Living in Japan for 13 months changed my life.

I must, first, relate the journey that got me to Japan: I totally manifested that shit. It took me 2 years to accomplish and I’m willing to bet most people will attribute it to perseverance, but let me tell you about those couple of months leading up to finding out I was going through my eyes. If you had felt that energy and experienced that synchronicity that the universe gave me on that audition day, you’d understand what I mean I’m sure that almost every performer that’s ever booked work has had this feeling or something similar happen at one point or another in their career. You’ll know what I’m talking about when I get there, just keep reading...

*A side note about what spurred me to want to audition in the first place, and why Tokyo Disney? One of my top three passions in life has been to travel and to truly experience the world and get to know other cultures first-hand. This job would definitely tick that box. Also, one of my good friends from college, Emma Fitzpatrick, whom I greatly respected and looked up to, worked at Tokyo Disney shortly after she graduated and told me that I was the perfect look and type of talent for the show she was in (Big Band Beat) and that the Japanese people would eat me up. Well, the seed was planted and the year and eight months prior to booking Universal Studios in Osaka continued to water that seed...hard.*

At the time I started auditioning for Tokyo Disney, I was living in Pigeon Forge, TN and was working at a dinner show called “The Black Bear Jamboree.” What’s the Black Bear Jamboree? you might ask. Imagine a cruise ship style review show in a theatre located in a place affectionately known as “Hillbilly Vegas” (Pigeon Forge), where the average BMI of vacationers was off the charts and one of the big draws of the town was clearly all of the “all-you-can-eat” locales. Now, take that show and add a really flimsy storyline to it that helps to tie each decade of featured music together. Now sprinkle in 6 animatronic bears. Yeah...that’s right...I’m talking about 1991 Chuck E Cheese-grade animatronics… I’ll say this about that time - I learned A LOT (about who I was, what I wanted, what I didn’t want, how to put life into perspective, how to have patience, and what endurance felt like) and I was surrounded by a lot of talented people - many who were very comfortable in their lives there, but were competitively talented nonetheless and could have had careers outside of Pigeon Forge had they so desired. Also, despite the talent on the stage, the show itself was garbage. Needless to say, my time in Tennessee had its positives and negatives, but mostly I just wanted out.

Anyway, I began auditioning for Tokyo Disney. I went to their auditions in New York City twice (fall of ‘09 and spring of ‘10) and auditioned for that show Emma had performed in called ‘Big Band Beat’, a great show by theme park standards and certainly better than my current one. On both occasions, after singing my first song, I was “called back” and progressed through the audition pretty far, but never received the call with the offer to actually go. So, the autumn of 2010 rolled around and I thought I would give it another try. You see, although I hadn’t ever seriously considered working at a theme park as part of my personal brand of “a viable career path,” if I were to work at any theme park, Disney would be the one to do it best, I was sure. And I also knew from Emma that they really took care of their international performers at Tokyo Disney. Couple that train of thought with the reality of my time in the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee and my growing desire to travel as far away from “Middle America” or “small-town South” (take your pick) as I could, then of course it made sense in my mind to pour my time and resources into making the trip to NYC and auditioning again. Mind you, not only had Emma planted the seed about my belonging at Tokyo Disney and being perfect for the role, but she also expounded on how her life was changed and enriched by that experience and I really wanted my own version of that for myself. In my brain, it was the perfect ratio of culture, life experience, and quality of life. Unlike cruise ships, were I to book this job, it would give me the opportunity to really dig into a city and a country and a culture instead of being there for a day, getting a taste, and then leaving by sunset.

