Time for an update

I figured it was about time.

Several experiences in the past few days - all related to dancing of course.

The club - I went to a club called Studio Candy on Tuesday to watch Riu perform locking. Before the showcase started Studio Candy was just a regular club, or at least that's what I thought it would be. Upon arriving at the dance floor the first thing that I noticed was 1)hardly anyone was dancing and 2)the only people dancing were guys (opposite of SF) 3) Everyone (aka the guys) who was dancing was a dancer. The other night when we were having dinner with Nari (the groove/part of C4 - Japan BOTY top 4) he was telling us that in Japan only dancers danced in clubs. Everyone else just watches and is too shy to dance themselves. Studio Candy confirmed this.

Of course I was the exception to that rule as I busted out my embarrassing American-esque club dance moves (aka the step touch - watching Wongfu In Da Club) and sang along to "From the window... to the wall!" Later during the showcase I realized that those girls, who were watching from the edges of the dance floor, were actually really good dancers. This confused me to no end - if you are so good at dancing why not let loose on the dance floor? Still no answer.

The Train Station - The Namba train station (check youtube, there's a vid of Mortal Kombat dancing there) has a 'dance god shrine' or something of that sort. A lot of dancers gather during all times of day exhibiting all styles - breakers, lockers, hiphoppers, poppers, para para dancers, aerobics people, and stalkers (not a style of dance, but they're quite persistant). In the open area there are reflective surfaces everywhere, pillars, polished walls, mirrors, and a giant ball in the middle. It's a great place to just practice and do your own thing.

As Y and I were walking out of the OCAT area (the dance area) two women approached us and asked where we were sore. I said, hesitantly, that my left foot was somewhat sore. Eagerly she went down on her knees and placed her hands on either side of my foot without actually touching it. She then proceeded to concentrate on, what, I'm not sure. Strangely enough I felt a buzzing sensation in my foot - placebo effect? Her parting message was that "everyone has this power". Yet another mystery left unsolved.

Dance instructors - Ok, I know this isn't really an event, but it has really started to hit me how crazy good these instructors are. I've taken 3 classes from Gucchon in as many days. If you youtube him he's ridiculous. I haven't gotten any better at popping my stomach or lower abs, he probably just thinks I am a stalker. I am ok with that. Tepo I've already mentioned (raved about). He won an all Japan breaking contest lately and yet he can patiently explain why I am doing an air baby incorrectly. Nari who I also mentioned earlier is an inspiration. Kei, Gucchon's popping partner who is opposite of Gucchon in every way - short hair vs looong hair, centered and solid core vs lots and lots of waves and rolls. Hilty and Bosch are actually not as great teachers as the other people I've mentioned but that's most likely due to the fact that their classes have 6 bazillion people filling them up each day. Also, Jin (the blond one in H&B) looks like Justin Timberlake. Crazies.

I'll post up videos some time soon, promise promise!!!

Dance Delight is tomorrow. Sweet!

Wow, this internet cafe computer won't let me put brs in my post. jfaoiejfaslkjdfhkajsdfh;a;kd

Some VizzleNizzles

I'm afraid of not getting better. 

Summer's tough.

Here are some vids from classes.

Hiphop: Taichi-san! I had Yakuniku (meat cookout) with him after class along with Kei, Yui, Naruto, God, Kare..something... babypoo and others. I taught them one word... "Asian Glow". 

Also - notice the bounce in his step. Ah, the essence of hiphop is so "dope". 

Breaking: Tepo is my hero! He's so nice and chill! Here's a vid of 1) air baby routine 2) flares 3) how to do the awesomeness that is flaring 4) vid of routine and 5) creeping on his freestyle. 

- oops, it appears that there was an error! Aka vid another time :D

 

A day in the life (is this the name of my old Live Journal??)

Today is Y's bday, in Japan at least.
As part of the celebration, we decided to go get a professional massage. or rather, Y wanted to get a massage and since it was his bday I complied. After an hour of pain,　relief, and dozing off the Ｍａｓｓａｇｅ ended and the old woman commented to Y that I was "very tense" and had been working too hard. Reflecting upon my schedule though, it has been rather tough.

6am-8 am: Wake up, warm up, stretch for an hour and do sit ups etc
8am -1pm: Practice what I learned from previous days, record it, practice some more, rerecord. Repeat until satisfied.
1pm-1:30/4pm: Grab lunch, walk around, check out stores, do errands.
1:30/4pm - 10pm: Dance classes
10pm - 12am: Figure out classes for the next day, blog, read emails
12pm-6/8am: Sleep

Essentially there are only 2 to 5 hours in the day when I am NOT dancing. It's pretty tough on the muscles but... hiphop is fun. I need to get more breaking in. So far time spent on hiphop > time spent on breaking. Not ideal.

Also, Japanese people are so polite. Someone will always hold the door open sign in the elevator until everyone gets out. I always forget to do this. I am clearly an American.

