Wednesday, February 27, 2008
the japanese style of check out at the grocery store makes a lot of sense. you bring your hand basket (i've yet to see a giant grocery cart) to the cashier stand. there's just enough room for 2 baskets usually. the cashier unloads your basket, item by item, rings each up - telling the price out loud- and reloads an empty basket. you pay, putting your money on a tray so the change is easily counted, and the newly packed basket is given to you with a few bags on top. you then take the basket to a counter just past the cashiers and pack up the groceries out of the way. your original basket is meanwhile being used to repack someone else's...genius. if it's busy there are 2 cashiers, one to ring it in and the other to take yr money while the first starts ringing up the next in line.
see, you're learning so much by me being here...
see, you're learning so much by me being here...
Monday, February 25, 2008
been awhile
i haven't typed anything in a bit. been busy...been tired...haven't wanted to - so there. however, i have been writing in my journal so i'll transcribe some of it here. but first, today there was a darling little girl - maybe 3? - parading about on a little side street in a red dress and mother's (or somebody's) high heels. she was adoable, and obliged when i asked to take her photo. i showed her the photo on the camera and she laughed grandly. i quite fell in love (did i not tell you i was beginning to sound australian/british? it's a luverly language, innit?). today we bagan rehearsing on the actual set. i'm not allowed to post photos - confidentiality, and all that - but, i think there are some images up on the universal studios japan website. you can't laugh at me. i AM going to be wearing a squirrel suit -BUT i am getting paid nicely to live here, thank you (at least, that's what i keep telling myself, and apparently anyone else who will listen...)
so anyway, i've joined a hot yoga studio, where i am, so far as i can tell the only gaijin (foreigner) altho the ladies at the desk seem happy i'm there and we practice each other's language. the chinese acrobats are becoming less shy, and the russians less clique-y, the auststralians/americans/british are, well i don't have a good objective point of view, we're like you'd expect i suppose. all in all, we get along, and i do enjoy the variety and the connections we're all making. hopefully, after this year there'll be some traveling to Kiev and Moscow and visits from such places as well to wherever i'll be.
i wanted to share some of the funny inconsistencies here, for instance, in public bathrooms one tends to find either a squat toilet or a high-tech, seat-heated, bidet with, in the ladies' room, a button for "flush sound" to cover any immodest noises one's body may make.
hmm. i think i'll end on that note. o-tsu kare sama deshita.
so anyway, i've joined a hot yoga studio, where i am, so far as i can tell the only gaijin (foreigner) altho the ladies at the desk seem happy i'm there and we practice each other's language. the chinese acrobats are becoming less shy, and the russians less clique-y, the auststralians/americans/british are, well i don't have a good objective point of view, we're like you'd expect i suppose. all in all, we get along, and i do enjoy the variety and the connections we're all making. hopefully, after this year there'll be some traveling to Kiev and Moscow and visits from such places as well to wherever i'll be.
i wanted to share some of the funny inconsistencies here, for instance, in public bathrooms one tends to find either a squat toilet or a high-tech, seat-heated, bidet with, in the ladies' room, a button for "flush sound" to cover any immodest noises one's body may make.
hmm. i think i'll end on that note. o-tsu kare sama deshita.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Today is Japan's Independence day. The banks are closed - this is how I discovered it was a holiday. Also, although I'm not sure if it's related, we only have a three hour day of rehearsal today. Anyway, here is a picture of the ad for my show. sorry it's so small-even this took ages to upload.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
feb. 9
so it's the end of the first week of rehearsals. it (insert expletive of your choice) snowed today. sleet then slush snow. miserable. one of my fellow cast mates skidded on her bicycle and slid a few feet face first trying to round a corner. the ferry shut down so we had to take the trains home - which means the bikes stayed at the station. tomorrow i was to get a rear bike basket installed, but i'll have to reschedule...we've basically learned all the choreography, both dance and aerial, and the songs that we're to lip sync to. the chorey (as the australians insist on calling "choreography") for the aerials is quite simple but there's time for some improv-ing both on rope and trapeze. i even get to do a tissue (it's all "tissue" here - no "fabrics") duo with a sweet russian boy named Mischa, who calls me Aurelia or Marinshka. I don't know why the Aurelia. he asked when we first met, "your name is marina? why your parents give you russian name?"
Last night a group of us went round to the western style pub - i don't mean wild west. the aussies and brits like a good roast on friday nights apparently. (if i don't end up with a russian accent, i'll surely have an australian one by the end of the year) we went to the happening part of town, Shinsaibashi, where young people often have amazing hairdos and you may even pass a woman in fancy kimono at 11 in the morning or a man in one with a fur coat at 7 in the evening (at least that's what I've experienced). I guess in Kyoto one can see old style Geishas. Tomorrow some more exploring and yoga...Monday we only have a 3 hour day. We have a very considerate, approachable director, and for that I am most grateful.
