The first Japan trip update!

Written by LazyLegz Wednesday, 08 October 2008

So I am currently in class, but I have decided to update you on the what’s been going on in my life. I promised that I would finish telling you about my crazy summer. So after the exhausting but exciting trip to France with ILL-Abilities I had been asked to go to Japan on July 4th for my first time. I was approached by Nippon Television to work on a 24hrs TV show that would be aired at the end of August. This trip was an initial meeting for the presentation of the performance and a possible collaboration with a boy band.
Japan, wow! It was a dream come true when it has been two years that I told myself I would go to Japan with my dancing career and I finally did it. Even if it was a very short trip I got to visit more than I expected. I landed on the next day July 5th met with the producers and a translator named Saigon. After landing in Tokyo Narita we drove to a smaller airport in Haneda, spent the night in the Airport hotel and left the next morning early to Sapporo. Sapporo is a northern city in the island of Hokkaido, Japan. We went to Sapporo to meet Arashi one of Japans biggest boy bands. The plan was to collaborate with ILL-Abilities and Arashi on a live 24hrs television show that raised money for disabled children in Asia. After seeing there concert live at the Sapporo dome with 50,000 Japanese ladies cheering for Arashi I was motivated to make sure we came out with a good show for the end of August with ILL-Abilities. I met with the band discussed some basic ideas and we agreed that we will come up with an entertaining and powerful show for the 24hrs television show.
Later that evening the producers took me out to a real sushi shop…the food was amazing…I do not know half the tings I ate but they were delicious. The producers were excited to show me around and have me try all different types of Japanese things, especially the Sake!

The next morning we left for Tokyo and it was my last day, but a free day to visit. My translator Saigon took me around to some famous spots in Tokyo such as Shibuya and Shibuko. While in Shibuya I bumped into some bboys from Seattle. 

They had informed me about an event that evening. I had to go…It was a little difficult to convince the producers to let me go to this event, because they did not want me to be filmed before the TV show would come out. Some usual TV worries, because they like to be the “first” to cover a story…We finally were able to convince the producer to let me go to the event. Let me tell you the structure for event in Japan are completely different than in North America. The event was on a Monday night it started around 1am and there were over 160 competing bboys from all across Japan. The format and structure was very organized and efficient for the amount of competitors and the small size of the venue. I entered the competition, but did not get to far because of the amount of competition, but had an amazing time. It was 4 in the morning and the event was still not over, but I had a plane to catch the next day to go back home to Canada so we went back to the hotel without knowing who won. After waking up from an exhausting evening woke up packed ate some good real ramen noodles and headed for the airport. The past three days in Japan were a great success and the Producers were excited to have me come back at the end of August with the rest of the ILL-Abilities crew.
I flew back home and realized I needed to rest for several weeks to catch up on all the excitement that had just occurred between Europe, No Limits, France, and Japan. Next updates will include the Halifax Buskers Festival, Korea, and Japan again.

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