Ch. 2: My First Movie Role!!

Thanks for all the responses to my first post! I am still new at this so I don't know if I am being too honest and freaking some of you out. I am not extremely down or bored here. I have the normal ups and downs of anybody maybe heightened a bit more by the daily obstacles I face here. I have had a great week of vacation so far. It has been nice to sleep in past 7:00 am and travel to Tokyo everyday. It has also been nice not having a schedule or set plans and just figuring out what I am going to do as the day begins. I could give you a string of good stories about what has happened to me in the last couple of days but I remembered that many of you haven't heard about my amazing day being a film extra in Japan! So I will recount that day first and get most of you caught up on the strange happenstances in my life.

9-13-09

I guess I will start off at the beginning of the weekend since I had it completely booked and planned out for every minute or so it seemed. I decided to go to Tokyo immediately after work on Friday(I guess daily routine of going to school, eating and going home to sleep made me a little antsy). So I slipped out of work early feeling a bit guilty, which is expected in japan, and jumped on the express line to Tokyo. For some reason it felt so good just to be going. I had no one to meet there and no official plans though I had stumbled upon a foreigner meet-up group on the internet that discussed the metaphysical, meditation, etc and I planned to crash their month meet. So after 80 minutes (which seems to me to be really fast now since the trains take forever here) I arrived in Tokyo Station. Of course Tokyo station is as big as an airport and takes forever to navigate or change trains. So I end up running a little late but I can still make it there about 10 minutes after. So I venture out of the train station excited discovering a new neighborhood and realize that I didn't write down an address or a contact phone number all I printed off was the directions to a building. Of course the description of the building was completely vague especially for a city packed with tall apartment buildings of all colors shapes and illegible names(at least for me). So not surprisingly I get lost but am not despaired and store into the nearest konbini(convenience store) and buy some dinner and eat it there. Afterwards I decide to go to Akihabara, the electronics town full of nerds and the nerdiest stuff you can image. Most of it you probably don't want to. Anyway I get there around 8:30 and most of it is actually closed down. Though I did get to slip in to a giant store and pick up some computer parts(I got a sweet cordless mouse and external keyboard). I ended up jumping on the last express train back to Ohara(which I now discover saves you only 20 min and is almost double the price). The next day I woke up and enjoyed a lazy morning, I have plans to go on a Night boat cruise in Tokyo Bay with a few other jets. I head into Chiba around and have lunch(spicy Szechuan noodles) before I meet the other Jets to head to Tokyo. We end up taking a slow route and getting there at sunset and it starts raining as we exit. We have to meet at 7 at the boat launch so we have time to stroll. Chris an Australian Jet gets hungry and so we look for a quick bit. As w turn the next corner low and behold the red face of Wendy smiles down upon us. Erica the other Jet with us and I begin reminiscing about Wendy's and Chris says hes never been there and starts implying how bad American food is. So we force him to go and we all get some super value meals. One big difference though is that it is expensive. Eventually we make it to the Boat launch witch is packed full of foreigners most wearing traditional Japanese clothes. It was a sight to see; kinda hilarious to see them awkwardly stumbling around. We slowly move on to the boat in a pack and begin to see the appeal of taking a boat ride in the pitch black while its cold and raining out side... It is all you can drink!!! Yes for 2 hours people including lots of Japanese drink as much as they can on a rocky boat with rather low side railings. There was a lot to stare mouth agape at; especially the singing of YMCA in unison. I didn't drink much though because I had to wake up tomorrow for my big part in a Movie. Yes!! I was in a real movie. I got a text from a older Jet in the area awhile back asking me if I wanted to participate