HoA aLoHa: KUIS Hula Dance Circle

At the start of the semester, as with any new school year, a whole host of school clubs and circles began accepting new members. One of those was Hoa Aloha - a self-proclaimed hula circle. I was not sure of the validity of their skill, not that I have any of my own to speak of nor expert knowledge of this cultural activity that they take part in, but I thought it would be fun to do in my free time. The day they were holding a meeting for new comers I stopped by and while I was there Tina (Christina), one of the other study abroad students who actually is from Hawaii, was on her way to practice with the school's volleyball team. I stopped, hoping to get her honest opinion, and asked if she could tell me just by looking at them practice if they were legit. Now I have no foundation or standard by which to compare these girls except from what I know out of movies (which are not the most reliable source to learn about a people). She stood in the doorway a moment, pondering and then turned to me to say "Yes, I think they are pretty good although I don't know if they do the Tahitian style of hula". Of course, they proved to be capable of many more styles so I was hooked . . . and the rest is history.

So, for the past few weeks I have been learning the dance that us beginners [初心者｜しょしんしゃ] will be performing sometime the last week of my stay here in Japan. Exciting right?!? I can barely contain myself, and why, you ask? Because this will be the opportunity of a life time to fulfill one of the greatest things ever - a goal on my LIFE bucket list. I had hoped to do this on some trip to Hawaii but maybe when I go I can impress them with this little number. Of course it is still in the works but every time I hear the song we are going to use - He Mele No Lilo (yes, the opening song from Lilo & Stitch) - I just get so happy because I feel like I am participating in such an amazingly awesome group.

Might I just say that these girls really work very hard at what they do. They practice several times a week doing dances they learned on their own (no instructors here!) and having fun doing something beautiful with good friends. And they are really good friends. When definitely what "aloha" means to them they use the word [親友｜しんゆう] which means 'bosom buddy, close friend'. To me, they are they true definition of family (aloha's alternate meaning according to Lilo and Nani :D) with the way they treat each other. Our senpai [先輩｜せんぱい] are some of the most caring and fun people I have ever had the pleasure to look up to. I respect them so much because they do not look down on us beginners, they are not condescending at all. They pay close attention to detail when it comes to their craft and do their best to make sure that everyone in the group is on the same page. And their outfits are pretty freaking cool too. (The following pictures have been borrowed from Risa Nakajima, a former (?) hula dance member and senpai).

What's more, they are so kind and are relatively accepting of me in all my foreignness. I have not felt such warmth and happiness while being involved in a group since high school (sports and all that jazz). Despite the high price tag on the costumes, which I deem my official souvenir from the group, I cannot wait to don my tube top and official skirt and wow the crowd this crazy cool bunch of girls!

This here post is a prelude to the bombardment of photos and a video compilation that will be happening sometime over the next day or so. My senpai just had a performance today, one of two big performances actually, of which I had the fortune to see the first. Unfortunately, because the study abroad program has a field trip to Kamakura penciled into our schedules I cannot make the second show but I wish them all the best of luck (notice I did not use the taboo phrase performers find detestable in America) and am shouting from the top of my lungs BREAK A LEG LADIES!!! 頑張ってね! Stay tuned for more blogging mayhem. じゃまた! #spreadaloharoundyou (This picture is mine!)

Turkish Delights

So in the last two or three weeks I have discovered this really amazing restaurant in the food court of Aeon (a big wannabe mall/grocery store). The first time I encountered this place I was a few Saturdays ago when I was hanging out with my good friend Makoto (Mak). Every once in a while we hang out so we can practice our speaking skills in our respective desired language and we have taken time out of weekends on two occasions to do just that. The colorfulness of this Turkish restaurant was what drew me in in the first place. Then I had a look at the food and all I saw was MEAT. Not to disrespect the ladies who serve dinner at my dorm (different from the lovely personable ladies who serve breakfast) but they do not exactly cook meat aside from fish in an edible fashion. Anyways, I was intrigued by a nice little set deal they had and made my choice - a chicken kebab sandwich set which came with fries and an apricot juice on the side. The smell alone was enough to have me drooling so by the time we sat down I was more than ready to dig in. Of course I had to take a picture first before destroying the evidence of such an amazing meal.

