Noa Dance Academy

Noa Dance Academy!!

So of course one of the benefits of living in Japan is that some of my favorite dancers are here. Naturally I will take advantage of my time here and learn as much as I can before my return. Good friend of mine Goki, told me and took me to this place called Noa Dance Academy in Ikkebukuro and this place is NICE. I mean look at the pictures of the facility (from their website Noadance.com) and you can see how nice this studio is.

From JDM Harry's Bizzare Adventures...であります！

Also the japanese really like to offer a variety of hip hop styles besides choreography and being a freestyler/funkstyler this is very welcoming.

Its also very interesting to see who takes these dance classes. You have little girls probably age 13 or so taking popping classes and hitting pretty damn well. Its not surprising to see how Japan has some of the best dancers in the world. These kids take it young and take it seriously. Its funny also to see them (like me) starstruck over their sensei. I mean who wouldnt when you have this guy teaching you:

From JDM Harry's Bizzare Adventures...であります！

yes that is Popping KITE! I am super stoked to be learning from one of my biggest inspirations in popping. Super nice guy, talks to me in english (lol) Lets just say on my overall mission in Japan....one of the main objectives just got completed. Naturally I joined their academy.

They also have some other amazing lockers/poppers that I know of here (like popper Fishboy) so Ill most likely take their classes every now and then.

I'll of course keep updates of my adventures at Noa as well.

anywho lots happened this week it deserved a double post.

til next time
- Harry

Vlog 6: Ikegami Lantern Festival

October 12:

Ikegami Lantern Festival.

This festival has been the biggest and most enjoyable that ive been too so far in my 3 months in Japan. This festival stretched three days (11-13) and was to honor a Buddhist monk's death.

The festival had a TON of food that I of course had to splurge on. Okonomiyaki, Squid, Beer, Gyro (i know no japanese), caramel popcorn, chocolate banana and shaved ice got my money. And the japanese fishing game as well.

Enjoy the video it pretty much shows the experience.

- Harry

From JDM Harry's Bizzare Adventures...であります！

From JDM Harry's Bizzare Adventures...であります！

because a regular ambulance will not do.

From JDM Harry's Bizzare Adventures...であります！

Family Fun.... on CRACK!

So Japan being the one-upper it is... has also considered kicking America's idea of a family fun center in the nuts. Where i'm from the only family fun center we really had was boomers(formerly known as bull winkle's). This place was meant for kids probably to about 13 tops. These places had mini putt putt, small ferris wheel, rides as exciting to an adult as a washing machine and bumper cars, boats and go-karts as fast as my friend's RSX (slow i know).

But Japan has taken the name family fun center...and literally applies to the whole family!

This particular place: Round1 is a giant entertainment building with UFO catchers and gambling on floor 1, bowling floor 2-3 and floor 4-roof was Spo-Cha, which is what we did.

Spo-Cha consisted of Arcades, mini bowling, mini putt, roller rink, pocket bikes, random sport games, fishing, bb gun target shooting all on the 4th floor. the roof, which unfortunately we could not go too because it was raining, consisted of soccer, basketball and archery.

all for 1500 yen for 3 hours!

so as you can see this place is pretty awesome.

well enough talking enjoy the video it pretty much sums it all up.

- JDM Harry out.

From JDM Harry's Bizzare Adventures...であります！

From JDM Harry's Bizzare Adventures...であります！

First Haircut!

So my hair was getting uncontrollably long (5 months of lazyness?), so I decided to get it cut. Now Japan and the street I live on in particular literally has a hair salon every other store. But you know Japanese (even men) and their hair, so these places specialize in styling and 40 dollar cuts. There is a 1000 yen quick cut place near school so I made the plunge and went to get my hair buzzed number 4 as I always do.

Now giving the lady benefit of the doubt..theres know way she coulda have misheard my japanese when I said number 4 all around (hand sign too). But the first cut was short.

end result:

From JDM Harry's Bizzare Adventures...であります！

yeah...thats more of a number 1. so it leaves me to assume that japanese number clips are also smaller than american. next time I think ill just tell them length instead (3cm.)

but im not mad. I usually wear hats and its getting colder now so ill be makin the transition into beanies anyway....although my heads so cold now I practically NEED them.

Pho yeah!

Ahhh...

So today me and Ryan (dorm mate and fellow Pho fanatic.) went on the search for

"Vietnamese Alice" a vietnamese style restaurant. After some wandering around:

From JDM Harry's Bizzare Adventures...であります！

we found it!

Looking at the menu there wasnt any vietnamese under the writting it was all japanese so i was wondering if it was legitly vietnamese or not. But after awhile I noticed most of the staff were vietnamese. I ordered in japanese but after confirming I said "thank you for the food" in vietnamese. Maybe ill flex my vietnamese muscles next time.

