an apple a day 2010

a companion photo to this 2008 version (and the story behind it.)
(photo by tomoki takahashi)

"what would you say is your life motto?"

part of the audition process for disney on classic each year is answering a few questions you probably weren't prepared for. not questions like, "how's your tap?" or "can you do a scottish dialect?" but rather "how would you describe your personality?" or "what is your view of the character of pumba?" or my personal favorite, "what would you say is your life motto?" this sign along the meji-dori in tokyo – somewhere between shibuya and harajuku – provides what i think is a perfectly suitable answer to that last question.

"it's official. i'm in love with japan."

are you reading kate mccann's account of her time in japan while touring with disney on classic? you should be.

discovering the real tokyo

dinner in a closet, seating for seven, down a tiny, secluded alleyway near the shinjuku station in tokyo. depending on the establishement, and the night – and you, for that matter – you might not be invited in. or you might be cajoled into sitting down before you have a chance to say no.

jen's noodling in nihon

my friend jen zappola is blogging about our japan trip again this year. she sums up her return:

It’s odd to feel at home on the other side of the earth. I’m back in Japan for my second tour with Disney on Classic and the Tokyo Philharmonic (how lucky am I?). All seven American singers arrived last Friday. And as I wheeled my massive luggage cart through the bright Narita Airport I had a very clear memory of a thought I’d had when I was departing Nartia last December – What if I never come back to this wonderful country?

I remember being surprised by that thought. I was ready to go home! I’d been in a foreign country for three months. A country where not only can I not speak the language, I can’t even sound out their alphabet. Three months of white rice. Of Japanese television (you think our commercials are annoying). Of buying my groceries at the convenient store. Three months without hummus! I was tired. I missed America. I missed my family.

And yet. Arriving at Narita last December, pack(ed) and ready to fly home, I didn’t want to leave. Because I couldn’t stand the thought of never coming back.

The people. This culture. The joy and the love that I feel from and toward them. It all came rushing back. And I realized I had missed Japan.

So now I’m back in Tokyo ready to start the 2010 tour. Ready to eat white rice. And attempt more Japanese. And bow. And excited to be comfortable with Japan. So much so now that it feels like there is a little place right here where–believe it or not!–I feel like I fit right it.

more from dear jen here.

i've just seen a face

kevin cameron and tomoe kawafuchi's daughter mona (two syllables, easy to say, and pronounced the same in japanese and english.) growing up in rural japan.

kind of like being a chicken in a coop

a fascinating little video by kenichi tanaka -- "japan: the strange country." (the original version, in japanese, is here.) tanaka explains:

"My objective is to make Japanese people to think about that everything happening here in Japan, isn't that normal. So I created this video from foreigner's point of view, rather than Japanese people's point of view. By the way, please don't call me racist, because I am one of short, small eyes Japanese."

45 years late & 20 mph too slow

why are we spending $8 billion on "high-speed" trains that will go 20 mph slower than the fastest train on japan's shinkansen rail line, a system that was introduced in 1964?

endings

the cast of disney on classic: promise. this year's tour came to a rousing conclusion sunday with a final sold-out concert in fukushima, japan and audiences standing and cheering long before the final note had been sung. (from left: brian runbeck, timothy booth, malkia stampley-johnson, tim ewing, anne tolpegin, jen zappola, tony clements, and ian simpson.)

camaflouge

a japanese spider between me and a delicious mikan.

the fukuoka riffs

language is an interesting thing.

i'm traveling in japan with disney on classic (a symphony concert tour with the tokyo philharmonic orchestra, 8 singers, and a crew of japanese folks who have become my dear friends. 28 concerts over the course of two months.)

in japan, the letter U is always pronounced "ooo," and the letter O is pronouced "oh." thus, fukuoka = foo-koo-oh-kah. sometimes the japanese say it so quickly it sounds like three syllables instead of four: foo-kwoh-kah.

how it isn't pronounced is: fuck-you-oka.

living in a culture and country for two months at a time (six months total if you add my time here from 2007 and 2008) gives you hopefully more than a tiny insight into it, and – certainly in this case – brings a special respect for it's customs, food, culture and language.

that said, here are some witty u.s. responses to my and other cast members' facebook posts mentioning fukuoka (i.e. "today i'm in fukuoka!" or "had a lovely dinner in fukuoka today"):

• Hey, watch your language

• What did you just say to Japan ?

