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.