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The Adventures of Nagzilla
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
What the Hell are You Doing in Japan?!?
The first question that usually comes up is, "Why are you going to Japan?" There are several answers to this, but the most important reason is due to my husband's job.
My hubby is the tech director for a local theatre company.
Their scene shop expanded a few years ago and in the process of enlarging they started taking outside jobs for other theatres that did not have their own scene shops. One of those theatres was the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts.
Last winter, they produced a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Here's a view of one of the scenes.
Somehow, this production was picked up by a company called Broadway Asia, and it was planned to take the show on a three month tour of Japan and other parts. Sadly (for them, not for us) the tour as a whole didn't go as planned, so instead of a three month stint traveling all over Asia, they had a three week run in Tokyo. This was good for us, because had it been a three month tour Jason would not have been able to travel due to his regular job. But with the shortened version, he was tapped to be head carpenter for the tour and agreed to go over for the three weeks it was in Tokyo. Part of the deal was that he made enough to bring me and the kid over for the last week of the show.
Now why did we come along? First and foremost, Japan is Andrea's dream vaca. You know how everyone has that one place they want to see before they die? The top place on their bucket list? Japan is Andrea's. She has been fascinated with Japan since she was in 1st or 2nd grade. So just a trip to Japan alone was a dream come true. But then add to that the fact that our stay in Japan would coincide with her golden birthday. When she becomes a teenager. It was just too perfect not to go. Of course, we are totally screwed when she goes to celebrate her sweet sixteen. Seriously. Talk about setting the bar waaaaaay too fucking high.
So we packed up our dreams and decided to go along. What's really funny is that when we first discussed taking the trip, Jason and I had different concerns. His main source of anxiety was the fact that he was going to be working pretty much the entire time. His first concern was that we would be safe, seeing as how we would be running around a large city in a foreign country. Tokyo is larger (by population) than New York City, so he wanted to be sure we would be okay running around on our own. Ironically, his concern for our safety had to do in relation to crime, not natural disasters. Who knew?
My biggest concern was the language barrier. I've taken my fair share of languages over the course of my education (in order: French, Spanish, Russian, ancient Greek, biblical Hebrew), none of which I could remember enough of to have any functional capacity. Japanese not even on the list. Not that I wasn't willing to learn, but with less than three months between when we confirmed we were going and when actually left, there really wasn't time to tackle a language as complex as Japanese. Would we be able to get around? Would we understand what people were saying? Would we commit some major faux pas just by the nature of our ignorance? These were my primary worries.
My secondary worry (which is completely valid and no less disconcerting) is my propensity for getting lost. I have zero sense of direction. None. Seriously, none whatsoever. I am not exaggerating when I say I can get lost in a cul de sac. The idea of being in a foreign country and being in charge of getting myself and my daughter both around and safely back home seemed somewhat daunting.
All of these worries turned out to be unnecessary. It's funny, isn't it, that the thing you worry about the most is often the one that doesn't turn out to come true? Of all the things we had to be concerned about, the one thing that caused the most stress and disruption was the one thing we didn't even think about.
Not to say we didn't think about it at all. We knew that Japan sat in the Ring of Fire, and knew there were possibilities for earthquakes. But NOTHING on the scale of what actually happened.
That's the background on how we ended up where we were when we were.
My hubby is the tech director for a local theatre company.
Somehow, this production was picked up by a company called Broadway Asia, and it was planned to take the show on a three month tour of Japan and other parts. Sadly (for them, not for us) the tour as a whole didn't go as planned, so instead of a three month stint traveling all over Asia, they had a three week run in Tokyo. This was good for us, because had it been a three month tour Jason would not have been able to travel due to his regular job. But with the shortened version, he was tapped to be head carpenter for the tour and agreed to go over for the three weeks it was in Tokyo. Part of the deal was that he made enough to bring me and the kid over for the last week of the show.
Now why did we come along? First and foremost, Japan is Andrea's dream vaca. You know how everyone has that one place they want to see before they die? The top place on their bucket list? Japan is Andrea's. She has been fascinated with Japan since she was in 1st or 2nd grade. So just a trip to Japan alone was a dream come true. But then add to that the fact that our stay in Japan would coincide with her golden birthday. When she becomes a teenager. It was just too perfect not to go. Of course, we are totally screwed when she goes to celebrate her sweet sixteen. Seriously. Talk about setting the bar waaaaaay too fucking high.
