Things have been settling back down around here, slowly yet surely. As settled as things could be, I suppose.
In a week today, Oliver opens at the Sunmall Theatre. Right now, I’m feeling far too stressed and tired to be excited, but ask me again on Tuesday and I’ll be singing a different tune. Rehearsals are long, and sometimes we go in for a full day only to work for about an hour or two, but it’s all necessary. On Tuesday, we move into the theatre, and begin to work in costume, which will certainly add a new burst of energy to the entire show, one that we’ll probably need at that point. I’m really pleased with how the past week or so has gone. We’ve sold a LOT of tickets in the past few weeks, and we’ve gone from having six shows with lots of seats left to only having three shows left to fill. Most of my friends have already bought their tickets, which is awesome.
The past week, Japan has had a series of holidays, which add up to equal Golden Week. Last Wednesday was Showa Day, which I believe is like Canada’s version of Victoria Day. Showa was the emperor that reigned before the current one. Then on Sunday (though it got bumped up to Wednesday since Sunday is already a day off) was Constitution Day, which is to remember the day they created the current constitution. (Japan confuses me, in that this constitution was forced upon them, and yet they celebrate it with a national holiday… Oh Japan). May 4th is Greenery Day, which was made up SIMPLY to fill in the gaps between the other holidays and make it a solid week holiday. And then May 5th is Children’s Day. Children’s Day use to be called Boys Day (March 3rd is Girls Day) but they changed it to Children’s Day because it isn’t fair that Boys Day be a national holiday and Girls Day not be one.
Anyways, my Golden Week was fun. It started off bright and early last Wednesday, going to Narita Airport to pick up Becca, a friend who use to live in Japan, but moved back home for a year or two, and plans to move back next year. She’s here for a month. It’s so nice to have her back. ☺ There were then two days of work, and then the weekend. The weekend was full of crazy, since we had eight-hour rehearsal days, which is exhausting for being community theatre. It really drove in the idea that while we’re not professional actors, we’re treating it like a professional production. On the Saturday, I had to leave early because I had tickets to something very special: Dream Live 6th!
Every once in a while, I mention something that is very near and dear to my heart in this blog, that being my Prince of Tennis musical series. I love these shows so much, so nothing was going to stop me from seeing Dream live 6th (DL6, as it will further be called.) The way these shows work is that there are about two proper musicals run a year, where the protagonist team (Seigaku) plays against the next team in the national tournament. So in the 2008-2009 theatre season, Seigaku faced Hyoutei for the second time (from Tokyo prefecture) and Shitenhouji (from Osaka prefecture.) At the end of the theatre season (usually the beginning of May) they have something called a Dream Live. This is a concert version of the show. Instead of following plot, the songs from the musicals are done as if it’s a concert, in a dome setting and everything. Last year, I arrived two weeks too late to go to Dream Live 5th, which I would have loved to have seen. Normally, there is an added reason as to why there are Dream Lives. Since the show is based around a middle school tennis team, the characters are between the ages of 12-15. But the actors often are well over 18, and outgrow their characters quickly. So the cast for Seigaku changes about once a year. This show, the fourth generation of Seigaku was graduating. This has been my favourite generation so far (a lot of which I think has to do with it being the first generation I saw live) so going to their graduation show was very sad. But at the same time, I’m happy for all of them and excited because now I get to see what other work they’re going to move on to after now. It’s always interesting to see how some of them take their career. Quite a few of them have moved into television, working on the very popular Kamen Rider and Sentai series (Translation: Power ranger type shows) and then into regular television. Others stay on the stage, which is my favourite choice (I don’t like TV much.)
Anyways, Saturday evening, I went to DL6, and it was amazing. My seats were alright, but could have been much better. But it was so much fun. They sang a lot of songs from their run, but also did a bunch of songs from the previous generations, which was really great. They even sung “Now and Forever”, which was the original cast’s graduation song. I teared up and sniffled a bit, but luckily, I wasn’t at the final final show, so it was easy to not give in to the tears when most of the audience wasn’t crying either. I’m still filled with warm fuzzy feelings when I think of the show. ☺
Sunday was rehearsals. They were long and hard and tiring. Everyone was getting a cold and feeling like death. So, in general, just how the rehearsals two week before a show should feel. This weekend should be better, but that show a fortnight before is usually one of the most rough.