Included in this most delicious meal was of course chicken, lettuce, some onion (red or otherwise), a mild sauce (red), and a white sauce that adds that extra pop. The first bit was simply orgasmic and trust me I am not exaggerating when I say that. It was certainly more than just おいしい (delicious), no it was more like うまい (splendid, appetizing, skillful, expert . . . yeah it goes on). The juice was also a nice treat, I mean I love apricots but as a juice? Who'da thunk it right? Star Kebab you are my new best friend!

So who can guess who long it was until I had another one of these bad boys?

I realized that just outside the train station near our dorm there was a food trunk from the EXACT same company selling their superb foods. Many a time before I had walked right on by that truck, ignoring the calls from the driver to come and eat a piece of heaven. Too many times. Because after I had to great good fortune to eat it once the trunk never showed up again when I wanted more. Never! I was beyond upset and sad. I refused to go all the way back to school just to get this sandwich for dinner but it was so good and I needed to have it once more.

One day at lunch I decided that I would march on over to the Aeon food court and have myself a chicken kebob sandwich set if it was the last thing I would do. Long story short, I acquired my sandwich and devoured it with glee, the savory combination of sauces and freshly sliced chicken playing havoc on my taste buds. So if you are ever in Japan and in the mood for some other international food I highly recommend this little place. It's all over the place so do not worry, you will find it! じゃまた！

Host Club Hopes, New-Half Club Realities ;]

*Unfortunately, the only pictures I will be posting consist of me and the girls being silly on our way to the club. Photography (unless, I believe, if asked outright) and recording of any kind was not allowed.*

 

Okay so in the hopes of fulfilling my good friend Rebekah's life bucket list goal, Kyri and I saddled up to go to Shinjuku to visit a host club with Rebekah this past Saturday. This interesting adventure, which essentially can only be accomplished in Japan, involves walking around the busy Shinjuku streets in one's best going out attire with the hope that one of the many well dressed young men (hosts) will offer you a flyer that automatically discounts your host club experience down to about $10. This would then include receiving their colorful conversational companionship for about one hour, as well as, the amazing nomihōdai [飲み放題 | のみほうだい] or all-you-can-drink service from a select list of alcoholic beverages. Ideally, if the individuals patronizing such an establishment are light weights incapable of holding their liquor then the club is sure to profit greatly, hence the use of what people in retail would call a 'loss leader' (a.k.a. the $10 entry fee) to get people in the door. Thankfully, all three of us have relatively good tolerance levels and would not be sucked in by this keen little ploy. So after getting ourselves primped and prepared to have a good time, we headed out on our journey into one of the busiest areas of Tokyo.

The trouble with being foreign women in this situation is that there appears to be a bit of a bias not in our favor for accepting patronage. After about an hour of walking around, the other girls found the spot that they recognized as "the spot" to catch the eye of the hosts or the club promoters. Luckily, one promoter happened to approach us, tentatively testing our Japanese speaking ability and then tracking down a fellow promoter to get us where we wanted to go. This second promoter, who was all too eager to get us into a club, literally placed like 10-15 calls in the span of about 20 minutes checking to see where he could take us. Kyri and I chalked it up to either they were full (the establishments themselves do not appear to be very expansive), they were not up for accepting foreigners (they had not really given us much opportunity to use our Japanese by speaking to us in a lovely mixture of Japanglish), or a bit of both. Either way, after some time he hooked a location and gave us the news - there were no host clubs he could take us to but . . . there was a new-half club nearby.

