Today was probably the most eventful and all together strange day yet of my stay in Japan. At 10:30am I met a group of fellow swing dancers (both Japanese and from other countries) in Kyoto and we proceeded to dress up in kimonos and do shim sham performances around various picturesque areas of Kyoto. We also had an amazing dinner to round out the day. What is shim sham? For those who don't know, shim sham is a line dance most swing dancers learn. While swing is usually a partner dance, when the music for shim sham comes on everyone lines up and dances the same steps in unison. Its a real pain for beginners to learn, but its lots of fun once you do.
So why were we doing shim sham in Kyoto? One of the regulars at swing night - a lovely lady from Germany - will soon be leaving us for a new adventure in Hawaii. At some point she and some other regulars were talking about how it would be fun to do shim sham in kimonos. They did this once before in Nara, but this time more careful plans were put in place.
I'm dead tired after all the excitement, so I'll have to post more details later. The videos of our performances will be posted to youtube soon, and I'll make sure to link to them in my Shim Sham Part II post. I'll also walk you through the kimono process, some of the highlights of our trip and the amazing dinner we had in the next post.
Until then, here's a group shot of us just after we got dressed. This was SO much fun!
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