Starfire this month was the 12th anniversary event.  Congratulations on 12 years, Starfire!  I remember going to the 7 year anniversary at Club Code.  It’s been five years since then, wow.

Even though it was the anniversary special, they didn’t do anything special other than give out anniversary keitai straps like they do every year.   No prize raffle, no performance, no drinking game.  There were so few people at Starfire this month too, even less than on a normal month.  Bancho said they’ll do something big for the 15th anniversary.  I wonder where I will be during the 15th anniversary.  Age 32, still going to Starfire?  Hopefully

It was sad when Many, the Canadian exchange student, went back home a few weeks ago, but now we have yet another new gaijin paralist joining us in Tokyo for a few months – Felipe from Brazil.  I was surprised that he knows a lot of dances and he speaks Japanese really well, so I’m sure he’ll fit right in.

The euro lesson this month was ALIX / MAXMISIN’ from SEB 215.   Techno was a techno remix of the SEF euro In My Arms.  Both were average in my opinion.

After the lesson DJ Teru announced that he’s taking a leave of absence from Starfire.

Bancho also announced that in May they’re doing a Nagoya tour.  I really want to go!

Then they brought out the tequila and made the Tequila 5 get on stage and drink.  They were using the tequila instead of champagne for people’s birthdays last night too, yuck.  It wasn’t nice tequila either.  I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to drink at Starfire because I came down with tonsillitis a few days earlier, but I was back to normal by the weekend so I decided to be bad and skip the antibiotics for a few days so I could drink, haha.  Drinks at Pasela are really strong now, almost as bad as at a-life.

In Ginza in the morning as we were leaving Starfire they were setting up for the Tokyo marathon. But I went home and slept.

Happy 12th Anniversary, Starfire!

Last night was the first SEF of the new year and the first SEF at its new venue at Maharaja.  If I had to describe it in one word it would be “small”….   Everyone I talked to was saying the same thing. “It’s too small”  “It’s so crowded” “I knew it would be small but this is too small.”  They made three small circles on the dance floor during the euro sets and even then everyone didn’t fit on the dance floor.  The second most popular comment of the night was “There are too many events at Maharaja and they all feel the same now.  I can’t tell if this is SEF or Magical Rave or Tenkaichi.”  I felt that way too.  In your head you associate an event with the venue.  A-life was a good match for SEF but I guess it was too expensive.  But all that aside it was still a fun night.  All the regulars were there so even though I was there by myself I had fun mingling and dancing all night.  And I do like how I’m friendly with a few of the bartenders at Maharaja now so it’s nice to have them greet you by name and come talk to you, etc.

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As you’ve probably heard, me, Max and Jasmine were invited by Bancho to dance on the newest Starfire DVD  that comes out at this month’s Starfire.   It’s a really big honor and I’m really thankful to Bancho and to Max and Jasmine.  That makes DVD number 2 for me after King of Techno, but Starfire is definitely a bigger deal than KoT.

The filming was yesterday afternoon, a few weeks later than originally planned because things got delayed after the earthquake.  They used the same studio as the B-1 cosplay dvd.  The Starfire staff is obviously very used to filming because they set everything up right away as if they were professionals.   The techno boys went first with Dragon and they only took a couple of takes.  We were supposed to go fourth, but since the other teams weren’t ready yet they had us go next after Dragon.   Our song was New Horizon, and I’d heard that Ryohei is very strict about getting every move just the way he wants it, but he was pretty gentle on us.  He did change some details of the furi on the spot though.  In that respect it was good that I hadn’t practiced as much as I should have.  Max had practiced a lot so the old furi was stuck in his head and he had a lot of NGs.  It took us 7 takes but I didn’t have a single NG.  But our last take was probably my worst take so I’m not super happy with the final result.  For the first few takes I was super focused, but after a couple of NGs I started to relax and I let my guard down too much.  Plus for some reason on that final take I started to get paranoid that I was stepping backwards, and I was worrying about that and not focusing on my arm movements as much as I could have.  It always feels like I’m dancing big but when I see the video it’s always different from what I felt in my head.  But it’s done and we’re a part of Starfire history now yay!

There was a big earthquake during the filming.  It was a shindo 5 in Ibaraki so about a 3 in Tokyo.  The people dancing didn’t even notice so it was ok, but it’s just a reminder that even though a lot of things are back to normal we’re still dealing with the aftermath of the earthquake.