This internet cafe has a shower

Apparently they all do, in Japan. People can live in internet cafes and play Lineage II (or is it III now) all day. Rooms with TVs, computers, headphones, telephones, clothes hangers, and a sofa inside a 7x7 foot cubicle and rows upon rows of manga outside. Need I say more? Didn't think so.

My next class is coming up in an hour - hiphop taught by Mocchin. My locking instructor (good god I suck at locking) confirmed that Mocchin was "dope" so I'm looking forward to this. However, I am also sore beyond belief.
I've always wondered - and if anyone knows please let me know - if youre sore from, say, swimming and you proceed to swim continuously for the next 2 months, will you be sore that entire 2 months?

I am asking a lot of questions in this entry, atypical but I need to know - do you lose your appetite when you travel? It's happening to me and I am scared for two reasons 1) Dancing with only 400 calories in your system is probably a bad idea and 2) Japanese food is DAMN good and I'll be damned if I can't eat my fill!!!!

So if anyone knows if it is a passing phase... or whatnot.. let me know.

"You will be good at flares, give it two weeks"

Yokoso Japan!

Spent the first three days in transit from Tokyo to Kyoto to Osaka.

Watched a competition in Osaka and was inspired to learn locking. Hilty and Bosch walked by me as I was sitting at the bar. I think I'm going to take a class from them on Thursday.

Speaking of classes - I finally took my first (two and a half) dance classes yesterday. First up was house. Despite how relaxing house looks - doing it yourself is the most tiring thing ever. (I will see if this is actually false after locking class today.)

Next up was Tepo from King Arc. Diminuitive in structure with bright orange hair Y and I made bets on whether or not he was our instructor. I won that bet and luckily for us too. Tepo is patient, musical, and GOOD. Some things we learned:

Air Baby

o Place the hand you're not stabbing with far out

o Practice the see-saw motion of an Air Baby by going on your head, then foot that's not on the elbow, then head again, soon you won't need to go on your head and that's an air baby

o Make sure your stabbed elbow is 90 degrees

Flares

o Practice sliding on the arm you first place down - then transfer all the pressure in your shoulder that you put into that slide into a stationary position to push yourself upwards into a flare

o Lift your legs in a slow motion mimic of the flare

o Kick one leg BEHIND the other when you flare, also kick with as much force as possible

He tied all this together by doing 6 flares.

The class after was an intermediate level one - everyone was pretty much ridiculous. I watched. Thus, 2 and 1/2 classes.

My last three days of time back home

Yes I've had five days total back home.

Well, at least they were eventful.

Tuesday

I knew I should have written about this earlier, now I can't remember what I did Tuesday morning.

I went swimming, got a bikini tan, and became five shades darker. All in all, a success.

After swimming I went out with friends to eat crawfish - still a favorite no matter how many times I eat it!

This is what LIFE should be all about

Wednesday

Slept in, this I do remember.

(Nearly) finished Le's closet. The clouds are finally done and all that's really left is the grass and maybe details in the water. We need to finish it up soon or else I won't be able to stand looking at it without wanting to make changes!!

Oh Howl

Oh house

Explored/destroyed Le's kitchen.

Mini oranges!? Amazing

What happened after we made our LEMONADE.

The actual lemonade... (lemon, sugar, MILK, and food coloring)

Had Korean tofu after (California really is the place to get it). A, who arrived a bit late, refused to eat his shrimp.

A looking woefully at his shrimp: I just, I just can't eat these fellas.

K perks up: Oh! I'll eat them for you! Here, gimme gimme!

A looks away

K: What?

A: I .. I can't look at evil!

They were scrumptious.

A: I always write my money as time.....

Karaoke came next. The manager was nice enough to make us a CD of our singing free of charge. Did our voices move him? Or maybe he wanted to scare us into never coming to sing again. Only the CD will tell....

Walked through Baldwin with A after dark. Dark places really have a spooky feel, good thing A wasn't as scared as I was. Drove back home singing along to the chorus of Nothing Better (The Postal Service) while I Gotta Feeling (Black Eyed Peas) played in my soul.

Thursday

Last day before I leave off to another country for 2 months, haven't been away from English for that long since I went to China 7 years ago.

N, loud, opinionated individual who talks as fast as he thinks and isn't afraid to scare people off, picked me up and took me to Cupertino where we met up with JJ whose hair has gotten rather long and had lunch.

Also saw this sign - truly, I am back in California where everything is right.

85 cent froyo, golden

Met up with M, tall, freespirited, and skinnier than ever and Ly, short, cute, but full of playful energy and always ready with a biting quip. We went out for some good Chinese food - Peking duck!

Also talked about guys -

M: Well he wears panties

K&Ly: He wears WHAT??? PANTIES??

M: I mean, oops, wait what are they called?

Ly: Is that what happens afterwards, he wears your panties?

M playing along: No, that's what happens before

Ly: Oh, so that's what you call foreplay.

Then saw S and her boyfriend B right before I had to go.

