Kanpai!

Have you ever tried dancing to ‘YMCA’ in a kimono? Neither had I until last night. It’s pretty fun, you feel like you are doing semaphore. During the summer they set up beer gardens in the park in the middle of town, where people drink copious amounts of lager dispensed from tall plastic towers which attach to your table, and do silly dancing. The Japanese version of ‘YMCA’ is really popular, because Japanese people like to do synchronized actions (hence the popularity of synchronized swimming and cheerleaders).
‘This song is so natsukashii (nostalgic),’ I told my Japanese teacher last week when they played it at the beer gardens.
‘Really?? You know this song??’
‘Sure.’
‘I didn’t know it was famous outside Japan.’
‘Well, I mean the original.’
‘There’s another version of it?’ She was shocked.
‘Yes…by a group called the Village People, in the 70s. They were, ah, gay icons.’
‘Gay icons.’ She looked a little lost.
‘Yes, they used to wear costumes, like one wore a police uniform, or another one wore a biker outfit with a lot of leather bits.’
At this point her eyes glazed over and she changed the subject. ‘Do you like drinking beer?’ She asked.
Speaking of all things gay, I watched a good movie a couple of nights ago, called ‘Maison de Himoko’. It’s about a Japanese okama (a bit like a drag queen but not) who sets up an old people’s home for old or very ill okamas. It’s a recent movie and pretty mainstream, and deals with family relationships, and prejudice, and pain, and also it’s quite funny - maybe a little like Japan’s ‘Priscilla’.
Last night I was back at the beer gardens to say goodbye to a good friend who is leaving Hokkaido (everyday goodbyes at the moment) and some other friends, including a Japanese guy who had recently returned from working as a stuntman in ‘Pirates of the Carribbean 3’. He seemed to like drinking a lot and told us enthusiastically that he was known as a ‘pervert’, ‘stupid’ and that everybody called him ‘a cockroach’. He reminded me of my ex-boyfriend.
By the way, the image of a beer-drinker is quite different in Japan. There is no macho image associated with drinking beer at all, in fact, it’s more the opposite. Women would tend to  drink beer, whereas a more manly drink would be the harder stuff: sake or shochu ( a kind of white spirit). A lot of very ladylike older women drink beer, and my yoga teachers, who are all women, love it. Which makes sense, because beer probably suits women's bodies better. It's lighter, and not as easy to get drunk so quickly. So, I say ‘Kanpai!’ (Cheers!) to that.