Thread: Japanese men and belly dance?????

A fellow who has been a fan of my web site and corresponded regularly with me over the past couple of years told me something interesting in email today.

He said that on John Tesh's radio show last week, Tesh advocated belly dance as great exercise, and said it has become quite a hit among Japanese men! ..c::..g.:,r:;.w.:

Ozma and other bhuzzards in Japan, can you comment? Enquiring minds want to know!!!!

???

Interesting if its true.

well i heard from my friend that danced pro Samba danced in Japan for quite a long time told me that she would get really really high amount of tips...and they love entertainment involved women dancing...

There has been an increasing number of asian males in my class at the University. I just figured that thier girlfriends were making them do it with them tho. Interesting....

Totally news to me.

Japan might be pulling John Tesh's leg. I understand that impulse.

Originally Posted by ozma

Totally news to me.

Japan might be pulling John Tesh's leg. I understand that impulse.

Awwwwwwwwwww, you've burst my humorous daydream bubble! I had this lovely mental image of a bunch of Japanese men in their business suits and ties with hip scarves tied around their hips doing hip drops!

Oh well, I guess I can still enjoy imagining it, even if there is no reality to support it!

Shira, why on earth would Japanese men be wearing business suits to belly dance? Other men don't, do they?

Originally Posted by zumarrad

Shira, why on earth would Japanese men be wearing business suits to belly dance? Other men don't, do they?

No, of course not.

So why imagine it? Well, when I went to Japan for a business trip in my high-tech job and was surrounded by Japanese men in all the meetings, all were in business suits. So my experience of seeing a roomful of men in Japan involved their wearing business suits, and therefore that's what I remember Japan as being like. Of course, logic tells me that they're human beings who dress appropriate to whatever the occasion may be, whether it's a business meeting or an exercise class.

But it's so much more entertaining to imagine the business suits from my memory than it would be to imagine a more realistic/logical scenario. Sometimes comedy is about the incongruity....

Japanese men dancing? be still my beating heart :)

I flew from SF to Narita once, MOST of the plane was full of Japanese men wearing business suits. When I stepped off the plane into the airport I parked myself near where the arrivals show up and I've never seen so many beautiful Japanese men in business suits. Talk about wanting to eat the air around you.

Originally Posted by zumarrad

Shira, why on earth would Japanese men be wearing business suits to belly dance? Other men don't, do they?

This man doesn't wear a suit under ANY circumstances!

I consider suits a form of male slavery. And I'm not kidding...

That said, Shira's vision is pretty humorous, reality or no!

Originally Posted by zorba

That said, Shira's vision is pretty humorous, reality or no!

I understand the appeal and know it's funny...buuuuuuuuut I cringed.

Why is this a bugaboo? It can be annoying enough with GP western press or GP questions about Japanese female belly dancing often being centered around western stereotypes about Japanese women and how that doesn't fit with the questioners (similarly hackneyed) vision of bellydance...seriously it often revolves around the ideas that Japanese women are a) being outwardly cold/passionless b) all about the herd mentality c)reserved d)shallow...and let's not even get into the body type comments that come up...(trust me, there's a horrid interveiw some of us foreign dancers were subjected to once which never ran, probably because we each tore into the interviewer in our special ways...and the GP...yeah) that I cringed at the Japanese men who surround me being reduced to the salary man.

Then again, the members of Japanese GP sometimes raise eyebrows at the idea that America is a hotbed of bellydancers, I never ever want to know what they are imagining when that strange look crosses their faces. I'm sure it has to do with the stereotypical image of the American.

What *is* their "stereotypical image of the American"? Now you have me curious!

Originally Posted by zorba

What *is* their "stereotypical image of the American"? Now you have me curious!

ugh. in Europe it's pretty much "fat and stupid" (as in, uneducated)
is it the same in Asia?

Originally Posted by zorba

What *is* their "stereotypical image of the American"? Now you have me curious!

....to be blunt...it varies but sometimes it's simply fat people wearing casual t-shirts, shorts, baseball caps (regardless of the situation) and chewing gum. Large and overly casual.

So perhaps when they are raising their eyebrows at the idea of American Bellydancers it is because they are picturing corpulent bodies in shorts, t-shirts, caps, with a bedlah over it all...that's the closest I can get to a parallel of how wacky businessmen in hip scarves struck me.

Originally Posted by ozma

....to be blunt...it varies but sometimes it's simply fat people wearing casual t-shirts, shorts, baseball caps (regardless of the situation) and chewing gum. Large and overly casual.

