The dancing hippo

Today, I finally managed to attend the "Introduction to ballet" class at my gym. Yes, I have a gym membership, who would have known!
I was a bit worried that the class was only in Japanese (well, I am in Japan, after all) but in the end, how hard is to immitate another person's movements, even if you dont' understand a figment of what they are saying?
So I arrived in the class, donning my brand new Uniqlo sports pants (which are very comfy indeed) and  immediately felt out of place among all these ultra skinny Japanese ladies (of the younger and not that young variety) clad in cute ballet outfits, complete with little flowy  ballet skirts and proper ballet slippers. I left my trainers by the door, wearing my ankle white socks as means of footwear and found a spot among all these bony ladies.
My God, the class was nice, but was definitely not an "Introduction". The instructor was a man, and he completely looked the part of the aspiring primma donna (primmo huommo?) of a ballet company, all eyes semi-closed and zero smile. He proceeded to explain the choreography (in Japanese, may I remind you) and then we would have to recreadte it to the music. Granted, the movements were of the easy variety (if you have ever done ballet and understand what a 'demi-plie' is) and the class only lasted for 30', but oh, God, I can asure you I did some heavy perspiration! Also, while all the Japanese ladies were delicate as flowers in their movements, I couldn't help but thinking of myself as the ballet-dancing hippo in a Disney movie.
Anyway, I loved it and will be back next week. Now, where can I get some of those cute ballet slippers?