Just When You Thought Leaving Would Be Easy...

7/26/10

It’s truly amazing how much people can affect you without you even realizing it. Today was my last practice with the yosakoi team at Nagasaki University. Since it’s finals week, there weren’t too many people there, and they spent most of the time practicing their formations for an upcoming festival. Rachael and I stayed for a while past the usual time and chatted with a few people, telling them that this would be our last practice. We were just getting ready to leave when a senpai came over and asked if we wanted to do 「色」one last time. With solid nods of our heads and tears pricking at my eyes, she announced to the others practicing that today was our last day. Looks of shock and surprise adorned the faces of the other members (Really, the idea of the Japanese being well-informed and organized is a bit of a lie). Nonetheless, Rachael and I were given happi to wear as we all formed a circle and danced one last time as a group.

Rachael and I were placed in the center for the dance and given the privilege of shouting the starting commands. We remained in the center for the entire dance, including the men’s part when the guys surrounded us as we waved the happi through the air. Afterward, we took pictures and managed to give a few final words of thanks before we prepared to leave. One girl named Yumi, who had come to get to know us rather well, was in tears as we were leaving. I hugged her tightly and begged her not to cry and promising that we would see her again, either through coming back to Japan or her coming to see us in America. I told the rest of the group to come visit us in America before we finally got out the door to put our street shoes back on. Yumi followed us out for one last hug and a promise to find us on facebook while the boys’ captain shook hands with us and thanked us for joining them. It was with tears in our eyes and smiles on our faces that Rachael and I finally set off, waving eagerly to everyone until we couldn’t see them anymore.

I didn’t expect to cry. I didn’t expect it to be so hard to say goodbye. These were people that I just barely knew. I had only just started getting to know people maybe two weeks ago (Japanese shyness does little to help with trying to make friends). Yet despite all of that, I managed to laugh with them at jokes made during practice and hug them as they cried tears of joy from victory at festivals. My blood, sweat, and tears from practice have mixed with theirs so that we all have a mutual understanding of just how amazing this group is. The senpai have helped us through so much; helping us improve our techniques, and making things easier for us to understand. They cared for Rachael when she overheated during practice one day by giving her water and Aquarius and fanning her to help her cool down (One male senpai even volunteered to carry her to the second practice location). They comforted Elmo (Who knew no Japanese when she first got here) when she cried out of frustration for not being able to understand anything by giving her hugs, words of encouragement, and invitations to the group parties in broken English.

To me, this is a strange kind of unspoken bond that you feel with the people around you when you become a part of something bigger. You find ways around the language barriers and form connections with people you barely know. Yet these bonds become strong enough to make you not want to leave, especially as you’re just starting to break those walls of shyness to see people for who they really are. I can easily say that yosakoi has been my best Japanese experience since arriving in Japan, and I feel like I am part of yet another family (this one happening to have about one hundred members). My hope is that I will find Yumi on facebook and that she’ll redirect me to the other members of Toppu so I can keep in touch with them and get to know them more even after I’ve returned home.

Not the entire team by any means, but Genki McSenpai is there.

突風、行くぞ！

7/18/10

Today has been absolutely amazing. I realize that I’ve barely updated this blog since arriving in Nagasaki, and that’s mostly due to the fact that Nagasaki isn’t very interesting after the first two months. By then, you’ve been to all the famous places and tried all the local food and been to all the major shopping centers, which doesn’t leave much for the last two months. Yet somehow I’ve managed to keep myself going and I credit that to yosakoi.

Let me take you back to mid-April to the time of one of my previous blog posts. It was a cool spring morning when I arrived at Nagasaki Station to meet some other people from the JASIN program to go to the penguin aquarium. When I got to the station, I heard loud music and shouts, so I went to investigate. I stood on the terrace overlooking the plaza and gazed down as a group of men and women dressed in flowing blue clothes danced before an audience as another man waved a large blue flag behind them.

I later learned that this form of dance was called yosakoi.

Fast forward a few hours to where Nagasaki University’s team performed. Even though this had only been my first day of experiencing yosakoi, I knew from the start that they were something special. None of the other teams had their energy or level of genki-ness. I remember standing in awe of them more than any of the other teams. At the time, I didn’t realize that they were Nagasaki University’s team, however.

