The Adventures of V and C - Japan Edition

The Adventures of V and C began as a Facebook photo album in 2009.  And goodness knows we have had so many adventures since.  We've hopped from California, to Turkey, to Italy, to Greece, to New York, to Turkey a few more times, and now to Japan.  (All the while keeping up with the times and creating our own hashtag.)  Life from a distance is always so daunting, but we have lots of practice by now.

Victoria's visit to Japan was everything we could have hoped for.  We laughed and we cried.  We went on roller coasters and bullet trains.  We saw modern Tokyo and traditional Kyoto.  We ate more sushi  and experienced more of Japan than I have in the past four months of living in Tokyo.

Fushimi Inari-taisha

Every time Victoria and I finally see each other again after however many months apart, it seems it has begun to get easier each time.  I don't know if it is from practice or if it is from maturity, but we expect less of each other.  Not in the sense of expecting disappointment, but more in the sense of enjoying our time together regardless of how the day turns out.  And not surprisingly, the days always end up better that way.

Everything matcha!

Having my sister in the audience to see me perform was so much fun and also a little surreal.  The first show (of three) seemed to go in slow motion.  It is amazing sometimes to stop and think about how many unrelated thoughts can be going through your head while flying over an audience, lip syncing Japanese, and interacting with giant puppets and an audience of 700.

After finishing at work, I joined Victoria in Disney Sea for the first time.  The park is absolutely exquisite.  I was so thankful to be able to experience it for the first time with her and actually have her be the one to show me around after a full day of walking the park on her own.

Our vacation within her visit was a two night stay in Kyoto, a 4 hour train ride south on the Shinkansen.  This was the first time I had left Tokyo (overnight) since moving here in January, and the getaway was so rejuvenating.  Kyoto used to be the capital of Japan.  It is the opposite to Tokyo in that it has kept its traditional feel amidst also being a modern city.

Kinkaku-ji

Arashiyama was our favorite part of our trip to Kyoto.  The bamboo forest was breathtaking and so peaceful, as was our perfect little resting spot where we watched the boats go by. (above photo)

The goodbye is never easy, but the time together still makes it worth it.  I am praying that we will be together again sooner than we realize.  But for now, we will just have to look forward to more of The Adventures of V and C.

All That is Gold Does Not Glitter

“All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

These past few months of adjusting to Japanese culture have continued to try me.  I've definitely been learning patience, perseverance and humility.

While cleaning up and organizing my computer, I came across old photos from so many different points in life; beginning college in San Jose, my last niece being born, living in Italy, family members who've since been lost, living aboard a cruise ship, audition life in NY, and finally, living here in Japan.  In the moment usually things are not glittering; you feel lost, withered and bitten by the frost.  But go back a few years later and look at those same memories.  

I'm reminding myself not to wish my time here away, knowing I may look back at the end of the year and realize I didn't recognize what I had.  It was gold.  I am not lost.  I am stronger.  My roots are deeper. I am making a serious effort to be more positive.  After all, the show really is amazing...it's the culture that's getting me.

Ok, enough with the philosophical stuff.  That's all the cheese I have for you today.  I just thought of the famous first line of this poem, looked it up, and wanted to share it with you.

The show is open!  Grand opening was April 24 and we are now (as a cast) performing 24-27 shows daily- 3 to 4 per person, daily.  There are many frustrations with the culture of the workplace right now, but at least I get to laugh a little to myself every time I make eye contact with a Japanese woman screaming and shaking because "Ariel looked right at me!" I hope, for the person sitting in her seat next, that she wasn't quite as much like an overexcited puppy as she seemed. 

The most magical place I've been in Japan -- Ashikaga Flower Park.  The wisteria was like something out of a fairy tale.  Strands of warm, purple rain coming down around your shoulders with the sunshine filtering through and the sweet fragrance surrounding you.  Mmmm.  It felt unreal.

Wisteria Ice Cream and a Selfie Stick

Cameras, cameras everywhere, pictures, pictures, pictures.  Seven westerners hired by Disney + Japanese tourists =  Paparazi. Pictures with us, pictures of us, picture awkwardness.

Hanami, Sensei, and Ashi

Mimosas under the sakura trees

Hanami - Sakura viewing, or cherry blossom viewing has been a priority on my list for my year here in Japan.  It happens briefly every spring and the "when" just depends on the weather and when the first few warm days bring the blossoms out to say hello.  The post cards do not lie.  They are absolutely beautiful, and I felt like I had stepped into a fairy tale everywhere I looked.

Unfortunately, it was too "windy" for the row boats to go out.  Wait...was that two blossoms that just fell to the ground?  Look out, that must mean the whitecaps are coming.  Oh Japan and all your rules...we will need to do some serious adjusting to each other this year.