• Is this an Austin Powers joke ?

• who is oka and why do u want her to fuk herself in Japan?

• Fukuoka? Didn't his 16-year-old girlfriend shoot his wife a few years ago?

• Fuk u ova?

• You just like using that name!

• who's oka? and why are you so mad at her?

look, if i were back home and had never been to yokohama, or osaka, or masuda, or sapporo, or aomori, or fukuoka, i'd probably be laughing. i'm just feeling protective of...my friend.

and hey, i get just as bent out of shape sticking up for places like gays mills, spooner, spread eagle and bohners lake, wisconsin.

size does matter

a jellyfish. beautiful, but not a pleasant site in the sea of japan. even more unpleasant when you realize this is no ordinary little jellyfish. in fact, little has nothing to do with it.


from environmental graffiti:

"They came from the deep – swarms of giant jellyfish that can sink trawlers and strike fear into the hearts of fishermen. Growing to almost seven feet wide, weighing a sumo-sized 450lb (200kg), and armed with myriad stinging tentacles, Echizen kurage sound like the stuff of Japanese sci-fi, yet the threat they pose is as real as it gets. Since 2005, these slimy horrors have been wreaking havoc in the waters off the coast of Japan – and how to stop them is anyone’s guess."

more on the giant jellyfish, including video, here.

what to do when you have too many giant jellyfish? npr's madeleine brand uncovered one solution in yokohama:

not in my japanese backyard

the scene in ginowan city, okinawa, on november 8, 2009.

from japan press-weekly:

Over 21,000 people in Okinawa protested on Sunday to demand the removal of the US bases from the prefecture, criticizing the plan to only relocate the Futenma US air base from its current location of Ginowan City to the Henoko district of Nago City, also in Okinawa.

during the protest, "dozens of armed u.s. troops on board rafts landed on the coast off the usmc camp schwab in the henoko district of nago city and deployed into the woods during an attack exercise. ashitomi hiroshi, head of the nago council against the construction of the u.s. on-sea heliport, said angrily, “is this their response to the determination of participants in the 11/8 rally? how arrogantly provocative they are!”

the convention center housing the disney on classic venue is the blue-green roofed building in the background, just right of center.

big in japan

ian simpson, part of this years disney on classic cast traveling japan for two months, time warps back to the 80's with a faux music video.

from beginning to end

i've said it before on this blog: i just don't take the time anymore to listen to an album all the way through. what's even more rare is taking the time to listen to a new album all the way through...two times in a row.

the men of d.o.c. - gunma

カイロプラクティック

this is beginning to happen more and more frequently: i look at a sign in japan (so long as it's written in katakana - the japanese characters used for transcription of english words) and i can make out what it says fairly quickly.

i am to the point where nine times out of ten (okay, maybe eight) i can look at the word and decipher it. but today, as i was walking back to shinjuku from shibuya, i rounded a corner, saw:

カイロプラクティック

and immediately thought of my friend tim booth. tim's been having some stiff neck trouble lately, not to mention some issues with a torn rotator cuff. it was the neck pain that made me think of him when i saw the sign.

it says, literally, ka-i-ro-pu-ra-coo-te-i-coo. chiropractic. it's not a word i've ever seen in japanese before, and it was a sudden, unexpected joy today – not to see the word and decipher it, but to see it and think immediately of telling my friend tim there is a chiropractor near our hotel.

it's the simple things.

they say you shouldn't apologize...

...or start a blog post with "i know i haven't posted anything in a while," but i know i haven't.

there are many reasons, not the least of which is i've been distracted and busy – both in excellent ways. besides, i'm in japan and the most commonly used word is probably sumimasen ("i'm sorry.")

i'm lucky enough to get to spend another two months in what now seems like a second home, and my friend jen zappola – part of the disney on classic 2009 company – is keeping a charming blog called jen in japan. best of all, her videos have that "first timer's" view of this beautiful country and culture. jen constantly reminds me why i love it here so much.

the men of d.o.c. - nagoya

this year's disney on classic tour of japan includes a group of five men who are featured in a series of photos taken in each city or venue the tour appears. (more photos here.)

(from left to right, tony clements, tim ewing, brian runbeck, ian simpson, & tim booth.)

japanese cheesheads

when wisconsin is friends with japan.

katsunori kusakabe & tomoki takahashi of harmony japan, inc.