Club Day

ATTENTION!: This post is HIGHLY ENTERTAINING. Please enjoy the many videos I have uploaded today =)

Today, Greg and Hunter and I decided to go back to campus to check out the clubs some more! A friend of Hunter's was performing in the gospel choir at 11:30, and Greg wanted to see the New Swing Jazz Orchestra at 3:00, so that set our timeframe. Everything was in order, except the weather! It was cold and rainy and disgusting outside, and the wind was blowing and making awful sounds! I considered not going since I figured most of the clubs wouldn't be outside, and it was so gross out I just wanted to curl up and stay in, but I decided to go after all, which turned out to be a good decision =)

First, we found the room for the gospel choir. None of us really knew what to expect from a bunch of Japanese students claiming to sing gospel music...especially one named SAfro FAmily, hehe. We all got settled in, the club made some introductions, and then they started their first song: Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee. THE SISTER ACT VERSION! It was sooo amazing, we were all totally blown away! They had such a great sound! They also had some instruments on backup that sounded fantastic as well! After that one, I recorded all of their songs on my camera! I think, if I get into a dance club (or not) and still have time, I'd love to join this group! They all just seemed like they were having such a great time singing this gospel music! It looked like the most fun club of the day and the easiest to fit in with =)
Videos! Please excuse the fact that most of the time it's not a very good shot... I was trying to be somewhat discreet about filming, because I wasn't sure if they wanted me to or not (and I wanted to clap) so most of the time the camera was sitting in my lap.


Hallelujah



Sing a Simple Song of Freedom - beginning




Sing a Simple Song of Freedom - ending



"We Are Family" - You can't really see it, but you can hear at the end after each section does its own part, they put them together and it sounds really cool! This was a great performance and there's also a feature of all the instruments in the back.



After that, we wandered the halls of the same building for a bit, since there were a few other music groups practicing/performing (including the "Folk Song Club", which doesn't play folk songs, but actually plays rock music, hahaha) before going outside under a covered area where all the clubs seemed to be today. I found a dance flyer or two while Greg got whisked away to a Jazz performance and Hunter searched for Judo. I eventually found a gym where the dance groups were performing! Hunter was there already and we got to watch most of the performance for G-Splash. They're a reeeallly big hip-hop group split up into 5-7 smaller groups by genre of dance. I couldn't tell most of the genres apart, but one was all girls and was pretty racy I guess, and another was a lot of tricks-based. A lot of them seemed reeeallly gangster, with super baggy clothes and their arms all over the place, I was surprised. None of them particularly looked like the group I was hoping to find, but maybe I'm just spoiled by clean, precise, choreography-based groups like I saw on America's Best Dance Crew. There are still two other dance groups I missed (Sophia Modern Dancers and Beyond Jazz Dance Unit) that might be more my style, so I think I'll try and check them out tomorrow.

My only halfway decent video of G-splash. I think this section must've been the breakers. They seemed to focus on small groups doing tricks and floorwork while the rest watched.



After that, we went and found Greg watching the small Jazz combos. Some of the people from the gospel chorus backup band were in one of the combos, the one we all thought was the best combo! Greg thinks he might join one of those.


By the time that was over, we were all ready for lunch so we headed to our favorite place again! I got Oyakodon this time, which is chicken and egg on rice (Oyako means parent and child... kind of grim, don't you think?). It was delicious, but I think I prefer the katsudon. Next, we were off to find a Mizuho bank for Hunter and I to start accounts at. We thought we had found one at first, but turns out it was a Mizuho apartment-finding-place. We walked in awkwardly as I noticed all the printouts of floorplans on the walls and the lack of bank-looking equipment. Me: "..Ginkou janain desu ka?" (This isn't a bank, is it...) Worker Guy: "Ginkou janai" (This is not a bank.) Haha. He did direct us to the nearest one though, so that was sweet! I went up and got the rest of my traveler's checks exchanged (minus $200, which I'm keeping for a while just in case), at what seemed to be a pretty good rate, since $600 became more than 60,000 yen! Hunter and Greg needed to find an ATM that would take their cards before we could get started with the accounts, so we found a post office and took care of that.

Unfortunately, the certificate of registered matters is only good for things like cell phones and doesn't cut it when it comes to bank accounts. The super nice ladies there told us to come back once we had our gaijin cards. At least now we know there's a bank that will give us an account nearby the school! But that means poor Hunter will have to wait another two weeks at least before he has the means to get a cell phone =/

By then it was time to see the New Swing Jazz Orchestra! They were pretty good and had a great ensemble sound. Interestingly, the girls WAY outnumbered the boys in this ensemble. I know at least at UVa, the Jazz Band is pretty male heavy. Maybe music is considered more of a girl's hobby in Japan.. (the entire trombone section was girls even! and only one boy in the sax line and trumpet line! piano, guitar, and drums made up the rest of the male musicians). All the music groups seemed to stick to the standards for their genre (It Don't Mean a Thing and Sing Sing Sing from the Jazz groups, Sister Act from the gospel choir) and I was wondering if that's because this is sort of, introduction to our club week, or if that's the sort of thing they normally play.

A nice sax feature



Nice sax solo on a reeealllly old-looking instrument



Their performance didn't last very long, but it was enjoyable. We were about to leave for home when some people we ran into some friends from the DK House and chatted for a while. They started being solicited to come check out the English Speaking Society and somehow we got coerced to go along with them? I think the three of us were all pretty skeptical, since the last thing we came to Japan to do was speak English...much less join a club about it. The people there were all really cool though. It was almost all Japanese people, and they were saying how it's a good way to meet Japanese people, make friends, and then when you hang out together you speak Japanese and get better at that. They meet at lunchtime for an hour to work on English... Sensei did say to make friends with a Japanese person, promise an hour of English practice a day in exchange for Japanese the rest of the time, so maybe this is our ticket ;) It was definitely the easiest place we found to talk to Japanese people so far. All the people were really open and friendly and joked around easily. We'll see if there's time for that with the way clubs work out.

On the train ride home, we happened to be on the same train as Miranda from DK House! She joined us for our early dinner at Yoshinoya (cause they're having an awesome sale this week! And we didn't want to have to leave again to get dinner in this weather) which was her first time there. We also stopped by the arcade so Greg could indulge in a round of drum freaks or whatever. *sigh* that boy is gonna spend all his money on video games. Well... maybe 100 yen every few days on a video game, I guess that's not so bad, haha. I tried to play Pop N Music, but it wouldn't let me get past the enter-your-amusement-pass screen.

After a couple more stops at 7-11 and Shop 99 (where I probably bought too many chocolate snacks..) we were home! I tried to get myself to do something productive, but there still isn't much of that to do right now.. Although now that I'm done blogging, I guess there's still time to do something!