Japanese Dance Floors

Waaa.... I can't believe you guys are actually reading and commenting! I feel so ... so ... noticed. I guess. Anyway, keep 'em coming, I like it!

So ... I know I mentioned in passing that Japanese dance floors are somewhat outside the norm, well, at least the western norm. Maybe this is how they do it in China too, if so, I'd love to know. Now, let me tell you about it...

At the club we were at (Club Vanilla in Roppongi, if someone wants to head out there) (http://www.clubvanilla.com) there were three official dance floors. Two were pretty darn big, the third one was tiny and in front of a bar - it seemed like the kind of area that is good to refer to as a dance floor just to be able to say that "we have three dance floors".

We mostly stayed at the big upper dance floor. The music was fairly mainstream pop, but with house and house remixes mixed in. They also changed DJs during the night, so the music changed.

Around the dance floor, there were three podiums. On these the club management wanted girls to dance - only girls, not guys, guys got removed by the bouncers faster than you can say "boogie nights". However, in Japan, people are generally a bit shy. So nobody would step up on those stages - until a girl who I am convinced was employed by the club went up and started dancing. She wasn't a go-go girl or anything, matter of fact, she looked remarkably normal, and so was her dancing. I think the point was to show the girls that it's OK even if you're not a show girl or anything. Slowly, one by one, she got those podiums going.

The next thing is that people on the dance floor don't normally dance in circles (there are exceptions, I'll get there) like we often do in the west. Instead, everybody faces the DJ. It looks more like a concert, except people dance more.

That means that when you're a group of foreigners and friends who likes to see each other while partying, some people end up dancing against the direction of the floor. It's pretty funny - it seems as if everybody is looking one's way.

Also, I think it has to do with the shyness, but people dance in a pretty stiff way ... I just feel like telling them "relax, have fun!" but there's just too many of them. There was a girl next to me who definitely had a more relaxed style while dancing - I spoke to her a bit, turns out she's from the US, from Walnut Creek (about half an hour from SF, for those who don't know).

So, as I mentioned, there's one occasion (that I noticed) when the Japanese will dance in a circle. This happens when there are only guys there, and they are showing off their dance moves. Dang. Some of those guys could really dance... They were taking turns in the circle, giving it their best shot, then switching to let someone else strut their stuff. An impromptu dance contest, if you will.

Another odd thing... OK, I'll have to get to it in a sort of roundabout way for this to make any sense. It seems to me as if people in Japan are extremely good at ignoring each other. No, I don't mean that's necessarily a bad thing, or a good thing either. I'm just saying. On a crowded train, for example, a person can sometimes snore loudly, or smell bad, and no-body shows that they're in any way inconvenienced.

A similar thing happened a couple times on the dance floor. In the west, if you accidentally dance into someone with your body (not just a light touch, more like a small collision) you look at each other, apologize, and then you slow down those crazy moves. Not in Japan, it seems. It happened a couple of times that someone was dancing into me - for example, one guy, every time he stepped left, he crashed into me. But he was absolutely oblivious. There were others that did similar things, both guys and girls. It was very odd to me. I didn't know what to do - tell them off? But no-one else does, and the guy doing it looks like he's got no clue. Very puzzling.

Late at night, those podiums around the dance floor where filled with girls who were clearly professionals. They led a sort of song / dance act that made everybody join in ... In sync with the music, they were shouting "Ho!" "Ha!" "HoooooOOOOO HA HA HA", or, well, something like that. Moving their arms with it. It was really fun! At least for the first ten, or maybe even 20, minutes. But after an hour it was getting a bit tedious. We did the same song and dance on top of every song that the DJ played ... and soon we did it no matter whether the leading girls did it or not.

All in all, it was a really good time though. It was odd though ... I mean, I'm a fairly seasoned club-goer, I feel like I know what's going on ... a dance club is home territory. But this was not like I was used to - and I wasn't expecting that.

It was however, most certainly interesting. And that's what I'm here for.

3rd week, a turn for the worse

So ... it's come to this. A blog. Me. I guess it really had to happen, sooner or later - I like to write, I don't mind being around computers ... maybe it's because it's such a buzzword. Buzzwords turn me off.

I really like the simple text format of an email. All one needs to do is write it, add recipients, look it over one or two more extra times, press send. Done. I know exactly who gets it, and perhaps more importantly, exactly who does not get it. Sometimes there will be things that I write that are not intended for the whole world.