So we packed up our dreams and decided to go along. What's really funny is that when we first discussed taking the trip, Jason and I had different concerns. His main source of anxiety was the fact that he was going to be working pretty much the entire time. His first concern was that we would be safe, seeing as how we would be running around a large city in a foreign country. Tokyo is larger (by population) than New York City, so he wanted to be sure we would be okay running around on our own. Ironically, his concern for our safety had to do in relation to crime, not natural disasters. Who knew?
My biggest concern was the language barrier. I've taken my fair share of languages over the course of my education (in order: French, Spanish, Russian, ancient Greek, biblical Hebrew), none of which I could remember enough of to have any functional capacity. Japanese not even on the list. Not that I wasn't willing to learn, but with less than three months between when we confirmed we were going and when actually left, there really wasn't time to tackle a language as complex as Japanese. Would we be able to get around? Would we understand what people were saying? Would we commit some major faux pas just by the nature of our ignorance? These were my primary worries.
My secondary worry (which is completely valid and no less disconcerting) is my propensity for getting lost. I have zero sense of direction. None. Seriously, none whatsoever. I am not exaggerating when I say I can get lost in a cul de sac. The idea of being in a foreign country and being in charge of getting myself and my daughter both around and safely back home seemed somewhat daunting.
All of these worries turned out to be unnecessary. It's funny, isn't it, that the thing you worry about the most is often the one that doesn't turn out to come true? Of all the things we had to be concerned about, the one thing that caused the most stress and disruption was the one thing we didn't even think about.
Not to say we didn't think about it at all. We knew that Japan sat in the Ring of Fire, and knew there were possibilities for earthquakes. But NOTHING on the scale of what actually happened.
The Adventures of Nagzilla
I was hesitant to start this blog because I wasn't sure how much I would be able to continue it after my intial entries. The first purpose of this blog was to relay insights and ongoing adventures from our recent trip to Japan, which just happened to coincide with the catastrophic 9.0 earthquake that occured on March 11, 2011.
A lot of these stories were previously shared on my facebook page. But (believe it or not) not everyone is on facebook, and some folks who wanted to hear my tales either aren't on it or aren't my "friends" so they didn't have access to them. I have also had an opportunity to expand on some of the knowledge about places visited and customs observed, as well as having the luxury of reflecting on the experience through the 20/20 lens of distance and hindsight. So while some of these stories may be familiar, they have been enhanced for your reading pleasure.
So initially I figured this writing exercise would have a rather short shelf life. I was trying to determine what else I could possibly share that would live up to the life-changing and validating experience that was our Japan trip. As you can see from the title of the blog, I discovered that I did, indeed, have more that could be shared.
When reflecting on our experience in Japan, it was repeatedly brought home to me that we were not just witnesses to history, we lived it. It was one little thing that made my ordinary life extraordinary. By the sheer timing of our trip, we became a part of something much, much bigger than ourselves. But as I continued to examine my life, I realized that I've had many adventures that have lifted my life to the extraordinary.
I used to want to be famous, like a rock star or a movie star, because their lives seemed so much bigger, better, and more glamorous than mine. I wanted to have the life less ordinary. I have discovered that I do. And I think we all do, if we have a chance to look at it from a different perspective. That's the nature of this blog.
The initial entries will detail our adventures in Japan; before, during, and after the events of March 11. But once the recounting of the adventure is done, the blog will not end. On the contrary, it will be just the beginning.
A lot of these stories were previously shared on my facebook page. But (believe it or not) not everyone is on facebook, and some folks who wanted to hear my tales either aren't on it or aren't my "friends" so they didn't have access to them. I have also had an opportunity to expand on some of the knowledge about places visited and customs observed, as well as having the luxury of reflecting on the experience through the 20/20 lens of distance and hindsight. So while some of these stories may be familiar, they have been enhanced for your reading pleasure.
So initially I figured this writing exercise would have a rather short shelf life. I was trying to determine what else I could possibly share that would live up to the life-changing and validating experience that was our Japan trip. As you can see from the title of the blog, I discovered that I did, indeed, have more that could be shared.
When reflecting on our experience in Japan, it was repeatedly brought home to me that we were not just witnesses to history, we lived it. It was one little thing that made my ordinary life extraordinary. By the sheer timing of our trip, we became a part of something much, much bigger than ourselves. But as I continued to examine my life, I realized that I've had many adventures that have lifted my life to the extraordinary.
I used to want to be famous, like a rock star or a movie star, because their lives seemed so much bigger, better, and more glamorous than mine. I wanted to have the life less ordinary. I have discovered that I do. And I think we all do, if we have a chance to look at it from a different perspective. That's the nature of this blog.
The initial entries will detail our adventures in Japan; before, during, and after the events of March 11. But once the recounting of the adventure is done, the blog will not end. On the contrary, it will be just the beginning.
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