We didn’t stay to see everything, but Rh, Ke-tan and Negiko did Tell Me Why and they had more NGs than we did so that’s good.  The worst was Hellworld.  They had two random girls I’d never seen before dance Hellworld, and it looked like they had just started dancing parapara last month because it was not good at all.  They did about 6 takes, and then got sent back to practice with Ryuuichi for another hour.  I wonder if they were ever able to get a final take.  They had the Lakshimi girls do Dragon and My Load.  I didn’t see Dragon but they did a Juliana’s take on My Load.  Harumi and Satomi did Sex Killer.  Satomi is such an amazing dancer<3  Harumi’s kid was there running around and he is a handful.

Anyway I’m excited to see the final product in a couple of weeks.  Disco NRG’s name will be in the credits next to my name so look forward to that★

Heather

Last night was the Starfire 11th anniversary event at Pasela in Ginza.  It was one of the best Starfires I’ve been to yet.  People from all over Japan and people from other events who usually don’t come to Starfire came out for the anniversary and it’s nice to see people supporting Starfire.  I got my 11th anniversary cell phone strap 

I think the bartenders at Starfire have been taking notes from the bartenders at SEF because their drinks have gotten super strong.   So I was very happy all night hehe.

The lessons were:
Sex Skiller / Go Go Girls
My Lord / Techno Mob

Sex Skiller is definitely a Ryohei routine.  All 3 members of T-rrex were there for the anniversary. 

My Lord from Hyper Techno Mission felt like a cop out by Ryuuichi.  It was meh.

I think it’s funny that they choregraph these routines the day before the event.  They have a whole month to prepare.

Then it was time for the prize raffle.  Each of the members gave out a prize, and I won the Inocchi prize! I finally won something.   It was Samourai perfume, the same thing I won at SEF Rena and Suzujun’s wedding .  It’s good perfume. 

Matsuno-san from avex gave out bags of avex goods.  Last was Bancho.  And ironically the person who won Bancho’s prize was Satomi, who he loves to pick on.  It was a really good prize too – Starfire t-shirt and every Starfire dvd.  Bancho had wanted it to go to a young person who didn’t have the dvds, so Satomi was nice and gave them out to people. 

Next they gave out something called the Starfire Mastercard – a card that lets you enter Starfire for only 1000 yen each month for a year (normally it’s 2000 -3000 yen).  But they made you earn it in a “Guess that Tune” type game.  The DJ played the intro to a song, and if you could name the song and the artist and dance the routine, you won the Mastercard.  It’s a fun idea!  The DJs weren’t making it easy and kept using deceptively similar songs.  Ryuuichi was judging the techno songs and he was being super picky about the furi.  But it was taking too long that way so they gave it to the guy who danced “Get Up” even though he made a mistake in the sabi.  It was a really weird nerdy guy and he looked so serious when he was dancing.  Nobu and Nori were yelling “you’re Ryuuichi!” while he was dancing haha.  Then he fell on his knees when Ryuuichi gave him the mastercard.  weird guy.

The winner of the eurobeat mastercard was Jasmine, with Go Speed Racer Go.   The gaijin were representing last night. 

Then each member of Starfire gave a message on stage.  Ryuuichi’s was: “I’m looking for a pupil so I can focus on being a movie star.”  He’s done with parapara I guess.  I guess Nobu isn’t a good enough pupil.  Ryuuichi is pretty irreplaceable. 

They also celebrated Ke-tan and T-rrex Ryohei’s engagement.  They each got their own bottle of champagne to down.  They’re a heavy drinking couple  ^^;

Then we drank and danced until the event ended at 6am.  After Starfire finished we went to Denny’s down the street, which is the only restaurant open at that hour in that neighborhood so everyone goes there afterwards.  It’s fun because you can have eggs and bacon with Ryuuichi and Bancho sitting at the table next to you.   Not many people were there this time so it wasn’t that great.  But having food and water after a night of drinking is a great idea.  That’s probably why I was only a little hangovery this morning.   

It’s too bad that Starfire only happens once a month because it’s such a great event.  I’ll have to check out the all you can drink special at B-1 Dynamite this Wednesday.

Hi, Heather again. 

I’m going to try and make reports on all the major events I go to each month 

Last Sunday was SEF Delux and it was the 4th anniversary special.  I think it was Alex who made a comment recently about how SEF lives in the present and I think that’s very true.  SEF itself has been around for ages, but they’re only celebrating the 4 years since SEF Gold became SEF Delux.  On the other hand, Starfire also has an anniversary this month, their 11th anniversary.  Starfire has changed venues countless times but it’s always continued as Starfire.  They keep a lot of connection to their past, ie always mentioning Twinstar. I think it’s good that they remember where they’ve come from.  But I guess SEF does things a little differently.

