Just Clownin Around

If any of you have wondered what the hell I've been doing for the past 4 months (and hardly posted any blogs), this post should sum it up... Just Clownin' Around.

Life here in Japan is a roller coaster. Posts in the future will describe in detail what this experience has been like, but for the sake of the JET Program, confidentiality, and my job, I won't reveal them just yet. Instead, I'll talk about some of the brighter spots of this experience.

Now I know that few people have been waiting for a post or anything, but I certainly wanted to come out of hibernation with a good one. I think this post should do the trick.

Anastasia and I have been preparing for MONTHS to perform at elementary schools and showcase ballroom dancing for young kids. It was entirely necessary to get rid of the makeup, fancy costumes, and heavy ballroom culture in order to create something the kids could relate to and actually enjoy.

The result, these wonderful videos: You must email me for their YouTube links, these videos cannot be distributed publicly. Only photos without students are posted here.

Tryin to get a date with balloon animals

Toy Story, Jive

We knew these kids were gonna be a handful to entertain. They're used to sitting silently, an arms length away, disallowed to sneeze or look sideways...ceremony style. Personal expression hardly exists and kids are used to conforming to exactly what the kid next to them is doing; nothing. I imagine there's few things worse than 500 people (kids or adults) staring at you, unresponsive, when you're trying to entertain them. So this is what we needed to prepare for.

I tried to use Japan's conforming nature to our advantage. If I got one kid to clap, 500 would. If I got one kid to scream, 500 would. If one kid had fun, most likely all of them would. So, with that in mind... we created our dancing routines. Here's a couple more photos yanked from the video.

Dancing as a clown was way more fun than I anticipated

The Woody "Flop"

We've danced at 2 elementary schools, the larger of which being over 500 kids. The show was amazing. We had a great time. More importantly, the kids had a great time. I'm sure we'll bring back this goofy performances to the U.S. one day. Why not? Anastasia hand made the costumes, and I spent countless hours brainstorming music, stories, and routines. These dances are a part of us forever.

I only hope that this small fun taste of ballroom dancing has a lasting impression on Japanese kids as well.

Vending MmMachines

Japan is known through the world for the interesting things that come out of it's vending machines. Once upon a time i heard stories of used womens panties in Tokyo, and even illicit mushrooms. (For the record, after countless surveys of Japanese natives panties (used or new) have yet to be verified. Mushrooms, however, have been purchased by a friend of my several years back. They're now illegal in Japan.)

Anyways, I'm quite satisfied with my own vending machine experience despite its absence of panties and stuff. Coming to Japan I somehow developed a small addiction to coca cola. I think it happened for of 2 reasons. 1) Raw sugar cane is exponentially tastier than fructose syrup, 2) Japan is an is hotter than Hell itself in the summer. So when you find a cold can packed with liquid happiness, it sure is hard to turn down...lemme tell ya.

Painfully, in the asshole of winter an ice cold coca cola just isn't what you want to find in a vending machine. Luckily, Japans vending machines are seasonal, and just when the weather turns every machine across the country is filled with warm delicious liquids. A variety of coffees, teas, warm lemonade, you name it. My favorite? Royal Milk Tea.

This jizz is just absolutely delicious. Countless times has it warmed my belly and spirits as i waited on a train platform for the next ride to arrive.

One day, however, I noticed something strange out of the corner of eye. That's not... corn soup is it?

I was advised NOT to buy a strange looking can of thick yellow liquid out of a machine, but my curiosity was just too strong. $1.20 was worth the experience one way or another. The result? Standing in the bitter cold with a cozy can of creamy corn, I chuckled to my myself in contentment. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY SCRUMPTIOUS!!

So the next time YOUR in Japan, take a leap of faith and buy something ridiculous out a vending machine. You may certainly come to regret it, but I haven't. One way or another, you'll have a good story to tell.

An epidemic!!

Japanese are pretty risk aversive folks, so when a school sickness spreads, so does an excessive frenzy of paranoia. Walking into school one day, I was immediately instructed to strap one of these freaky things on my face!

Was it the flu? Some contagious disease? No, they said, just a mandatory precautionary measure... Everyone in the school (all 500 of us) walked around like we were in a leopard ward. They were absolutely flabbergasted when I told them it was my first time wearing a mask, as if the only way to not get sick. I told them "In America, if we don't want to get sick we wash our hands often, cover our mouths if we sneeze or cough, and try not to go around making out with sick people." They were silent. I was silently laughing.

In the end, I was lucky I wore the mask. 10 students died within a week, and another 12 were stuck in a hospital for weeks. Kidding of course, the "school bug" vanished in a matter of days (thanks to all that mask wearing) :)