It's DECEMBER! Christmas is just around the corner. LOCO! I am so excited. It is so pretty here in Tokyo. They love thier decorations. I can't wait to get to Disneyland lext week. Yahoo!
There is alot to post. Alot of Pics! Last time I posted it was right before thanksgiving. So I better report on how the eating holiday went. Overall, it was really great. The night before I made two Pumpkin pies. It was so hard to find everything I needed but at the last minute I found everything and put it in my little friendly Micro/Oven. I also found out the night before that the dinner was going to be cut in size. It was too much to have so many people. So it was just four of us. Josh, Maria, Zach and I. Josh, Maria and Zack are all in Big Band Beat. We made dinner in Josh's apartment. Turkey wasn't possible so we had Chicken Cordin Bleu with some of our favorite sides such as: green bean caserole, candied squash(I made), mash potatoes, deviled eggs, cranberry sauce, and I think that was it. Everything was delicioso! Then there was dessert. My pumpkin pie came out incredible. Even I was impressed. Watch out Martha Stewart. I was scared but it tasted AMAZING! We ate about one pie and I had an extra to take to work. They love it when I bring baked goods. So a Turkey day with out turkey even though seemingly dissapointing became a great night had by al. I did end up eating some Turkey on that Saturday cause a family at church made me a plate from the dinner they had. It was good but I have to say our chicken was alot better :)
The week after Thanksgiving my friend Josh who seems to be the only person I hang out wiht. I promise I have other friends. They are just all Japanese and they don't have my days off. Little frustrating. That is the tricky part. Anyway, He and I decided to go on a radnom trip. I decided to go cause when will I be able to visit another part of Japan ever again. Our decision was to go to Universal Studios Japan in Osaka(USJ) on Monday and Kyoto, a beautiful area near Osaka, on Tuesday. We took the Shikasen which is a bullet train from Tokyo Sunday after work which took us about 3 hours to get there to Osaka. We stayed at a Universal sponsered hotel. It was water themed. It was cool! We got in late Sunday night went to bed, woke up had free breakfast(which was really good) then headed to Universal for the day. It was really fun. A highlight was the WICKED show which is a 30 minute cut of the Broadway show Wicked. Which is amazing and I am a big fan. The show is about the Witches from the Land of OZ. I was surprised put the production quality was really good and the singers were not too bad. It was mostly in Japanese. Good thing I know the show really well. The Elphba(the green witch) was American and the Glinda(the good witch) was Japanese. She was amazing. She was funny, dramatic, and overall a great singer. Aparently the writer of the show Steven Shwartz came and mounted the prodcution a couple of years ago. He wanted it to be a mini braodway show. I think he succeeded. They also had this awesome roller coaster called Hollywood Dreams that was so fun. You are strapped in and have person speakers by your ears and have a choice to choose from 5 songs. The first time I chose Eminen "Lose Yourself". Ghetto I know! But added to the ride! We rode it twice. Other then that we did the usual. Rode Spider Man, ET, Jurrasic Park, ate alot of food, and took alot of pictures. You have to understand that my buddy Josh just bought a brand new camera that cost him, let say ALOT of money. So he was trigger happy and wanted to get to know his camer. I have to say I got to use it too and it was fun to take pictures with. So be warned of the "artistic" shots
So the next day we were off to Kyoto of course after our yummy free breakfast! Kyoto was about 20 minutes away on the local subway system.
Kyoto: is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Kyoto was spared from the firebombing of World War II. With its 2000 Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, as well as palaces, gardens and architecture intact, it is one of the best preserved cities in Japan.
So when you think of what Japan should look like it's this place. It was especially beautiful at this time with the leaves changing. Just think Memoirs of a Geisha. We had a full afternoon then had to take the bullet train back to Tokyo cause I had to be back at work in the morning. Not much to say just the fact that I was really tired from the day before at USJ and had a good time being a tourist. I think the pictures will speak for itself and again there were some down times waiting for trains so we decided to have a photo shoot. That carmera which is named "Frank" btw was so COOL! We was our fun third person on the trip with us.
I hope you liked the pictures. I need a break after all that. Also it was pretty expensive. I don't know if that was the smartest thing to do right before the Holidays. Oh well, it was worth it! Now back to Tokyo and work. Things are good. But I have some good drama for you. So at work my counter part Adrian who shares the role with me and I decided to decorate our courner of the dressing room. We figured since we are at work more then we are at home it would be nice to have some Christmas spirit at work. He found some good stuff and we got alot of stuff at the $1 store. So we took a day when we were both at work and decorated between shows. It was fun and everyone seemed to like it. They next day I was off, actually I was on my trip to Osaka. Adrian sends me a picture message and said with not so kind words that they those "%$#@%&@!" took down our decorations. He was livid and so was I. But I was at Universal Studios and I didn't want to be bothered. But he had a meeting with our boss and they said it was a fire hazard and had to be taken down after we left that night. Couldn't they had waited till we got to work to tell us and let us taken it down. I thought it was kinda of harsh. I guess the rule is that nothing can be on the walls. It's the fire marshall's call. Out argument was that there are some other things on the wall in that dressing room that hasn't been taken down so whats up with that! Aparently the other things were aproved by the fire marshal. There is this huge poster/collage that is "really important" to the dancers. And the other things on the walls are posts that have important information. WHATVEVER! After making our stage managers cry and getting our bosses invovled we decided to drop it and not let this ruin our Christmas. Lets just say Scooge has come to Japan as the form of a Fire Marshal and Stage Managers that don't care enough to let us have the spirit of the Navididad in our lives. I decorated my room with lights and stuff so I guess that will have to do. I have no tree though. I should get one. They are just expesive. Anyway, I better go. I have to go buy some Christmas cards. I have been home for the last 2 days cause I have a really bad sore throat. It was my day off so it is all good. I went to the doctors yesterday. Seems I am there alot. Can we say problem child!? He said my throat is swollen and red. I could have told him THAT! AN INFECTION! YAH! SO he gave me some antibiotics and pain killers. I feel better already. Its not affecting my voice. Which is great. I just feel like CRAP! On a happy note. I hope everyone is having a good Holiday season so far and is not getting stessed or bogged down with having to buy presents and stuff. Its not worth it. Christmas should be a time of focusing on other things. Like bettering self and helping others. Not being bothered by the stresses of the world. There's my input :)
Culture Corner:
So for Christmas instead of putting up stocking and stuffing them. They have Boots. They use boots to stuff and give away. Kinda funny. Cause its very similiar but just a little different to make you laugh a little.
Take care all. Don't forget...the goose is getting fat PLEASE put a penny in the old man's hat :)
Love,
Tony