SEF had a prize raffle as part of the anniversary celebration.  I’ve never won anything in any of these raffles(;_;)  They gave out two bags of avex goods(avex logo hand towels etc), two bottles of champagne, free entry to SEF for a year(I wanted this!) and a trip for two to a hot springs resort in Hakone(this would be nice too but I don’t have anyone to go with  ;_;) But that was the only special thing they did for the anniversary event. 

Starfire is doing a raffle at their anniversary event as well and I love the Starfire raffles because the dancers bring personal items from home to give away haha.  But I heard that Starfire might be giving out a one year pass that lets you get into Starfire for 1000 yen.  That would be nice.  Starfire always goes all out for their anniversary – performances, special guests, etc.  I’m looking forward to it.

There was a good turnout for SEF this month.  Recently SEF has been turning into a gyaru circle hangout place because Uga invites all his gal circle friends.  9LoveJ used to be the place to see drunk teenage gyarus but no one goes to 9LoveJ anymore. 

The lessons this month were:
WHEELPOWER AND GO! / DEJO & BON
Ecstasy / EROTIC

SEF is so serious when they teach the lessons.  Uga was a little bit late getting on stage when it was time for the euro lesson and Yano chewed him out on stage… >_<  And they’re so meticulous when they go through the song with the count.  Starfire lesson time is more like watching a stand up comedy routine. 

After the lesson they had tequila matsuri time, which is when they give out free tequila shots to everyone.  I never make it through SEF sober what with the tequila matsuri and the evil bartender who makes my drinks 90% tequila and 10% orange. >_<

Next month SEF is on the last Sunday of the month which means the big 3 events are all back to back in one big parapara weekend. Sounds tiring, especially on the liver!

I don’t know if these reports make sense to people who have not experienced paraibe in Japan but I hope they are somewhat informative and interesting. ^^ 

coming up next:  Starfire 11th anniversary report!

Hi everyone, Heather here.   I’ve heard that people like reading reports about parapara events in Japan so I’m going to start putting event reports here. 

As I think you’ve all heard, last week avex held an event to promote the release of Super Eurobeat vol 210.  The three big parapara clubs (SEF, 9LoveJ, Starfire) came together and all together danced 210 songs nonstop on a live internet show broadcast on niconico douga (kind of like Japanese Youtube).   They had a similar event last year to promote SEB 200 but it was a much bigger scale this time. 

I was really happily surprised when the Starfire organizer Bancho invited me, Max and Jasmine to dance with the Starfire members in the niconico douga show!  It was definitely one of my to memories in Japan.

We got to go to avex headquarters and surprisingly you can just walk in.   In the waiting room each club had their own table  (J, SEF, Starfire) and the top dancers from each event were there. We were with Starfire of course.  Starfire’s team
was all three members of T-rrex, Hitoshi, Ke-tan, Harumi, Take, Negiko, Bancho and Piyokan. 

Choushu Koriki, the comedian who helped spark the 4th boom with his comedy act using Night of Fire, was there too and it’s always fun getting to see celebrities in person     It looks like he’s gained weight.  

Also, it was cool seeing all the work that goes on behind the scenes at nico douga.

The “nico nico dancers” also danced a few songs in the show but it was really kimoi.  Otakugei is scary stuff.

We were told to bring a costume for the filming.  SEF and J put a lot of work into their costumes but the Starfire people didn’t have much.  They had to stop at Donki on the way and buy outfits. The yellow aprons the girls wore were pretty cute. There were boxes of costumes there that you could choose from but they were all Juliana’s bodycon/avex race queen type outfits. The black sequin dress I wore was something I found there. I’m glad I wore that and not the maid outfit I brought.

SEF went first, then J, then Starfire was last. I was expecting SEF to be really well practiced and serious business but they were pretty casual about it. The viewers loved Luigi(Uga). (no wonder, he is pretty hot). 9LoveJ was super serious business. They were in the bathroom rehearsing all the songs on the list before they went on. Meanwhile Starfire started drinking at about 10pm haha.  It was true Starfire style as everyone was saying.  Hitoshi had Korean makkori and campari…campari shots made me want to die >_<

Harumi-san is so nice♥ Even though she’s a parapara veteran superstar she’s so friendly. She always says hi and when I took a picture with her she said “nakayoku shite kudasai.” I told her “Harumi-san daisuki” and she said “Everyone says that but they’re actually Satomi fans.” haha no I’m a Harumi fan really!

