Discipline (Pt. 1)

I've had many interesting experiences since joining the Folk Song club on campus. Contrary to it's name, it's really a rock band club. I was in two bands that performed 4 songs each at a recent concert. In addition to practicing with our bands, club members were also expected to join one of several subcommittees that take care of things like lighting, sound, and videography. I joined the videography committee which is also in charge of making decorations for the concerts.

At the first committee meeting two months ago, I was rather confused. I spent 4 hours drawing and coloring christmas decorations and by the end of it I was considering leaving the club as this did not feel like a good use of my time. In addition, the people I was working with who had been very friendly when I joined the club became surprisingly serious and conversation was sparse. When the final bell rang though, everything changed. Even though it was already 8:00PM people weren't rushing to get home, most people stayed around and had suddenly become much more friendly now that their work was done for the day. I was invited to go out to eat with several members and past-members. We had a great time talking about music, language, and culture and for the first time, I felt that I was making real Japanese friends as opposed to participating in a sort of formal cultural exchange. At this point I felt that I would gladly put in the time required to be a member of this club as it meant spending time with these new friends of mine with which I shared quite a bit musically despite growing up in very different cultures.

This drastically changed my perception of the work I was doing in the club. Even though I was getting home at 9:00PM many nights, I was enjoying the people around me and learning practical Japanese from people my age. For the next month we prepared for the concert, creating posters and decorations and practicing our songs. Sometimes it was stressful, but everyone else was working very hard so I felt compelled to persevere.

The concert was divided across 3 days and was located in a large public space where students often eat lunch. We would have to move part of our setup to allow students to use the space during the day which was inconvenient but understandable. The day before the first show we worked from 3 to 8 moving all the equipment into the space and getting it all setup. They had large black sheets to cover all the windows and we spent about an hour taping the sheets to all of the windows.

It was at this point that things started to get, at least from my American perspective, a little strange...