantage of this rare opportunity, I danced with him like 10 times XD I already have seen how amazing of a salsa dancer he was from when I first met him, but lately he's been learning a lot more bachata which I've also been working on improving, so I wanted to try dancing with him. Plus, like I said in a previous post, I think when you dance with great dancers, you need to dance with them many times to really get a feel for how to follow their lead, and as a follow, I think you can really learn a lot from dancing with good, experienced leads. AND he is a Hirotaku master dancer, which is what I aim to become 😁

Anyway, I think that's all for this post!

Until next time

More Daily Life

 Friday  9/1/23

I had the first big work meeting of the year, and it went alright. Work has been a bit of a sore spot for me lately, but this went well. I was able to kind of figure out where I left off with the stuff I was working on (finally) and realized I'm not as lost as I'd thought I was. We had a bit of a hectic last semester where I had to go substitute the classes of so many other teachers in lots of places, that I couldn't do my own job and...well, this still needs it's own blog post... Anyway, it was an alright day, then I decided I needed to dance the night away, so I went to El Cafe Latino in Roppongi, the place to go if you need a salsa and bachata fix in Tokyo. I have the salsa calendar app (yup, its an actual thing) on my phone to know what events are happening in the area, but when in doubt, el cafe usually has a good salsa/bachata ratio happening on Fridays. The bachata festival thingy was still going on, so I knew the crowd would probably maybe be a lot of salsa people, and then people, like me, who are too poor to go to the big fancy event, or people who don't care and just wanna dance. I got to dance with my favorite dancer who is always there on Fridays, I met some other amazing people in the latin dance community, and I was able to truly have fun and get lost in the music and dance. Then as I was leaving, I ran into awesome dancer Korean guy as he was coming in 😭 AND another good bachata dancer friend near the station...but I had to go catch my train.

Saturday 9/2/23

I had my first day back at my regular Saturday classes, talked to my coworker friend and sorted my thoughts out more work-wise...My Saturday classes are always great, and I finished early, went home, napped, and went to my on 2 Nakano salsa event. They are amazing people, amazing dancers, and I danced until I literally couldn't anymore! 

And now Sunday 9/3/23

I met a famous actress/singer lady and will be on tv with her!! But, it meant I had to wake up super early...It was interesting, but I was soooo awkward, ended up singing enka, and well...maybe you'll see it on tv. And then I was literally shaking because I was so nervous for a while after XD 

And then I went to my number 1 happy place - Hirotaku's salsa class! We finished the choreography for the upcoming Halloween event, and I feel much better about the first part where I'm gonna perform as a lead. Last Sunday when we had class, I was feeling a bit like maybe I can't do the lead well enough. But, today we went though it thoroughly and slowly a few times, and it helped a lot. The second half, where it gets harder, I change to a follow, and I feel good about that part! I think I picked it up really quickly. The highlight for me today though, was me and Alisa practicing the tornado salsa spin! It's the super cool one that Mr. and Mrs. Mori did where you spin really fast from the ground up. We were attempting it during a break time, and then Taku came over and decided to try with me, and I DID IT, like I was able to turn quite a few times while he led, and the students in the class were watching and they clapped, and I just felt pretty awesome 😁 This move is hard! Well actually, to do this turn as a follow, I have to literally do nothing but strongly hold the right position, and that's hard in its own way.

That's all for now!

Thoughts on Life and Dance

 I want to write a blog but I don’t know what to say…

I think I’ll just start, and the words will come! I suppose I’ll write a bit of a diary then.

It’s Monday, my day off, and I’m currently riding the Ueno-Tokyo line to some beach. Somewhere between Enoshima and Chigasaki, I’ll decided when I feel like getting off the train. I’m listening to my ridiculously long bachata and salsa playlist I made on Apple Music. I’m currently obsessed with the Japanese salsa music by Chica Boom! It’s so interesting to listen salsa music, but with cute Japanese singing 😁 Plus, I can actually understand singing in Japanese, unlike Spanish. 

This week I felt kind of sad because I haven’t had HTDC salsa lessons. The teachers are on a trip, so lessons were on hiatus this week. It’s not like I didn’t dance at all this week, of course I did! Otherwise I might go insane 😂 I went to a few events, some with my HTDC salsa friends, and at some I met other dance acquaintances that I've been getting to know in the Tokyo Latin dance community. I practiced dancing at home on the days I didn’t go out, and even have been teaching husband how to lead a little bit (and he is actually trying and not completely hating it! 😆) But, after having lessons with and seeing Hiro and Taku 3-4 times a week for almost every week since December, I actually really miss them a lot! Not just their lessons, but I miss them as people. Seeing their faces, and talking, and hanging out, and laughing, and drinking together, everything! 

 I invited the Nakano on 2 salsa people to HTDC's Club J event, and they've been coming almost every week since then! It's kind of cool that I was able to bring my 2 main salsa happy places in Tokyo together, and they have linked history in the salsa community as they've all been dancing for so long! 

Work has been…tiring and a little frustrating lately, I guess. I love my job itself and like 95% of the people I work with, but some things have been getting to me lately, that I won’t and shouldn’t go into detail about here. A lot of little things are and have been piling up into a big thing, basically.

Anyway, tonight I plan to go to a bachata event. I’ve tried a few different bachata things lately because I want to improve my bachata more. I’m pretty confident with salsa on 1 and 2. Especially on 2 because lately it’s been popping up a lot more at socials around Tokyo, so I’ve been able to practice it a lot and finally feel confident that when a lead asks me “on 1 or 2?” I can easily say whichever is fine! But bachata, there are so many different types and it varies a lot depending on the person that you're dancing with, and connecting with your partner is really important especially for sensual bachata, which is what most people are dancing around here lately. Once you’ve got salsa on 1 and 2 up to a good level, you can follow well enough even when new moves get thrown your way. But with sensual bachata, sometimes new moves thrown at you end up...awkward 😆 At least when I am the follow. 

I also want to get better at salsa shines. Shines are when you're dancing but NOT with your partner. Basically your partner separates from you briefly and you can dance freely, but if I don't have a lead, I literally forget how to do anything except for basic steps and turns, and sometimes panicking. (lol, Panic! at the...Salsa Dance? 😂) I don’t like when shine happens during social dance because even if I’m good at doing a shine, I forget literally every single one I know, except for one of the ones we did in one of the Yes!! We Dance routines, and the Charleston swing dancey one we learned in the ex class recently 😆 But, I think that practicing shines will make me an all around better dancer, so I'll try my best!

Oh, that’s another thing! Currently I’m taking all the levels of salsa and bachata lessons with Hiro and Taku (except not the master class…....yet! 😉) The ex class has been mixed with the advanced class, and the advanced class has been leveled up a bit because there aren’t enough experienced leads for ex to be its own thing currently. For the beginner/upper/easier part of the advanced class, I’m learning how to lead, along with my friend Alisa! 😁 We are learning choreography (for what event has not yet been decided, maybe Halloween?) and me and Alisa are going to perform as leads! I really think learning how to lead is great to help improve as a follow, and vice-versa. It’s quite a challenge though! There’s more pressure on the lead when it comes to remembering choreography. It’s really fun though!