Introducing the Bus Center B-Boys: Part 1

After about a month of fighting a cold, being lazy, being busy with sports clubs at school (sort of), I finally went to the bus center to practice tonight! Despite not practicing for a month, the energy and desire accumulated from not practicing for so long helped in giving me an extra boost in stamina at practice tonight. I decided to bring my digital camera and take some pictures and movies tonight, so here's part 1 of introducing the Japanese guys I practice with in Iizuka.


Name: Shohei
Age: 22
Occupation: employee at local electronics store - Yamada Denki
Extra: He graduated from the high school that's about 2 minutes by bike from my apartment!

Shohei's been breaking for maybe a year and a half at this point. Though he's pretty mature, he knows how to have a good time. His English vocabulary's pretty good. Whenever we've had shows or events in the past - you'll be surprised to hear that after seeing the videos below - he's always driven for us and on some occasions, has been so generous to treat the rest of us to curry and rice at Coco Ichiban. Nice guy!

Name: Takanori
Age: 22
Occupation: College student - studying to become a male nurse
Extra: He has a part-time job at a takoyaki shop in Justco so occasionally, he'll bring a pack of takoyaki for us when he comes to practice after working. Score!

Takanori is youth at its best. He's quite naiive and gets a lot of crap from the other older bboys for saying dumb things, but all in all, we all love him and he's a lot of fun to practice with. He aims to be a style bboy, working on footwork and toprock, and is always trying to start mini bboy battles with the rest of us in fun. He's been breaking for maybe a year at this point and I think he's improved very quickly.

The other 2 bboys who come to the bus center to practice are actually pretty good compared to the rest of us, but we all know how to mess around and just have some fun. Here's some videos of us...not at our best, but just know that our best isn't that good either. :)


notice Shohei's cool, calm, and bboy-like entrance



just havin some fun.

More to come!