A Comic Evening

Though UML is the largest gaijin venue in the park, we do have several Japanese natives in our team. One of the fellas who plays Beetlejuice in our show is very active in theatre outside of USJ. He had invited the Monsters cast to come see his most recent performance project and six of us obliged. We walked in the door from work at about 6:15 with a plan to shower, get ready and meet downstairs at 6:45. Mind you, there were three women in this group. I don't know who we thought we were kidding... I did manage to make it downstairs before everyone had assembled, took one look at the fabulous Japanese heels my castmate Morgan donned and decided to run back upstairs to trade my cute little red flats for my burnt orange, snakeskin 5 inch stilettos. By the time I got back downstairs, the rest of the group had assembled and we hopped on our bikes, (yes, in heels) and rode to the subway station. Right as we made our way through the ticket line, we heard the familiar melody announcing the train's arrival. We ran up the stairs to the platform and got onto the train.

We all checked our watches nervously, fearing that we would be late, (a HUGE faux paux in Japanese culture), while two of our cast members who were more experienced at navigating through the local subway system studied the map "Beetlejuice" has given to us to find our way. We had to make one train change and, once again sprinted to our next train barely making it before the doors closed. Once we arrived at our final stop, we climbed the stairs to the street and went in search of the venue. A good mile and a half walk later, we discovered we had in fact gone (WAY) too far and doubled back. All of three of the girls were whining while the guys laughed at our funny little prances in our 5 inch footwear. After passing the small street where the theatre was hidden a good three times, we finally found the place. Before we went inside we were handed a plastic grocery bag and instructed to take off our shoes. This is fairly commonplace in Japan, what was funny was there was no foyer for us to take our shoes off in. Instead, we had to take them off, stand in our bare feet in the street and then track the dirt that clung to them inside the theatre with us. We couldn't help but chuckle at the irony.

Once inside, we snuck into our seats. The production was in full swing. Japanese humor can be very over the top, so even though we had no idea what the characters were saying, we were all fairly entertained. The problem was, we were often watching with a puzzled expression when the rest of the audience erupted into laughter. What's more, we were often laughing when the Japanese spectators looked on in silence. There were often moments where the cultural divide in the style of humor and performance was so great, it was all we could do to keep from laughing in an effort not to appear rude or disrespectful to the performers on stage. There was even a moment where I looked and saw tears rolling down the cheek of one of my companions as his shoulders shook in silent laughter. Regardless of the language barrier and foreign style (no pun intended), we were able to appreciate the actors who were obviously committed to their work and delivering a top-notch performance. Our very own Beetlejuice portrayed the villain masterfully. After the show, we got to give him a hug, take a photo and express our love and support. He was very touched that we had come to his performance. We said goodnight and started home.

On our walk back to the train station, we laughed together about the downright absurdity of the spectacle we had just observed, but agreed that it was undoubtedly a job well done. It was at that moment I made the mistake of making the statement, "I am not running anywhere else tonight in these heels." Sure enough.... as soon as we got back into the station, our ringleader for the evening shouted, "Train's coming!!!!" and we started our race all over again. Each time we ran for a train, we seemed to have to climb or descend more stairs than the last set and scamper frantically through longer corridors than the ones we had navigated before. By the time we reached our final train, we all collapsed exhausted onto the benches inside and did the only thing we could do, dissolve into a fit of uncontrollable laughter at the sheer ridiculousness of the entire evening. Since we hadn't had a chance to eat anything throughout our hijinks, a few of us stopped into a local favorite restaurant to finish the night off with some great food and great conversation.

It was definitely one for the books. Stay tuned for the next adventure! :)