week 2 in tokyo

monday - went to cirque du soleil's zed.  dave romich (sound) and kimberly marable (stepp sister/assistant dance captain) know the male vocalist in the show, kevin faraci.  they worked with earlier on a tour of wedding singer.  the cirque theatre in tokyo disney is the only theatre built specifically for a cirque show.  cate, one of our star dressers, also came along.  and wow, the four of us had a blast.  kevin got dave and kim comp seats up in one of the booths, but cate and i arguably had the better overall experience.  both dave and kim had seen this particular cirque show before, but neither cate nor i had ever seen one.  so we both premium tickets - 15,000 yen ($170-ish).  6th row.  hurt my neck staring up at the acrobats constantly flying over my head.  kevin has an amazing voice, and there was no part of the show that felt like a letdown.  90 minutes, no intermission of constant, non-stop energy.  vivid colors and costumes.  i said going in that there was no way i could go to my first-ever cirque show and not pay top dollar to sit in one of the best seats.  best 15,000 yen i could have spent.  the crowd ooh'd and aah'd as one as the tightrope specialists amazed us with jump after jump.  the clowns were hilarious.  i haven't laughed at a clown in years, but i certainly hooted as the pair that danced around the stage, helping to tell us the story.  being a musician, i thought that the band was mindblowingly good.  no offense dreamgirls, but if i ever got offered a cirque show, i'd leave you in a heartbeat.  the band was so well integrated into the show and was even featured in multiple moments.  i particularly perked up during one chord progression that repeated a few times.  it started in G minor - which is my new least favorite key.  well actually, i've never had a least favorite key.  but i've sure got one now, because most of dreamgirls is in fucking G minor.  well, this progression soon modulated to G# minor, which made me as giddy as a little schoolgirl, before going through a modified circle of fourths and...ok, i'm boring the non-musicians who are reading this.  i could go on and on, but i think you get the point.  i had an absolutely amazing time.  even though the house was only half-full for a monday matinee at 1, we cheered so loudly that they got 3 curtain calls.  if you've never been to one, go right now.  if you have already, go again.

after the show, we spent the rest of the day with kevin and his fiancee, melissa.  went to one area (forgot the name of it), but it totally reminded me of being on 57th and 5th in new york.  louis vuitton, bvlgari, and any other expensive shops you can think of lined the streets.  we walked into one of the department stores and saw a couple of really cool items.  one was a set of drinking containers that literally keeps your beverage cold while not producing any condensation.  the lady showing us these cups claimed to have put ice water in there at 10am (it's now 3:30 or 4pm), and the ice was still floating around in there.  pretty awesome.  arguably even more impressive was the $400 dyson fan we saw.  it was only a circle.  there were no blades.  you could stick your hand through it.  and yet, there was an even, consistent flow of air coming from it.  we then got back on the subway and went to omotesando hills.  they took us to an oriental bazaar, where we bought little trinkets for our friends and family back home.  next, my first of many awesome dinners this week.  went to barbacoa grill, an all-you-can-eat for 4,500 yen churrasco place.  i definitely hit up the salad bar a couple of times to balance out all the meat i was eating.  our placemats were simply a picture of a cow and all the different parts of it we were consuming.  the best was the picanha, or special rump cut.  mmmm.  we had to walk off the cow and ended up in harajuku, a really cool and fashionable part of town.  tiny little shops overflowing with people.  they didn't care about the light rain that was falling.  after bidding kevin and melissa farewell, we stopped at this absinthe bar called still, in the middle of akasaka.  had one glass of absinthe mixed with fuji mineral water.  absolutely tasty, very licorice-y, and i sure do love licorice.  an absolutely great day all around.

quick aside - other bullet point highlights
- at 6', i totally feel like a giant here.  especially on the subway...
- ...which features overhead bag space and the comfiest cushions i've ever experienced on any form of public transportation.
- the underground tunnel is quite elaborate.  turns out the entire tokyo subway system is only about 30 years old, and the amount of underground tunnel space within which to walk is staggering.
- also, the japanese have way better balance than we do.  while riding, i'm definitely holding on - for fear of falling on and killing someone.  but they rarely use the handrails.
- oh, and i'm super impressed with the umbrella racks they have here.  you can lock your umbrella in a rack and take the key inside a restaurant.  so there's no tracking of water into the restaurant, and your umbrella is safe.  genius!
- waiters here don't carry around a pad and a pen.  that's crazy talk.  instead, the entire menu is digitalized, and they have these really cool electronic pads where they simply punch in your order.  amazing!
- military time is used everywhere here.  brilliant.
- unfortunately, there are "women-only" cars during morning rush hour.  turns out that on the packed cars in the mornings, some of the greasy businessmen would let their hands, uh, slip.  sad but true.
- the major difference i can tell between english and japanese is where stressed syllables fall.  for us, typically the next to last syllable gets the most stress in a word.  umm, reFLECtion.  but here, it's the third to last.  just listening to the way the subway stops are pronounced.  aKAsaka, for example.  kinda cool.
- reading menus as the japanese attempt to spell english words.  i kid you not - i've seen the following on signs and/or menus: harf bowl, reopard print, sparkring water and non-smorking area just to name a few.
- for 126 yen, you can buy the best invention known to man in 7-11.  an ice cream waffle!  it's vanilla ice cream and bits of milk chocolate all inside a waffle.  it's heaven in a wrapper.

