The excitement continues!!!!
Our trip to Japan has been a whirlwind, but an amazing one. It’s hard to believe we’ve only been here two
weeks; I think most of us could be here for a month or more with no
problem. But, without further ado, on to
the events of the second week in Tokyo!
Things started off strong on Monday. After a very late night bowling and singing,
we woke up very early and made the trek on the train out to watch Grand Sumo at
Ryogoku Kokugikan. What an amazing
experience! There were very few people
there, but that allowed us the ability to sit together as a large group and
witness a sport that we know very little about and talk about it together. They also had the most amazing soft serve ice
cream any of us have ever had…..vanilla and mocha swirl. That was my lunch.
After watching for a few hours, the majority of us headed
home to rest a bit. I went to lunch with
David at my favorite Ramen place, and we headed to find a chopstick store that
Rie had told us about. Only one stop
away on the train, it was pretty easy to find….eventually. We took a bit of a wrong turn (my fault) and
stumbled upon this amazing dessert place.
I noticed it because the façade had a large candelabra with what looked
like donuts dripping icing hanging from it….mmmm…..donuts…..David and I sure
like donuts, so we stopped by the place; Live Sweets. We found that though they LOOKED like donuts,
they were actually custard. Regardless,
it was amazing. We back tracked and
found the chopstick store, Ginza Natsuno.
With a huge array of chopsticks in various sizes, materials, colors and
prices, David and I shopped for over an hour.
Following our shopping spree we headed home so that I could do some
laundry and rest a bit; only to find out that I would be going on for Johnny
Cash that evening!!! My Japan
debut! It’s hard to describe how I felt
that night. I was on stage in Japan for
the first time, and it had been almost 2 months since last I had
performed. I got to perform with all of
my buddies in the cast, with the addition of Levi Kreiss, who won the Tony for
his portrayal of Jerry Lee Lewis on Broadway.
That was enough to make it a special evening….add to that the fact that
I went out to greet our fans with Eddie (our Elvis), and it just happened to
all be on the eve of the 1 year anniversary of us starting rehearsals for
tour. It was truly an exceptional night. Though, I could tell I was starting to get
sick….
Tuesday was our day off, so we all met very early and headed
out to Tokyo Disney Sea! There is so
much to tell about this park, but it’s so hard to describe. The sheer scale of the park is what is so amazing. It’s just so huge. And all of the buildings are actual
size. The park is so clean and so
detailed. The food is fantastic, and the
rides were so much fun. My favorites
were certainly 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Storm Riders, The Tower Of Terror
and Indiana Jones. I took more pictures
there than I have ever taken at an amusement park. I walked around in awe all day. I just couldn’t believe what I was
seeing! I felt about 5 years old again,
and it was great. We had a long, tiring
but fantastic day, and headed back home to rest up for more adventures.
By Wednesday morning I had a full-on cold. But, I wasn’t going to let that stop me from
having fun. I had a hot bowl of Ramen
before the matinee, and after the show David, Jam, Austin, Katie, Kelly and I
went to a place called Nabezo for Shabu-Shabu and sukiyaki; similar to
yakiniku, you cook your meat yourself.
However, it is boiled in either a soup-like broth, or in a sweet soy
mixture. It was fantastic. Though, it took us a while to figure out what
we were doing because we didn’t have Rie to help us this time. Later, we visited the Tokyo Tower, where we
were able to ride an elevator up the highest observatory…..250 meters in the
air. You cannot imagine how expansive
Tokyo is. I mean, we all knew it was a
big city, but we didn’t realize it was THAT big. It took as many pictures as I could, though
some didn’t come out all that well because we were there at night.
Thursday came, and I still wasn’t feeling much better. After a hot bowl of soup and the matinee, I took a nap before a small group of us headed to the ACT Theatre to see the tour of Chicago. I had a few friends in the show, so it was great to see a show I had never seen, and to hang out with them afterward. It was a great night, overall.
I slept in a bit on Friday and met Jam, Kelly, Katie and Lee for breakfast in our building at a place called Jean Francois; a nice little French bakery with delicious pastries and iced coffee. Once we were fueled and ready to go, we took the Ginza line train all the way to the last stop: Asakusa.
There we shopped for a while on historic Nakamise Street,
and visited the Senso-ji Temple, one of the oldest and most important in
Tokyo. Once again I took a million
pictures and got my pilgrimage book stamped.
It was a very warm day, but totally worth it to see the temple and the
HUGE pagoda nearby. And, to get some
gifts for family and friends. On our way
back home, we stopped at the chopstick store again, AND, I got to get a couple
of pins to add to my tour jacket from the Hard Rock Café in Roppongi!!!!
After the show that evening, the Thunderstudies and I were
asked to take part in what became not only one of the highlights of tour, but
also a truly lifechanging event. We were
asked to speak to a group of 70 students who are learning English. They had all seen the show that evening, and
were so excited to meet us. We sat on a
small stage and introduced ourselves, and then mingled through the crowd,
talking to large groups of people, and getting to know one another. Within moments, the language barrier
completely broke down. They were excited
to use their English when speaking to us, and we were excited to use what
little Japanese we know to speak to them!
They offered us pizza and Kirin beer…..but, most of us didn’t even care
to eat or drink because we were having so much fun talking. We posed for a bunch of pictures, and were
even given a gift: pigeon cookies (see the picture here of one of the students
presenting me mine). Very famous in
Tokyo, and they come from Kamakura, where we had been only a few days
before. Eventually we had to leave, but
none of us really wanted to. It was so nice
to connect with these people, and to see the pure excitement on their faces
that we had taken the time to come and talk to them. Just incredible.
Time was growing short in Tokyo, and we were all starting to
realize how much we really didn’t want to leave. On Saturday, Billy got the chance to go on as
Elvis at the matinee, and the theatre was nice enough to provide us with some
amazing pork cutlet sandwiches from Maisen, another popular place in
Tokyo. Following the eveing show, we
were invited to try a few different varieties of sake.
In between shows on Sunday, we were cooked an amazing
meal. Noodles, octopus, dumplings, and
even some KFC. And yes, even THAT is
better here. They also made us an MDQ
cake!
Well, we just finished our final show here in Tokyo, and our
final night awaits. Tomorrow we will be
heading to Osaka on the bullet train, and though we are excited for a new
adventure, it’s hard to leave Tokyo.
These people have given us so much, and there’s no way to repay all of
the kindness they have shown us.
I hope you enjoy the updates from the road, and please stay
tuned for more news from Osaka!!!
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