Snapshots

We celebrated Bboy Katsu's birthday with strawberry shortcake and lots of pictures. I didn't take any because I didn't have a camera on me - woe! I think he has decided to judge RedBull next year. So I guess I'll be seeing him in New York! 

Took a class from U-Min. Surprisingly enough, other than Y and I, there was only one other person in the class. It was way too hard for me, but Y enjoyed it and is picking up a lot. Kiki's mantra is "make it look as weird as possible". Awesome. 

Went to see some traditional Japanese dancing yesterday. Wore a yukata, ate sushi, played with a baby, cooked yakiniku (meat on a grill with dipping sauce), and had shaved ice. Life doesn't get much better than that.

Windmill update - 1 week later - getting pretty good spin off of the windmill. Not spinning completely on my shoulder but hopefully can start working on restab this week. 

I want to get a crazier haircut than the short hair I have right now. I may need to be persuaded out of this one.

Waareaking

Note: If you don't read this entry or w/e...just watch the last video. You won't regret it.

As I was saying...

I've finally settled down to two styles to pursue. 

Breaking and waacking. 

Why waacking? Because it'll be a new style to bring back to Harvard and it's pretty awesome looking when done right (still working on that). 

But before I settle down (next week!!) here's Y doing something he's never done before...what do you think???

I'm so gangstaa in mai shortsss. Yeah I didn't bother to change since this wasn't a class where I would stretch and flash people. Teehee!

And finally.....omgz. JJ, he's stealing your game. Is that HOUSE MUSIC coming out of his mouth? DAYUMN. 

Reo is a beast. But is he worth $50 dollar membership and $26 dollar lessons? I need advice on this one guys!

It's a cold world out there

And by world I mean Tokyo.

We're not in Osaka anymore...

Taken one day of classes in Tokyo. So far:

- Classes have way more people

- Less individual attention

- Bad class.... (locking class was like wtf)

- Cold teacher

- Colder dancer community in general 

Y wearing a studio A-sh (the Osaka studio) towel around his neck commented During the locking class I kept thinking to myself 'maybe it wouldn't be too late to go back to Osaka...'.

I mean, a studio where the receptionist lady actually looks like she enjoys her job is always better than one who looks like she's just been doomed to be a Walgreens cashier for eternity, right?

In any case, no good classes to vidtape today. So here's an older one from a style we haven't seen yet.. house! I uber failed this routine.  

A video! As promised

Heeere's Gucchon! Freestyling in the cypher during class. 

Apparently all famous male dancers are pimps - according to Nari's girlfriend Sako who is also an amazing dancer (part of Lady NAda) and a fun conversationalist. Sako says (and this is Y's rough translation) The male dancers have roll girls around in their hand like a ball. Even though these girls know they're being rolled around they are still ok with it because they are with a famous dancer. It's not rare at all for a male dancer to have a girlfriend in each city.

K: What's the most popular type of dancer? Popper? Locker? Breaker? Hiphop?

S: Hmmn, hip hop, definitely hip hop.

N: Yeah, guys like me who do tutting, no girls like that. Except for weird girls like her He points to his girlfriend.

S: She playfully (and a bit roughly) hits him Well, he used to be really famous as a breaker and part of C4. 

N: Yeah that was a peak of girl getting, now I rarely even get girls in my classes.

S: But it's ok, his time is so occupied with his maniacal tutting and video game playing that he doesn't even have any space left for girls. 

We spent our last night eating and drinking at a nice restaurant with Nari and Sako. Afterward, they walked us to the bus station and bid us farewell as we left on our bus to Tokyo. 

BOTY & Born

First off... BOTY

Japanese BOTY started off with a bang. The opening slideshow was epic and inspirational. Because this was the 10th anniversary of BOTY Japan each of the ten stars on the logo represented a different shining moment in Japanese BOTY history. One of those was... Katsu (aka James Dean) redoing his most memorable Ichigeki BOTY 2005 performance. All of you reading this better know what I'm talking about. The crowd went wild.

The rest of BOTY was spent in various degrees of discomfort as I tried looking over people's heads. Street dance events are too popular in Japan (this is a good thing, but I don't think about that when I'm waiting in a 200 person line, in a garage, with no AC). Performances of note:
Body Carnival - their bgirls were on fire dayummnn! Carnival theme worked well and set a different pace than all the other choreos.
Mortal Kombat - although they placed second (and were very very disappointed) they did spectacularly as usual. Y said he didn't like their epic/transformers plot for the choreography, but at least they were very successful at making it epic and... trasformers-y, it's just a matter of taste.
All Area Crew - The winners of BOTY Japan 2009. They had crazy commandos and a stellar freestyling spirit. Their performance was solid and the message was a good one - don't battle with guns, battle with dance. Not the most creative thing in the world but, it was pretty good. Their performance exuded a lot of confidence, a necessity for bboys, I look forward to seeing them in the internationaly BOTY!

Next... the quest for BORN

2200: All Area Crew is announced as the winner of BOTY Japan 2009. Born shakes everyone's hand and proceedes to walk backstage. I consider jumping on the stage while the exploding streamers are distracting every. Then I realize that the crowd of people in front of me is very real and the stage is very far away.
tick tick tick tick
2215: Throw away inhibitions to sneak though an entrance clearly marked in Japanese and english 'employees only'. Might be able to get away with the - I only speak french- excuse. Then I realize I've forgotten how to say this in French.
tick tick tick tick
2220: Run into employee and begin pantomining: Born, sign, yes? As I am pantomining this to the confused lady three people walk by and up a staircase that reads NO ONE WITHOUT CARD MAY ENTER !!(!!!!!!). I realize one of them was Born. The lady asks me, politely, to leave.
tick tick tick tick
2230: Found a back entrance to the club. It's dark, and sketchy. Hopefully Born will come out at some point. I lie in wait.
tick tick tick tick
2300: Get tired of waiting. Knock on back door, no response. Someone comes out and I use that opportunity to slip in through the open door. Arigatogozaimasu! Run into two security guards. I tell them that I would like to get bboy Born's signature. Korean? They ask Korean Judge? I nod my affirmation. They speak to each other, look at me and tell me to wait for 40 minutes. They look at me again and then tell me to go upstairs. You find him,easy. Cool.
tick tick tick tick
2305: Go up the stairs to find the judge from Spain. I wonder if he would be offended if I didn't ask for his signature too. Didn't ask for his signature. Spoke with the translator to ask where Born was. She informed me he was in an interview. I asked if I could wait right there are she nodded and shruged Sure.
tick tick tick tick
231o: Born walks out the door. Hi, Born? Can I get your signature, for my friends? He actually looks somewhat surprised that I am asking. He signs the papers, and writes a short message. Um take care. He says and I walk away with two signed papers in hand and relief.

Success is sweet.