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From bhangra to swing to J-pop to bush

November 2001

Hello everyone,

I guess it was sort of amusing that I started writing this missive a couple of Thursdays ago. At least, I find it funny now that I've got my car back.

I had just refueled and was on my way up the mountain to journey to a meeting in Mikamo, about an hour away, when the mini-Pajero gave out. Just wouldn't keep going. All things considered, she picked a great time to throw the towel in - another ten minutes driving and I'd have been over the mountain, a long way from anyone with whom I could have an intelligible conversation, and possibly out of mobile phone range as well. Alternatively, she could have conked out at eleven o'clock the night before as I was returning from volleyball training in Ikeda (also an hour away). All in all, a bit of a mixed blessing of inconvenience and good timing.

So my poor little car sat in the local mechanic's workshop, having its timing belt replaced and everything else gone over, for about a week. I got into trouble just one kilometre from my junior high school, so I have my fellow senseis to thank for sorting me out. It wasn't so bad - I wanted her serviced anyway, and they gave me a car to drive in the meantime. My replacement vehicle didn't have a decent stereo, but it got around.

Of course, my vehicular woes have nothing to do with the subject line. :)

You may not know that bhangra is a style of dance that traditionally has its roots in the state of Punjab in northern India. It is characterised, at least in my experience, by strong and rhythmic athletic dancing. In any case, it's very Indian. When I lived at International House during my first four years of university, I met some wonderful Indians, particularly my good mate Aquil Reshamvala, who introduced us to the dance. Way back at our college cultural festival, Soiree, in 1998, it provided my first experience of performance dancing. Some of my warmest memories of International House have a lot to do with bhangra.

I recall this now because Mum recently sent me a video of one of our performances - the International House performance at Dancefest just this past May. Australian videos don't play on Japanese machines, but the whole idea of having it with me, and knowing that I'll be able to convert the format and watch it very soon, is a bit nostalgic. Just the thing for these cold Iya nights (failing a girlfriend, I guess). And what's more, bhangra is where I first picked up a passion for dancing. I haven't been able to do much dancing here in Japan yet, but I'm working on it.

Bhangra was sort of a once-a-year phenomenon, but I took up swing dancing in September 2000 and never looked back. Swing as I learnt it, in the Lindy Hop style, is very cool. It can be danced to slow or fast jazz and big band sorts of music, depending on what you like and how fast you can move your feet. The only problem now is that the nearest swing club is four hours away in Osaka. Thanks to the JET musical, however, a solution is at hand!

The script team, of which I am a part, finished the basic draft of the musical script just a couple of weekends ago. By a freak of... um... coincidence, there happens to be a swing scene - woohoo! The Japanese pop music scene is known, strangely enough, as J-pop. The most recent single released by Japan's most popular girl group, Morning Musume (meaning "morning daughters", a group of some 13 singing, dancing and giggling teenage girls), is a song called Mister Moonlight. It's got a very jazzy feel to it and slots nicely into our musical to provide a dance finale. It's a bit fast, but it should be fun to dance and very entertaining. So I'll be spending a great number of weekends between January and March trying to teach some swing to my fellow English teachers, to the tune of a song that is mostly in Japanese. What have I gotten myself into?! :)

But my dancing adventures won't stop there. With Australia Day coming up in January, I have a perfect excuse to teach my schoolkids to bush dance. Indeed, I even started to teach them last Sunday at a shoogaku cultural festival. Bring on the heel and toe polka, yeeeehaaaa!

Now that I think about it, there is something quite satisfying about tracking my journey from bhangra to swing to J-pop to bush dancing. And if I make it back to the Awa Odori festival next August, maybe I'll feel qualified to include that in my dancing memoirs, too.

Speaking of Awa Odori, I had to dance it a little three Saturday mornings ago in Tokushima city. A team of JETs got together to put on an International Day at an elementary school in the suburb of Shinmachi. Dancing was one of many fun things we got to do with the students. The experience of having a gaggle of eight-year-old Japanese schoolgirls following me around while I danced bad Awa Odori was initially unnerving! There were also more students in my third grade class of 31 than in my entire junior high school. And on a note of interest, I spied a little white face framed in blonde hair amongst the sea of Japanese children - a girl with Russian parents. It made me realise just how close I am to countries that I once conceived of as being a world away. All in all, it was a great morning with a top bunch of genki kids. I'll be going back next year.

This weekend just past was also full of new experiences. I spent the best part of Saturday in Higashiiya (the eastern part of the Iya Valley - I live in the west) with a motley crew of foreigners and locals, cutting thatch for the roof of Chiiori, a traditional house and famous local landmark. The best time to cut thatch is at the first snowfall, by which time the grass is dry and thick, and the best place to get it is at the top of the mountain. Sure enough, on this beautiful winter's day I found myself at the peak of the Kyobashira Pass, cutting thatch in a field on the border between Kochi and Tokushima prefectures.

I had the good company of Americans Keith and Katy, Kiwi Jeanette, Korean Lee, a very kawaii little Japanese girl named Mane (and her father), and Lonely Planet writer and Chiiori co-owner Mason Florence, amongst others. We cut, cleaned and bundled for a few hours in the afternoon, then headed off to the Kazura Hotel for an onsen. Despite this onsen being just five minutes down the road from me, I have never visited there because I get to go to another one for free. I was glad for the excuse to go, because the Kazura onsen is a beautiful set of three outdoor pools that you can only reach by traveling up the mountain on a tram. One pool for men, one for women, andc well, let's just say that I've been there and done that. :) Follow up on the onsen with a great pasta meal and some spontaneous singing and dancing at Chiiori, and you've got yourself a top weekend.

The next big thing in my schedule is the JET Mid-Year Seminar. We all get together to consider some issues relevant to teaching English in Japan - for example, I'll be presenting and facilitating discussion on the subject, "Creative Use of the Textbook and Other Teaching Materials". I'm sure the discussion will end up moving from the conference room to the pub in the evening. :)

It's not long now until Christmas, I guess. It's not such a noticeable thing in Japan, though some stores in the big cities make use of its commercial potential as much as they do elsewhere in the world. Our local group of JETs will be doing a bit of a caroling tour of junior high schools next week, which promises to be both very amateur and amusing. Many JET participants use the winter break to travel home or visit other countries in south-east Asia - Thailand seems to be a particularly popular option. As for me, I'll be staying put, but will hopefully get on the road to a few different places. I've got Japanese friends in Hiroshima and near Tokyo. Also, the high school teachers take a trip together when school breaks out - we're going to Kochi, just south of here. And there are some family friends who I should drop in on here on Shikoku, too.

The first game of the volleyball season is scheduled for December 23. Since starting to train with the team in Ikeda three weeks ago, I'm getting to look forward to our practice session as one of the highlights of my week. They're great people. I can think of worse ways to spend time this Christmas season than in such good company. Here's hoping all of you are amongst friends, too, this December. I'll write again before the year is done.

Lots of love,

Dave