We finally opened!!!! It was such a blast debuting all of my different tracks and I am so excited for the next year!
I love performing in this show and I adore the variety in my three tracks! I couldn't be happier to call this my job! I feel beyond thankful for this opportunity.
What's great about this show, is that there are hundreds of dedicated fans! Some are in the audience every day, every single show. They pick out their favorite performers and take thousands of photos of them over the course of the their time in the show. The other Disney shows I have performed in have prohibited guests to take pictures or video and I've never really been able to share my performance with friends and family for that reason. So you can imagine how thrilled I am to see pictures/video of the show just hours after performing! It's a great way to check up on how my make up, costumes, expressions, technique, and acting choices actually look!!!
So here are some pictures from my first 4 days and different tracks!
Snow White finds her handsome Prince!
He makes her blush with his princely romance ;)
Monkey ladies dance with King Louie at Coco Banana!
(on the left)
The monkey boys try to impress the monkey girls, but it just doesn't work.
But they still have loads of fun!
Wendy finds herself surrounded by Hook's crew!
And she does NOT enjoy it.
She's not a fan a Hook.
Then Peter comes to save her!
And they do a little dance together!
Then Peter takes Wendy to Neverland!!!
The Villains try to ruin all the fun.
There is a lot of fire, smoke, thunder, and lightning.
Then some dancers dance around in pretty dresses.
(I'm in blue)
Aurora, Cinderella, and Snow White come to join the fun.
(Blue in the back!)
And they all live happily ever after.
:)
Then some other stuff happens in a Film studio in Hollywood, but I don't have pictures of that yet...
Snow shows up in a fancy gold dress, though!
Then a whole group of gold dancers sing and dance with huge smiles!
(2nd girl from the left)
This is my favorite part of the show!
I'm pretty happy!
Then Mickey and his friends join for the big finish!!!
So that's most of what happens in the show!!!!
Here are some videos too!!!
This is the opening and the Monkey scene of our 2nd debut day (April 11th, 2014)! You can watch my best friend Snow White in the opening and my monkey friend who comes on half way through the song and is the girl furthest to the left during the boys vs. girls section!
This is my best friend Wendy on the first Debut day!!! If you're not able to watch this one, it's because I shared it on Facebook from another friend. We'll give it a go anyhow!
This last video is also from the first debut day (April 10th)! It is the film studio scene, the Hollywood scene, "Shining Star," and bows! You won't find me in the film studio, but look for the blonde reporter with a green and red dress in Hollywood. The reporter only appears for a minute before running offstage to prepare for "Shining Star." It's slightly impossible to explain where I am in Shining, because all the girls look exactly the same...I am the first girl to enter from the Left and after a left fan kick, I travel to the right side of the stage but am no longer in the shot. At 5:01 I come back into the shot on the far right then I'm mostly on the far left side of the stage for the rest of the number. You won't be able to see me after the bows (which I am not on stage for in this track) because I'm in the very back just to the right of center. So good luck and happy hunting!
"One Man's Dream II: The Magic Lives On" at Tokyo Disneyland, runs 5 times each day unless there is a special event or show cancellation (very very rare). If I am shifted (happens once or twice a week), then I will perform that day's track only 2 or 3 times depending on if I am the first or second shift. If I am not shifted and it is not my day off, I perform my track 5 times. The shows are only 30 minutes long and we have about an hour in between shows to cool down, have a snack, and prepare for the next show. Yet even though 5 sounds like a lot of shows, they pass by relatively quickly! I have one specific track that I don't have any downtime between costume changes, so the show flies by in no time! I cannot say it enough, but I LOVE this show. I feel so much joy and fulfillment with the music, characters, choreography, and cast all put together and it's truly a rewarding experience!!!
^^That song from Les Mis gets stuck in my head all the time...
Guess what?! TOMORROW I DEBUT!!! It has been a long 2 months of rehearsals and I couldn't be more excited to officially get on that stage and start performing for a full audience! Not to mention how great it will be to finally have a normal sleep pattern again! Yay!
I purposely woke up early today so I could go to bed early tonight. So much of me wants to curl up on my couch and take a nap (Yeah, I finally got a couch!) Some of my cast mates pulled an all-nighter last night and watched the sunrise together at the Sea Wall so they could get to bed early as well. Just a few more days and I'll feel human again!
So you might be wondering how I chose to spend my last day before we're 5 shows a day, 5 days a week...
I woke up around 9:30am because I was going to join some friends for breakfast down the road at an "American" restaurant called Jonathan's. There was a change of plans and I decided to forego a day trip and spend some time alone enjoying the beautiful weather and Cherry Blossoms! So I hopped off the bus and started walking back home.
There was an adorable group of about 20 kindergarten-aged boys and girls with matching sun hats on that were walking toward a mini park next to the University just several blocks from my apartment. They were too cute not to follow, so I sat on a bench not too far from the class and giggled at the silly things they did to entertain themselves on what was really just a tiny hill of grass. It's amazing how much fun kids can have without electronics, eh?
I enjoyed the children, and the worship music I listened to through my headphones, but did I mention this mini park was full of Sakura trees? Well it was, and it was wonderful sitting beneath them and basking in God's glory.
