Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Japan Travel Log - Day 3 (Part One)

Sakura Tree in front of Hall



Our 3rd day in Japan (the 2nd day and main day of Hiro's Line Dance Festival) started bright and early at 6am. Bright?, you say. Yes, in Japan, the sun is already up and shining away at this early hour.

The day's event was scheduled to start at 9:30am and we had to be at the Lobby latest by 9am. So Ivee and I got up early, took our turns in the bathroom, did our girly stuff and put on our 'face'. Having learnt from yesterday's lesson, we went down to breakfast at 8.30am. Yuki and Yuri were already there, so we joined them.

Our breakfast was listed as 'Western' and had an omelette, meat (sometimes sausage, other times bacon or ham), greens and a bowl of Japanese soup on the side. A pair of chopsticks came with the meal tray. Hmmm....eating a western meal with chopsticks, now there's something for you to think about :-) But, of course, one only has to ask and would promptly be provided with a knife and fork.



Slices of different varieties of bread were laid out on a counter, and next to it were two small toasters where you can toast the slices you've selected. The bread (plain white) I had selected tasted heavenly. Now, when I say this it really means something because I'm not a great fan of bread. But the ones I had (toasted) were soft on the inside and crisp all along the surface of it. I really do not know how to describe the bread (for like I said I have not had that much experience with it as I'm not a fan) but suffice to say it tasted grrreat!


Yuki & I



All four of us chit-chatted a while, after which Yuki and Yuri went back up to their rooms to collect some things while we waited in the Lobby. Two taxis pulled up outside the hotel and as usual when everyone was ready, we all got in (Yuki and Judy in one taxi; Yuri, Ivee and I in another) and headed for the dance hall.

For today's programme, we were in a bigger hall than yesterday's; located on the 1st floor of the same building. The programme was going to be a full day of dance workshops, general dancing, dance reviews and dance demos by the 3 invited instructors....Judy, Yuki & I. The timetable Hiro had given me stated the day's activities would conclude at 10pm. That works out to 12 1/2 hours of dancing, music and fun, fun, fun!

Introductions


After introducing the 3 of us, Hiro passed the stage to me as I was to conduct the first workshop of the day with a beginner dance: HIT THE FLOOR by Coral Tucker. Needless to say, I was extremely nervous at first but soon felt right at home. I just had to imagine I was back home instructing my regular classes, the only difference being that I had to stop once in a while to allow the interpreter (Yuri) to translate what I'd just said into Japanese.

Our official translator, Yuri



'Hit The Floor'





'Born To Rock!'


In total, 9 dances were taught and learnt:
(1) HIT THE FLOOR Instructor: Mei Ling
(2) PUMP IT (Raymond Sarlemijn)/Yuki
(3) SWEET SWEET WINE (Judy McDonald)/Judy McDonald
(4) TONIGHT I WANNA CRY (Daniel Trepat)/Michiko
(5) 7 DIGITS (Morgan Ratcliffe)/Yuki
(6) WEEKLY FOOL (Judy McDonald)/Judy
(7) CHERRY POPPIN' (Neville Fitzgerald & Julie Harris)/Mr Miura
(8) BORN TO ROCK! (Leong Mei Ling)/Mei Ling
(9) MOONLIGHT (Judy McDonald)/Judy


Taking a break between sessions:

We broke for lunch at noon. Most attendees brought their own lunch packs while some joined us downstairs at the cafeteria for a nice hot meal.


Part II: Workshops, performances, party and lots more.



Saturday, April 26, 2008

Japan Travel Log - Day 2

This was the first day of Hiro's 3-day Line Dance Festival. But the day's programme was to begin only at 1pm. We were told the day before that Yuki would come by the hotel to take us to lunch and that we had to be ready and gather in the lobby at 10.30am.

We woke early, got ourselves ready and headed down to the hotel's cafe for some breakfast, only to be told we're half an hour too late and that the kitchen had already closed. Hmmmph! So we trudged over to the departmental store nearby, ITO YOKADO, and chose an eatery called FAMIL DINING. We both ordered a meal that had an omelette on the outside and rice on the inside. Quite delicious actually. Oishi!

