Dance Day

Today, three of the dance groups were performing on the main street at campus, so I definitely wanted to go since I had only seen G Splash yesterday! I was planning on going over with Greg when he left at 11, but unfortunately I caught the beginning of shower cleaning time AGAIN, so I decided to shoot for leaving at 12 instead.

I timed my journey to Sophia today to see what my pace was. It took around 14 minutes to get to the station (NOT the 12 promised by DK House, mmmhmm), and then by the time I got to Yotsuya station it was about an hour and four minutes. That was with no packed trains or missed trains or whatnot, and not any particularly long waits for trains, so probably an hour and 15 to an an hour and 30 is about how close I'd be willing to push it for class days. Unfortunately that's going to mean leaving for school at 7:45-8:00 for us intensive kids x_x

Today was my first time riding the train by myself. It was kind of nice to have some alone time on the walk to the station, but being around only other Japanese people at the station and on the train was a very different experience. Normally I'm traveling with Greg and Hunter, sometimes Jen and Jeannette, so there's always been at least one other foreigner with me to diverge my attention to, and to diverge attention from just me. This time, I could only focus on my appearance to others, and my relationship with each person around me. It was a little weird at first, because even though nobody's really watching you, you just feel like every move you make is being watched. Which ad should I stare at, which way should I face, hands in pockets? Look at my cell phone? How can I look normal... After a while it became less of an issue and I got more comfortable with just doing whatever the heck I wanted =)

I ran into Hunter and Teresa as soon as I got to campus, but they were off to see about getting some stuff Hunter had shipped from the states, so I went on to wait for the dance performances! First up was the Sophia Modern Dancers. It's an all girl group, and they had a wide variety of styles. There were a couple upbeat, dance team-esque numbers, one that was just sort of expressive and ballet-like, and one that was a little more...latin? A lot of the dances kind of reminded me of the way I dance in my room when nobody's around, haha. They seemed like a nice, easygoing group.

Next was... G Splash! Wooo! Now, yesterday I was a little unimpressed/unsure about this group, but today I got to see two groups perform that I missed yesterday. First was Lock (which I totally thought was "Rock" until I saw it on a piece of paper...oof). They did a suuuper exciting and entertaining routine. It was really well-choreographed and every moment had something going on, it was really fun to watch and they seemed to be having a good time. I'm not sure what the other new group I saw was, but it was all guys, and they all wore business suits with dark sunglasses and did this ridiculous but amazing routine to a techno version of the theme to Neon Genesis Evangelion. It was sooooo super entertaining and the crowd loved it. On the one hand it was really silly, and there were goofy moves like hopping around like birds and things like that, but on the other hand it was so well-done and you could tell they worked really hard on it, the dancing was so skilled, and they were so confident and serious-acting about it that it was really impressive. The rest of their performances were the same as yesterday, but I had a little bit better of a view this time.

Last was Beyond, the Jazz dance club. Their dances didn't seem much different than the dance team-esque ones that the Modern Dancers did. It was kind of like.. music video background dancers I guess? Lots of smiling, lots of songs about shaking butts (well, that was true of all the groups, but this group actually danced to the thong song at one point), and LOTS of costume changes. Japanese dance groups understand the importance of costume changes, that's for sure. Their routines did seem a little more polished than the Modern Dancers though.

After they were all done, I met up with Greg and later Jen! Jen was also interested in getting information from G Splash, so we hesitantly went over to the area where they were talking to potential members. After kind of puttering around for about 5 minutes with nobody coming up to talk to us, and people even seeming to avoid us, Jen finally tapped a girl on a shoulder and we told her we were interested. After that, everything was great! She was super nice and had another girl go get us some info sheets, and she told us our Japanese was really good and that she was surprised. (We felt that she was just using particularly simple Japanese compared to what we were used to dealing with). She also said it was ok that we were foreign exchange students and would only be there a semester, which was our main concern. She explained how the auditions (!!) will work. Starting Monday, they'll have practice every night and teach everyone a different style each night, and those rehearsals will last two weeks. At the end of those two weeks, according to the sheet, you have to collect everything you've learned and perform in front of everyone. It's not clear as to whether this means they'll teach you a routine or something to do, or if you're supposed to make something up on your own... It seems pretty intimidating, but I want to give it a shot!

We also got info from the Sophia Modern Dancers, in case G Splash doesn't work out ^^;; The sannin got lunch together at a closer, but not as awesome, vending place before we all parted ways. Greg was off to meet up with a Jazz group, Jen was off to see Dan, and I was headed back to the DK House.

After a short accidental nap, I vacuumed my floor and did some exercising for a while. I figure those two weeks of rehearsal will be murder if I don't go ahead and make myself sore and recover first. When I work out on my own, though, I never feel like I exert myself enough. Nothing compared to the workouts we used to get in athletics class in high school, or how I'd feel after track or cross country. Those were the days =) Of course, trying to work out in my cluttered room at home, or in this spacious but with-downstairs-neighbors-and-hardwood-floors room also creates limitations on how much I want to do. If I have free time between classes when I'm not studying, I might check out our gym at school. I never end up going to any of the gyms at UVa because our campus is just too darned sprawling. With Sophia, I'll probably leave in the morning with everything I need for the day, stay there all day, and come home, so I'll plan on bringing work-out clothes sometimes.

I think there's probably a good chance I won't get into G Splash because it seems like such a high-skill club, and I have zero dance experience (minus ballroom), so I'm not even sure this is something I can really get the hang of or not, but I do intend to try my best and work really hard for the next two weeks! I'd really like to be able to have come to Japan and become a lot better at Japanese, but I'd also like to take this opportunity to do something I've wanted to do for a while, but never can make the time for at UVa. Here, I don't really have any outside responsibilities like work or basketball band or other projects to take up my time. I don't mind ending up having to be at school at 9:15am and not leave until 7:00pm, I think I might enjoy that kind of schedule for a semester. The way it's looking now, I'd have a lot of free time between lunch and my second class on Mondays and Thursdays, and a ton of free time between lunch and club meetings on the rest of the days. Since I'm at school, I'll probably be able to totally focus that time on studying! I'm really excited for school and clubs to start =)

Sorry there are no pictures or videos of today's amazing dances, my camera battery was totally dead! I should be better about charging it... Tomorrow I think all the girls are planning to go shopping in Harajuku, so I need to decide if my quest for a new umbrella (the one I just bought there last week got broken in the mighty winds of yesterday's storm.. *sigh*) will justify me risking spending money on clothes/accessories I don't need while I'm there... although, my wardrobe, despite its cuteness by American standards, is so far off from the current trends in Japanese fashion that I don't think I'll even be making the effort to fit in, haha.

I think that's all for tonight. I'm going to try and get a more decent night's sleep tonight so I don't feel quite so sleepy in the morning! Can't wait to get into that 7:00am wakeup schedule, for serious!