Overall It was a bit expensive. About 10 USD a bowl and 5 USD for a vietnamese ice coffee. The portion also considerably smaller than back home (i lived near little saigon/had big homemade bowls). It was gooood but again not compared to home. Overall I can see this as a once in awhile occasion since its a bit expensive.

PS. Bringing my own bottle of sirracha next time too...they didnt have any! wHat!?

From JDM Harry's Bizzare Adventures...であります！

Post for the sake of Posting?

So, I havent been really updating the blog or making videos as frequently as I first intended before arriving in Japan. That is because....well nothing really worth noting has happened. With school 5 days a week from morning til evening, my days are pretty busy. On top of that Im pretty tired most of the time so when I have a chance to lounge a bit at home I take it. So I really havent had much time to go do touristy things that would be exciting enough that I can show you all.

What I can do though is just post a few things here and there just to get a small peak of what I'm up too. nothing big but its something right? Although this post will have a couple pictures in it.

enjoy

From Photo Blog

Generic City Shot. (shinjuku I believe)

From Photo Blog

Rather Large apartment complex. Taken when me and Dylan missed the last train when I went to go dance in Shinjuku

From Photo Blog

What I like about Japan, the blend of nature and city so seamlessly.

From Photo Blog

Teaser of my room. Like ive said before...I think I will dry my clothes like this now. since it smells nice. haha that and I learned how to use the dehumidifier on my aircon.

From Photo Blog

Japan, ever so interesting.

From Photo Blog

No idea how drunk that poor Japanese guy was...I mean.. look at the white guy standing over him. haha

From Photo Blog

just some cool people I hung out with that night.

From Photo Blog

Time...

Did enough to last me weeks....

So over the weekend of a span of just 2-3 days I think I have done enough to last me weeks of entertainment.

First off Friday:



The session was great although I think I stayed a little too long. As me and Dylan (dorm mate) missed the last train and had to find our way back to the dorm:






Saturday!:

oh where do I start? Met up with good friend and fellow locker Yoichi Nebata whom I met back home in LA. This guy has been definitely taking care of me since I got to Tokyo and really is responsible for showing me Japan.

We met at Asakusa which is a nice taste of Japanese-y Tokyo.

From JDM Harry's Bizzare Adventures...であります！

The Kaminorimon entrance to the Asakusa shrine. Pretty famous spot that leads to a many streets filled with shops and very Japanese type sit down eateries. These eateries have outside seating areas with low tables and chairs and dont look like typical restaurants you see in Tokyo. (no picture though -_- ).

Also there were some street performers at Asakusa juggling, miming, or doing magic/robotic animation dance with a storyline about a man struggling with a dream (now im really sad i cant show you it was pretty good!). But i accidently deleted it from my memory card before uploading T.T


afterwards we hit up Ginza for some sushi! ive been in Tokyo about 1 month now and I never had sushi til this day. lets just say Ive relapsed on my sushi addiction. It was amazing.

Afterwards he took me around Shibuya to kill some time before Roppongi for some club action. Shibuya was definitely a good time in itself.

At Roppongi which is like a spot that bustles with nightlife. Imagine hollywood or something on a weekend night with clubs and club goers in full swing. (lots of gaijin too). Yoichi showed me my new favorite place.

Soul Sonic Boogie:

From JDM Harry's Bizzare Adventures...であります！

This is a little club that plays funk and soul music. GOOD ones that are perfect for locking or poppiing. The music was so good we got down for the entire couple hours we were there. It was really inspiring and awesome to see the people that come here who are of course fairly older crowd just really enjoy the music. I mean there were 60-70 year old salary or retired salary men just grooving to the music. Its freaking awesome to see. I cant think of any other type of music that people can really get lost into like this and just let their bodies move.

After the awesome time at Soul Sonic Boogie, We met up with one of Yoichi's friends at a small club type event that his friend was hosting. It was pretty neat to hang out with a bunch of Japanese people where I was for the most part completely lost at what they were saying but its a humbling reminder of my struggles with this language and a strong motivator to keep working hard to get it. Still enjoyable by far. What really got me at the event was well... let me just say the music was AWESOME! It was house/electro playing but its a slower tempo and not so hard like Justice or Bloody Beatroots. to make things impossibly more kick ass, this Japanese girl was freestyling on a keyboard to accompany the DJ's song selection with a Jazzy feel. you HAD to hear it i never heard anythin like it. So sorry I didnt get evidence (cold fusion) but your gonna have to believe me on this one.

Once the sun came up we were on our way back exhausted but feeling damn good. Got back to the dorm 7:30 in the morning and knocked out. Evidently not making it in time to attend the Tokyo Game Show (waste of 10 bucks grrrr) but the night before was well worth it.

Now exhausted as shizzz Im going to pass out. if youll excuse me.

- Harry Out.

PS. Thanks again to Yoichi you the f'in man! cant thank you enough.

Bonus video after the credits!:

Ontakesan (the place where im currently staying had a Mikoshi festival.) This festival took place the entire day and involved the towns people carrying a mini shrine around the area.