Sunday, April 15, 2012

Square Dancing with Edo 8s

Saturday was a dreary rainy day, but fortunately my plans didn't involve being outside...I was spending the afternoon square dancing with the Edo 8s, Tokyo's gay square dance club. They meet in a gay bar in Shinjuku, and I had a great time!  We danced C3B for 2 1/2 hours, and then combined Plus dancing and Advanced class for another two hours.


Obligatory disclaimer: appearance in this photo does not imply anything about a person's sexual orientaton :-)

Square dancing is called in English all over the world. There are some Japanese callers who are a little difficult to understand ("Parallelogram" is particularly hard for some to say) but the three people calling were all very clear.  I did have a bit of trouble distinguishing "Rip-off" from "Ripple" but the context helped to know which one was right. ("Ripple" requires the caller to say who is starting the ripple, and the first time "Rip-off" was called I found myself thinking, "Who should Ripple?").

To the amusement of some, I didn't realize that we were right in the middle of Tokyo's gay district...what can I say, it was rainy and there weren't many people out, and the shops weren't open yet when I arrived. After dancing we went out for tea at a nearby cafe that was practically a shrine to Madonna.

Then we walked as a group back to the train station. It turns out that there is a vast underground complex of corridors and malls between the station and where we were dancing, and if I had known, I could have avoided getting so wet in the rain.  But I could never have figured out which way to go on my own, and I still don't think I could do it going in the opposite direction.

Today, it's beautiful and clear...time for an amusement park!

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