My stomach was growling so I decided to continue my walk home and make myself a big breakfast!
All of the Uni kids were walking to Meikai as I crossed the street and it made me think of walking to class at UCSB.
Oh! Speaking of UCSB...if you haven't seen my shares on Facebook already, there was some serious chaos that broke out over this past weekend. Riots broke out on the streets of Isla Vista after Deltopia, the annual spring break street party.
I've been making smoothies nearly every morning the past few weeks. They fill me up for a long time and keep me from craving sugary sweets! I also add lots of healthy stuff like apple cider vinegar, vitamin C, oats, and honey. They always taste different because I pretty much just throw in whatever I can find and think might taste good together. I actually followed a recipe with this smoothie, though.
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup of frozen mango
1 banana
1 handful of spinach
1 tsp honey
It was delicious and nutritious!
After breakfast, I spent the afternoon watching some TV shows, reading my daily devotion, and hanging this above my bed:
It's hard to read in the picture, but it's Psalm 37:4, "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." I'm sure I've posted about it before, but this is my absolute favorite bible verse and I try to live each day by it. God has presented this verse to me during some of my most life-changing seasons and He has always followed through with this promise. I wouldn't be in Japan right now if I didn't believe this verse to be true.
My room is finally coming together and I promise I'll post more pictures when it's all finished and organized nicely.
My eyes were telling me to take a nap, so I told my body to go for a bike ride. I bought a bike off of one of the guys in the current cast just a few days ago! It will be perfect for riding to the train station to go to work, or for carting my groceries home, or for riding along the sea wall in the summer.
I packed myself a little picnic and after riding around and exploring the sea wall for 10 minutes or so, I grabbed a spot on the grass and read some scripture while I enjoyed my cheese and crackers!
It started to get a chilly after a little while, so I packed up and left to go home. But first, I had to listen to "You're Beautiful" by Phil Wickham.
I see Your face in every sunrise The colors of the morning are inside Your eyes The world awakens in the light of the day I look up to the sky and say You're beautiful
I see Your power in the moonlit night Where planets are in motion and galaxies are bright We are amazed in the light of the stars It's all proclaiming who You are You're beautiful
I see You there hanging on a tree You bled and then you died and then you rose again for me Now You are sitting on Your heavenly throne Soon we will be coming home You're beautiful
When we arrive at eternity's shore Where death is just a memory and tears are no more We'll enter in as the wedding bells ring Your bride will come together and we'll sing You're beautiful
It was such an incredible day. I was so happy that I went out and enjoyed the sunshine and God's beautiful creations!
I cannot wait to wake up in the morning and perform for these fans! I also can't wait to show you all pictures next time!!!
Spring has sprung!!! I can finally go outside without a fuzzy coat and gloves on! The weather has been beautiful and although I've spent most of my days inside due to our late night rehearsals, the sun shines through my window and brightens up and warms my apartment! But then I just checked the weather forecast and it's supposed to rain for the next week...April showers bring May flowers, right?
Hey! Speaking of flowers, that's exactly what I'm here to write about! I have been looking forward to seeing Cherry Blossoms since I signed my contract!!! All of my friends who had done Tokyo Disney contracts kept telling me how beautiful they were and I couldn't wait to see them in person!
Japanese Cherry Blossoms, also known as Sakura, are only in bloom for a handful of weeks. They are in full bloom (mankai) about a week after the first blossoms open (kaika). The trees then shed their petals about one week after full bloom. The average blooming period for Tokyo is March 28th-April 5th.
We were very lucky to have a day off right at the peak of full bloom! A group of us traveled out to Ueno Park to enjoy a day under the Sakura.
But first we needed to get some snacks! It's hard to tell from this picture, but
there was an alley of food vendors on this little island in the middle of the
lake at Ueno Park. It was hard to see much of anything because it was so crowded.
There were all sorts of snacks to choose from: corn-on-the-cob, takoyaki (remember
those octopus balls), pastries on a stick, kebabs, noodles, omelets, chocolate-
covered waffles, etc.
Oh and fish on a stick if you were feeling very adventurous...we weren't.
This was my choice and it was a great one!
I also got a fizzy Japanese drink and corn-on-the-cob
along with my kebab :)
The food was delicious, but THIS is what we came for!!!
There were lanterns hanging all around the park too! It was a nice touch!
Didn't actually go up to check it out, but it made for a nice picture...
It was magical walking beneath the blossoms!!!
So we found a nice spot for our picnic (actually it was someone else's spot.. oops).
But they were friendly and came over and chatted with us for a while! There were two more guys but
they must have been taking this picture.
They were pretty funny guys! Language barriers can be quite entertaining. They seemed to really love Grant too...
Then the dog from the group next to us came over to say hello.
We were all in need of some puppy love. Good thing there are
shops where you can rent a pet by the hour! I will be doing this!!!
It was a lovely day and I'm so glad we were able to all experience the Cherry Blossoms together.
The Japanese people seemed happy we were there too. A lot of random people came up and took pictures of us while we had our picnic, we were asked to be interviewed for a television program, and we entertained an audience when we took this photo together:
We don't seem to blend in very well...Crazy gaijin...