and I said yes not knowing what I had planed. I also thought they wouldn't need me so I expected not to go. So the next day came I was kinda expecting not to go but I roll over and look at my phone and I had gotten a text from the guy saying he needed me. So I jump out of bed and look at the clock. Its 7:40 and i needed to meet at 8:00! I call the guy and run out of the house, jump on the bike, and ride as fast as I can to the train station to catch the next train. I soon found out that everybody was running late anyway. So I arrived at the train station and has a few minutes to wait. I noticed small group of foreigners waiting in a corner chatting. The next thing I know I am being carted off with 8 other foreigners in to a van and taken to a guest house down the road. We exit the van in a beautiful wooded hillside and I notice lots of other people running around and other cars pulling in. I am beginning to think this is a big production. The other extras and I begin to search the compound for where we are supposed to go and eventually find the wardrobe/make-up room. As I look around I notice that 80% of the people are from Latin America! I fall right back into my Spanish and speak it for the rest of the day! There are actually two Chileans too! What a small world this is. The next part was kinda like gambling on luck. They called us in one by one to the fitting room and we hoped for some cool pirate costume. Ohh I completely forgot to tell you what the movie is about. It is a historical reenactment on a Spanish naval ship that crashed not to far from here 400 years ago. There is a children's book about it and it is starting to become a big deal since its approaching the 400 year anniversary. One of the Jets helped translate the book and knew the director so that is how I got to be in it. The local Japanese fisherman and women clam divers rescued the many survivors so there is some interesting stories. So unluckily I came out with a small vest which appeared to be Mexican so I got to show off my chest hair to everyone all day and I was not too happy. Next was the make-up area where we got smothered in dirt make-up(surprisingly hard to get off, much worse than real dirt!). After awhile of talking and laughing at each other we were rushed off to another spot farther up the coast. I was a alcove tucked away in some hills and really nice. the weather turned out to be on our side and was sunny and warm. We spent the next 8 hours in this small area, mostly standing around watching and talking. Most of our scenes where us washed up on the beach where the Japanese fisherman came and dragged us to shore. There was one lucky or not so lucky extra that got to be in the nude scene. Yes, there was a nude scene! I think he was from Hungary and he had to play dead while a Japanese woman stripped off her top and began rubbing her body on his. I know what your thinking but this wasn't some porn sex appeal thing thrown in for good measure. There is actually historical fact that when someone is dying of hypothermia the best way to warm them up is through skin to skin contact. It was really funny though because the director(a women) wanted 8 retakes. So the poor woman wasn't pulling her top down enough and had to give us all a show to our enjoyment. Most of the extras were vieing for spots with the best view but I just couldn't help laughing. I then put in my 5 minutes of work lying on the beach getting pounded by waves. We were all looking haggard by the end. There was sand everywhere, we were soaking wet and shivering(mostly because we forgot our change of clothes and towels at the guesthouse). The director then thanked us and told us we must be freezing so we could all take as much time as we wanted in the Onsen at the guest house! So we slowly made it back and showered and then all had a good soak in the hot tub. Afterwards we had to wait to get paid which took forever. I made $110 though! Wooohoo! By the time we got back to the train station it was already 6:30. I wanted to hang out with the Chileans but I had school the next day so I headed back on my 5 minute train ride. When I entered my house I realized something. There are always going to be experiences to had and they are going to come and go without any action on my part. The only question is do I sit back and let these opportunities pass by or do I latch on and try to enjoy the ride whatever life brings. I think I choose the latter...

