Mesmerizing and fun.
A fabulous culture mashup and intergenerational mashup in one. Japanese high school kids dressing up like their middle aged mothers (in short haired permanent hairstyle wigs and 1980s fashions) and dancing to 1980s songs.

Brilliant choreography.
2015, choreography by akane

1980s Aerobics style costumes, 2016, Tokyo Metropolitan Komae High School

Viral dance crazes highlight a generational shift

Leading the charge is a dance troupe from Tomioka High School in Sakai, Osaka. The Tomioka Dance Club first caught the public’s attention when they won second place at Dance Stadium, a national high school dance competition, in August.

The troupe’s hilarious routine was a throwback to Japan’s bubble era of the ’80s, featuring teenagers sporting brightly colored shoulder-padded suit jackets and wildly teased hair held aloft with copious amounts of hair spray, all dancing to Yoko Oginome’s 1985 hit “Dancing Hero (Eat You Up).”

YouTube audiences were quick to spot the in-jokes that were incorporated in the exuberant dance moves, with one viewer named Mosa saying, “I was laughing and thinking ‘Wow’ at the same time.”

Celebrities who were referenced in the routine were also quick to respond.

Comedian Nora Hirano, whose catchphrases such as “ottamage” (“I’m shocked”) and “shimo shimo” (a wordplay on the telephone greeting “moshi moshi“) appear in the soundtrack, tweeted her approval and ended her message by saying, “You are sickeningly fantastic.”

Another 2016 one, really cool, Osaka Prefecture Tomioka High School

The earliest known photographs of 15 great cities across the world.

A fantastic collection of photographs, called Untamed Borders, taken in Afghanistan and South Asia

Untamed Borders offers bespoke trips and small group tours to some of the most interesting bits of South and Central Asia. We specialise in trips to Afghanistan, Pakistan and North East India.