So, we left Vancouver for Japan on Monday (July 8). The Vancouver Airport is really nice - they even have an aquarium for you to look at while waiting to board.
Forgive the bad picture!
After a nice long flight, we arrived in Tokyo. Our first night, I was too tired to take many pictures. I did take a picture of our hotel/apartment though.
It's smaller than we thought - we misunderstood what 'Standard Double' meant, but it has all the things that we need: kitchen, very nice bathroom, comfy bed, TV, and internet!
After a good night's sleep, we set out to explore some areas of Tokyo that we hadn't seen yet.
Here's a link to all the photos in my Flickr (click here); but here's a few that I thought would be nice to share.
This sandal is actually huge, and covers about half the height of the gate.
And just what am I pointing at?
It seems like there was some sort of Festival going on at Shinsoji Temple (which is where that big gate is, so there was lots of festival food around.
All that left us kinda craving veggies, so we bought some food t the grocery store nearby our place, and had a nice simple dinner (salad with egg, and fruit). I'm really enjoying the idea of being able to cook sometimes instead of having to go out all the time. I also went and got a massage today, and the lady who did it told me that my shoulders were really hard. She did a great job though, and got a lot of the knots out.
Tomorrow, we're planning to do some shopping for CDs, books, and stuff like that that we can only get here. I think I'm gonna relax in the tub now!
About Me
I'm already a little behind with this updating! Just going to summarize our last two days in Vancouver.
July 5, 2008
Joyce's Wedding! Went early with Joe and Patty to go and help Joyce set up.
That's us grabbing breakfast at the White Spot before heading over to Granville Island.
We set up really fast, so Jamie and I had some time to walk arond the island a bit.
Jamie took a lot of wedding pictures, but we haven't had time to sort them yet so I'll put them up later. Suffice it to say that we all had a good time.
July 6, 2008
Joyce and Dave hosted a BBQ a Kitsilano Beach, and we had great weather for it.
After that, head out for dinner with the whole family, then to Grace's for cake for Auntie Jolie's birthday.
And that concludes our quick stop in Vancouver! Next post, the start of Japan!
Jamie and I arrived in Vancouver early on Friday morning, and were picked up by my cousin Joe and his wife Patty. Next stop was for some food and coffee. Patty had gone to work at 4am before coming to get us! We went to Moxie's for brunch, and were served served portions that felt like way too much.
I think Mr. Pancake was upset that I couldn't finish my plate.
After that, we went back to their place to drop off our luggage, played a few rounds of Rock Band, and then head out to meet my other cousin Grace (Joe's younger sister) so that us girls could go and get our nails and toes done. Joyce (cousin getting married, youngest sister to Joe and Grace) met us there and we had our nails soaked, filed, shaped, and painted. The boys joked that they were sad that we hadn't asked them to see if they wanted their nails done.
Went to the mall to walk around a bit and pick up some last minute things (batteries, make-up, etc). I saw this fun little ride, and it was a nice little flash from the past.
Baby Kermit is so cute!!
Went out for dinner with Joe, Patty, Grace, Greg, and Sophia, and were joined by Joyce and Dave afterward. It was a great time!
Today is the wedding, so I'll update again soon!
And yesterday, PushPULL's fourth season came to a close as we played to a packed matinee audience. Doing 5 shows in 4 days is pretty demanding, and I have a whole new respect for those who perform night after night, and have to give the best performance ever each and every night.
Our show this year was more technically demanding than our previous shows, and everyone seriously brought their level up. On Saturday night, after doing a matinee show earlier that day, I thought I was out of gas and wasn't going to make it, but with everyone around me all excited, and then hearing the buzz of the audience; we were all somehow able to dance our hearts out.
My body is seriously tired now though. The theatre isn't designed for dance shows, so the changerooms are about 3 flights of stairs up from the stage. I've probably run up and down more stairs this past week than I usually do in a month. My legs hurt. A lot. But it was all totally worth it! Thanks to all the dancers - I had an amazing time and I can't wait until next season!
It's show week! 'After Hours' is now supposed to be ready to go. Or rather, we have two more tries before it has to be truly ready to go. Tomorrow is going to be dress/tech, and then Wednesday will be our full dress rehearsal, and Thursday is opening night! Exciting times, huh? This year, I have to admit to feeling a little un-ready. The degree of difficulty of the pieces has gone up from last year, but the amount of time for us to get things right hasn't, so I feel like I'm missing a lot of nuances to certain pieces. I'm not forgetting any steps anymore, but there are little tiny details that I wish I could get just right every time.
And after the show is over, I'll have about a week and a half before Jamie and I are off to Japan! I'm going to try and blog here while I'm traveling and show you all the places that we visit. Yes, I know this is going to be my third trip to Japan, but I just really like going there. Besides, there were still places that Jamie and I wanted to go to, or other foods that we wanted to try. Plus I get to practice my Japanese, which is something that I hardly ever get to do.
Tick, tick, tick....Can anyone else hear the countdown to showtime?!
This morning I was listening to the radio and a commercial for a Boston Pizza promotion came on. They were advertising some Italian special, and the ad was sung in an operatic fashion by some contralto with too much vibrato, which would have been amusing...EXCEPT they set it to the music for Carmen, which is a FRENCH opera. Written in French, by a Frenchman.
I was instantly turned off by the ad and wondered just what uncultured buffoons came up with that commercial. After a few moments of calm, I wondered if perhaps I was being too critical since it is just Boston Pizza, and not the Canadian Opera Company. But still...I can't help but have a not-so-favourable impression of them now.
Am I being too much of a snob?
Today, for the first time in my life, I got stuck in an elevator. I was stuck in my building elevator for 40-45 minutes at the P4 level. The crappy part about that was that my cell phone wouldn't work. So, pressed the 'Call for Help' button. I cannot tell you the number of times I got hung up on. So, I kept pressing it until someone finally answered and told me to just hang on. Like I could even do anything else. In the meantime, I can hear the building fire alarm start to go off, and figure 'Just great. If this was a real fire, I'd be stuck in here.' So, I press the call button again to see if someone can at least update me on what's going on. I get nowhere - another hangup. I sit and listen to some music. Then I can hear that the fire alarm has stopped, so I figure that the elevator should be okay soon. Wrong. I wait...and wait...and the elevator buzzer is still going despite the building alarm being off. So, I press the call button again. The ultra helpful person there tells me that the other 2 elevators are fine, but elevator 1 doesn't seem to be working. And I'm yelling at this point that "Of course it's not working!! I've been inside elevator 1 for the past 20 minutes!" So uber helpful person tells me to hang on, at which point I get hung up on. Again. I let another 10 minutes go by before I hit the call button again cuz no one even told me if someone was coming or not. At this point, a different voice comes on, so I yell into the panel that I'm still stuck in elevator 1, and could someone please let me know what's going on. This person, who in retrospect was probably part of the fire department, told me to try and stay calm, and that they were sending people down. Three songs on my iPod later, I hear someone on the other side yelling "Hello!", so I yell back. Five minutes later, the door is pried open, and I'm greeted by the sight of 3 firefighters. They asked me how long I'd been there, and were pretty surprised to hear that it'd been that long. They apologized, though it wasn't their fault, and asked me if I was okay. I was fine, but mostly a bit pissed that no one let me know what was happening. After I got to ground level, I called Jamie and we've decided that we're going to report this incident. There were a lot of things that weren't handled properly.
Man...I'm glad this week is over...