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| Marina teaching Nat some moves! |
Roppongi; Famous for it's rich hills housing development and many night clubs. During the day this place is pretty tame but once the lights go out it swarms with night lifers from all over the world looking for some fun. Now I was always told to avoid this area because of all the foreigners and because it was considered a 'dangerous' and 'scary' part of Tokyo. Because of all the negative descriptions I got of this place I always pictured it as dark and dingy with creepy dudes lurking in the shadows trying to get you to come into their club.
Okay, well the last part is true...minus the lurking.
Last night Natsuyo and I were invited to go out Salsa dancing at this club in, you guessed it; Roppongi.
Stop, I know what you're thinking; Jamie? Dancing? Ha! But it was actually quite enjoyable.
Roppongi is far from dark with it's neon lights flashing from every direction (much like in the rest of Tokyo) and it wasn't dingy at all (which isn't surprising because it's one of the richest sections in Tokyo. Gotta keep the sidewalks clean for those rich, Prada clad feet!). The only thing to really differentiate this area from the rest of Tokyo was the amount of foreigners. It's completely true that they all congregate there to have fun. But it didn't really bother me.
The lady who invited us was Natsuyo's friend Marina from Italy. I met her last year when I stayed with Nat and we all went out to drink in Totsuka. She's a really lovely lady. She has been working in Japan for about four years now as a scientist for some research lab. She's been going to this Salsa club every weekend for the past four or five months so she was completely excited to show us the place and introduce us to all her friends there (she knew pretty much the whole staff and all the other regulars).
The club,
El Cafe Latino, is tucked away in a corner a little ways off from the main stretch of road. There was a 1500 YEN cover charge which included a free drink; typical I guess. There are two floors, both which were PACKED with dancers by the middle of the evening. All the staff are of some kind of Spanish descent it seemed. One guy who knew Marina the best and talked with us quite a bit was from Venezuela but his name eludes me. He gave me a free shot of high quality Venezuelan tequila later on that night though, nice guy ;p.
The dancing was...interesting. Marina showed us how to do some simple Salsa and Maregna (sp?) and Machata (?!) steps but really it didn't matter, I just shuffled hopelessly for the most part. I got asked to dance a lot. Surprisingly a lot. By all sorts of people. Marina said it was because of my blonde hair and, after looking around and noticing that i was the only blonde there, I think she was right. Despite my warnings of "I can't dance", "I don't know how", and "I'm sorry in advance" people kept coming back for more. I had two types of dance partners, those who probably danced in their sleep and just wanted to show off their skills while they flung me around hopelessly, and those who knew what they were doing and were willing to show me and work with me. I liked the latter partners the best.
There was a healthy mix of Japanese and foreigners (a lot of South Americans and Spanish). There was a definite dividing line between the Spanish/Latino dancers and the Japanese ones though. While the Japanese dancers knew the moves and could (some people anyway) successfully lead a partner around, they were lacking something the other side had.
Passion.
The Japanese were all mechanical and had no feeling in there moves whereas the Spanish dancers moved you and made you wanna get up and join them as they salsa'ed a crossed the dance floor. I guess it's true when they say that Latin Americans/Spanish were born dancing. There were these two people in particular that were amazing together. I don't think they knew each other formally, but the way they moved with each other was magical. I don't know where the lady was from but the guy was from Cuba. He actually asked me to dance which was completely embarrassing after watching him with his last partner. He kept grabbing my hips and swaying them for me saying "1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3". Ah well, I always knew I was too white for this kinda stuff.
Although I think I got the hang of it a little bit towards the end, but that might have been the tequila ;D
We left at about 4-ish (the bars and clubs here are open all night unlike in America where they close at 2am!)
The trains however do stop operating at about 1am so we went to McDonnalds (gross) and had some food (GROSS!!!) and waited until the first train at 5am. Marina actually stayed behind (she's a dancing fool, that one) but her other friend Marissa (from Iran) who we meet up with came to Micky D's with us. She can belly dance which is something that I've always wanted to do despite my general aversion to dancing (for good reasons). Turns out that Natsuyo wants to learn too so we're going to try and find a place to take lessons! Whoo!
All in all my impression of Roppongi wasn't all that different than what I imagined, but I had fun. I don't think i'll be making it a permanent hang out spot though.
Anyway, that was a long post and i'm tired. We didn't get back home until 7ish and then I was supposed to go with Nat and her family to her sister's house but I was so tired and my feet hurt so bad I could hardly walk (but damn those heels look good!) so I stayed and slept instead.
until next time,
Peace
