Saturday, April 19, 2014

STUDY ABROAD:WEEK 33

APRIL 13

Another day dedicated to dance, but not in the usual practice way. Today we had the 20th Year Anniversary lunch for BPM. Various members from the past years came to AIDAI to celebrate the event with the current members. This year’s graduated members also came back for the day. We had a graciously prepared lunch of sushi and other finger foods. With a twenty-year history, somehow I have a higher respect for this already incredible club. I never could have dreamed of having this type of experience when I came to study abroad. Life changes in many ways.

APRIL 14

With the showcase tomorrow, I and a few other members of our group wanted to get some last minute practice in. We had to wait till the studio was opening, which wasn’t until the evening, so I spent the day doing homework for the week. When I arrived at the studio, the girl from our group was still practicing for her second choreography, so our practice ended up going a little later than intended. It was only an hour long, which just barely got my blood moving. As a result, when I got home I decided to go for a run. I might as well workout at night if I’m going to be awake.

APRIL 15

I forgot to mention that yesterday was the first International Cafe of the semester. As a consequence, I drank coffee, so even after I went running last night I still couldn’t sleep last night. The showcase wasn’t until 7pm so I went home and took a nap first. We hadn’t really decided on any sort of uniform until last minute and that was black shirts and J-Pants. I mistook J-Pants for jerseys, not jeans, so I was the only one who showed up and didn’t match. Another last minute call that they decided on was the transition in and out of the second song. It wasn’t complicated, just a simple turn to put our backs to the crowd. Simple, easily conveyable, but I was not informed. In this case, I think they all figured someone else told me. That was my only slip up during the showcase though, so I was proud of that.

I wish I had taken off my face mask though, I didn’t think about the impression it would give, but one of the graduated seniors said it looked like I wasn’t confident since I kept it on. On the other hand, Yuki and a few others told me that I danced really well. I guess to each his own, right?

APRIL 16

Survived another Business Japanese class today, now I just need to buy the book and things should go smoothly. The listening test went better today, and the teacher also rearranged our seating arrangement. Now I’m sitting up front and center, but that’s only more reason to do my best in this class!

APRIL 17

I thought today was going to be an awesome day, but it was rocky all the way through. I spent over two hours working on my presentation in the media center, only for it not to save, so I lost all the work I had done on it. From now on I’ll make sure to save the file properly after I download it from my e-mail.

Then, during dance practice, we had so many new freshmen that there was almost no space to practice! I spent most of the time stuck between hip hop and break, unfocused and confused as to which I should practice. Maybe I should just say my genre is freestyle, then I can do what I want and just dance.


APRIL 18

I stayed up last night to finish, or rather re-do, my presentation. I also watched a couple movies. As expected, every three or four months I just need to decompress my brain. That’s when I play games or watch movies, and since I don’t have any games on hand, movies it is. Thankfully, the school library has a large selection of movies that we can borrow, too. I’m probably going to watch a couple more movies tonight as well, but I won’t stay up too late because tomorrow I’m going to Tokyo~!


APRIL 19


I met my fried at the station at 9am to buy our tickets for the bullet train. It would have been significantly cheaper had I decided to go buy bus, but it would have also taken about six hours one way. The bullet train would have us there in about two hours. However, once we arrived in Tokyo, we still had to take a few train transfers before we reached Ryogoku also known as Sumo Town, where Dance@LIVE was being held. Today’s competition didn’t start until the late afternoon, so first we had a lunch with a few dance acquaintances, Dama and Kazu. They were actually all break dancers, which surprised me a little bit because both women were around their 40s. In fact, I thought I recognized Kazu from Nagoya, and I was correct. She had actually danced at SOUL BREAK, just as I did, though she was the third battle in Group A. It was a coincidence that we were able to meet under the circumstances. They actually thought that my friend and I were dating, since it was rare for a male and female to travel together as a pair otherwise. We both disagreed with that since we really just came to see the dance event, and no one else could have come.

When lunch was over we lined up with the already growing crowd to get into the event. It was the chance for any challengers nationwide to compete for a spot in the finals. Break, Hip hop, House and Freestyle were the four main categories. The first rounds had dozens of people, so each individual would only have one chance amongst their group, then three or so people would continue to the next round until it was down to the top eight. Each battle was amazing, and the music was very exciting for me. If I can ever get myself to dance in a battle with confidence, this would be the place to reach for. Next time I come all the way to Tokyo for a battle, I’d better be dancing in it.
(Day One Finals)


We stayed through the final battles, joined by another friend of Dama’s named Abe— she doesn’t dance but she does enjoy watching. Then, after that, we all headed to Hon Atsugi, where our hotel was located and also another battle was going on. Dama had invited us to the all-night event, which is why we booked our hotel so far from Ryogoku. The night battle, Wartown, took place in a very tiny little club, but it turned out that none of us danced at it. We were already tired, and would have to wake up early tomorrow to get in line (again) for the main event.

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