Outside Ito Yokado Departmental Store



While waiting for our meals to arrive at Famil Dining.

After quickly finishing the meal, we took a quick browse around the store and then headed back to the hotel. Yuki was already waiting at the lobby.

On the way to lunch

She had come with a friend whom she introduced as Hana. And I introduced Ivee to them both. We sat talking in the hotel lobby for quite a bit, catching up on news since I last saw her in Malaysia at my party. It was great to meet Yuki again.

When our stomachs signalled it was time for some food.. again (rolling eyes!).. we walked over to Omori Bellport. This time we went to a different Japanese restaurant. There we ordered, with Yuki's help, an assortment of meals to try.


Japanese 'wa wa' meets Malaysian 'nyonyas'


Yuki & Hana

Tempura on noodles with soup. Rice on the side



Cold noodles



Curry noodle, Japanese style



Overview of our sumptuous meal :-)


It was almost time for the event to begin, so we headed back to the hotel to meet up with Judy McDonald, from Canada, who is the main reason people are attending the event :-) If her name doesn't ring a bell, maybe her dance 'Cool Whip' will. Many Malaysian line dancers still remember this dance, I'm sure.

Her vast experience in line dance and talent for choreographing great dances, make her very much sought after by line dance groups worldwide to conduct workshops. And she's a great, fun lady to boot. For more on Judy, visit her website http://www.judymcdonald.ca/.

Quickly, all of us climbed into 2 taxis and off we went to Ikegami Hall, about 10-15 mins away.

The first half of the day's programme consisted of 2 lectures by Judy. The first, on how to be a good instructor and the second on choreography. During the course of these 2 lessons, we got to learn her dance 'Judylicious'. Great dance.


Rubbing shoulders with a famous Line Dance personality. Woo Hoo! :-)

We took a short break for snacks and drinks. Then, in the evening, as more line dancers joined the earlier group, a jamming party got underway. During this time, Judy also taught 2 dances: HOUND DOG (Judy McDonald & Jill Babinec) and GET ON THE BUS (Guyton Mundy).


The dancing ended around 10pm. We were really hungry by then. Ivee & I got to talking about the great ramen we had yesterday night and asked if anyone wanted to join us as we were thinking of going back there tonight. Yuki & Yuri said yes and Judy was game too.

Judy & her lil' baby fork

Sharing the calories..heheh

Walking back to the hotel

Hiro dropped us off next to the ramen shop. We had our fill and then walked back to the hotel in the nice cool night air. What a nice way to end a great day! :-) And thank you Ivee for capturing the moments.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Japan Travel Log - Departure & Day 1

My flight, MH88 to Narita, Tokyo was scheduled for take off at 11.30pm on April 9, 2008. My husband and I left the house at 8:30pm after long goodbyes and hugs to my 3 boys. At the airport, we met up with my travelling companion and student, Ivee and her family.

Very quickly, we checked-in our luggage...mine was just right at 20kgs whilst Ivee's weighed in at 25kgs...heheh. Luckily no extra charges. Then we quickly proceeded to the check-in gates ourselves to take the shuttle across to the departure gates. It was while waiting for the shuttle that I suddenly realised I had not turned the combination locks of my luggage....which meant that it wasn't locked! Too late....my luggage was probably already on its way to be loaded onto the plane.

I was anxious, to say the least. Not because I had anything valuable in the luggage but mostly because I'd die of embarrassment at the thought of my 'personal effects' spilling out of the luggage should it open. (blush blush)

But Ivee reassured me that it was a very secure piece of luggage and even though it's not locked, it won't likely open unless the clamp locks were flipped by someone. So I had no choice but to let the matter go and concentrate on enjoying the journey ahead.


After about 6 and half hours, we landed in Narita. It was about 7.30am local time. The weather was chilly and wet, but refreshing. My first glimpse of Japan was this photo corner saying 'Welcome To Japan'. So I did the 'touristy' thing and took a picture ;-)


Say Chee......ser!


