and so it begins.....

Well I have decided to join the masses and have a blog. I have never really wanted to do one, only because I don't think anyone really cares to hear the mundane details of my life. I thought it would be a great place to post pictures and tell you some stuff about my adventures in Japan. I have already been here for a few days so I will catch you up.

June 4th, 2006
I got up at about 6:30am so I could start packing (don't worry Mom, I remembered everything) and then finally got down to Lincoln Center to catch a bus to JFK. Oh, for those of you who don't know, I am on tour with the Metropolitan Opera covering the role of the Marquis in La Traviata. We are in Japan for 3 weeks. OK, back to JFK. It is very interesting to see the clear delineation of rankings at the Met. All of the "stars" where in first class except for Placido Domingo who was meeting us in Japan. Anyone else who was actually singing a role got to fly business class, and the rest of us were in coach. No big deal though, we had plenty of room. The Met chartered the plane, so we where the only ones on it. The first leg of the flight was to Alaska. It took 7 1/2 hours and 3 meals on the plane. They wouldn't stop feeding us. For my main meal I had the Japanese Special. Since we were flying on JAL I figured it should be good. I think there were 7 or 8 different things on my plate. I knew what 2 of them were, a carrot and broccoli. The rest is up for debate. I ate almost everything, or at least had a bite of them to try it. Interesting...

We landed in Alaska and they said that we could de-board the plane as they were refueling and that there was a "fresh-air" area to go to. It was nice to get outside and this picture is where we were. It was nice to get out in the air, even if we did feel like prisoners. On a side note, the woman standing in the middle with a white shirt and blonde hair is Deborah Voigt.

We got back on the plane and finally arrived in Osaka, Japan 8 hours later. Osaka and Kobe are very interesting places. Kobe was completely leveled by an earth quake on January 17, 1995. It has now been built back up, but looks very industrial. Everywhere you look there are cranes and construction going on.

The hotel that we are staying in is called the Portopia and is on an island of Kobe, which is good and bad. The good part is that it is fairly quiet around the hotel, but the bad part is that there is nothing around us except other hotels and convention centers. There is a free shuttle bus to downtown Kobe, or we can take the train. The station is a 1/2 block from the hotel. The rooms are very nice. I have 2 beds, a couch, desk, TV, electric toilet, nice patio, and a special water heater for tea.

Yes, I did say (type) electric toilet. What an invention! A little scary, but nice, well kinda. The best part is the seat. It's heated. I am sure that it would be great in the middle of the night in the cold of winter, but it feels like someone else was sitting there just before you. :-(

Here is a picture of the "control panel" on the toilet. The features include: Bidet, Spray, and the heated seat. You can also change the pressure of the spray and the temperature of the water shooting up your butt. It's only lacking a dryer. Isn't technology great? SAFETY WARNING: Do not turn on spray or bidet when not actually sitting on toilet. I did, and I almost lost an eye.

Here is a picture of the view from my porch. You can see that I look out over the harbor, but there is so much stuff in the way. And just look at all of the cranes. It looks like they are building an amusement park, you can see the half finished ferris wheel in the background. This has also been the weather since I have been here, cloudy and overcast. Very cheerful. You can also see one of the train stations by the hotel. The trains here are amazing. They are pretty much exactly on time. If it is supposed to be in the station at 9:07, it's there. It reminds me of the efficiency of NY Metro Transit. By the way, my TV only has 1 station in english: CNN.


June 6th, 2006
Notice how it went from the 4th to the 5th, Apparently I will get that day back when I fly back to the states. It's kind of like your taxes, they just hold on to it for a while, and then you get it back in the end.

Today was our first day of rehearsal. We are at the Hyogo Performing Arts Centre and it is beautiful. The outside is ok, but the inside is all wood and it looks great. This is a picture of Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Ramon Vargas rehearsing. I still have not gotten over the fact that I am hear working with these singers. It's great to see them in the rehearsal process and see how they work. Renee Fleming is playing the part of Violetta.

After rehearsal I walked around downtown Kobe for a bit. I tried not to wander too far so I could still keep my bearings. I found a GIANT store called Midori. They have pretty much everything you can think of, and many different styles to choose from. I guess you can compare it to a department store. For instance they had a section of bathroom scales. They had about 30-40 different kinds that you could choose from. For cell phones, I think there were 8 or 9 aisles of them. Amazing.


June 7th, 2006
Today was the final, well only, dress rehearsal for La Traviata. Here is a picture of the theater. It really does not do justice to it though. The staff there is great. We are mostly using the crew from the Met, but there are Hyogo tech people also. There is a nice little canteen in the theater that is backstage. You can get some really good Japanese style meals for under $5.00.

That was pretty much the extent of my day. I was at the theater for the most of it, but when I got home I did do a little shopping. I went down to the super market and got some groceries for breakfast and snacks. This was an experience. Most things being written in Japanese, it is hard to figure out what is what. The most challenging thing to find was cereal. They don't really eat a lot of it, or any. I found an aisle that had about 10 different kinds. I settled on good ole Kellog's Special K. That was the only thing written in english on the box, so I assumed it would be the same as the states. It is. Something that isn't like the states are these little guys. Yup, whole dried fishies. They eat them as snacks and also put them in soups and things. I pulled this picture off the internet. I guess they have the cigarette pack there to give you an idea of the size of the little fishies.

