to saori and hiroko

today during orchestra rehearsal, i introduced myself to the translator.  her name is saori, and as soon as i said my name, she asked me an interesting question.  "do you have a blog?"  well, if you're reading this right now, you obviously know that i do.  it turns out that when she googled "dreamgirls in tokyo," my blog showed up in the middle of the first page!  saori is a really cool girl - a freshman in college whose major is theatre production.  she hasn't figured out what area of the business she wishes to pursue (lighting, wardrobe, etc.), but she is intrigued by all of it, which was clearly evident during our rehearsal.  i couldn't believe that both she and hiroko, our escort from the hotel to the bunkamura theatre via subway (ginza line to shibuya), both think that their english is subpar!  i wish i could speak a second language half as well as they speak english.  i mean, really.  no.  really.  they claim to not be professional translators, but if they ever want to do that, they are well on their way.  so i promised saori that since she knew about my blog, i would update it tonight.  so this is for you, saori!  =)

wow, i love my life.  first off, it's been a while since i've updated.  the layoff was great - i spent most of it in new york and mothers' day in dc.  my mom was thrilled to spend time with me and naturally, i treated her to a scrumptious dinner.  i actually took both my mom and her mom out to eat at gordon biersch, down on 9th and F, across from the spy museum, where my cousin (kerry, who's about to enter year number 5 at umd) works on weekends.  sounds like the perfect spot to hit up during happy hour when i'm back in dc with the show during late july and early august.  my time in nyc was also exciting - catching up with friends, getting drunk on cinco de drinko (aka may 5), eating a juicy steak at the midtown palm...you know, the usual.  but enough about the past.  let's talk more about where i currently am.  TOKYO!!!!!

went out last friday night with many friends and got pretty tipsy.  started with a glass of malbec at the palm with my steak, was followed by sangria and beer at las chicas locas on 25th and 7th with michnikov and hepler, and culminated with several drinks at knewton [even though i currently do not work for them, i'm still on payroll and will return to the camera for them once the tour is over.  if you know anyone who wants top-of-the-line tutoring for the SAT, GMAT or LSAT, then www.knewton.com is the place for you!] with co-workers and friends i hadn't seen since i left the big apple.  woke up early on saturday to take a cab to jfk for my flight to tokyo.  it was great seeing the cast again.  we all seemed rejuvenated and ready to go back to work.  the 13.5-hour flight didn't seem so bad...partially because quite a few of us (me included, despite my hangover) got liquored up in the lounge before the flight.  free snacks.  free drinks.  on top of a dirt-cheap visit to duty free to get some sambuca for my hotel room.  yeah, let's just suffice it to say that we were in heaven.  i slept for a good chunk of the first half of the flight, then played video games for the latter half of flight 005 on JAL airlines to tokyo.  we left at 1:05pm saturday.  landed at 4pm sunday.  and i instantly fell in love with the city.

once we got through customs, two buses were waiting to drive the 90 minutes from narita to the hotel in tokyo.  i couldn't believe that everyone was driving on the wrong side on the street.  and that there were no accidents!  ok, i'm kidding - not stupid.  but it does still feel weird to cross the street, because i feel that one of these days, i'm gonna look the wrong way and get sideswiped, lol.  anyway, the ana intercontinental hotel is frickin' awesome.

two words.

BI.

DET.

do i have to go on?  very chic rooms, spacious lobbies, and it's located right next to the tanneike-sanno subway stop that gets us to the theatre.  and might i say that even though i've heard that roppongi is the district to hit up at night for the club scene, i'm already beyond impressed with the area between the shibuya station and the bunkamura theatre.  totally feels like times square...but SO MUCH cleaner and expansive.  wall-to-wall people, shops galore - even american staples like starbucks and h&m.  the number of english signs is staggering - that is, in a positive way for non-japanese speakers like myself.  i feel that i'm neither isolated by there being too much japanese present nor overwhelmed by the amount of english present in menus and street signs.  as for today, hiroko (along with her stellar english skills) escorted us to the theatre from the hotel for our 1-7pm rehearsal.  the band was quite articulate, though didn't initially possess the soul necessary (as sam had warned, since he's already done this production in korea) to play a show like this.  however, by the end of the evening, some soul was found...while another soul was lost.

i was stunned to find out several weeks ago that the japanese producers were hiring a black sub to play my book in order for me to conduct once a week [read: in order for sam to get his much-deserved show-a-week off].  well, we knew we were in for a whale of a rehearsal when greg walked in, openly announcing his nervousness.  turns out he couldn't read music, which felt eerily similar to the way i got this job.  since he would be going on (or should i foreshadow and say...would have been?) thursday night (and each of the following two thursdays), sam and i felt best that we throw him to the wolves right away and have him play the majority, if not all, of the rehearsal.  naturally, i sat beside him the whole time to guide him and to answer any questions he had.  it turns out he was only reading the chord symbols and not the actual notes on the page.  which would have been fine for select parts, but there are numerous sections in the score that require you to play exactly what's on the page because you're playing with, say, the reeds or trumpets.  and if you're off, it's quite obvious.  quite.  or maybe the final straw was when he turned to me and confessed that he couldn't read music at all and was only following the chords.  hmmm, i don't know.  regardless, since sam had dealt with this very situation with the kid who won the july auditions back in new york to get this job...before letting him go and hiring me, he certainly didn't want to deal with that again.  so it seems unlikely that i'll get to conduct in japan while i'm here.  i guess that means i'll just have to come back with another show to get that opportunity, right?

this probably isn't my longest post, but i need to stop here anyway.  it's almost 2am, and i'd love to wake up at 8am wednesday to watch tuesday night's 7pm ET sox-yanks game (and 8:30pm ET celts-magic game 2) before going to the theatre for an 11:30am sound check, followed by a 1:30pm dress rehearsal, a 7pm opening and a post-show reception.  and oh right...two shows on thursday.  but i can't leave without talking about the mackerel, caviar and sake i had sunday night...and the caviar, salmon, sake and shochu (japanese vodka) i had earlier tonight.  already quite impressed with the sushi and sake, as i knew i would be.  i've got a feeling there's much more in my near future.  maybe i'll get saori to show me a nice place to eat that's close to the theatre tomorrow...