Show Marathoning

Nagoya, Japan

 

It was a pretty quick trip for a long two weeks that lie ahead.  We were about to embark on a journey that not too many people can ever say they even came close to.  We were starting our 29 shows in 11 days and our trek to our 900th show all in the same week.  It’s even crazier to think that we will hit show number 1,000 before we even leave Japan! 

 

Anyhow, even though most of our time was spent at the arena in this city, we were still able to get out every now and then and explore.  Those few two show days were amazing because they almost felt as if we had days off.  You know you are busy when you still perform two shows and don’t have to do a third and it feels like a day off.  I think this means, that we went a little crazy, but we wouldn’t be who we are if we weren’t.  

 

Speaking of crazy, we all knew what was coming…the hike of Mount Fuji and it was getting closer and closer.  So, for now, we were just enjoying being at sea level and being a tourist around the area.  No one went very far or did any strenuous sightseeing because we knew was coming.  

 

The Nagoya Castle and Temple were close and nice places of interest to visit in the city surrounded with enriched history.  That’s one thing that I have to constantly remind myself, is that all these places I will be able to visit along the road this year are so much older than the anything in the U.S. and that their time periods of existence came before anything in the states was even thought about being developed.   Its amazing to see how advanced this culture was for its time and it really opens yours eyes to the world around you.  There is so much more to see outside of America and this has really showed me that.  I am blessed to have this experience.  

 

And aside from the sightseeing, birthday celebrations, shopping, nightlife, and Pokémon Go excursions, it was finally setting in that we were actually here, this was really happening.  I never ever thought I would be here let alone performing here.  

Each city we travel to, things get a little easier and make a little more sense even if we can’t directly communicate with anyone.  It has been a lot of charades to figure a few things out, but everyone is so kind and helpful.  It’s also so very clean over here, but its also very hypocritical because there are literally no trash cans anywhere.  That part, we haven’t been able to figure out.  

 

Also, on the pre-made sandwiches there isn’t any crust on the bread, loaves of bread only come in about eight slices total, and the fruit is really expensive.  For example, in the states normally cherries run pretty pricey about $4 to $5 dollars a pound at some stores, well three slices of an apple in Japan are about $1.50!  Also, common spots for dinner are the small convenient stores, which in the states those are the places that you only go for snacks and drinks.  And in the states it’s normal to run the air conditioning on high just to keep cool, well here that’s almost the last thing to be of a concern.  However, hot or not, somehow we just kept pushing on.  We made it through all those shows and were still able to enjoy our time here as well.  We were living lift to our fullest and were ready to face our next upward battle.  

We were off to climb Mount Fuji.  See you all in Osaka!