As I approached this audition, I don’t know if I thought “third time’s a charm,” but that would definitely be an appropriate phrase for the circumstance as I prepared myself. I remember thinking, “This time…THIS time I’ll be what they are looking for. I’ll cater to THEM.” I wore a dark grey (almost black) suit and slicked my hair down, as this was a jazz show I was auditioning for. I was going to be as croonery and 1920s-dapper looking as I could be…surely that’s what they wanted, right?! I walked in and was shocked to find that despite it being 7:00AM, I was THE FIRST person in the room. I thought there must be a problem...these were the Tokyo Disney auditions after all - and if you know the NYC musical theatre audition scene, it won’t shock you to know that a lot of places that have coveted contracts to give to performers typically have hopefuls arriving at 5am to be the first person seen. Slightly thrown off by the lack of turnout, I waited…and began double checking what day of the week it was and comparing it to what the audition breakdown said. Had I gotten the wrong date? Sure enough, people began to trickle in. I was one of the first people to sign up and one of the first people to audition (if not the first) and I thought, as I finished my song, “That felt good! Surely they’ll tell me to come back and move or dance in the afternoon.” They did not...and so I went back to my friends’ apartment feeling dejected.

(*side note - another perk of and reason for my coming to NYC for a full week was that a few of my best friends from college lived up here as well as the friends I had made when I took a sublet from a friend for 2 months in 2009 before moving to Tennessee. It was a great excuse to catch up and remind myself that the world was not all “yee-haws” and “Cracker Barrels.” Also, other auditions.*)

I decided, since I was in town for a week around these auditions, and the day had only truly just begun, that I should just double check and see if there was anything else I could go to…and funnily enough, Universal Studios Japan, the most competitive Disney alternative in the country (ours and theirs), just happened to be having their singer auditions that very day. I requested an audition slot late in the day and thankfully they gave me one. I was going to have a second shot at Japan that very day!

I also decided that I would go into this audition and absolutely be ME. I re-showered, re-styled my hair to make me feel attractive and current, changed clothes to look sharp and feel more like myself, and once again made my way to Midtown, Manhattan. There was no way I was going to guess what someone wanted and try to be that. I was going into this audition with the mindset that I would do ‘me’ VERY well, and they would have no choice but to love it.

I arrived when they told me I should, checked in, waited till my number was called, lined up with everyone else, went in when it was my turn, and sang the hell out of “A Song For You” (you know, the song by Donny Hathaway, but in the style of Ray Charles.) The pianist felt my energy and souled it up. We made music. After being asked by the audition panel to stay and dance and sing some more, I filled out a sheet with all of my measurements, had a polaroid taken of me to accompany said measurement sheet and left the studios just knowing I had booked it. 

You see, there is an energy exchange that takes place in an audition room sometimes (you see, performers? I told you we’d get there.) You feel the room shift a bit. Between the reception and reciprocation of a positive energy with the others behind the audition table, everything brightens, becomes more in focus, and just feels “right”. You fall in love, a little, with each other. It’s really quite magical - and that description doesn’t quite do the magic justice.

The day came to an end, and I left having learned a very important lesson that I continue to learn today in other ways. It is always, always, always better to walk into a room with your head held high and to be authentically YOU, than to guess what people want to see and try to morph to their expectations. People can tell when you are being inauthentic and it almost never goes well.

After the week was over, I headed back to Pigeon Forge, and then around a month and a half later I received an email from USJ (Universal Studios Japan) saying that I was basically on a short list and that it was very likely that I would receive a call in the next month or so as things were finalized. I was, again, reassured that I was going to work for USJ - how could I not? I just needed a phone call…and that’s exactly what happened.

On December 8, 2010, about 30 minutes before my second show of the night at the Black Bear Jamboree Dinner & Show, I received a phone call and was offered a contract to work at USJ for a term of 11-13 months, and I (naturally and without hesitation) accepted the most life-altering contract that I have ever received up until the point of this writing. I packed my life for the 2nd (and definitely NOT the last) time into 2 suitcases, a carry-on, and a personal item, got on a flight and flew half-way around the world to the Land of the Rising Sun.

If what happened that fall wasn’t me visualizing my future; aligning my life’s mission, passions, and desires in my heart; communicating that to the universe; and manifesting a clear path to that visualized future, then I’m a tomato. (That was the first random thing that popped into my head...insert any other random inanimate object if you wish. Or say “Bob’s your Uncle” or something…unless Bob really is your uncle…sorry Bob.)

