Hip-hop dancing is taking Japan by storm.  Well, Kumamoto anyway.  Walk the streets of downtown K-town at night and you’re sure to see groups of these modern-day gymnists spinning on the ground and flying through the air in ways that I’m convinced would make even the highest qualified olympic coaches proud.  They even practice in front of city hall.

More recently the junior high I teach at hosted a sports festival in which the all of the girls choreographed and executed their own unique dance.  The genre?  You guessed it.  Though I had to question some of the suggestive moves the girls had chosen to perform in front of their parents, much less the whole town, I shrugged it off as a cultural difference.  Besides, everybody else seemed to be captivated by it.