So perhaps when they are raising their eyebrows at the idea of American Bellydancers it is because they are picturing corpulent bodies in shorts, t-shirts, caps, with a bedlah over it all...that's the closest I can get to a parallel of how wacky businessmen in hip scarves struck me.

Originally Posted by Kathiya

ugh. in Europe it's pretty much "fat and stupid" (as in, uneducated)
is it the same in Asia?

..l;,..l;,..l;,..l;,..l;,
um, in some cases they are not far from the truth ..l;,..l;,

Originally Posted by Kathiya

ugh. in Europe it's pretty much "fat and stupid" (as in, uneducated)

Unfortunately, to a certain extent, they are correct. Americans redneck pseudo-culture has a tendency to be ignorant, know its ignorant, and wallow in it...

Actually, I'm wondering what the Japanese "exercise culture" is like. Do the Japanese go to gyms... prefer walking or running... swimming? Is there an emphasis on exercise in Japan?

Originally Posted by ozma

....to be blunt...it varies but sometimes it's simply fat people wearing casual t-shirts, shorts, baseball caps (regardless of the situation) and chewing gum. Large and overly casual.

So perhaps when they are raising their eyebrows at the idea of American Bellydancers it is because they are picturing corpulent bodies in shorts, t-shirts, caps, with a bedlah over it all.

This mental image amuses me greatly.

Originally Posted by tigerb

Actually, I'm wondering what the Japanese "exercise culture" is like. Do the Japanese go to gyms... prefer walking or running... swimming? Is there an emphasis on exercise in Japan?

Well, for starters they have a bunch of martial arts that the world was happy to adopt
In the father's side of my boyfriend's family they were all into Kendo. At least the men...

MEISSOUN

totally unrelated but a few Halloweens ago I dressed up my husband as a bellydancer, gave him boobs and makeup the whole thing

we were walking down to the big street parade that goes on in Waikiki and ran into a group of travelling Japanese business men (all in suits) they all looked at him in absolute DISGUST. I don't know if it was his costume or because he is Asian.

but..we saw another group of Japanese guys all dressed in drag. seems all the guys I know love to dress in drag for Halloween to let their inner feminine ***** out

..l;,..l;,..l;,

this is a very amusing thread! ok off to beddy-bye

Originally Posted by tigerb

Actually, I'm wondering what the Japanese "exercise culture" is like. Do the Japanese go to gyms... prefer walking or running... swimming? Is there an emphasis on exercise in Japan?

Everyone has a bike, but it's not seen as excersize much. It's rare to see a nice bike or a bike outfit. It's common to see suits and well dressed ladies using them for point a-to-b travel...most bikes have baskets for groceries/handbags/whatnot. The assumption is that most people bike or walk a lot.

No public tennis courts and joggers are infrequent.

That being said, hobbiest sports groups for people at all stages of life are a part of life (hobbiest groups, period, are huge way of socializing) and sports clubs are common and well attended (but are rarely 24 hours, don't open early, and are often closed once a week).

I'm not even going to start tackling the role "sports day" competitions are a part of school life...

If the Zumba class and Aerobics classes I attend are any indication, when the coming Age Wars sweep the world, the west is going to be trounced by little old Asian men and women.

Originally Posted by Kathiya

ugh. in Europe it's pretty much "fat and stupid" (as in, uneducated) is it the same in Asia?

Well that's an unfortunate (and erroneous) stereotype. The US is fairly unique in it's accessibility of higher education and the high percentage of people who pursue at least some higher education relative to other countries.

i can't even begin to tell you how many questions/comments I've heard from people (mostly white american males ) if:

chinese men have small dicks

chinese eat cats (or dogs)

definitely some misconceptions all across the globe

but yea some parts of the US are heavily saturated with obese gum chewing yeee-haws..l;,

Originally Posted by ReneeD

Well that's an unfortunate (and erroneous) stereotype. The US is fairly unique in it's accessibility of higher education and the high percentage of people who pursue at least some higher education relative to other countries.

I think it really refers to ignorance about the rest of the world, which, sadly, is not erroneous. I can't tell you how often people of all nationalities were surprised to learn I was an American while I was living in Germany. Many people wanted to know if I was a "real" American (i.e. not a 1st-gen immigrant) I got the but "you're not fat, you're not ignorant and you speak German" a lot from various nationalities. I definitely felt on the defensive, but then I'd run into a bunch of American tourists and cringe.

Granted, I think Americans get a lot more flack for being loud, casual and ignorant, since we're supposedly the leaders of the free world, and many of know so little about it...degree from a higher education institution or not.