Last night a group of us went round to the western style pub - i don't mean wild west. the aussies and brits like a good roast on friday nights apparently. (if i don't end up with a russian accent, i'll surely have an australian one by the end of the year) we went to the happening part of town, Shinsaibashi, where young people often have amazing hairdos and you may even pass a woman in fancy kimono at 11 in the morning or a man in one with a fur coat at 7 in the evening (at least that's what I've experienced). I guess in Kyoto one can see old style Geishas. Tomorrow some more exploring and yoga...Monday we only have a 3 hour day. We have a very considerate, approachable director, and for that I am most grateful.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
first week of rehearsals
Of course, my favorite part of rehearsals is anything to do with aerial equipment. However, half the day is taken up with ground dance choreography and vocal training (we're lip syncing while dancing). One of the dances is a salsa-y number. It's like getting paid to take that salsa class I've been wanting to take. This week has been a challenge, I think for most of us. A few performers are dancers or stunt people so the aerials are difficult. It seems we'll all be fine. Five more weeks of rehearsals....Sunday is our only day off - six day work week. Trying to decide where to go - ocean, mountains, shinto shrine. If anyone's reading this : I could really use some music. I dunno, email me a couple songs or, if you're feeling old school, burn me a mixed cd. I'll send you my address.
Hope y'all are well and happy!
Hope y'all are well and happy!
Sunday, February 3, 2008
hey everyone,
Japan is very interesting, such a mix of challenge and wonder. today i wanted to take a yoga class. i missed the 10:30 ashtanga class i was aiming for. the next class there at Studio Yoggy, was a beginner's at 1pm. so i wandered down to the macrobiotic restaurant i'd discovered two nights ago. i had a great soy cappucino and asked directions to the intanettokafe. well it just so happened there was a Hot Yoga studio in the same building as the internet cafe. BUT i couldn't take a class there until I'd taken a trial class at one of two other locations. (still with me?) i got a map in kanji (Japanese) showing the studio locations and a subway map. so back on the subway, at some point i asked an older woman,"Sumimasen, Doko ka?" where is it? and i pointed to the map. she proceeded to take me, thru a couple train stations, asking directions herself along the way until we reached the front door. how do you profusely thank someone in a language that is already so profusely thankful. domo arigato gozaimas. and bow really low...
i finally have my room looking pleasant, a few rugs and things on the wall, a new cover for the otherwise hideous comforter. tomorrow we start rehearsals. there's 5 of us from the states, 2 guys from australia, a lot of russians and ukrainians and then some chinese and japenese. an international cast. not surprisingly, i really only know the native english speakers. all of whom i like quite well. if you've been in a pro-track warm up that i've led you'll understand when i say the conversations run along those lines, esp. with the boys. so while i am missing all you pro trackers, i still get my earful of naughties.
i have a USJ (universal studios japan - it's own entity separate from the american company) issued cell phone and bicycle, and a view of the world's "biggest giant wheel" (the english here is one of the more entertaining pastimes: for instance at the gym the paperwork they gave us requests that two piece bathing suits cover the "berry button"--i am required to wear a full wetsuit. apparently the japanese mafia is still going strong and tattoos are prohibited at the YMCA) anyway, back to the ferris wheel: at night it's all lit up in a color predicting the next day's weather. the whole time i've been here it's shown green, forecasting clouds...luckily i brought my happy light.
oyasumi nasai!
Japan is very interesting, such a mix of challenge and wonder. today i wanted to take a yoga class. i missed the 10:30 ashtanga class i was aiming for. the next class there at Studio Yoggy, was a beginner's at 1pm. so i wandered down to the macrobiotic restaurant i'd discovered two nights ago. i had a great soy cappucino and asked directions to the intanettokafe. well it just so happened there was a Hot Yoga studio in the same building as the internet cafe. BUT i couldn't take a class there until I'd taken a trial class at one of two other locations. (still with me?) i got a map in kanji (Japanese) showing the studio locations and a subway map. so back on the subway, at some point i asked an older woman,"Sumimasen, Doko ka?" where is it? and i pointed to the map. she proceeded to take me, thru a couple train stations, asking directions herself along the way until we reached the front door. how do you profusely thank someone in a language that is already so profusely thankful. domo arigato gozaimas. and bow really low...
i finally have my room looking pleasant, a few rugs and things on the wall, a new cover for the otherwise hideous comforter. tomorrow we start rehearsals. there's 5 of us from the states, 2 guys from australia, a lot of russians and ukrainians and then some chinese and japenese. an international cast. not surprisingly, i really only know the native english speakers. all of whom i like quite well. if you've been in a pro-track warm up that i've led you'll understand when i say the conversations run along those lines, esp. with the boys. so while i am missing all you pro trackers, i still get my earful of naughties.
i have a USJ (universal studios japan - it's own entity separate from the american company) issued cell phone and bicycle, and a view of the world's "biggest giant wheel" (the english here is one of the more entertaining pastimes: for instance at the gym the paperwork they gave us requests that two piece bathing suits cover the "berry button"--i am required to wear a full wetsuit. apparently the japanese mafia is still going strong and tattoos are prohibited at the YMCA) anyway, back to the ferris wheel: at night it's all lit up in a color predicting the next day's weather. the whole time i've been here it's shown green, forecasting clouds...luckily i brought my happy light.
oyasumi nasai!
Friday, February 1, 2008
Welcome to my Blog
I have landed safely in Japan...more info soon
Aerial Classes
Group classes and private lessons at the Circus Center
www.circuscenter.org
Yoga Classes
Tuesday and Thursday noon-1pm
all levels vinyasa
www.urbanflowyoga.com
