Thursday, January 20, 2022

Photographs of My Summer In Japan

Last year sometime, my blogging pal, Bijoux @ Bytes From The Burbs, suggested that I share photographs of my Summer in Japan. Throughout my 15 years of posting on this blog, I have occasionally shared photos, so some of these for my longtime readers might be repeats. However, I do know there are many that I haven't shared.

And I'm going to warn you, this is a very heavily laden photo post. TWENTY to be exact. 

These are all photos that I had to scan first and then crop. I also adjusted the lighting in most of them because you know how challenging it can be to post hardcopies rather than digital images. Sorry about the quality of some of these. 

About Japan-

I'm pretty sure you all know how much I loved Japan, so I don't need to say that. However, I will have to say that it's the Japanese people who make their country so special. Honestly? In the 2 1/2 months that I was there, I never witnessed an impatient, rude, or pushy person. And I never witnessed them losing their temper. They are truly the sweetest, kindest people I've ever met in my travels.

So, let me start by sharing photos of the Japanese people.

A Japanese family.

Front desk staff at our hotel. The Japanese love to give gifts, so we received books, calendars, and beautiful oriental fans. 

 

Dishwasher in a restaurant that we enjoyed going to in the evenings. I love the expression on his face!

A very nice young lady who worked at a coffee shop where I would get my coffee.

A gardener. The Japanese LOVE their gardens and take meticulous care of them..

I cannot remember his (or his wife's name), but he was head of the backstage crew. Such a cute couple! And whenever our cast wanted to go somewhere as tourists, they went out of their way to be our tour guides. Such generous people! 

 

Back stage crew. These guys were AMAIZING! If something technical went wrong with the show, I never saw them once lose their cool. They just went with the flow. 

These are the male cast members that were in the show. It was a stunt show that was themed as "Peter Pan." I played Mr. Smee, my dear friend David played Captain Hook...

Notice the sweat dripping through the clothes of everyone in this photo. The only thing I would NEVER do again is go to Japan during the Summer, it was absolutely HORRENDOUS. Well over 100 degrees everyday. And we had to perform THREE shows a day outside in that heat...

Believe it or not, these next two photos are of me in the show doing stunt kicks and punches. I had to learn those stunts from the guys in the show because they were professional stunt men who worked in live shows and films.

And what was really cool was that as I kicked and punched him, there were sound effects inserted so that it sounded as though I kicked and punched him...

Me with my little stuffed bunny that sat on my dressing room table...

Since I was a licensed cosmetologist at the time, I cut everyone's hair in the cast...

Being that I don't like seafood whatsoever, I ate A LOT of noodles and vegetable tempura...

A view from my hotel room. As part of our contract, we were given our very own hotel rooms for privacy. I wish I had taken a picture of the bathroom because it was so high-tech and ultra-functional...

A view of the city, Kyoto. Don't you love the mountains in the background?

In the whole time that I was in Japan, this was the ONLY homeless person I saw on the streets. And I actually had to look close to see that he was homeless because he was so respectful of pedestrians. He didn't harass anyone or even ask for money. Not like the ones here in Philadelphia, who are in your face 24/7 and threatening you if you don't give them money. I don't normally do it, but my heart went out to him, so I shared some yen and wished him well. 

This is one of my female cast members. That day we decided to switch costumes (and makeup) between shows, just for the hell of it. She was me and I was her...

Never put two gay men in a handbag/sunglass store because this is what happens...

One of the many exquisite temples in Kyoto,,,

Thank you for taking this tour of Japan. Hope you enjoyed!

Have a terrific weekend, y'all!

💗