"Jazz On Chokai-san!" Yuza by Teledude

Not exactly Yuza but close enough to it. My friend Brian organized this whole event and did a tremendous job. He found the band (a friend of ours plays in it) and arranged for the lodging. Set the time and date, made sure everyone brought some great wines to sample and brought snacks. In all I think about 50 people were there and it was a great mix between us Gaijin and our Japanese friends. We couldn't have asked for a better night for it as well as it didn't rain and it was cool.

The Band...

The band was excellent. They played old American Jazz standards with a variety of faster and slower songs and even had a singer who was also great. Funny thing though...after the show, the band was apparently not happy with the way things went. I found out by talking with the trumpet player who is also our friend, that they thought we were being rude by not sitting through the show. They also thought that we weren't paying attention! Big cultural gap here...I think it's a west vs. east thing but we all thought the music was fantastic and told the band so every chance we got even after the show. But Japanese here don't mill about while a performer is playing....EVEN IF IT"S DANCING JAZZ! They all sit and listen intently. Well us westerners weren't trying to be disrespectful at all but were enjoying it very much but we feel that the music, while very good and entertaining, is mostly for background and dancing. Not to say it could have been replaced by a tape recorder...NO WAY! We wanted LIVE JAZZ as there is no replacement. But alas, we didn't understand each other and they (the band) were questioning whether we were being respectful. In the end, at least we really tried to tell them that they were very much appreciated!

Chisato and I

Friends from the night included all of the local ALTs and some from Yamagata city and surrounding areas. We all brought friends as well. The Wine started flowing and the dancing began. This was an unusual event for us in Japan here but all had a great time and even some of our Japanese friends DANCED! Now, if you don't live here, you might not think that's a big deal but it's huge. Most Japanese are very shy when it comes to that but some of them cracked and got out there....