What is new-half you ask? Well by definition, according to Urban Dictionary, it is:

"a Japanese slang term for a pre-op or non-op male-to-female transsexual"

 

or from what I understand to be more PC American/Western terminology, the Japanese term for either a transgender woman (post-operation male-to-female) or pre-operation male who cross-dresses (both of which you will see in my descriptions of our hosts later). After allowing that term to process in my head and realizing that my friends had not heard that term before, I explained to them as best as I could and then asked how much it would cost. Let's just say that I could have found a better use of my money if I really wanted to. So after a short time of inadvertent bargaining, what began as a $50 endeavor went down to a $30 semi-triumph. For a once-in-a-lifetime intrigue I figured why not? Of course, I was not totally ready to jump at this opportunity and had to have little eye-twitching-under-our-breath-whispering consultations with the girls before we decided to give it a go.

 

Upon entering DREAM the staff seemed a bit hesitant about how to receive us (probably because they were shocked at the presence of foreigners, but more importantly foreign women). Being three of four natural born women in the entire club, I must say it was definitely going to be an interesting night. Each table had about one host to a group of customers but because we came in right as the show was about to start we did not yet receive a host. During the course of this description of our adventure I will be referring to these performers as women because they are physically women and probably identify with being a female (just to clear things up ahead of time). As we took our seats the lights dimmed and then went out completely signaling that a performance was about to begin. The first act was a group of three cops (one tall with long hair, one short and chubby with pinchable face cheeks, and another tall one who looked the most like a young woman but did not appear to enjoy her job) dressed in vinyl skirts and short tops with one short long-haired convict who liked to scream playfully in a white wide open jumpsuit that flashed what seemed to be an adolescent-sized breast on occasion. Up next was an older woman of about 35-45 years of age who performed a lovely dance in full kimono. She was absolutely precious and sweet and was actually one of my favorites. Next the younger performers did a uniquely feisty rendition of Gangnam Style. Another solo artist, the tall long-haired woman, performed a more sensual dance while wearing what I have deemed a "sexy" kimono made of silk. It was during this dance that the status of post-op could be given to this individual because, to be as discreet as possible, we were given a purposeful view of all of her lady bits (and no I am not a prude, I just chose to pick my words wisely for the readers). The final number involved all of the performers in cute frilly blue dresses dancing to a light and carefree song.

 

Aside from the older performer, my two most favorite performers were the one's with the long hair. I am not sure what it was about them, presence or their ability to play to the crowd, but I found them somewhat attractive (they had beautiful bone structure in their faces) and added them to my oddly growing list of girl crushes I have developed since being on this trip. All of the performers did a great job involving the patrons, smiling and winking and dancing with them. After the show ended the performers then deposited themselves amongst the guests. This is when our host showed up (and I completely forgot his female host name). He, being clad in a long tropical dress, welcomed us and explained the rules of the nomihōdai and served us our drinks. His English was so-so but we did our best to communicate and not make him despise his job. I asked him how long he had been working there - a spare three months - and he told me that he was still all male but that he liked men, rejoicing in the fact that we were all the same in that way. He asked us where we were from, Kyri from Philadelphia, Rebekah from Texas (to which he responded "Gun slingers!") and me from Chicago (to which he smiled and said "Gangsters") He then asked how old we were and when I told him I was 21 he said that he thought I was older because of what I was wearing but that I was still pretty (thanks . . . ? lol). We got on the subject of boyfriends and when one of my companions expressed an interest in Asian men he asked very coyly if the ecchi [エッチ] (sex) and the men's "sizes" were adequate which made us all laugh hysterically, simply saying it was fine.

 

 

Later on, the chubby-cheeked performer came to our table for a chat just as we had decided that we needed to leave soon in order to be on time for the final trains. She spoke very good English which was pretty cool and we talked and laughed about various topics of discussion. She thought merely by looking at us that we were 18-19 years old and also assumed that since we said we were in college that we were younger as well. She explained that she had friends working government jobs in America but she herself had never been. Finally detaching ourselves from our captivating host and hostess we exited the room to the farewells of the other performers and hosts. Altogether we paid about 9,450 yen which was not really that bad but we definitely would have liked to have stayed a bit longer. As we reached the elevator to exit the building entirely, the tall long-haired performer ran out the door to catch us. She asked me a question in Japanese that took me a moment to process because I could not believe that that was what I was really being asked but it was basically along the lines of 『映画か番組にいるの？』, or "Are you in a movie or on a television show?" - a question prompted by one of her patrons.