ok, moving on.  tuesday, the japanese presenters took the entire crew out for yet another all-you-can-eat extravaganza.  i learned the proper way to consume alcohol.  it is frowned upon for you to pour your own beer/sake, whatever the case may be.  you are supposed to have someone else do the pouring for you, and then you return the favor.  well, there was plenty of merriment to be had.  learned a new phrase - baka saiko! - which loosely translates to "stupid but great."  in other words, you're stupid for getting that drunk, but you're so much fun when you are.  two shows on wednesday, then more debaucherous fun on thursday.

but before i get to that, i have to pat kim on the back.  i was quite upset to not be able to watch the final 6 hours (3 of each) of 24 and LOST.  turns out that websites like fox.com or hulu won't let you watch american shows in japan.  i was heartbroken until kim recommended a site - ch131.com.  lower def, some occasional starts and stops along the way.  but the bottom line is that you get to watch the show.  so because of those starts and stops, it took me longer than 6 hours - but i was able to watch the conclusions of both shows over the course of this week.  i wouldn't dare reveal any details here, in case you haven't seen them, but suffice it to say that they were both well done...24 more so, i thought.  and now, back to my debaucherous thursday.

this time, the japanese orchestra took trevor, jason, dave, sam and i out after our matinee.  they took care of yet another all-you-can-eat affair (this time, chinese) before we stumbled across the street to a bar.  they again insisted on paying the first check that came (some 40,000 yen) before we picked up the remaining 18,000.  before the dinner, i was a little upset that others in the crew had gone to a baseball game.  which i'm sure was a lot of fun.  cate went and took pictures of my future girlfriends - hot girls in skimpy outfits with beer keg backpacks!  they walk around, pull out a cup and pour you ice cold beer from their backs!  and then they go get refilled at a station while facing the audience, striking sexy poses and cheering on their team.  oh man, i love japan.  but anyway, i was much less upset after drinking a ton of chinese wine, chinese sake, asahi beer and multiple shots of jameson mixed with a couple pints of guinness.  one of the japanese trombone players either silently had a few more than we did or is a lightweight, because he totally passed out at the bar.  after we told the rest of the japanese band that it's usually me who ends the night in the worst shape, they began calling him "japanese alvin."  he eventually sunk to the floor, where the rest of us proceeded to put cured meats and soy sauce on his head.  very mature, i know.  anyway, the show ended at 4, we went straight to dinner then the bar, and didn't get back to the hotel until 10-ish.  in our already hammered state, matos and i met up with some members of the male ensemble who were chilling in the lobby.  turns out they were about to head out "a-gayin'," as sam put it.  romich randomly showed up a couple of minutes later from the baseball game, and he and i (being the only straight ones in the group now) didn't want our night to end.  so yes, we went out to shinjuku with the gay boys.  if there's one thing i can say about gay men is that they're persistent.  after traipsing through a couple of bars and a porn shop (where the gay boys were, uh, quick to point out the rather short japanese dildos), we ended up at a pretty cool bar where i had to play defense for a good chunk of the night.  vaguely remember stumbling into a cab at 1:30am with the guys.  definitely don't remember getting back to my room.  a solid 9 hours of drinking.  great night.

only one show on friday, at 7pm, so i definitely spent much of the late morning and early afternoon in recovery mode.  did a little more research on gifts for people back home, which i put into action today (sat) between shows.  but before that, i got up early this morning and went to breakfast with jarran and jason at scramble.  cool little shop near shibuya station that doubles as a bar with a DJ at night.  got a spanish omelette...and oh my god, banana juice.  yes, banana juice.  oh, it was wonderful.  that on top of the curry we had for lunch...and wow.  the naan was about as big as the table, and each of the 6 of us that went got our own.  as for items purchased, i obviously can't reveal any of them here.  wouldn't want the surprise to be ruined when i get home, right, mom?  but i can say that i bought myself a new pair of sunglasses today, along with this sweet brown alligator-hide wallet at loft, which reminded me a lot of ikea, because this place seemed to have everything in it.  tomorrow, only one show, a matinee at noon.  then nothing until a 1pm matinee on tuesday.  still in the process of putting together plans for the not-quite 48 hours we'll have off.  i'm confident i'll come up with something good...