Shop till you dance.

No trip to Shiga is complete with out visiting one of the many many ohh so many Heiwado's. Well that is, no trip is complete unless you reallllllly need to visit a supermarket but you never know, when I first arrived in Japan Heiwado seemed almost as mysterious as the local shrines and monuments just with more sliced bread and fried food. Anyway our local Heiwado has been re fitted, I've been there enough times over these 2 years to find the whole refurbishment rather strange and curious, its like a family friend suddenly turned up on day with a face life and offering cake, good but,,, well strange. I wasn't the only one intrigued by the stores change as tonight (the re-opening day) I stumbled upon loads of my students there for the free food obviously I was there on a cultural basis reporting for this blog...and the free food too.

The music blog/paper/thingy Idolater which can be somewhat hit and miss reported today that the pipettes are rather popular in Japan I'd say this is possibly due to the polka dots, but probably more to do with the ability to synchronise dance moves to their songs. There seems nothing gets Japanese people, whether they are clubbers, school kids or drunken salary men love than lining up and waving their arms around at the same time. Most records will feature some sort of new dance to learn, in fact most things on TV in Japan will feature waving arms (and this one features errrr well I think its spider man) while the Para Para machines that litter amusements arcades and the occasional karaoke parlour (which last saw me attempting to sing and dance dance revolution with a cola in one hand mic in the other which is not a good combo) seem to boost these things. But during the summer months you can often see groups of youth huddled over a CD player only to suddenly leap about waving their arms around like a highly skilled group of zombies, or those prisoners who dance to Thriller.

Headmaster watch; black trousers, buffed shoes, white zip up 50's style jacket, white gloves and long pointy pick up things stick and tongs.
Headmaster style; like an extra from Grease who put bleach into the wash and has to pick up litter as punishment.