 

Now for those of you how are familiar with my Facebook profile, you will recall a post that I wrote earlier in the semester which featured me showing my absolutely warranted vehemence at being mistaken for and/or associated with the detestable Nicki Minaj in a convenience store by a young Japanese guy. For everyone else I will just say that I was really upset and felt slightly disappointed with/unforgiving of the terribly short range of exposure to African-American individuals from the United States that is visited upon the Japanese people by world media outlets. But in this case I felt much better, flattered even, for this recognition (mostly for the lack of specificity) and despite the absence of any fame on my part in the U.S., I really enjoyed the attention we received from the hosts and performers. Maybe it was the green-colored contacts that I wore or maybe the guy just really needed glasses. In hind-sight I wish we had taken a picture with at least one of the performers and, we realized all too late, that we did not leave our host a tip (the one and only place we have seen in Japan where this typically Western practice is actually acceptable).

 

 

All in all, we had a fantastically fabulous time and I would love to come back there. Sadly, we missed the last train and had to hail a taxi halfway in between Shinjuku and our respective homes. But in spite of that mishap we really did enjoy ourselves. Ironically enough, we ended up discussing the multiplicities of sexuality as it relates to people in Japan where we came to the conclusion that coming out is not only very difficult but may even prove to create problems, much like it does world-wide, within one's family/peer group/larger society. More specifically in Japan, the performance of these multiplicities (namely any LGBTQ inclinations, outward appearances, etc.) tends to be more of a nature representing the extremes of such lifestyles which is more acceptable then actually admitting that one really and truly identifies with the LGBTQ community.

 

Understanding the standard of what a family [家族｜かぞく] is supposed to be while upholding ideologies of

 

uchi (inside/home life) [内｜うち] / soto (outside/social life) [外｜そと]

 

and
 

honne (real intention/private feelings) [本音｜ほんね] /
tatemae (outer expression/public face) [建前｜たてまえ]

 

continues to be of the utmost importance in Japanese society and is protected at all times. Thinking on this subject really made me wonder, then, what it is like to be in the shoes of our hosts and performers, to see what it means to face the world as they do. I sincerely hope that they have their source of support and guidance much like I do for those individuals in America because, at the end of the day, love is love not matter who it is directed at. 

 

 

So yeah, fun and culture and ideology all wrapped into one activity! Well, じゃまた！

Okinawa Trip Last Day - Kokusai Street and Sam's Sailor Inn

Our last day in Okinawa was kind of sad. After all of the amazing things we were able to do, it was at bit depressing to leave it all behind and go back to school. That was pretty much the weird thing about having a short vacation in the middle of the school year. Actually traveling to a new place and being a complete tourist really took most of us off of our game but I regret absolutely nothing. Once we checked out of our hotel we went over to a nice little street near Naha Airport called Kokusai Street which is pretty much reserved for souvenir shopping. All of the usual generic items like keychains, t-shirts, trademark snacks and things like that were littered up and down the way and I did not really see too many things I was willing to buy for any particular person.

 I did pick up a few boxes of chinsuko – tasty little cookies – along the way, and then my companion Megan and I stumbled upon a record store. On the window outside they were advertising the release of a new album from a band called Oz. I remembered hearing them on TV one day in our hotel room and decided that now would be as good as any time to buy their CD. Even though it cost me about $25 it did come with a decent amount of songs and a DVD of their main music videos. At around 13:15 we went into Sam’s Sailor Inn to have our lunch prepared right before our eyes. The prep cook at our table was pretty good at what he did which was clearly indicative of how much one must practice in order to perform for a crowd of hungry people.

