Missions Accomplished!

Well it's time I wrote another entry. Every time I write another blog I always mention how long it's been since the last one and laziness usually figures in somewhere. Recently I have been working a lot of overtime and (believe it or not) exercising in the evenings when I have free time. So what has forced me to finally sit down and share some stories and photos? Massive ankle injury! Might be broken or torn, still to stubborn at the moment to go see the doctor, but I imagine a trip will soon be warranted. I was running and went to jump onto a curb when all of a sudden gravity decided to shift. Anyhow, alive and medicated I give to you....something.

When we came to Japan, we had some goals we wanted to achieve. Most of them involved traveling to certain places in Japan like Hiroshima, Okinawa, Kyoto and Mt. Fuji. If you have read our previous blogs you know we have checked those ones off of our list. Since our last blog we have accomplished a few more goals. We have paid off our credit cards (a feat unto itself), went on a trip to Tokyo (including the Disney resorts) and I have done acting in Japan. I teased with it at the end my last blog and at long last here is the story.

While walking through a shopping mall near work one day I was stopped by a large Australian man in bright clothing to ask if I wanted to see a comedy show in Kobe. He said he was an entertainer by the name of Butch Read (which he says sounds like a lesbian book club) who does some improvisation work here in Japan. I mentioned that I had done some improv work in my younger days, including my brief stint at the Loose Moose theatre. He told me that he had trained there as well, and it turned out that we knew a lot of the same people. He got my number and a few weeks later invited me to join an improv group he was assembling here in Osaka. He explained that we would train for a couple of months and then do a show in Kobe where we would square off against a team from Kobe. We began our rehearsals in, The Wild Bunch, a Japanese book shop that specializes in movie related books. It was also the name that we decided to call our intrepid bunch of Osakan improvisers. Butch would be our leader and teacher but not actually be on either team. The rest of the group consisted of Curtis, an ex-Hollywood stuntman from Albuquerque who got to call Charlise Theron a very bad word in her recent movie North Country. Kat, a young lady from Calgary who had no acting experience but did some highland dancing in her younger days. Genevieve a feisty redhead (is there any other kind) from New York who has studied in several countries around the world. And Jun a Japanese man with a decent grasp of the English language and a good sense of humor. We practiced and finally it came to show time, Jun had suddenly gone AWOL (nerves I imagine) and the four members of The Wild Bunch went to Kobe to compete. We were a little worried at first but once we saw the other team we were pretty confident of a victory (winning wasn't actually the aim of the night, the competition was just the format of the entertainment) as the other team was even less experienced and hadn't quite grasped the idea that they should at least look excited if they wanted the audience to do the same. Any how we played some games until we ran out of games that the other team knew how to play and then the audience declared The Wild Bunch as the evenings winners. YAY! We are now practicing for another show at the end of May this time our troupe seems to be rotating every rehearsal so no idea who will actually be performing. If you would like to see a video clip of some of the improv, send me an E-mail and I will pass it on to you.

In other news if you have read my lovely wife's blog (or the second paragraph of this entry)you have seen that we have been to Tokyo recently. She mostly talks about the awesome hotel we stayed in and at the end mentions some places we went with photo links. Allow me to give a little more detail on some of some of my favorite spots while trekking through Tokyo.

Akihabara: An area famous for being a technogeek heaven. Full of technology stores, adult toy shops (no not that kind you pervert, I'm talking about collectables that are meant to be looked at not played with)(mostly), and maid cafes where girls dressed like maids serve you drinks and food in the most subservient manner they can muster.

Roppongi: Party central, where you can find bars and restaurants to fit your every whim. We went to an English pub, a Chinese restaurant and a sports/celebrity bar.

Tsukiji Fish Market: We were up at 5:00am just to get there on time to see all of the action. It's amazing that there's any fish left in the ocean after seeing the amount of seafood that gets processed there daily. After wandering for a while we decided to have sushi for breakfast. Best I've ever eaten. It was so fresh you could almost feel it moving (I kid) and I even enjoyed the free appetizer (a small bowl of tiny raw fish with the heads still attached and a raw egg yolk poured on top)

Yebisu Beer Museum: We first tried to go on my birthday with Joe but arrived too late and ended up having drinks at a beer hall nearby. We were however not giving up, so on our last day we went back to the museum, saw the sights and then proceeded to sample several delicious beers.

Harajuku: Near the Meiji Shrine is an area where all of the hip, fashionable and just plain strange teenagers like to hang out. And Sunday is the best day to go because this is when they put on their best weirdest outfits and show off for each other and the hundreds of tourists who swarm the area to get pictures.

and last but not least...

Disneyland: I have been to Disney World in Florida but never Disneyland. From what I hear it's quite similar to California's version (except that C3PO speaks Japanese at StarTours) but I'm not sure if the crowds are the same. I like that you can get the advance passes now to go on rides without a huge line-up, but you can only get one every two hours which means at some point a one or two hour line for a ride is inevitable.

and...

DisneySea: This was amazing! Picture Disneyland but with an aquatic theme with lakes and rivers, much less children and they serve beer and cocktails in the restaurants. The whole entryway was designed to look like an Italian villa. There was the American Waterfront where we saw a Broadway review and an outdoor stage where people were lined up at 11:00am for the 7:30pm show (I have to hand it to Japanese people, they will tolerate lines for far longer than their North American counterpart). The Mermaid Lagoon which features Triton's Kingdom with lots of small rides for children and an amazing Little Mermaid stage show, done with lots of performers and wires. The Mysterious Island where we went on the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride and Journey to the Center of the Earth. The Lost River Delta featured the rollercoaster Raging Spirits and the adventure ride Indiana Jones: Temple of the Crystal Skull. There was also the Arabian Coast which had some Aladdin themed shows, a two story carousel and an awesome restaurant where we ate many kinds of curry. In the evening, instead of a parade like Disneyland they do this huge water and fire show on the lake where a water spirit meets a fire spirit and they fall in love even though their relationship can never be (too sappy?).

We've posted a bunch of pics of everything, I didn't mention all of it because this blog is already an entire evening of reading but not to fear, almost all of the pictures have some sort of description to tell you the place or situation. Alas, however we got no pictures from when we were racially profiled at a train station and had to show passports and alien registration cards to the police (true story).

For all of the improv pics click here.
For the complete Tokyo collection click here.
For Disney click here.
and to see some new pics of funny signs click here and scan forward.

Now go rest your eyes, Carl.