I still don't understand this place.
I think I'm beginning to realize that things in my head are never going to be "ready" to write down. Usually I wait for the ideas I think about to simmer a bit in the back of my mind. When they're ready, something clicks and I know it's done and ready to be said. Everyday here in Japan things I don't understand just keep coming into my life. None of it ever simmers to where I want it to be, because new things are always being added to the pot. I'll just have to make due with what I have.
Smooth Steppers (my dance club) is having a show tomorrow night. It's a little unusual, first in the fact that it's at a club. This has a few implications. First is that we have to pay cover. Apparently providing entertainment for their guests doesn't waive that fee. Whatever. Secondly, because it's a club, the "show" doesn't actually start until 1am, and it's supposed to run until 6am. Our club is supposed to perform at 5am. I just hope I'm awake at 5am, much less be in a condition to dance.
Tonight we had our last full practice with all the members in the dance. Some of the older members (read: senpai) came tonight to watch us. What went on was a prime example of me not understanding something extremely fundamental in a Japanese social structure. Usually these older members come to watch and give us a few words of constructive criticism. We try to correct whatever it was they told us to correct, run the song a few more times, and call it a night. I understand this. This makes sense.
However, the older girls that came in tonight had nothing but negative things to say. Ok, I can kind of understand this. We haven't really been working on this show nearly as long as we did for the first show. There are probably a lot of spots that need work. But this one girl in particular wouldn't stop. She verbally drove every spot of our show into the ground. The two girls that created this show started crying, and this girl still went on. The show highlights four different dancing genre (locking, hip-hop, breaking, and jazz) and she berated all of it. The second half of the dance has everyone in it, and she criticized that to death as well. It completely destroyed the fun and positive atmosphere that we had.
I could maybe understand this if it happened a week or two before the show. This girl could have wanted to get everyone mad in order to motivate them to work harder. But the night before the show? What are we supposed to do? All she managed to do was make our two leaders breakdown, and kill the atmosphere that we had enjoyed. It was pure negativity.
I don't like negativity. Even when I don't about negative subjects with friends, we're usually joking about it. A favorite topic of conversation between me and my friends is the weird kids in our Japanese classes. But even when we're talking about them, it's usually joking around. I don't even like to be around negativity, if I can help it. But apparently this berating that happened tonight is nothing out of the ordinary.
This is a prime example of a facet of Japan that I just haven't even begun to comprehend.
Smooth Steppers (my dance club) is having a show tomorrow night. It's a little unusual, first in the fact that it's at a club. This has a few implications. First is that we have to pay cover. Apparently providing entertainment for their guests doesn't waive that fee. Whatever. Secondly, because it's a club, the "show" doesn't actually start until 1am, and it's supposed to run until 6am. Our club is supposed to perform at 5am. I just hope I'm awake at 5am, much less be in a condition to dance.
Tonight we had our last full practice with all the members in the dance. Some of the older members (read: senpai) came tonight to watch us. What went on was a prime example of me not understanding something extremely fundamental in a Japanese social structure. Usually these older members come to watch and give us a few words of constructive criticism. We try to correct whatever it was they told us to correct, run the song a few more times, and call it a night. I understand this. This makes sense.
However, the older girls that came in tonight had nothing but negative things to say. Ok, I can kind of understand this. We haven't really been working on this show nearly as long as we did for the first show. There are probably a lot of spots that need work. But this one girl in particular wouldn't stop. She verbally drove every spot of our show into the ground. The two girls that created this show started crying, and this girl still went on. The show highlights four different dancing genre (locking, hip-hop, breaking, and jazz) and she berated all of it. The second half of the dance has everyone in it, and she criticized that to death as well. It completely destroyed the fun and positive atmosphere that we had.
I could maybe understand this if it happened a week or two before the show. This girl could have wanted to get everyone mad in order to motivate them to work harder. But the night before the show? What are we supposed to do? All she managed to do was make our two leaders breakdown, and kill the atmosphere that we had enjoyed. It was pure negativity.
I don't like negativity. Even when I don't about negative subjects with friends, we're usually joking about it. A favorite topic of conversation between me and my friends is the weird kids in our Japanese classes. But even when we're talking about them, it's usually joking around. I don't even like to be around negativity, if I can help it. But apparently this berating that happened tonight is nothing out of the ordinary.
This is a prime example of a facet of Japan that I just haven't even begun to comprehend.