 

When all is said and done, I believe the one thing I will miss the most about our trip was being able to enjoy the onsen every night after a long day of travel. Towards the end I think everyone got a bit tired of one another, something that is completely unavoidable when you are in a location that does not have much public transportation readily available to escape one’s companions. Nevertheless, I really think that many of us grew closer to one another for the better and I am glad to have had the opportunity to do so.

Okinawa Trip Day 3 - Cliffs, Traditional Food, Giant Fish, Dancing, and BBQ

The weather has finally cleared up a bit though we are still lacking in sufficient sunlight to call it a great day. Nevertheless, the show must go on!

 11:15 – A short distance from Hotel Miyuki Beach (our hotel) we drove up to the unbelievably gorgeous Manzamou Cliffs. Part miraculous view of ocean, part scene from the jungles of Jurassic Park, this place was beyond breathtaking. I had a lot of fun playing photographer here working with aperture and shutter speed (nowhere near in expert fashion but enjoying myself nonetheless) and using Ms. Pigit as subject matter once more. There was one area on a hill near the cliff that was basically a large crater and I saw the opportunity for one of those amazing Dragonball Z shots people have been doing a lot lately but by the time I found it everyone had basically already boarded the bus . . . so I bought a dress instead! It was a really pretty tangerine/light orange summery number that I cannot wait to wear back in the States. In continuing with the photog bit, I took to making my friends pose for me using the black and white setting on my camera. Pretty good huh?

 

12:00 – After narrowly escaping an accident with several other busses we made our way to Ufuyah – a former residence and current restaurant – where we lunched on traditional Okinawan cuisine. Unfortunately for many, the rocky nature of the bus ride pretty much offset their appetites so in favor of not getting sick we ate what we could and carried on. I did have a chance to eat a really yummy ice cream called Blue Wave, a lovely pineapple and Ramune flavored treat, and I purchased a nice little bottle of pineapple/grape wine that I will be taking back to the States.

13:00 – The Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium was one of the highlights of the day. This awesome place offered many interesting marine life sites for us to see. I must admit that of all the aquariums I have been to, this one had some of the largest sea creatures I have ever laid eyes on. Huge whale sharks swam languorously throughout the tank while large manta rays seemed to fly like great majestic sea birds around all of the smaller animals. Later on I saw live manatees for the first time, played with big sea turtles through the glass of their tanks, and saw a dolphin show while snacking on yet another tasty ice cream cone flavored with brown sugar and vanilla.

17:15 – Heading towards Meio University, we were greeted by a student welcoming party and brought to the gym where we would be taught a basic Eisa performance at their traditional dance workshop. It was very nice of them to prepare this especially for us; they seemed just as excited to show us their work as we were to learn. After they did their initial performance they separated us into groups to play various roles in our own performance. Some chose to play the small hand drum, others the larger drums you have to sling over your shoulder, the last group being the dancers. The steps were fairly simple but the hand gestures required much more finesse. All in all, the whole lot of us seemed to be having a blast and I am glad that form of interaction was added to the trip because it was so much more than your typical tourist venture. The students were so kind and really made me feel more involved in a part of the Okinawan culture.

 
20:00 – Our dinner was quite a surprise in that we had our own little BBQ session. Each table had its own burner where we could cook our meats and veggies. We had pork, chicken, corn, eggplant, cabbage, and some other delicious things to nom on. After a long day of traveling around, this was most definitely a welcome diversion.

Okinawa Trip Day 2 - Peace Memorial, Okinawa World, and Glass Making

This day was pretty much like being caught up in scary monsoon like rainy weather. We drove around once again in the tour bus our coordinator booked but the streets in many of the areas are very narrow which makes it that much more concerning. There were several occasions when we nearly crashed into other tour busses while trying to avoid the lakes that were forming on the flooded roads. Even so, we set out to have a fun day of historical and cultural excitement.


