Uneme Dance

About 2 weeks ago, Misty (the new teacher at Amity) and I went to the "Wear Yukata and Practice the Uneme Dance" event. The women taught us how to put on Yukata (see earlier blogs for what this is) and properly tie the obi.
Many people see the obi as a belt or sash, but it's really the Japanese corset. You can't move too much in it, you have a hard time standing and sitting, breathing is a task, and yet they still expect you to dance. On top of that, there was no AC in the room and it quickly got hot with so many people!
My new favorite word is gyu which means "tight" (pronounced gyew- rhymes with few). Every time we'd pull tighter on the obi, they'd say GYU! So I kept saying, and the Japanese women just thought that was a riot. Gyu! Gyu! Gyu!

Here's Misty and I all dressed up and ready to dance :) She hasn't bought a yukata yet, so I lent her mine for the dance practice.
The group was mostly women. The obaa-san (grandma/ respectful old woman) next to Misty is the woman who was the main organizer. She's president of one of the culture clubs, I think, and we met her on a bus tour. After dancing she was trying to give us tips for wearing yukata. She pointed directly at me and said "For slim waist, put some towels under obi to keep beautiful shape." How nice, rig..
STOP!
I haven't had a slim, slender, or anything in between waist since ... never. Unless you want to say that 5 year old can have a waist. This requires some intense reinterpretation.

This, I'm pretty sure, is what she meant to say, "For squishy waist, put towels under the obi to keep the straight, flat body line we find so beautiful in Japanese traditional dress."
It's quite fair to say that I'm not built for the Japanese traditional dress, unless you want to talk about those creepy men who do nothing but watch anime in their free time. (Sorry otakus! I know you aren't all bad, or perverted, or men!--> Otaku has come to mean something different in our time. Today it's more acceptable for any person who has a strong liking for anime or manga.)


Some words for the video:
hidari= left, sounds like hee-da-rlee
migi= right, sounds like mee-gee
ton ton (I think)= the sound or drums or clapping for keeping rhythm