Japan Trip Part 3

Wednesday June 4 was our first actual day in Japan, since there's a 14 hour time difference and the total flight time including lay overs of 24 hours. I woke up at 4am, because that's when the sun rises and we left our blinds open. Out of laziness I just rolled over and went back to sleep until 7am.
Our practice involved a really short job to the local grocery store, just so we'd know where it was. I opted to run it barefoot, which is probably frowned upon since I'll be bringing in the outside dirt indoor even when I take my shoes off. The hostel had a little gym for us to practice in and we had to take off our shoes before going in.

After practice, we had an extra long break for lunch so we can go shopping and explore a little. Half of us chose to follow Seiji, our director around, and we went to Mos Burger for lunch. I just got a regular Mos burger, which was fairly messy and tasted like a sloppy joe. It was a solid patty though, it was just the sauce. After lunch, most of the group went to the nearby shopping complex which the grocery store was attached to. Seiji, Dr John (the team medic), and myself went to the Geo, the used game, book, and cd store. I bought two Bonnie Pink albums for $2 and $9 which made me really happy, since they usually cost $25-30.

We practiced again in the afternoon, and then we went to downtown Sapporo to watch the other teams. Our first performance wasn't until Friday night, so got two nights to watch the performances. The performances on the main stage weren't judged the first two days. We had to pay to get into the stands. The performances were all excellent, though we were a little distracted by the cold weather. Seiji said none of the top teams were performing tonight, which amazed me, because I was in awe of the performances that night. The size of the teams, the cheographery, costume changes and props, they were definately more than just dances. Every team had what I called a "hype man." They stand in towers on opposite sides of the stage, and yell at parts of the song when the team yells, since the crowd can't hear the team yell on the main stage. Some of the teams have actual singers, which really adds to the performance. I remember one team that had two hype men, one singer, and three rappers. My favorite that night was a group called Las Vegas. They wore glittery tuxedo looking costumes. A lot of my teammates didn't care much for them, because they were far away from traditional yosakoi, but I still think they put on a great stage show. Watching those performances made my anxious to get on the main stage, and made me proud and amazed to be part of such a wonderful festival.