But then again, as has been pointed out to me, a blog does have certain advantages. The biggest one, as I see it, is that it's easy to post pictures as well as text. Or so I assume, I actually haven't gotten to that part yet.

Last time I let everyone know what was going on here, I had barely moved in to my little apartment. I was somewhat confused by the garbage sorting rules (I still am; the difference being now I know why I am) and quite tired.

Well. Since then, lots have happened. I spent that first weekend shopping - cell phone, electronic dictionary, computer speakers and what turned out to be a real jackpot - a Nintendo DS Lite. A jackpot, because I also bought software that translates Kanji (the Japanese chinese characters) and it's unbelievably useful, and WAY cheaper than a dictionary that has a pen for inputting Kanji. The little game machine has a pen and an input field, better screen than the dictionary I was considering, larger vocabulary and cost a third of the prize of the dedicated dictionary. Real sweet!

You're probably wondering about the title of todays blog ... getting there. It'll be a few more paragraphs first. Relax, chill, have another popcorn and read instead of worrying. And no skipping ahead!

At KDDI (the company that I'm writing my thesis at) we were, at that time, four foreigners. 2 Swedes, one French guy and one guy from the Netherlands. All the others have been here longer than me. On my second Friday in Japan, we went to Roppongi, met up with another friend there and a korean girl that he knew. And a Japanese friend of hers. We went to a club, got a flyer for way cheaper cover charge outside the door (oddest thing, to me - the flyer said "entrance fee with this flyer: 1000 Yen. Foreigners and Women only"). Now, I then assumed that there would be almost no japanese guys in there, but that wasn't true either, there were clearly many more of them than foreigners.

I later spoke to someone about this, and this person said "well, get the foreigners, then the girls come. If the girls come, the guys come". Good point, I suppose. I just didn't realize I was bait to lure girls to come to a club. Don't think that ever happened before. :-)

The club was pretty darn big - two huge dance floors and one smaller, plus a couple lounge areas. Unfortunately, lounge areas were either for VIP or girls only.

All trains and subways and such stop running just after midnight in Tokyo, so we really didn't have much choice except partying until the morning. Great fun. A Japanese disco dance floor is a most unusual experience... I'll get into that some other time.

After the club closed, at 5:20am or so, we went to a karaoke place and sang for an hour or two, then we headed out to the Tsukiji fish market for sushi breakfast. Yummy.

The whole night felt like a good thorough "welcome to Japan" party. The way it was supposed to be. :-)

Then a week passed without too much trouble. I ate some unusal stuff ... my group at work had a welcome party for me at a tiny izakaya (japanese pub) the proprietor of which ran an equally tiny butchers shop in the daytime. A lot of the food consisted of different raw meats. It was absolutely yummy ... I even ate chicken that has only been sauteed at the very surface. First when I saw what to me was basically raw chicken, I balked, but then my coworkers insisted it was safe and ate. So I did too.

Next day was Friday. I had dinner with friends and their friends, korean barbeque of some sort - they put big frying pans, basically, on our tables and came over and cooked right there in front of us. Lots of yummy meats again.

On Saturday I went to an Indian restaurant for curry for lunch.

On Sunday I was knocked out sick with a horrible, horrible stomach.

I had fever high enough to send me shaking during the night between Saturday and Sunday, and then, during the day, I was just running between the bed and the restroom.

I spent Monday the same way. Tuesday the fever was gone, but I still had to run to the restroom very, very often.

Today is Thursday. I'm getting pretty close to good, but I'm not quite yet there. I feel like I've lost a bunch of kilos. My apetite just started coming back today.

My guess, based on symptoms and what I've read up online, is salmonella. And it wasn't even that raw chicken - the only other person that had similar symptoms as me this week was the guy I had that Indian lunch with on Saturday.

Here I feel I need to insert a thanks - to Kristian who made me buy Advil when my back was messed up last summer. Without that to take the edge of the fever, the whole ordeal would have been even worse. Thanks, you saved me! :-)

And let me close with a few pics of my apartment. First, the hallway, just inside the door. Next one is my coffe table / work desk / dining table / et.c. I know, it's absolutely massive.





































Below, first, is the way up to the loft where I sleep. And then the view from up there.

































I gotta say, I find it pretty cool that I have a loft apartment AND a balcony. With a view no less!















I guess it's time for me to go to bed now...