Look who's in town for the next month!  I have so enjoyed the familiarity and ease of taking class from my teacher from New York City, Richard Pierlon.  Believe me, by ease, I don't mean an easy class, especially after so many months away from the city.
I have missed dancing so much over these past few months since I left New York.  Even though I have the joy of performing and working my body so hard physically, it is still something all it's own.  Richard's class has been such an escape and refreshing challenge.

Celebrating after rehearsal like a kid, with my
cup'o'lemonade before passing out from exhaustion.

This week's biggest and seemingly insurmountable challenge: continuing the search for a way to keep my legs from going numb while performing.
Mission accomplished!  Just two days before our soft opening (preview performances), my trainers and I found a solution that has proven to be replicable!  After so much worry about a year of such pain and frustration as well as countless rehearsal hours of trying new harness positions, we struck gold.

 Today's first performance with an audience was more than a success!  My legs had full feeling, the audience was gasping with excitement as Ariel swam just above their heads, and I was reminded of the joy of performing for an audience.  It has been oh so long since I've been on stage, and what better way to be welcomed back than to soar over an awed crowd in such a magical production.

Performing for Disney definitely has a different kind of magic and energy than many other productions because of the way the world knows the characters.  They immediately believe who you say you are.  You don't need to convince them, but instead, live up to the red-headed mermaid they know and love and make sure that you aren't the reason they loose that trust.

This is Japan

We drive on the left side of the road.
We bow in thanks.
We follow rules at all costs.
We are efficient to the point of inefficiency.
We wear surgical masks with even the latest fashion.
We are packed like pickles onto trains, if necessary, with batons.
We are always "genki."

Well...maybe not "we."

Looks like chocolate?  It might just be red bean paste.  Watch out.

Old sake barrels at the Meiji Jingu Shrine

When I was living in Italy, I bent over backwards and jumped through hoops to try to fit in and blend in.  Here in Tokyo, that will never happen.  No matter how docile I am or what I wear, I will never be mistaken for a Japanese.  Although it seems a defeatist thing to say, it is actually quite liberating.  That is quite a large weight to be lifted from one's back.
Becoming "fluent" in another culture is almost as hard, and arguably more so, than becoming fluent in another language.  It is not just knowledge; it is knowledge, emotions, and your very personality that are effected by becoming part of a foreign culture.  This is not to say that I won't make an effort, but it will always be assumed by my outward appearance that I am not and will not be Japanese.

Meet the cast!

Headed to curry with Pete, my old
Magic 30 castmate, and Tae!

Living in New York for the past year, often finding myself the only white girl on the train, I discovered that I am almost more comfortable with that feeling of "out of place-ness" that being a minority brings.  Since the summer of 2010 I have lived in Italy, California, New York, North Carolina, Toronto, The Middle of the Ocean, New York again, and now Japan.  I feel like the sense of loneliness that I so dread is even more prevalent when it comes from being one in a million of us versus being the only one in a million of them.  --Boy is this turning into a rabbit hole or what?  Bunny trail?  Whatever idiom you want to use, but we are getting off track here.

In the past

Kaoru, Ryoko and I at the temple gate

weeks, I have done little other than strengthen my body and rehearse my show, but little is not nothing:

Best food award goes to -- bills
No, it is not Japanese.  It is Australian.  What a disappointment, I know, but those hotcakes!  Ricotta hotcakes with honeycomb butter--best pancakes I have ever had.  That's a bold statement.

Best sightseeing outing -- Shinjuku and Shibuya with my friends Kaoru and Ryoko from the Disney Magic.  Seeing the local sights with the greatest locals= best combination.

Best random fact -- I have eaten more Indian curry than I have Japanese food while I've been in Tokyo.  I had never tried it before coming here, and it just so happens that I have indulged in the cuisine while with friends on a few occasions.

Ryoko and I, washing our hands in icy water before
before entering the Meiji Jingu Shrine

13 o'clock?  I'm rolling with the punches Japan, but...

Best...-- I'm out of awards.  Help me out.

Whozits and Whatzits Galore

In case I haven't told you...because I haven't told you...my newest life adventure has taken me to Tokyo, Japan for the next year.  I am starring in the opening cast of a show called King Triton's Concert at Tokyo Disney Sea.  The list of "firsts" for this experience could go on and on; I am living in Asia, learning to be an aerialist, moving from the ensemble to a leading role, lip-syncing an entire show in Japanese, living in my own apartment, making a healthy salary....

This job.  Well, it is hard on your body, hard on your mind, hard on your personal life.  BUT, the hardest things in life often end up being the most rewarding or the most growing.  There are so many times that I have already felt the need to pinch myself and make sure that I am taking in all of the amazing experiences that are "my job."
The first of these came in my first break through while harnessed and suspended in our aerial strength training.  Since then, the breakthroughs have continued to come...two steps, forward, one step back...just keep swimming.
Another "cloud nine moment" came during the costume fitting.  Seeing myself in the wig, makeup, fin, and seashells, with the lighting--I was Ariel.  I never felt that way about Aurora.
The latest and greatest moment to take my breath away was flying with wind in my hair, over the 700 seat Mermaid Lagoon Theater on what is currently the wold's most complex rigging system.  Flying--an unrealistic dream--is my reality.