If you were wondering it is going to released in a museum and maybe on tv so I won't be famous at least not yet...

Check out my pics from it...

ch. 1 onsen!!!

SO I had planned to start this thing awhile ago but with everything else new in my life I had a hard time getting motivated to sit in front of a computer for an hour typing out the details of every second of my new life. It has taken some adjustin(to save you from the depressing journey into my turbid emotional state) to except that I am here and this is my new life. I don't mean to sound so dreary and serious; in reality I have had some amazing times so far and in fact I don't regret coming here at all(at least not yet). It has been really good for me to be living on my own and trying a new profession. I have been able to be a lot more honest with myself and communicate my feelings. Anyway I could babble along for pages about what lurid moments and dismal days I have had and how it has changed me but that should really be kept for my therapist(though I don't have one so my girlfriend gets to hear all about it; thanks baby!). I wrote all about my onsen experience in my journal and I meant to write it as my first post but that was also 10 days ago!! Oh well here goes....

9-11-09

Today is my girlfriend Dorinne's(for those of you who haven't heard me talk about her) birthday! I'm actually glad it is because it is so easy to remember. There has been a lot that has happened to me in the last week or however long its been since I've sent out a group e-mail. But I really just want to talk about yesterday because it has been the best day here since Dorinne has left. As any other day it started off as a normal school day with lots of "canceled" classes (meaning the teachers don't want me to come to class) but it gives me lots of free time to sit in the staff room and try to occupy myself with something. However on this particular day I did get to start my routine of giving an American culture talk. Yea! This time my topic, 9.11 or the start of "War on Terrorism". I know what you are thinking and yes I probably scared off many of my English teachers as being a radical liberal but the students probably couldn't understand anything I said anyway. I also continued giving my introduction schpeal; which has gotten a lot better since I first stumbled my way through it but unfortunately this time the projector stopped working so I had to basically talk about myself without any pictures. Surprisingly it wasn't so bad and my JTE(japanese english teacher) helped make it a lot of fun. In the afternoon a vendor came to school selling unusual sweets, which I expected would just be ignored and sent off as a peddler of useless crap but too my surprise all of the female teachers gathered around and each spent a good amount of money on these nicely packaged sweets. Suddenly I felt bad for refusing to buy anything minutes before. Since I couldn't eat much for lunch(there is usually lots of meat but since it is free I take a lunch anyway and give most of it to the kids) a few teachers felt bad and offered me some of the sweets. It was very interesting for lack of better words. My first time eating what seemed to me to be a very sticky gelatinous candy which was then covered with daizu(soy flour). It was tasty albeit a little difficult to swallow. So after some speech contest practice I headed over to the BOE(board of education aka my employer) to pick up my modem... YES. Finally I have internet!!! I was so happy I had no plans but to go home and immediately reconnect with the world or at least thats what it felt like(I am a bit addicted to the internet). However on my jubilant exit with my beautiful modem in hand I ran into Tsuroka-sensei. Hes an old gym teacher who has taken an interest in me had has taken me out before and basically just paid for everything. This time he said "lets go have a special english lesson.. are you free right now". It was a little strange to be in front of everyone else in the office when he said that but I thought why not even though I really wanted to go shopping for computer things and call Dorinne. But...

HE ended up taking me to my first Onsen(japanese natural hotspring)!! It wasn't to far away in a little surfing town named Chosei, about a 40 minute drive away. So he picked me up at my house and with very little said we soon approached a huge new looking building with adjoining restaurant and outside seating and ice cream stand. For a second I thought I was at some amusement park or indoor water park. But Au contraire, I entered the building and the onsen was amazing! The first hurtle to cross was the nudity. Yes, there are no clothes accepted when you enter an Onsen. They are sex separated though of course. So everyone is naked and only carry around with them a small hand towel I imagine solely for wiping sweat away from your face. Entering this onsen was like entering a dulux spa. There where about 10 pools or what looked like rock walled ponds both inside and outside(traditional) in a courtyard behind the building. This was a nice place but unfortunately wasn't a real onsen becuase it is not a natural hotspring. I heard that they ship the water from the natural hotsprings close by in the mountains but I don't believe this. After I entered feeling a bit strange standing completely naked holding a small towel(and I mean small) I didn't know what to do. Luckily I had Tsuroka-san with me. He treated it as a challenge and I had to experience every pool like it was a stage to be completed in some culture appropriating video game. So first was the typical suana. Well maybe not so typical being there is a TV in there and all the wooden benches are covered in thick towels. I love a good suana! Next was the hot tub pool inside about 41 C, after a bit on to one of the hot springs outside (the cooler one) and it when on like this! He took me to the mineral scrub too which is in a little room, basically a suana and you rub your entire body with a salt like mineral. Unfortunately I had a few small cuts on my body and man did it sting! There is a shower attached to this room so we showered the mineral off after a painful 10 minutes. The next hour was spent alternating the sauna, hot tubs and oh yes I forgot the cold pool! This was really hard to do but man what a sensation! One pool outside was had "black water" which Tsuroka-san said was for longevity. Finally your next challenge as Tsuroka-san put it. The water massage. I tackled this one on my own. A stream of water came down into a shallow pool of hot water. The water fell from about 10 feet and man was it intense. I mimicked other japanese and slowly let the water fall from my neck to my toes, which ended up causing more damage then help I think. After this you go into a really hot pool which basically looks like a slightly bigger well. The next hour was "free time". I wandered a bit taking it all in. Being in what looks like a natural hotspring in the quiet night air looking up at the stars, it is awesome. I eventually made it to the grooming area. Basically a L-shaped corner of the inside area had was looked like cubicles of sit-down showers. It sounds weird to shower in the open with a bunch of old naked men around you and it is but after being naked for 2 hours walking around a huge building you kinda forget about it. Japan also has a really relaxed attitude towards nudity so its not embarrassing at all. So I had a shave and shampoo and was ready to go. Both of us left feeling refreshed and extremely relaxed. As soon as I entered the car I felt exhausted. When i got home it was only about 9:30 I still made it out for a little shopping. Unfortunately the only place that was open was Yac's, its kinda like CVS or Walgreens. It had lots of the necessities and I ended up spending a lot about $80 but it had none of the computer electronics I needed. I got home and talked to Dorinne a bit still coherently. After about 20 minutes though I said goodbye for tomorrow was another school day and drifted off into darkness...