Now I'm packed. My flight is 11 am tomorrow.

Goodbye California, it's been fun!

Onward, Nippon!

My first two days of time back home

Monday

Woke up at seven. Couldn't go back it sleep - it was 10 am Cambridge time after all. 2 hours after dorm crew met up each day.

I decided to run to my friend's house and surprise him. I didn't get very far very fast, but I did eventally end up at his front door. We had a chat, browsed around the mall, then went to movie hop from Up to The Hangover. But from the moment we walked out of Up we were targeted. The stout man in the black worker's outfit did not budge from the entrance of the Hangover and my friend A, tall and lanky, wearing a graphic T over a plain colored T shirt and baggy khaki shorts, was the epitome of a teenager with time to kill. Eventually we walked out, defeated.

The moral of the story is go watch Up.

(I swear, that's the take away message)

Tuesday

Awoke at around 9, only because I had an appointment at 10. After one day home I have either gotten over the time difference or have gotten decidedly lazier.

I went to the optomitrist where I was contactless and greeted by a doctor who asked where I went to school.

Harvard, I responded.

He went on to say something that he thought was witty, something like "Yeah I might have heard of that school" or "Yeah, that little school".

I laughed politely. He was going to be messing around with my eyes, I didn't need to mess with him.

This man, who I couldn't see too clearly as my prescription had gotten worse (4.75 I believe) started talking about how he had a friend whose daughter was going to Harvard because of tennis.

I responded with something noncommital like "oh, interesting."

Then it got ugly.

He told me that his daughter was a junior in high school. "I told her that she shouldn't go to the best school she can possibly squeeze into, you know, because if you just barely make it in there then you'll be competing with all those other braniacs who'll be so much better than you. Don't just barely squeeze in there. Don't go to that good school because of tennis or something like that, you know?" as he put the corrected lens in front of my eyes I finally got a good look at the man. A middle-aged balding Asian male, rather plump, average features with a gray coat draped around his rounded body, a skinny maroon tie, and a tag that read "Mr. S" . You are a lie Mr. S, I thought to myself. If your daughter got into Harvard - be it on a tennis, crew, waterpolo watever recruitment you would send her there in a heartbeat.

Oh, but the Asian-Parent-ness didn't stop there.

After asking what activities I participated in, he commented, "Your parents let you do all that? Don't they say something like, we spend all this money on you and you waste it on things other than school? Why are we wasting our money?"

No, sir. They don't say that to me, they're not you.

After that, I skedaddled.

Chatted with Y over vidchat for a good portion of the afternoon. I wonder if he's right that internet communication will become the norm. Has it already?

I decided to take two hip hop classes at Ariel Dance Studio in Camaden. The first one was great and fun - slow, but fun. The second one was trouble.

The instructor started with warm ups. Right away she reminded me of a girl I dance with at school, D. From the way she pouted her lips when she danced in front of a mirror to her pink highlights, nailpolish, and shoes. I admire D but, I knew I personally would be in for a world of hurt.

The first 35 minutes were spent stretching with a solid 10 minute block reserved for sit ups. Then the choreography started with lines like "pump it!" and "go on your goes a bit for more of a thrust!" and then "kind of swing low then up with your butt" and finally "*giggle, good job girls!". Exhausting, utterly exhausting. I guess I need to work on my sexy-preppy dancing.

Met up with L, her brother, and T after that. Had a short conversation over frozen yogurt, will hopefully reconvene the meeting tomorrow while swimming and eating crawfish. Not both simultaneously. Although that doesn't sound too terrible either, kinda theme-restauranty. Mmn.

And now, some eye candy!

I designed this hat for A (the one I went to the movie with) almost a year ago. Still one of my best creations.

It's Harvard... but not

This week has been a strange experience for me. 

I've never felt such a sense of loneliness. No I'm not in some strange country where I hardly know the language or the customs. Rather, I am where I have been for the whole year, but without the people. It felt like the first day of fall clean up crew all over again. But then Y came to visit and the loneliness dispersed.

But that definitely got me thinking about life after college - after this bubble of social interaction. Aka it's going to suck. Life after college was a big topic this week because of all the graduating seniors. 

For my dorm crew job this week I watched class day (the "lighter" side of graduation), commencement (the elitist harvard term for graduation), and the guest speaker (Steven Chu... you know, the Steven Chu. Yeah, 09 got shafted). I also kept my hands busy with what many students should be familiar with (mounting clay/poster gum anyone?):

Sometimes I wish I had pretty fingernails

Roses are always fun to receive

Kitty-tornado!!

After commencement's morning exercises I had to pick up trash that parents left behind. 

Everyone drinks coffee. I picked up trash for 10 minutes and found at least 2x that amount of coffee cups

This picture's for L. Because... not only is she addicted to alcohol but she's also addicted to caffiene. 

This is to show you that you're not alone. You're just like 89% of Harvard  friends and family!

I lost my train of thought - may continue at a later time.