Chapter 10 You Have to be Strong…

Just before the end of the term I had a text from Naozumi asking if I could come to Tokyo for a meeting or two, in regard to my choreographic work. One Monday I was back on the bullet train, with Aiko and my mother who were not missing out this time. With me now at fifteen and my sister sixteen, my mother intended to hit the shops with us and spend some of the money I had earned last year.

It also coincided with the Summit again so we had our costumes in our bags, just in case. Naozumi had sent someone to meet us at the station and we were taken to the hotel I had stayed in before. The first meeting was the following morning and he would send transport for us, so Monday afternoon we explored the shopping district. Our mother was thinking that we could hit a few of the US chains that were open in Tokyo but the two of us had just one place we wanted to go – the Harajuku district which was kawaii central, especially the shops there. We both ended up with three outfits each that just screamed high fashion kawaii and one outfit that was pure Lolita cute that my mother loved because it reminded her of the clothes her mother had worn in the fifties USA. She loved the look so much she bought a couple of outfits for herself. I didn’t tell her that she may look like a cast member from the ‘Stepford Wives’ but she did look cute and it took years off her.

The meeting next morning was in his office, and Naozumi had made sure that we all had comfortable seats and a hot drink in front of us before he started. He told my mother that I was a child prodigy, whatever that was, and that I was already in great demand from various singing groups who wanted me to choreograph dance moves for them. He said that he had told everyone that I was not available until I had finished my schooling, unless they could fit themselves around me. He explained that the show at the Summit was being organised by another promoter this year and smiled when he said that they would have to be really good to beat last year.

He was glad my mother had joined us because he wanted me to sign with a manager who would be able to make everything fit together and that I would need one to be the link between me and the customers when I started working professionally. I asked if the customers could wait a couple of years and he said, seriously, that the talent I had already shown was going to be in demand when I was ready and that after my first few jobs I would not have to worry about looking for work ever again. I thought that was nice of him but was finding it hard to get my head around.

Aiko asked, with her financial head on, what sort of money I would be likely to earn once I was established and he quoted a number that made us all sit up. We talked around his suggestions and came to an agreement that we would see the manager. That appointment was made for Wednesday morning. Thursday he wanted me to meet up with Honey Popcorn again, rather the new look group. Miko had moved on and there were three new girls, all Japanese, joining them.

What he wanted was for us to put together a dance team and a routine to fit the new videos they wanted to put out in October. He said that he had already spoken to my school and they had agreed to let us use the rehearsal room if the group went to Osaka for a couple of weeks. He said that he had already organised a studio in Osaka where we could record the video and that there would probably be three or four completely new songs which he would email me the files as soon as they had been recorded. He mentioned a figure that made my head spin until I realised that it was to be split between us all that worked on it.

I immediately started to think about patterns of five and realised that it could be fun. That done he took us to lunch and we met up with some of the people that we had seen on TV. What knocked me for six was that they had all seen the dance videos and already knew my name, a couple expressing the thought that I should be at least five years older than I actually was. A few gave me their business cards and told me to get in touch when I started working professionally.

The afternoon we spent visiting the Sanrio Puroland or Hello Kittyland, which was a lot of fun and we came back to the hotel quite late and full of food. Wednesday morning we saw the manager, who also handled the Honey Popcorn and a few other groups, and we signed with him on the basis that from now on he would be taking a cut of my earnings. Thursday we met up with Yua and Moko and the new girls, Nako, Ruka and Sara. The new ones were just as lovely as the others and just as friendly. It was mainly a get-to-know-you meeting but we did talk about some moves the new girls had used before and they gave me an idea of the new songs.
In the afternoon we did a few parks and shrines and then rested up. Friday we just wandered the huge shops, not buying much but trying a lot on. Naozumi had given us three tickets for the Summit so Saturday morning we got into our outfits and the Scarlet Witch and Raven were once more created. We talked our mother into wearing one of her Lolita outfits and then we were off to see the Summit.

Aiko had some idea of what to expect but our mother was bowled over by the lights, the sounds and the characters that she saw wandering about. We wandered the stalls and a few of them remembered me as the Raven from last year and they had some photos which I signed for them, one or two gave us sample bags and even our mother was told how good she looked as our older sister and given samples. We snacked for lunch and watched the afternoon show, went for another meal and then took our seats in the show venue. To say it was a different show was not too far from the truth. Two of the acts were fairly well known but looked bored to me. The third act was something else again and not one I would come back to see. It was called Deadlift Lolita. How can I describe it? A very large, muscular, hairy Australian wrestler called Ladybeard in a bra and short skirt, singing and dancing along with a Japanese wrestler of indeterminate gender and a dance group of total wierdo’s. We were not amused.

Back at the hotel we decided that we had done the Summit for this year and Sunday did a few more gardens and tourist spots. Monday morning we were back on the train to Osaka and sorting out our life before school started again. Few a couple of weeks it was the normal lessons and sessions and I started attending some of the traditional lessons to see how Miss Kikuo worked.

With the ballet class I saw immediately where it fitted with the gymnastics and she saw me watching intently and asked me if I would like to try a few moves. She found me some ballet flats and put me through a few basic moves which I did easily as they were so close to the floor exercise moves. From then on I was signed on for ballet lessons and I had to get the correct outfit with a tutu and my own shoes. It made my dance history teacher very happy that I was doing a traditional course and he pushed more ballet history and great dancers into my curriculum. I found that I got the same thoughts watching large groups of ballet dancers as I got with J-Pop, the vision of the movement from above.

Once I got the files from Naozumi we started working out moves for the group. He sent the message that the stage group would be ten in total so we only needed to add five of us to make it work. We chose five of our new dancers who had shown great promise and worked with them, the four of us and one of the old team making up numbers by pretending to be the singers. We ended up with a simple routine for each song that the singers would not have too much trouble with and the communications class did a video of us with the five of us miming to the soundtracks. All we needed now was some idea of the costumes needed. I sent a DVD off to Naozumi and got an email back that he, and the girls, loved it and that they didn’t need to come down as we could do the video clip ourselves – only joking!

They sent us down pictures of the outfits our group would be wearing, actually three sets of outfits as they intended to do the whole set three times so that the various outfits could be spliced in, a very common practice. When they did come to Osaka we were all ready to work on the performance and they had put some time in working from our video so it didn’t take long to get something moving. Both Miss Kikuo and Machiko came along to watch us work and we also had the guys making another documentary. The sewing classes had come up trumps with the outfits again so, when we went to the studio, we were as ready as we could be. Our own video guys were wrapped to be in a proper studio working alongside professionals and their teacher was happy that they were getting the experience. Like everything, it’s one thing to read about it but another to actually do it.

It took another week to film the full set, from several angles and with three different outfit changes and then doing it twice more with the outfits mixed up. I made the suggestion that they should have an overhead camera as the moves would look good from that angle as well and when they saw the result they kept one there. Okemia came along a few days as part of her new move towards direction and even Miss Kikuo was there one whole day and told me that she had revised all of her thinking about J-Pop as it was as hard as anything else to get it to look easy,

Marianne G 2021