Salsa Night in Nagoya, Japan
by Yoshimi Shirota
posted February 21, 2006

I visited my family and friends in Japan last Christmas vacation for 3 weeks. It had been one year since I had been home. Three weeks had past so quickly going out with my friends while catching up with them. In addition to talking with friends and eating delicious Japanese food, what I was eager to do there was to dance Salsa in my home city of Nagoya! Nagoya is the third largest and now one of the hottest cities in Japan because a big World Expo was held there last year, which I couldn't go… and the Salsa scene is rapidly growing in Nagoya like it is here in Indy. You can find six or seven salsa clubs and several good instructors there. Compared to other cities in Japan, we have more Latinos who give us a real Latin flavor to Japanese Salsa. I went to the most famous and long-established salsa club called "El Coco" on Friday, Jan 13th. That was the very last night of my stay in Japan. You can imagine that I could easily fall asleep the next day during the long flight from Japan to the United States.

The club was on the 6th floor of a narrow building in the middle of downtown Nagoya. Stepping into the club, it was full of feverish excitement despite the cold rainy night. The club was very small. The whole club could fit in the space of The Vault's dance floor. I had danced with Japanese men only once before, but I found that they were very well-trained and more skillful than I expected. They played mostly Salsa, a little bit of Merengue, and Bachata. Because most people use public transportation to go to work in Nagoya and many people come to the club after work on Friday, they need to leave there around midnight so that they can catch the last train to their home. Still, I enjoyed that night with the moderate crowd, but it would have been more exciting if I could have gone there on Saturday. This club is really for dancing Salsa; not to pick up girls. So, if you want to look for some girls in Nagoya, I will check out other places for you!

As you may already know, Japanese culture is very different from Latin American. We are not a culture of dancers, and dance is something we need to learn because we don't grow up with it. Yet, Salsa is getting so popular, and you can see some very good Japanese salsa dancers at World Salsa Congresses, too. Speaking of exotic dances in Japan, believe or not, Japan has the second biggest Flamenco dancer population in the world! Second to Spain! Someday, I want to go to Salsa clubs in our huge exciting city, TOKYO!