J-pop Stars Have Moms, Too

Tuesday night I went to my first J-pop concert. In retrospect, it was not something I wanted to experience sober. A JET friend, Kate, came in from Takehara to spend the evening with me, so we met up with another JET friend and neighbor, Hessen, who had been invited to the concert by the PE teacher at her high school. The admission was 1500 yen, which included one free drink. I ordered a gin and tonic (gintoniku in Japanese). I was handed a very tiny tonic. Seriously, I could almost close my fist around the plastic cup. I saw the bartended pour the gin in, but I swear there must have been a hole in the bottom of the cup or something. It was tonic. Anyway, I didn't really feel like spending 600 yen for another miniature drink, so I rode it out sober. It was hard.

I can't really describe J-pop, or at least this particular J-pop group, in words Americans would understand. It's some combination of keyboard and dance beats, yakuza (Japanese mafia) -style suits, whiny singing, and homo-eroticism. The lead singer, above in the white suit, wore a giant pink feather boa for most of the show, which he accompanied with overly animated facial expressions and lots of pointing (see above.) The highlight of the evening was when the keyboardist's mother, who was dressed in a a frilly white jacket, denim mini-skirt, and cowboy boots, introduced him to me. She walked over to me at the bar, bowed and thanked me for coming, and told me to wait while she found her son in the crowd. She then dragged him over and introduced us. I still don't know why. His name was Kenta.

After the show, we all headed to a yatai, because Kate had never been to one. At night in Kure, yatai line up along the major river. They are small street food carts, equipped with stools, grills and sometimes oden. Oden is a type of Japanese cooking/food where a bunch of foods on sticks are boiled together in a big pot. Some yatai also serve ramen, gyoza dumplings, Italian pasta, yakitori (chicken skewers), pigs feet, etc. On Tuesday, I had chikuwa (fish paste), atsu age (deep fried tofu), and daikon (Japanese radish). They all came out of the oden. Oden also usually contains potatoes, eggs, konyaku (a potato gelatin), sausages (in Japanese - wiinaas), and multiple other varieties of fish paste. Anyway, delicious, cheap, and pretty neat. So we ate, then went home and crashed. I had to work at 8 am the next morning.

This weekend I am heading to Hiroshima City to shop, wander, and stay with a friend.