Well this finally brings us to today, or yesterday...


June 8th, 2006
Today I decided to take a little excursion to Kyoto, which was the capital of Japan from 798-1868 and is one of the best places to see the old temples and shrines. I took the shuttle bus from the hotel to downtown Kobe and from there hopped on a train to Kyoto. This is a picture at the train station in Kobe. Notice anyone familiar in the ads across the street? They really use a lot of American actors in their ads. I saw a great one on TV of Richard Gere laying back and relaxing in a canoe on a lake. I couldn't even tell you what the commercial was for. The fare to Kyoto was 1050 yen (roughly $9.25) and was only about 50 minutes away. Once I got to Kobe I went to the tourist information center which was on the 9th floor of a department store in the middle of the train station. They gave me some maps including a walking map of the different areas of Kyoto. There are 1600 temples and 400 Shinto shrines. I tried to figure out the best way to see all of them, but I only made it to 2 Temples and 1 Shrine in 7 hours of walking.


Here is the first one that I went to. It is called Nanzenji and it is a head temple of one of the Zen sects. If you click on the picture and look really close, you can see a guy sitting on a bench in a yellow hat. That just gives you an idea as to how big it is. This picture is actually of the Sanmon, which is the gate of Nanzenji. It was built in 1628 after the first one burned down. The next picture is the view from the top of the gate and looking over part of the Temple grounds. You can see the lovely weather too.



The next place I visited was the Ginkakuji temple in the northeastern part of Kyoto. The grounds for this temple were a lot smaller but the gardens and ponds where beautiful. They had traditional giant carp in their ponds and some very beautiful zen gardens. They rake the rocks into patterns like waves. This is a picture of the silver pavilion. Apparently it was supposed to be covered in silver foil, but they never got around to it. All those wars and stuff, ya know. This other picture is from the top of the walkway looking over the gardens and temple. You can see part of the downtown area of Kyoto in the background.

After I left the Ginkakuji temple I decided to head over to the Imperial Palace. They had a tour that was at 2pm and I wanted to take it. On my way over I saw a moped shop and I asked if there was anywhere that I could rent a moped for the day. She didn't really speak english, and when I say really, I mean not at all. Both of us at the same time looked around the streets for a youngster. Most of them speak english, or at least broken english. This is when I met Ray. I'm not sure if that is how he actually spells it, but that is how it is pronounced. He translated for me only to find out that there were no rental places in town. I guess I will have to wait until I get to Tokyo for the moped experience. But I did have a nice conversation with him. He asked me a ton of questions about where I lived and when I told him New York, I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head. He said that it was a great honor to meet and speak with someone that lives in New York. I was excited to hear english. He told me that I should go to the Shimogamo shrine which was only a short walk away. He then also reached into his wallet and gave me his bus pass that was good for the day. The people here, for the most part, will really go out of their way to help you. And he was no exception. We said our good-byes and I was off to the shrine.

While I was walking there I looked down at my watch and it was 1:30, only 3o minutes until the tour. I decided to pass on the tour and figured I would just walk around the Imperial Palace unguided. So I finally found the Shimogamo shrine. I have no idea what they do there, no one was around. I saw a few people in little tiny shops that were selling things, but otherwise I have no idea. There also were no signs in english, at least none that helped me. It was pretty cool though. The blaze orange structures were huge. This is a picture of the front gate into the shrine. All of the buildings were this color. You can go here and see some more pictures of the shrine buildings.

I headed off towards the Imperial Palace and saw that it was going to be about an hour walk. As my feet were already killing me, I opted to take a taxi down there. First of all, I should mention that they drive on the left side of the road. Also, all of the cabs are beautiful on the indise. The seats are covered with pure white cloth and the head rests look like doilies. The doors also open and close by themselves. I got down to the Imperial Palace, well at least the Imperial Park. This park is huge. Not as big as central park, but pretty big. All I could see where giant walls surrounding buildings that I couldn't see. I decided to take a look at my guide book to find out exactly where that palace was. Lo and behold I was standing right next to one of the giant walls that held the palace, but I couldn't get in. The tour that was at 2pm is the only time that you can see the Palace. Not only do you have to go on a guided tour, but you also have to have your passport and fill out an application to see it. This is a picture of the front gate of the walls around the Palace.

I decided to head back towards the train station and found myself in front of a McDonald's. I couldn't help but go in, I was curious. I ordered a cheeseburger just to see if they were the same as the states. To my disappointment, they were. But they did have the number 2 which consisted of fries, a drink, and a fried shrimp patty sandwich. I didn't try it, but I still may.

I got back to the station and headed back home. All and all it was a pretty cool day. I fell short of my goal to see all of the shrines and temples in Kyoto but I did see some beautiful ones.

On a side note, I have my patio door open and I can hear a siren for either an ambulance or a police car. It sounds like the ones you hear in England. Anyway, the reason I am commenting on this is because this is the first time that I have heard a siren since we have gotten here. Again, it reminds me of how peaceful and quiet Manhattan is.

Till next time...