Japan Trip

The Millennial and Gen Z trip-du-jour has to be Japan. Of course, partly due to economic reasons that eclipse the scope of this blog, and what I imagine is partly due to decades of Japanese cultural exports that defined many a 90s kid's life. I grew up playing Sonic on the computer at school, trying to play Pokemon on car trips with the ceiling light, going Super Saiyan on the playground, and learning as many hand signs for jutsu as possible. I've tried to learn Japanese no fewer than three times--"My Japanese Coach" on the DS back in the day, JapanesePod101 right as the pandemic hit, and just this recent summer via a combination of apps, comprehensible input YouTube channels, and frequent conversations with a lovely owner of a food truck at my old job. This time stuck as the little bit of Japanese I did learn was actually relatively useful, and I'm sure definitely made my trip easier as far as effort's concerned.

This year was my golden birthday--30 years old on the 30th of September--and a month out I hadn't really decided any birthday plans for myself. My mom calls me up and tells me that given the occasion, don't be afraid to ask for anything on my mind. My girlfriend had mentioned a Japan trip recently, but it wasn't something that I was seriously considering prior to that moment, especially considering that I recently lost my job a month prior. Gratefully so, my dad decided to help out with the travel costs, and we booked our tickets for a nice two-week long trip. I studied the hell out of Reddit and watched plenty of YouTube beforehand, trying to get some social etiquette stuff down, or understand context-specific things like 袋 (plastic shopping bag) being used instead of 鞄 (bag) when shopping.

I also started researching folks on my social media who could be potential dance connections, even finding a few cyphers, battles, and sessions. Tragically, I could only attend one instance because I lost my bag on the Shinkansen platform for a few days traveling from Kyoto back to Tokyo, however the one instance I did attend I am tremendously glad I did. Of course, since this is a dance blog, here's a few of the things I noticed while I was over there.

For one, I am impressed that Japan has a centralized site called Enter The Stage that highlights dance battles, contests, workshops, and cyphers across the country. Per the site's About page, they note "until now, if you wanted to find a dance battle or go to a dance event, you would rely on social media, websites, flyers handed out at events, word of mouth, etc." and this is still very much the case in the US. There are so many events that go on that I see on a regular basis where I say "if I didn't follow this person, I would have had no way of knowing this existed." And on the one hand, I get it from a traditional sense of having to see a flyer on the street or passed out in the neighborhood to know about an event going on.

On the other hand, their page is copyrighted 2017, and seeing the US as the birthplace for all of these contemporary street dances, it is honestly quite surprising still that I can't really point to any centralized source to just see dance events across the country. I have to be tapped in to whomever lives in the particular state or city in which an event is taking place, or it has to be one of the big major street dance events that tons of people fly out for to know about it. A "Flava Of The Year," "House Dance Conference," "Freestyle Sessions," etc. I've seen somewhat centralized pages depending on the local business: DanceATL does something similar regarding their "Monday Moves" social media calendar, however that skews heavily towards classical and studio based dances like ballet, modern, or jazz. I had the idea for a centralized site for business in another industry about a year ago, but never followed through on it forreal, so it was also cool from a universal sense to see that there's still a market need for sites like that, even in places where you would assume that they already exist.

I have a cursory understanding of Japan's street dance history as it pertains to street dance as a US cultural export. Compared to China, who in the global street dance landscape seems to have the strongest representation in Electric Boogaloo style Popping near exclusively, Japan seemed to embrace other forms of street dance to a wider extent. Part of this is I believe due to US-Japan military relations, with the US having numerous installations and bases around the country. As such, as different Black folks found themselves stationed in Japan post-WWII, I believe that they brought aspects of their culture with them, namely dance in this case, and have continued to do so. The other part of it is I know that Japan was a significant destination for many street dance pioneers: Boogaloo Shrimp spent time engaging in commercial work there post-Breakin' movie fame; Dance Fusion was the first group to bring New York's clubbing style that most dancers know of when they speak of House dance; and Tony Gogo of The Lockers ushered in Locking across the country as he settled and formed a family, with his sons Yuu and Rei becoming known as The GoGo Brothers.

I linked up with a guy named Brandon that I found through some mutual connects on IG. Turned out that he was a Japanese-American who moved to Japan during his military career in his 20s, and then stayed. We ended up linking up a few days before I had to return to the US, and he took me to a spot in Shinjuku that was famous in Japan's street dance history. It's quite literally an office complex, but all around outside are different dancers practicing different genres, all using some combination of the reflective glass, their phones, and each other's critiques to practice. It was essentially like watching several open-air studios hold sessions simultaneously. This was about 9 or 10pm at night, and it was a bit of a bittersweet moment because I know that similar spaces would be scrutinized in the US: someone may call the police, claim criminal trespassing, and thus the dancers wouldn't be able to use that as a practice space any more.

In the same vein, it was also a bit jarring witnessing this "studio effect" take place; you had several dancers all in community at the same location, but everyone is focused exclusively on whatever style they are practicing, and the people with whom they are practicing in their own little corridor. What's more, I would notice people watch or stare at others as they danced, but no one ever approached anyone else; not to give props, not to give critiques, not to ask about music, nothing. You stayed in your outdoor box with your group and that was that. Nonetheless, within our little Popping box that was sandwiched between the other folk's Popping box and some more folks Locking box, I had a good conversation and get down with not just Brandon, but a couple of his students that showed up as well. I exercised some of my teaching chops and challenged them creatively, and Brandon and I were both able to provide additional context to these dances that being American afforded us--certain cultural aspects like attending a house party and seeing dances there, dancing with girls and learning the etiquette around that (what sort of dancing is too much and would scare a girl away.) This gave a distinction due to the cultural familiarity of a common experience that may not be the same case for someone who learned it near exclusively in studios or structured practice sessions: the impetus for dance is different. Additionally, he and I were trying to emphasize the need to utilize your own cultural background to expand your movement, as that is part of what makes things "original" to you.

While I wish I didn't have some of the mishaps that lended themselves to me missing out on more potential dance adventures out there, I will say I for sure have a renewed vigor in trying to visit Japan again, and ultimately teach out there however possible. Japanese culture has always played such a significant influence in my life, and visiting only reinforced that lifelong admiration. Additionally, I'm glad to now have associates in that part of the world with whom to connect as well as see parts of society that I missed this time around.