Report from Greater Tokyo

So today I went for my second ever tango lesson, and I seem to have improved a lot. One of the great things about dancing, or at least tango dancing, is that it is seen as incredibly guuuuurly. This of course does nothing for my image as a macho man, but in the land where most Japanese men routinely have their eyebrows trimmed at the barber's, I am in no great danger of being seen as unmanly from a little tango dancing.

And of course, this guuuuurly image works to my advantage once there too. Today, I was the only male present (with the exception of the male instructor) in a class of six. Needless to say, I was never without a dance partner. Men are apparently in great demand in dance classes.

There were of course some weird situations, like the old dear in the class who insisted I did not hold her in the way the dance instructor says I should hold her. Granted it is a semi-intimate way of holding her (hey, its tango after all!), but it's times like that I wish I had enough Japanese to explain to her that she is old enough to be my mum, and possibly granny, and that I am most certainly NOT trying to feel her up.

And then there was the BYJW who was too shy to dance with me, and her friend was egging her on trying to get her to practice with me. Good times.