Yosakoi

I did Yosakoi today! Yosakoi is a modern form of traditional Japanese Dance. Yes, yes, I know that's a oxymoron. Some college students decided to ressurect some old traditional dance styles from the south of Japan and jazz them up, just a bit. It was way fun. I danced for an hour... well, I tried to dance for an hour. I have not learned the dances, so I tried to dance with them. It was hard, and very fast, and very fun. The dances are based, in part, off of the folk dances of Okinawa, where fishing was/is a major fascet of life. Consequently, most of the moves are derrived from the motions of hauling nets. It is very beautiful to watch and invigorating to do. There are lots of sweeping gestures, and pantomimes of pulling on ropes and whatnot. Tre' cool.

When I got too tired to keep up, I played with the little children. One boy, Naruto, played with me for a long time. I threw him up in the air and fought Karate with him. He loves to pretend to fight with me. He smiles all the time, and laughs at me. Some of the girls taught me Japanese, and I taught them English. I liked that a lot.

I'm going back on Friday to learn more. Wednseday night is overview time. Friday is intensive learning. A lot of one on one apparently. We'll see. Maybe I've found one of my niches in Japan.

Oyasumi nasai!