I spent some time learning the basics of the language before I left, because if ever there was a chance to learn a very foreign language through immersion and being surrounded by it all the time, this was it. (In case you’re wondering, I used Rosetta Stone...I found it super intuitive and helpful.) When I got to Japan I realized that, compared to the vast majority of the USJ newcomers, I was actually pretty well versed in the Japanese language - at least in its structure and the essential vocabulary.

I quickly learned some colloquialisms, verb conjugations, and customs (and their accompanying niceties and turns-of-phrase) and was frequently reminded by my Japanese friends and cast-mates that I had a natural ability for and a fairly decent command of the language already. I took the praise (merited or not) as a token of appreciation from my native friends, grateful to me for making an effort to speak as they do, for learning more, and trying to understand and integrate into the culture of my host-country.

The rehearsal process, itself, went by fairly quickly - I remember sitting in the theatre all day as we put together a show that had never been done before and would likely, after that year, never be done again. One of the most prolific and connected female directors of the park, Kahori-San, was in charge of the creation of this Sesame Street show - the show that I was to be performing in for the next 11+ months. She was different than most Japanese women. I know this, because the Japanese people I knew told me so, as did other westerners who had worked at the park before and had the pleasure of working with her. She had a directness about her that wasn’t found in most Japanese people that I came across - and just a more western feel to her in general. It was as if she had spent years abroad and decided to come back to Japan, or was somehow pulled back, but couldn’t fully shake (and perhaps didn’t want to shake) the changes she underwent from living in her adopted homes, wherever in the world they may have been.

She was accompanied by a guy who was involved with Pilobolus (the shadow/form dancing company based in the US) and who served as choreographer to the show. Rounding out the creative team was the Music Director of all of the shows of the park (or nearly all of them…I can’t remember.) In hind-sight, I wonder what Kahori-San thought of that work - of creating a children’s show? She DID invent a new Sesame Street character for the Japanese audience. Moppy was its name. It was a short, pink dinosaur with a giant round head, a strip of hot pink fluff one might call “hair” on top, and a voice oddly resembling that of the Pokemon character, Pikachu.

In a few short weeks, the show was open and our cast became the “veterans” welcoming the final cast scheduled to arrive at the park to our cast house and to their year at the park - the Monster’s Rock and Roll Show cast. By this time, we were able to really dig into our neighborhood and learn most of its secrets. We were able to find the myriad ways to get to work and had picked which one worked best for us. We knew how to get into town by ourselves and find ‘Jupiter,’ the import grocery store, where we would buy comforts from home. And I would say, at this point, most of us had heard of and been to the handful of “staple” restaurants and bars that I would reckon 80-95% of ALL foreigners who come to USJ go to…or at least went to while they were open.

The feeling at this point in the journey wasn’t a feeling of “home” - everything, from the streets, to the signs, to the immaculate public transit, to the eery quiet of a large group of people, to the sounds of the convenience store doors opening, was foreign. No, one who had never been to Asia or had not grown up with a large Asian population around them could not feel “home.” Rather, it was the feeling, or the beginnings of the feeling, of familiarity - of feeling settled in a new place. Going out the front door was no longer disorienting or overwhelming. It was time to start truly living my life in Japan.

**One final side note to this post - I glossed over a few of the details during this part of my life: a relationship ending, my tour of the south to visit loved ones before I left the country, my purchasing a new mini camcorder that also took stills to capture my year, my thinking I was going to be in a Hello Kitty show and then arriving in Japan and learning the casts had been swapped and it was now Sesame Street I was doing...all interesting stuff, but not super important to me getting to Japan.

***In telling this story, I not only want to paint a picture of Japan as experienced through my eyes over the course of 13 months, but also dive in to HOW my life was changed by this experience. As this story progresses, I’ll take you through each season in Japan with some picture highlights.

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