At a small club, make that a bar, about the size of a typical American living room we stood drinking our whiskey and Cokes we poured under the table, courtesy of my leather bound flask, saving a little money, and listened to music spun by a DJ, a precursor to the upcoming Fuji Rock Festival.

As we danced to the thumping beats or loud guitars, the majority of the Japanese stood, backs against the walll, moving up and down and side to side staying paralell to the wall as though something may catch them off gaurd- so backs to the wall it is.

In a moment of sheer enthusiasm for the Beastie Boys song "Sure Shot" -that is bound to get almost any non-dead body moving- we persuaded them out to the floor a few feet away from the walls- space in a tiny place is relative. Victory!

As the song wound down, transformed by the DJ into the next groovy beat, I looked around to see all but one of them, backs against the walls, moving ever so slightly, dancing paralell and straight ahead to make sure nothing could surprise them.