Passing through Immigration took another hour. The queue was unbelievably long. We had tourists from Australia, Thailand, Malaysia... Japan is definitely very popular during this season...when the sakura blossoms.

Finally we walked through the last of the checkpoints and out into the Arrival hall where Hiro was waiting for us. (Oh, by the way, my luggage arrived intact. Whew! What a relief!)

Quickly, he whisked us to the parking lot and transferred our stuff into his car, then off we drove towards Tokyo and our hotel (which is actually in Omori and not Tokyo city centre).


At the parking lot waiting for Hiro's car

We couldn't check into our rooms until 4pm (it was only about 10.30am), we 'dumped' our luggage with the concierge and got back into Hiro's car for a 'tour' of the neighbourhood. Whenever we passed a Sakura tree, or a lovely traditional japanese house, we'd 'ooh' and 'aah' in unison...heheh. We were so engrossed with the sights that we forgot to take pictures...sigh.

Negotiating through some very narrow backstreets.

Anyway, then we headed to a building called Omori Bellport where according to Hiro, people gather every 1st Friday of the month, from 6:00pm to 9:45pm, to line dance away the evening. It's popularly known as American Pop Night. They would dance in the open space right in the middle of the building.



American Pop Night (Picture courtesy of Hiro Suzuki)


Hiro & I at the centre of the 'dancefloor', Omori Bellport.


By now, I was famished, so we headed to a typical Japanese restaurant. There was a McDonald's on the 1st floor of the building, but we were having none of that. We wanted authentic Japanese food!

If in case you're wondering where my travel companion, Ivee, has disappeared to since she's not featured in any of the photos so far....she's busy being the camera woman. She's quite a 'photo-holic'...Ivee hor.



enroute to the Restaurant, what a burst of colour!


"I think I'll have this."

(Good Gosh, look at the static buildup in my hair. Talk about bad hair days. This is simply frightful!)

We had a lovely Japanese lunch. The rice...hmm...smacking delicious! I had loads and loads of it. Oh pooh! to the calories. I'll worry about that when I get home.

After lunch, Hiro had to leave us because he had work to do. So he dropped us off at the Omori main train station where there were some departmental stores, so that we could explore and maybe do some shopping. I had the hotel call card with me which had the location map of the hotel on the flip side, so Ivee and I were quite confident we could get back without any problem. How wrong we were!


Window Shopping

The railway network, connections & stops

After some window shopping, we noticed that it had begun to rain, yet we weren't quite finished exploring. There were more quaint little shops along the road outside of the station. We figured we'd explore these shops as we headed back to the direction of the hotel. And since it was raining, Ivee and I each bought an umbrella (500 yen).


'Dancing in the rain....' under my transparent umbrella.

We thought we were going towards the hotel, but after about half and hour of walking we realised that we were 'lost'. All the landmarks matched up according to the direction Hiro gave us but there was no hotel in sight. This was then we decided to ask for directions. Sounds easy right. Not, if you don't speak Japanese. Luckily, I knew my left (hidari) from my right (migi), and Ivee could also muster up a smattering of Japanese words. With this limited vocabulary, it took us a whole 2 hours to finally find our hotel LOL.


So happy we found some real-life tulips!

We pounded the pavement of one particular road at least 5 times. The good news from that is that we discovered a lovely Ramen shop. Which we came back to in the evening to enjoy a delicious hot ramen meal. I told Ivee, this road is officially 'our' road now. I know it like the back of my hand.

Some of the other streets we got 'lost' in.



The vending machine from which you 'ordered' your meal. Drop in the required amount into the coin slot, press the button showing your meal, out pops a ticket which is passed over to the cook. Neat huh!


The hot delicious ramen. And Gyoza on the side. Yum Yum!



Enjoying my meal :-)


All the while, it was pouring. Finally, we found a police kiosk and asked the policeman on duty for directions. Thankfully, he speaks English and we finally found our hotel.

I must say, it was quite an adventure! And I'm not the least disappointed that we had to experience it. In fact, I'm glad we did. Wonder what will happen tomorrow.