Monday I went to meet up with Marie, a friend who is visiting Japan from Ottawa. We went to Odaiba, which is a man made island in Tokyo which is pretty much a giant theme park. It’s fun and there’s shopping and rides and a ferris wheel and lots of concert and convention halls. She went to some manga thing called Spring Comic City. I passed on that because those things are too crowded and I generally don’t like manga. But then we hung around the Zepp Tokyo area, went to the arcade, did purikura (see photo) and stuff. Then we headed in to Shibuya to meet up with Becca, Laura and Liz for dinner, and went to Outback Steakhouse (free whole wheat bread! LUXURY!) I really like when my friends all get to meet each other, because they all become friends too, and I just like knowing that my friends have more friends now because I introduced them. It’s a nice feeling of spreading good karma and stuff.
Tuesday I had a bit of a lazy day. Laundry took over most of the day, and then I met with Hannah for some karaoke. I discovered that singing in a karaoke booth messes up my voice. Since I know I’m a fairly powerful singer, I hold back a lot in the small rooms for karaoke, and so it strains my throat. So perhaps not so much karaoke until after Oliver is over.
Yesterday, Wednesday, I met up with Marie again. We first went to the Tokyo Dome, which is yet another place that is like a giant theme park with rides and games and stuff. The purikura there was not nearly as good, and not worth scanning. But, there was a Jump Store, which is a store for anime goods from the Shonan Jump magazine. Marie really likes the stuff in that magazine, so she was in heaven. And even I found some awesomeness, in the form of Prince of Tennis chopsticks. But they’re actually from the ridiculous series of chapters that ended up being called the Prince of Yakiniku, where it ended up being a barbecued meat eating competition.
I have a terrible craving for yakiniku right now. *sobs*
Anyways, after getting my amazing chopsticks, and Marie’s pile of stuff, we headed over to Ebisu. We both were really excited to go here, because we’re both fans of the series Hana Yori Dango. A bunch of very important scenes take place in Ebisu Garden Place, at this big statue. The first time they go to the statue, it’s pouring with rain, so the fact it was raining that day actually ended up being a plus. We both had a silly fan moment where we did the pose that Tsubasa did when he was waiting in the rain, and have lots of pictures. And, our dignity was revived when we saw Japanese people doing the exact same thing only minutes after we left the statue. It’s not touristy if the natives do it too! I stand by this.
We then met up with Becca for okonomiyaki, which Marie had wanted to try. It was quite fun, and very delicious. Okonomiyaki pretty much means fried dinner pancake. It has some batter in it, lots of cabbage, and then you put whatever you like. My favourite type is Hiroshima style, where you put soba noodles in the mix, but they didn’t have any Hiroshima style, so we went with one shrimp one and one mix one (Chicken, shrimp, squid and octopus.) I’m not the biggest squid and octopus fan, but I do like me some chicken! 😀 Then we all went home, and that was sad because I probably won’t get to see Marie again before she leaves. It was really nice seeing her. Especially since she brought me Canadian toothpaste and stuff, which is awesome, because toothpaste here tastes more like I should be caulking tiles with it, rather than cleaning my teeth.
And so that catches me up to today! I’m in the office right now, and in a lot of ways, it feels like I’m right back where I started, struggling to get to know a school of over 1000 kids, and a ridiculous amount of staff. In having to start all over again in the exact same situation, I can see just how much I have grown and changed in the past year. I feel a lot more confident in my skills and myself. I know my Japanese has improved a boatload, though even then it’s quite terrible. Despite all of that though, I can’t help but shake the feeling that I’d have much rather moved up to working at a junior high school this year. I really am envious of the people who can tell stories about kids who ask questions beyond “What sports do you like?” I really wish they could at least have a faint idea of who I am talking about when I talk about things like bands and music and TV and tenimyu. Maybe next year.