Palma de Mallorca and The Return From Drydock

Kaleigh and me at Gaudi's Mallorca Cathedral

Whhaaaa??  What is Palma de Mallorca???  

A quick cone with Ivo after
a port morning Princess Gathering

This one's kinda like Funchal, Madeira -- an island that is technically part of Portugal.  Mallorca is an island that is technically part of Spain.  We visited this island twice, both times being on the only two 4-day cruises in the Mediterranean.  All of our other cruises in the Mediterranean were a minimum of seven days.  What a 4-day cruise means is, cast members have to pack as much entertainment into four days as the other cruises held in seven days.  These short cruises also mean a much different cliental porting out of Barcelona than that to which we had grown accustomed.  In short...4-day cruises were dreaded.  I'll leave it at that.

Because of the little time we spent here, I don't really have much to tell about Palma.  But if nothing else, it was beautiful!  

Beautiful Emma and bustling Palma

This pastry shop is famous for a reason! 

Dancing on the Ring of Kerry

Believe it or not, we've finally finished all of the Mediterranean ports from my contract with Magic 30 on Disney Cruise Line.  After our summer in the "Med," as we called it, we had a break in our contract where the Magic underwent a massive makeover in a 5 week renovation known as a drydock.  During this time, I met one of my best friends, Bria, in Ireland;

Exploring the Ring of Kerry with this Irish Beauty, Bria

my sister, Victoria, in Turkey for a few weeks;

What a happy reunion this was!

and my ship roommate, Carissa, and her Portuguese boyfriend, Rodolfo, in Portugal; then headed back to Cadiz, Spain to re-embark on the Magic for the remaining three months of my contract.  

Cherishing the last sunset from land in Cadiz, Spain

Much to our surprise, the ship was still in the "has to get worse before it gets better" stage.  Our floating home was unrecognizable inside.  There were contractors everywhere and they were anything but gentlemen.  Unfortunately, they were with us for the transatlantic back to Florida, and as a result, my fellow cast members and I tried to avoid the crew mess like the plague.

"Are you sure we should be re-embarking yet?"

Because there were no guests on board and most of our rehearsal/performance spaces were still undergoing renovation, there really wasn't anywhere to go but our postage stamp cabins.  That is, unless you had a hardhat and loved being catcalled and whistled at.  This was when I learned the true meaning of cabin fever.

Goodbye Europe!  See ya real soon.

But in the end, the overall outcome was a beautiful updated interior of the Disney Magic.  The ship definitely had its problems from cut corners, but hey, at least it looked nice, right?  

Here's a little glimpse of my cabin in case you are curious what they are like.  No one likes seeing themselves on camera, butI suppose I'll deal with it for your benefit.

Kuşadası, Turkey

Not quite as picturesque as others, but an excursion to
 Ephesus was the real attraction.

Here I was in Turkey, just over an hour from my sister's home in İzmir, and where was she?  Why, in the United States of course.  As a matter of fact, she was home visiting the United States the entire summer that I was in the Mediterranean.  When I returned to the other side of the world to sail the Caribbean, she had then flown back to Turkey.  Ironic.

Just a little "In your face" moment in Kuşadası

We ported twice in Kuşadası, both times near the end of the summer.  By August, I was already missing Victoria, so being in a place where I felt she should have been definitely made me very emotional.  The first day, I got off in port alone and walked through the city just for the sake of being of the ship.

Mantı and çay--feeling authentic

Restaurant owners in tourist areas in the Mediterranean always try to incessantly coax passerby's into their restaurant, but I felt this even more so here in Kuşadası.  It may have been because I was a woman alone, it may have been because I simply said "hello" in Turkish and that was a tourist novelty, but I finally sat down and had the meal I was looking for.

One owner was persistent on my eating at his restaurant despite their not having mantı, the meal I had my heart set on.  When I told him this was why I wouldn't stay, he told me he would make the well known dish for me regardless.  He had to go to his friend's neighboring restaurant to get the ingredients, but either way, he made sure to make what I asked for!

Well, I learned for my second port day, when you are already missing someone so severely, going off alone in a country you've only ever been to with them is probably not the best remedy for loneliness.  Kristine helped with that and we explored the bazar together the second time in the port of Kuşadası.  With Kristine's Mexican genes, we had a fun time confusing vendors as to where we were from...they think she's Mexican, they think I'm Turkish, and they would never speak to us the most obvious tourist language--English.

Picking up the pilot--view from Deck 4

 Fun Fact:  When coming in and out of ports, a local pilot is aboard to steer the ship out of port.  Once safely into open waters, the pilot literally jumps from the moving ship back onto the moving pilot boat and they head back to port.

The shimmering moonlight on the Agean Sea