WON'T YOU DANCE A LITTLE?!?!?!

THIS IS A CONTINUATION OF THE PREVIOUS ENTRY, AS JAPANESE KEYBOARDS ARE TINY AND DO NOT ACCOMODATE FOR MY HUGE HANDS THAT ERRONEOUSLY PRESS BUTTONS WITH FUNTIONS BEYOND MY KNOWLEDGE . . .

. . . after getting spiffed up to go out on the town Nathalia, a nice Swedish gal, and I took the bus to Shi-jo (4 street) and Kawaramachi. It a pretty exciting intersection-big lights tons of people, and it smells of really good Japanese food. We met up with a small crew of SKP (Study in Kyoto Programme) students and we proceeded to go to an izakaya (a term used when referring to a bar) for a few drinks. We settled on a place called "Rainbow Bar" with the subtitle, " . . . all drinks 200 yen", which is roughly 1.85 USD. The drinks were cheap, yes, but small? yes. The club we planned on going to "WORLD/SEKAI" opened at 23:00 so we hung out in the Rainbow bar for a while and sipped ou rminiature cocktails until the eleventh hour was upon us.

WARNING, if you are a man (dansei) and if you want to step into WORLD, you will pay 2500 yen.

The club was great, I was impressed with the music and the social dynamics of the dancefloor were of another world, yet strikingly similar to that of Vancouver night clubs. It was really interesting to be dancing and have the emcee shouting in Japanese; from what i could decipher over the deafening music was pretty much the same catch phrases used by emcees around the world,"COME ON PARTY PEOPLE . . . LET'S DANCE . . . IF YOU'RE FEELING TIRED WAKE UP." The DJ played some pretty great songs: Naughty by Nature, House of Pain, Beastie Boys, but my favourite was his remix of 525,600 Minutes from the Broadway musical RENT. This guy really made the song into something else and it really got people moving. OK, the dancefloor dynamics. Similarities to the Western world: it's loud, it's crowded, cover charges and crinks are expensive, some people are too drunk, some people just can't dance (including Japanese women), there are foriegners, there is a feel good vibe, some guys are creepy, and girls travel in small packs to avoid encounters with said creepers. Differences: the music, I found, was better and more diversified, cigarettes is legit, people face the DJ and recognize he or she is there playing music for them, there are continuous chanting sessions," HEY,HEY,HEY,HEY.", nobody is grinding their respective pelvises on eachother, and there is a stage that only paid female dancers can dance on . . . wait.

I saw some pretty funny images last night. One being before we went to the club when I saw a huge blonde white guy in a Japanese robes, another being two unhealthily skinny Japanese girls with golden jeans selling tequila shots for five bucks with their golden thongs in plain view. The most calming image, though, was how I closed the night, with some water and a nice bowl of udon noodles in onion soup at around 400am.

It's hot today in Kyoto and I need groceries, peace.