If you guys have been following any of my social media for a while, especially during college, you'll know I was very involved in swing dancing for a few years! I did it all throughout college, even dabbled in it a bit when I studied abroad in Nagoya.
After I graduated college, I kind of went on a dancing hiatus. I was focusing on other hobbies, work, and job hunting in Japan, and my previous boyfriend was very much in the swing dancing community where I was, so it became a bit awkward for me to continue. Of course I share many wonderful hobbies with my boyfriend now, but dancing is NOT one of them for him, and that's totally ok!
So, it's been a bit intimidating for me to try to break into Tokyo's swing dancing scene completely on my own. But, I knew there WAS one at least. I remember vividly while I was living in Kumagaya, one weekend (Sun/Mon) I was in Tokyo visiting my boyfriend, and saw through the many Tokyo swing dance Facebook groups and pages I'd followed that there was an event one station away from where I’d be meeting my boyfriend when he finished work to drive me back to Kumagaya that night. I went up to the outside of the venue and was too scared to go in! I wandered around, and kept coming back, but couldn’t muster up the courage to go inside. This was about 2 years ago? (Fast forward to last weekend, I went there with my friend Mo and had an amazing time XD)
So here’s how I finally dove in! Dancing Bus was hosting a Christmas party in Tamagawa. It was my first day of my winter New Year work break, and my original plans that I was so excited about got cancelled. I woke up really early bursting with energy to go out and do as much as I could while I had the free time, and a bit upset that my original plans failed, so I was scrolling through Facebook and Twitter and found:
1. There was a Harajuku Fashion Walk going on that afternoon, which I'd been wanting to go to again, and
2. This swing dance event that I'd clicked "maybe" attending.
So I decided to do both in the same day!
(There'll be another post for the fashion walk here, and a video here once they're completed!)
I showed up to the venue early, suuuuper nervous, and a lovely Japanese woman started talking to me in English. Just basic stuff like how long have you been dancing and all that, but I felt a little bit more at ease, and gained a friend. I went in, there was wine and some snacks. I had some wine to calm down, and the dancing began. I sat out the first to get an idea of what kinds of dancers were around, and because I hadn't danced in a few years, I was nervous if I even remembered how! There was another not-Japanese person, and I asked my friend about her (and after a few dances and realizing I do kind of remember how to dance!).
I think I speak for most foreigners in Japan when I say we are a bit nervous meeting other foreigners. Or is it just me? There's a possibility that they could understand you so well and become your new best friend, which is exactly what happened! My Japanese friend introduced me, because I was too shy to introduce myself. This is the lovely Mo who has inspired my recent jump back into blogging.
So after dancing quite a bit, we had a break and a few announcements, along with some amazing cake made by one of the dancers, and then they announced that they were gonna do a jam. I remembered having birthday jams at my previous swing circle. They were having a new person jam...WHICH WAS ME. I was like "whaaaattttt noooooooooo whyyyy???????" but, it was so much fun, and since I'm a Leo, I actually like being the center of attention, even if I slightly don't at first XD After that, we did the Shim Sham which I need to brush up on.
Some nights of swing dancing are just lazy and you want to watch and socialize. Some are ok, you can dance a bit and relax a bit. Some, you get to that point where every dance is amazing and you could just keep dancing without ever tiring. This was one of those nights. At first I was a bit rusty, but by the end of the night, I really felt it all come back to me. I spoke lots of Japanese, English, made friends with people who understand me from all over the world.
I'm so glad that I finally had the courage to start dancing again
1. There was a Harajuku Fashion Walk going on that afternoon, which I'd been wanting to go to again, and
2. This swing dance event that I'd clicked "maybe" attending.
So I decided to do both in the same day!
(There'll be another post for the fashion walk here, and a video here once they're completed!)
I showed up to the venue early, suuuuper nervous, and a lovely Japanese woman started talking to me in English. Just basic stuff like how long have you been dancing and all that, but I felt a little bit more at ease, and gained a friend. I went in, there was wine and some snacks. I had some wine to calm down, and the dancing began. I sat out the first to get an idea of what kinds of dancers were around, and because I hadn't danced in a few years, I was nervous if I even remembered how! There was another not-Japanese person, and I asked my friend about her (and after a few dances and realizing I do kind of remember how to dance!).
I think I speak for most foreigners in Japan when I say we are a bit nervous meeting other foreigners. Or is it just me? There's a possibility that they could understand you so well and become your new best friend, which is exactly what happened! My Japanese friend introduced me, because I was too shy to introduce myself. This is the lovely Mo who has inspired my recent jump back into blogging.
So after dancing quite a bit, we had a break and a few announcements, along with some amazing cake made by one of the dancers, and then they announced that they were gonna do a jam. I remembered having birthday jams at my previous swing circle. They were having a new person jam...WHICH WAS ME. I was like "whaaaattttt noooooooooo whyyyy???????" but, it was so much fun, and since I'm a Leo, I actually like being the center of attention, even if I slightly don't at first XD After that, we did the Shim Sham which I need to brush up on.
Some nights of swing dancing are just lazy and you want to watch and socialize. Some are ok, you can dance a bit and relax a bit. Some, you get to that point where every dance is amazing and you could just keep dancing without ever tiring. This was one of those nights. At first I was a bit rusty, but by the end of the night, I really felt it all come back to me. I spoke lots of Japanese, English, made friends with people who understand me from all over the world.
I'm so glad that I finally had the courage to start dancing again
