Highlights of Hiroshima

Had the pleasure of trying Japanese Nabe cooked in Sake at
a restaurant called "Francia" in Hiroshima.

Pretty good day working in Hiroshima for the Erth promo tour. We had two mini-shows at the Hiroshima airport, and then another photo session with the Triceratops at a different venue. Given the sheer size and weight of the triceratops rig, the Hiroshima airport show was tricky; part of the "magic" of the show is that we never let the kids see the dinosaur puppets disassembled; but there were literally hundreds and hundreds of people around the open stage. We got around this by assembling her in a tent next to the stage, but her size made getting her out of the tent one issue -which we got around by squatting as we walked out (if you can imagine that with a 70kg rig on your back), but then having to walk her up the ramp onto the stage was a different issue entirely. In any event, at the end of the day, it all went well. Getting better at vocalizing with the voice distortion box; (the dinosaur's "voice") is based off of my own, and the more I do this, and get used to carrying the weight, the easier it is getting.


As the actual show only has two shows a day, I think it should actually be easier than the workload we have for the promo tour; except for the fact that it will be for two months straight. I guess we will have to see.

Actually had a chance to eat raw mantis shrimp... pretty good,
but I kept wondering what it would taste like cooked, lol. 

Anyway, after completing all of our promo activities for the day, we went to restaurant in the Saijo area of Hiroshima (known as the #1 place for brewing Sake in the country) to eat foods that had all been cooked in Sake. While I'm not a super huge fan of traditional Japanese cuisine, this was fantastic. I actually had cheese that was cooked in Sake... that (quite naturally) tasted like cheese and sake at the same time. Couldn't quite get my head around it, lol. All in all, I really threw down. (Although that may just have been because I was hungry as hell from supporting the rig all day, lol. Still... no complaints.

Still hoping to visit the Peace Dome again to pay my respects... but afterall, I am here to work, so I guess that has to come first ;)

Each of the towers in the photo represent a different Sake brewery.
As Saijo is known as the best area for Sake brewing in Japan, the area is covered with them. 

On the promo tour with Erth

Yutaka and I with the Triceratops Rig.

Just arrived in Hiroshima, our first stop on the Erth Dinosaur Zoo promo tour with Yutaka, who will be operating the back legs of the triceratops rig I'll be driving for the full Japan tour in a few months. The last show/presentation we did was in the Australian Embassy in Tokyo, and this one will be in Hiroshima airport. In general, I love Tokyo, but it's always nice to be able to get out of the city sometimes and see other areas of Japan. Especially if my official excuse is driving a robotic dinosaur, lol.

For only having a few hours of rehearsal with the rig before our first show, Yutaka has done an awesome job. As the full rig weighs about 70kg (the operators wear it like a tandem backpack) I was a bit concerned that our height difference would mean I would be bearing a disproportionate amount of the weight, but thanks to his keen scene of movement and his body, it wasn't an issue in the least.   I'm really glad to be able to bring him with me on this one. Looking forward to the show tomorrow!

On our way to Hiroshima.

Our producer/director, Scott, showing my son the Triceratops rig. I still don't think he knows that his Dad is inside, lol. 

Australia: First Impressions

After seeing it in so many movies, I finally got to see the Sydney
Opera House for myself. 

So, this morning I arrived in Australia for trial rehearsals for a production I may be working with later this year called Erth. The job came my way via my fireburn instructor from stunt school. He had worked with them before on many occasions, and as they had recently begun to do a summer tour in Japan, he suggested that they get in touch with me as not just a performer, (I'm slated to operate a giant triceratops rig), but also somewhat of a local liaison.

Long story short, this opportunity has finally given me the chance to get to the only continent I have never been to- Australia, so I am super happy to be here, and it's really interesting for a myriad of reasons.

As a city, it reminds me of Seattle a lot. Lots of water, rolling hills, and lushy green- but more tropical and "jungley" instead of deciduous...and apparently you can buy boomerangs everywhere, lol.  As any Aussie will tell you, the people are incredibly laid-back. More so than pretty much any big city people I have ever met. As an example, after my host picked me up from the airport, he pretty much threw me a key to his house, and said "Right. I've got some meetings. Take today to do whatever you like." and left me to do my own thing. This is in stark contract with the Asian sense of hospitality I'm used to where people will bend over backwards to show you around, take you out and be the best hosts you can imagine. But it was really nice.

All the trains are double-deckers. 

As I spent almost a decade wandering all over Asia by myself, I welcomed the freedom, and set about to make it out to the Sydney Opera House. As something I had seen in a million Hollywood movies, seeing it up close was a must; and looking at the map, it was only a few stations away.

 The train system took a minute to wrap my head around, (but literally just a minute) and then after that, getting around was cheap and easy. As aforementioned, people are super easy-going, so asking directions from strangers was no issue at all. My only complaint was free wifi was harder to find than I expected it to be. And I still haven't seen a single starbucks. It's fall here, (and cool) so a hot coffee would have been really nice. Another interesting thing is that yesterday when I left Japan, I was in the spring. Today, when I arrived in Australia, I am in the fall.  It's really weird sometimes to see just how different of a world you can go to on a single flight.

It was spring when I left Japan a few hours ago; but it is fall here. 

My first Aussie meal- A double patty, double cheeese, double-maple
bacon burger with a bun that was an enormous glazed donut. EPIC. 

Syndey looks shockingly similar to Seattle; but more tropical. 

And there are boomerangs for sale everywhere, lol.