Fast forward two more weeks: The girls who watched the yosakoi festival with me and I decided that we wanted to learn some yosakoi, but GaiDai, the school we’re studying at, doesn’t have a team. That didn’t stop us though, as we’d heard that lots of GaiDai students joined clubs at Nagasaki University, which was closer to the heart of the city. So we went to the university to find the billboard with the club’s information. Imagine our surprise when the billboard depicted a boy wearing the same uniform as the team that had completely blown us away. This was 突風 (とっぷう, toppuu), Nagasaki University’s yosakoi team. Now is when the nervousness sets in. This team was supposed to be number one in Kyuushuu. Would they be willing to let a group of foreigners on their team?

Fast forward another week or so: I have emailed the girls’ captain of the team and we will be observing a practice the following week. We go to the practice and watch, making our final decision that we want to join them if they will have us. Now is when three months of dance practice commences.

Fast forward to this morning. I woke up at five o’clock so my host dad could drive me and one of my friends to Nagasaki University’s campus. Clad in my uniform pants and a tank top and a bag filled with my tabi shoes, arm bands, naruko, and a happi and apron borrowed from a senpai (club senior) in my hand, I met with the rest of the team and we got on three buses and drove to Greenland, an amusement park in another prefecture.

Why were we up so early, and why were we going to a theme park? Today was the tenth anniversary of the Sanoyoi Fire Carnival; a yosakoi festival. We were scheduled to perform three times that day despite the sweltering heat that left us sweating buckets (Luckily, we were constantly provided with bottled tea and a Japanese sports drink called Aquarius). My hair was styled into lop-sided pigtails so I could match the outrageously teased and styled hair of the other girls before we went out and gave our first performance in front of a shopping center. Aside from my own mistake of standing in the wrong spot for the final pose, we hit the mark with each move.

From my understanding, in yosakoi festivals, there is a competition among the groups that perform original dances. There is a set of yosakoi dances that most people seem to know, and then there are the original dances created by each group that performs. Toppuu’s dance is called 「色」(いろ、iro), which means “color.” They chose fireworks as the theme for the dance, and it shows through the dancers’ energy and the sudden bursts of power throughout the dance.

We performed two more times: Once at the main stage of the park and once at another large stage called the Rainbow Dome. After our last performance, the boys’ captain gave us a rousing speech about how proud he was of us and the hard work we had put into each performance and each practice before it. Then we played the waiting game. As a group, we sat on a patch of grass near the main stage and watched the last few dances before the officials announced the winners of the competition. We waited with baited breath, some of the girls had their eyes squeezed shut and their hands clasped together as though in prayer as we waited for them to make the announcement.

There was a pause.

And then the first few notes of 「色」were played.

There were screams of joy as we jumped up and cheered and hugged each other. Tears of “happy water” streamed from the faces of the Japanese members as us foreigners high-fived and hugged as many people as possible. We had won, and Toppu had maintained its reputation as the best in Kyuushuu. We then made our way down to the main stage to perform one last time for the audience, moving in and getting as close to them as possible during the free dance sections. Toppuu’s energy is too powerful for words. As I performed with them, shouting out to the audience and getting down low to the ground before springing back up, I felt alive and like I was part of something powerful that could inspire others to get up and dance along with us. This moment has made all the monotony of GaiDai and Nagasaki worth going through.

After our final performance, all of the teams were invited onto the main stage to dance some of the commonly known dances together. There was one dance that no one really seemed to know, and then we gave two performances of “Freedom,” the first dance that we learned after joining Toppuu. Once the dance was over, we made our way back to the buses and loaded up together before heading back to the university. As we were piling up into the buses and pulling out of the driveway, fireworks lit up the sky in loud pops and bright, shimmering colors; an appropriate end to a long day, I felt. And so it is with a sun-burned face and tired legs that I will sleep soundly with a wide smile on my face.

「突風」(Toppuu) means “gale” or “strong wind,” and the team lives up to their name. They display their strength in their dances with a force that could blow away the fiercest storm. And with those storm clouds cleared away, there will be nothing left to do but set off fire works.

突風: We will blow you away and light up your sky in a thousand colors.

You can watch our performance here.