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estebanana -> RE: Any stores worth checking out in Tokyo, Japan? (Feb. 17 2013 23:11:22)
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Do-it is such a Negative Nelly...sheesh.
You should go seek it out. The old fashioned way to find flamenco is to go find some one who knows someone who knows someone. I bet this would work in Tokyo too.
I have a friend who goes to Japan twice year who is an aficionado, his wife is Japanese. He goes to see flamenco I can ask him what is up. There is a guy named Takeshi who used to post on the old Temple.edu and yahoo Flamenco Disc groups. My buddy met Takeshi San and they hung out together and Takeshi took him to some places where there was more than repressed housewives acting out anger at the floor. Maybe if you go on one of those talk forums you can dredge up old Takeshi.
Osaka is a more "arty" city than Tokyo even though Tokyo is the Big Apple of Japan. There is also a lot of flamenco in Osaka if you happen to go down there. Artists like Paco Fernandez and Miguel Funi are spending a lot in time in Japan these days, and there must be someone pulling though monthly to play shows.
And the time I was in Spain I thought the Japanese dance students were often the best. There is also a very fine dancer in Los Angles who is Japanese, her name escapes at the moment apologies, and in Japan there area few very high level Japanese artists who you would not want to tangle with as a guitarist unless you were top level player.
So unless you are one of the boring flamenco policy wonks who are biased against non Spaniards as flamenco artists, I would suggest finding who the best dancers and guitarists in Japan are and trying to see them.
In the end there are American, English, Canadian, Mexican and other non Spanish Europeans doing flamenco and playing tablaos and mounting bigger shows, so why not Japan too? And I betcha dollars ( or yen) to donuts you will find some good people there. It's kind of hypocritical for non Spanish aficionados to bag on Japan without giving it a good try. That kind of "I only like Spanish artists " snobbery is one of the things that sucks about the flamenco world. Sure, we all love a Spanish artists and know what that means and we can all get really snotty about it, but there are some non Spaniards you really have to see.
Ever see El Pollito? I could name a dozen...and a dozen more.....
Flamenco is about the search, the attitude of the people and not the snobbery. Good aficion is not about being a snob.
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