Shota (ex-waros) randomly showed up after hearing about the event online. Somehow he got stuck with the job of holding the sign in the back but he was pretty popular with the viewers. 

And speaking of ex-wltp members, Eri was there with Matsuno-san. I guess they’re still together, if that’s the right way of putting it. Eri looks better in person than she did on wltp. She seemed nice from the little bit I talked to her.

Starfire went on sometime after midnight I think. We had a Starfire team huddle before we went on and Bancho talked about how parapara is about having fun and that tonight is a chance to spread parapara to people outside of the scene. I think our set was very true to the Starfire spirit and it was so much fun. It was amazing dancing on the same stage as the professional Starfire dancers. I messed up so bad on so many songs.   After watching the videos from the show I realized a lot of things I need to improve about my dancing.   I was trying to smile while I danced but after seeing the video I actually wasn’t smiling much at all.  >_<But it was still amazing.

Max was super popular. The screen was full of people commenting “makkusu kitaa” haha

They interviewed the 3 of us gaijin but I rambled too much.   They asked how foreigners learn about parapara and I tried to explain about the Parapara Paradise game arcade but I was just rambling.   The viewers just wanted to see Max anyway so that’s ok. I have no idea what if any comments people made about me but it’s probably better that way.

For the last 5 songs everyone came on stage and danced together. The last song was Night of Fire with Choshu Koriki of course

Afterwards we signed SEB 210 posters and took a group photo. They said that a total of 90,000 people watched the event, compared to 30,000 for the SEB 200 event last year. That’s 3 times more, wow! Matsuno-san said that it’s thanks to Starfire. He said he really wanted to include Starfire in the SEB 200 event too but wasn’t allowed to (when avex and Starfire were not on good terms).  Also, SEB 210 sold out on amazon during the course of the show!

It was after 3am by the time we finished and 7A said that she was taking everyone to an izakaya for the after party. It was all courtesy of avex, nice. Everyone couldn’t fit into one room so we had a Starfire room and a non-Starfire room. We were sitting by Shintaro and it turned into English conversation hour. He has really good English which is cool, but after 6 years in Japan I’m really sick of having the “What Japanese food do you like?” conversation… At least no one made any comments about chopsticks :p It’s tough because being gaijin is what got us on the show I’m sure but I also want to be a person and not a side show act.

I’d say the show was a great success and thank you everyone who watched and took video.  I really hope that they have events like this more than once a year, and hopefully it can be used somehow to bring more attention to the parapara scene. 

Hi everyone, I know most of you are not in Japan, but there’s a big parapara event happening this Sunday called Kenya Matsuri, and Disco NRG is one of the offical supporters of this event. In case you don’t know, Kenya is a techno legend who was one of the pioneers of the techno scene about 10 years ago, and even today he’s a very active and respected member of the parapara community. Every couple of years he puts on his event called Kenya Matsuri to celebrate techno and parapara.

The great thing about Kenya is that he is the number one supporter of overseas parapara that I’ve met. He believes that the future of parapara is in the overseas scene. Parapara is dying out in Japan and he believes we need to expend globally to keep the scene alive. He’s interviewed me about overseas parapara and even included a section on it in the book that he is writing. I’m really grateful that he treats us like equal members of the scene.

And this is why he decided to include overseas para teams in the sponsors for this years event. There are three foreign teams on the sponsor list: Disco NRG, Euro Elite, and Diamond 7. Unfortunately none of us will be able to be at the event in person, but let’s support it from afar!

Hi everyone, Heather here. Last Saturday was the big Starfire 10th Anniversary event so I figured I’d contribute by writing an event report.

The event was held at Pasela in Ginza as usual, and a total of 400 people participated according to Ryohei. That’s easily twice as many people as usually come. The line to get in was huge. People from all over the country, and people who haven’t been to Starfire in years came out for the event. It was great to see so much support for Starfire and for parapara. The club was packed as you can imagine, but it was so cool to see that many people dancing parapara at one time.

There were a lot of special touches for the big event. They had a video camera set up at the front desk and they asked everyone to give a congratulatory message to the camera. I said “10shuunen omedetou gozaimasu” but I stuttered, dammit. There were bouquets of flowers donated from various people who support Starfire – Farm Records, DJ Yosshi, etc. They were selling Starfire goods at the door too – t-shirts, DVDs, CDs, towels and lighters with the Starfire logo. The tshirts were pretty cool and Max bought one. They gave out gift bags, which had a Starfire 10th Anniversary strap, Starfire vol. XVII dvd, and a condom haha.

