Photoblog by 
@runrudy
All photos taken with Sony A7RM2
Traveling through Japan with young kids has a much different dynamic than our previous trips. When we didn't have kids, we would go bar hopping, all you can drink, late night Karaoke rooms, and wander the streets of Tokyo. This last trip I was reserved to wander the streets of Japan alone, after the kids were all put to bed. Every city in Japan that I have traveled has been very safe and accessible by walking, cab or by train. Yet, I have to be honest. Every night I went out alone, I was always a bit nervous packed with only my camera, cell phone and Google translate.
We were staying at a hot springs bath hotel in the city of Beppu. I had just taken a bath and wanted to go out that evening but my wife just started a load of laundry and I had no shirt to wear. So, my mother in law gave me one of her clean grandma purple shirts, that was three sizes too big for me. I figured, it was late and I was only going to walkabout for a short time. Plus, Beppu is not Tokyo so there really wasn't many people out on the streets. I headed out with my gear and as I walked for a bit, I heard some music, then saw this guy dancing. I walked over and started taking pictures at a distance.
Right when he took a water break between songs. I came over to say what's up. I tried to introduced myself but the dude just smiled and nodded politely. At that moment I remembered that I was wearing a purple grandma moo moo shirt. It was truly a lost in translation situation. I couldn't explain myself about the shirt, so I asked in my broken Japanese if it was okay to take pictures. He smiled and nodded again and turned the music back on. This time he started to really perform and step it up.
I kept shooting and trying to get it in focus but the low lighting conditions were tough when trying to capture all the movement. I already had my ISO setting way up and didn't want to ruin the image further. I ended up, switching from hand held and putting my camera on a tripod to keep it steady. I am not much of an action photographer, so I was really struggling to capture the moment.
This went on for a few more songs when another guy showed up. I guessed they were part of a crew and were just meeting up. This next guy glanced over at me and I could tell he was thrown off by the camera and dumb purple shirt. They talked to each other and he started to bust some moves. I figured it was cool so I just went back to work and tried to keep up with my camera.
Then, the third and fourth crew members showed up and joined in.
At one point, I got up and tried to talk to them. I was still struggling to get a lot of shots. Since, my camera was on a tripod I asked them to dance in a general area, to stay within my frame. They had no idea what I was talking about. I took out Google translate and tried to explain. The sentence on Google translate that finally broke through to them was, "Anata no saikō no dansu wa koko ni idō shimasu." or "Your best dance move, right here."
They nodded and then it was like "Game on!". This one guy went nuts with head spins, suicides, back flips, hand stands, all on the concrete! In the 80's at least we used some cardboard.
I think they were super excited because the streets were empty and they probably do this all the time just for themselves. Yet this was no ordinary late night, an American with some camera gear wearing purple pajamas had shown up. They now had an audience.
Everyone was cheering and giving each other soul shakes. They were so awesome. It felt like we could have been on the set of "Beat Street 2, Tokyo Style."
I gave them all my contact info. They took some selfies with me to share their story with their friends.
It was an amazing night. As a photographer, I got some great images. Most importantly, I met some nice people. Regardless of the cultural or language barriers that we encountered. We still found some common ground and shared an experience that I will never forget.
When I got back to the hotel, I fell asleep quickly thinking about my childhood and all the 80's pop culture that I still love. It was easy to start dreaming because luckily I was already dressed for bed.
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Thank you in advance,
Rudy
All images © 2016 Rudy Gonzales. All rights reserved.