10:15 – We arrived at the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum which commemorates the tragedies that occurred during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II. It was a very solemn and sad walk through the museum; just seeing the horrific acts done to the Okinawan civilians really brought us back down to earth. Having never personally witnessed the likes of any war and only having a mild interaction with the wars occurring in present times, I was once again humbled by what I saw there much like when I visited the Hiroshima Peace Museum three years ago. And yet, even though the content of the event was very sad, I felt a great sense of beauty just being there and having the opportunity to learn more about the Okinawan people’s struggles at that time. I especially loved the fact that when going through the museum and reading the facts and figures they did not seem to be inhibited by the fact that Okinawa technically belongs to Japan. There did not appear to be any particular bias or sugar coating used to explain what happened in Okinawa, which I greatly appreciated.  I later took a stroll through the gravestones erected to commit to memory the extensive loss of life after the Battle of Okinawa which was just as humbling as the museum itself.

11:45 – Still fighting the rain, we made our way to Okinawa World. Initially I believed this place to be some sort of theme park and was very much ready to be the first one in line for a rollercoaster. That being said, I was quickly made aware of the fact that this place was actually a cultural theme park, no rides included. Despite this slightly misguided thought, we were treated to an amazing traditional Eisa dance performance. It involves drummers and sanshin players who dance around doing flips and kicks with their instruments, as well as, dancers who gracefully move around the room. There was also a short acting bit in which two of the performers wore masks with the faces of an elderly man and woman trying to outsmart a giant shisa (Okinawan guard creature crossed between a lion and a dog – an important figure/decoration seen all around Okinawa). Shortly after we feasted at an amazing buffet style lunch and were given time to do a bit of shopping in the overwhelmingly assorted gift shops downstairs. There were so many omiyage [お土産｜おみやげ] or souvenirs that I could not even fathom trying to leave there without something to remember the place by. Luckily, there was a pretty nice deal going on for the food souvenirs that offered a discount for the varying sizes of each product. So of course I bought a ton of the cookies and other pastries that Okinawa is famous for in order to share with all of our e-pals and to take back home. I even saw a sanshin and was terribly tempted to buy it but I just could not shell out $200+ when I only gave myself that much as an overall allowance while in Okinawa. Either way, I left there happy and with many things to share with my family when I get home.

14:50 – I have to say this next activity was the most exciting and the most anxiety inducing part of the trip – glass blowing at the Ryukyu Glass company. I have never once in my life blown glass and believe me, as cool as it looks, it was also rather scary. Not only are you handling severely hot glass that could potentially leave you with terrifying burns should you mishandle it but you have to use both of your hands to do so. By virtue of my last name starting with an A I was the first to go and I was really nervous but very eager to do it. The first step was to arm ourselves with the proper gloves and forearm cuffs so as not to burn ourselves when near the furnaces and working the glass. They gave us what looked like the paper wrapper that goes on the bottom of waffle cones to put over the mouth piece of the blowing device because they put their mouths directly on them. The man helping me prompted me to blow into the mouth piece and at first nothing happened but then I exhaled harder and faster and the glass began to rise through the mold that it was being held in. Next, I came around into glass blower’s communal work station where I was instructed on how to form the mouth of the glass cup we were to make. This process, which included using the left hand to roll the pole holding the glass back and forth while the right hand held the clamp that would widen the mouth of the glass as you sat in a chair, was probably the scariest part. The furnace was about 3 feet from me and my heart leapt when the man brought the pole from the furnace over to the chair I sat in. I even had a close call while trying to take pictures of the other students and I was standing so close to the chair that when the man swung the pole around the however many degree hot glass on the end of it moved inches away from my ankle. After that cool little to do, I took a look at the rather expensive souvenirs in the gift shop. I understand that these items (jewelry, home goods, etc.) were all made by hand thus the value of them is possibly greater than something machine-made but I could not honestly afford anything worth buying if I really wanted it. I did leave there with a really cute necklace and the ticket to receive my own glass once the company sends it to us at the IES Abroad Center. Just before we left we saw some cute little figurines around the base of trees outside the building.