The tracklist for Starfire vol. XVII:
Best of Both Worlds
Super Super Man
It’s a Party
Shake that Thang
Fire it Up
Stomp da sh*t out
Yoko
Dream Lover
Monokuro no kiss

My picture is on the cover of the dvd case! The case is a montage of pictures of people downing bottles of Cafe de Paris, which is an amazing idea by the way, and my picture is on the bottom row on the front. Max’s picture is technically on it as well, but it’s hidden by the logo. On the dvd they showed footage from the para contest last August at Differ Ariake, and you can see Max and Jasmine in the background when they are announcing the winners ww.

There were special performances as well of course. J-euro singer Miwa gave a live performance with the Starfire dancers dancing in the back (but she really wasn’t very good live…). There was a special appearance by Hustle Spider – Shintaro wearing his suit from the DJ Ozma Spiderman music video. They taught a euro lesson and a techno lesson as usual. All three members of T-rrex danced the euro lesson, and the techno lesson was danced by Ryuuichi, Buta and Tomoki. There was a euro special performance danced by Kotomin, Ke-tan, Hitoshi, Kazupyon and Hide. It was a high quality performance, but you wouldn’t expect anything less from Starfire. Ryuuichi, Buta and Tomoki did a techno special performance, and it was soo hot. They used mostly old techno, and they did a couple of songs with fans. It was incredibly hot. They did a prize raffle again, and each member of the Starfire staff gave out a present. It was mostly stuff like fragrance candles and Starbucks mugs, but I still want to win something once!

They celebrated Bancho’s birthday, typical Starfire style with a cake smashed in his face and a bottle of Cafe de Paris to down. Cafe de Paris was on sale for the anniversary event so we had reserved 3 bottles, but they didn’t last long. Starfire also has started selling “Tequila balls”, which are basically jello shots. They sell them for 500 yen a piece which is ridiculous.

There were people there that I haven’t seen in a long time. Harumi was there for the first time since she’s had her kid. (by the way in the credits for Starfire vol. XVII, Harumi and Satomi are listed as members of SFA mamas haha). I was really surprised to see Sekai no Yoshikazu there. I almost didn’t recognize him at first. That was really cool seeing him and Ryuuichi dancing techno on stage together. They played some old Yoshikazu songs – 1 2 3 4 Rico, and Bandido. Kyohei was there working as staff, but he’s been coming to events a lot lately. He got really really drunk and fell down and split his lip ww.

It was a really fun night and it was great to see so many people coming out and supporting Starfire and parapara.

pics!

Last night I went to the SEB 200 Release Party at a-life in Roppongi. Para para legends Luna Teresa Mori, and Richie and Satoko from the Parapara Allstars made an appearance for the event. At the door they were giving out SEF goods if you brought in the booklet from SEB 200, but it was just a little calendar with “SEF DX” printed on the top. The event was basically a normal SEF night, except for the special guests. The three of them came out and danced one euro set on stage and everyone stopped to watch and take video, but unfortunately there was no special performance. Then they went straight upstairs where people could line up and get their CD autographed and take a picture with them. They were selling SEB 200 and a few other CDs up there too. I had my copy of SEB 200 signed by Mori-san and Richie and Satoko. I told them that they’re all very famous in America and in Europe. Nanae was with them so hopefully she was listening but probably not.

lots of pictures

Hi, everyone. I’m Heather (or Teacher or Hezaa or Haruna-sensei) and I’ve just joined DiscoNRG. I’ve been friends with the members for a few years now so I’m happy to be able to join them in DiscoNRG.

I live in Japan so I hope I’ll be able to support the group with translation and with information and resources I can access here. I’m an English teacher (ALT) on the JET Programme so that’s where the name Teacher came from. (also because I’m older than everyone (@_@;)) I started dancing parapara seriously when I moved to Japan and started going to events in 2005, but I first started learning parapara in 2003. Like many others, I started out with the Parapara Paradise arcade game and moved on to club videos from there. I started out with eurobeat but then discovered techpara and eventually 90′s techno. Julitech and 90′s techno is my current boom. =) I love the club scene in Japan! Dancing and getting drunk with cool people in the club is so much fun. tequila shots for everyone =D

Also I’ve had the honor of being on a few commercial releases here in Japan. I dance the song X-Rave on JC Records’ King of Techno, and I dance on the commercial for Wa Euro Best 2 along with my friend Amber.

douzo yoroshiku onegai shimasu!!