Pineapple express: Vivacious Miss Audacious in Japan
AUDACIOUS DREAMS OF SUMIMASEN - Part 1
A Showgirl Travelogue by Vivacious Miss Audacious
I was selecting the perfect kawaii figurine from an impulse rack near the check out.
“Sumimasen!” I exclaim as a little girl with indigo veering on fuschia hair and her mother press close to me. “You have matching hair,” the mother says. I am confused. I see myself from above, with bleached white blonde roots and screaming fuchsia locks. We do. Antics ensue and I wake up with the realization that I was dreaming in Japanese, with my natural red hair a tangle across my pillow.
It’s quite possible that I have never spoken another language in my dreams. I don’t recall ever having done so. To me, such a thing speaks to the indelible mark Japan has made on my psyche. Japan was a dream. A faraway place, out of reach, but a place I am certain that would not only entrance me, but would love the art I make. Zany, colorful, outrageous, sometimes surreal. Kawaii.
To summarize fourteen madcap, bursting at the seams, kaleidoscopic days in Japan in a thousand words or less is a fantasy not worth having. But, I will happily paint you a glimpse of traveling showgirl life across the vast expanse of Tokyo and a sliver of Kyoto in postcard brevity.
A five-year, long story short: in 2018 I began to book a nationwide Japanese tour of Tokyo, Osaka and Hiroshima scheduled for March of 2020. We all know what happened next. Fast forward to June and July 2023 and the gates of a faraway place being flung open once again and my neon platform sneakers landing on the soil of a mesmerizing land bustling, rushing and oh, so polite.
Nestled between a proper holiday experience bookending showbiz, there were 5 days, 4 shows and 5 performances across Tokyo and Kyoto. Shows booked, bags yet to be packed, I recruited my comrades The Great Dane and Eddie Lockwood to join me for some magic making.
Show One
July 1, 2023
In the Heart of Shinjuku lay ROSSO 198, a cabaret tucked down two flights of cement stairs and past a hallway that served as a sanctuary for smokers clutching onto a habit now shunned from the public streets. The vision of this charming hideaway conjures up the familial and beloved atmosphere of the AllWays Lounge & Cabaret in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The gregarious Toku San, proprietor, and man at the helm of the modest stage, replete with a runway, kindly mounted 'New Orleans Burlesque Carnival' on our behalf. A sold out affair, the show was bursting with incredible talent from a rousing and near hysterical group rendition of a famed scene straight out of Chicago, to the avant garde stylings of SNATCH, a veteran of the stage pumping out anarchic energy and impeccable musicality.
The Tokyo debut of my Pineapple Mambo act, where I enter as a pineapple with legs and emerge as a glamorous, hula hooping showgirl was a huge hit and the exclamations of “Kawaii!!” are a treasured memory and affirmation that I chose correctly when trekking to another hemisphere with 13 hula hoops. We celebrated through the night and emerged into a city aglow in neon lights.
Show Two
July 2, 2023
Dear, lovely Kyoto. The Heart of Japan (as I’ve been told). A charming city where we glimpsed a real life Geisha under the light of the full moon. I am eager to return and will never forget our first moments there. Sparing you the melodrama of the bullet train, we hurtled toward Kyoto from Tokyo in about 2.5 hours, arriving just as rehearsals were beginning. Our taxi deposited us and all of our worldly possessions onto a noteworthy street and we tumbled out, blinking and bleary, looking for the venue sign.
“Miss A!, Miss A!” I hear from above, searching, I look skywards and MECAV, my friend and one half of the production team, was hollering from a third floor window. We sardine into an ancient lift and we step into a hallway where she ushers us towards a door, flings it open and we are hit with a darkened room, a stage bathed in red, a single spotlight and a hauntingly gorgeous vocalist singing House of the Rising Sun in Japanese.
This moment is one I will forever cherish. Every moment of each day is packed with a thousand stories but in the interest of concision, I end Varietease Kyoto with the happy moment I am tipped not in a thousand yen bill, but a ten thousand yen bill (around $70 USD) which I discover in confusion after purchasing a glass of wine and receive a bounty of bills in return.
READ PART 2: TOKYO
MORE FEATURES
MEET YOUR LOCAL PERFORMERS
A Showgirl Travelogue by Vivacious Miss Audacious
I was selecting the perfect kawaii figurine from an impulse rack near the check out.
“Sumimasen!” I exclaim as a little girl with indigo veering on fuschia hair and her mother press close to me. “You have matching hair,” the mother says. I am confused. I see myself from above, with bleached white blonde roots and screaming fuchsia locks. We do. Antics ensue and I wake up with the realization that I was dreaming in Japanese, with my natural red hair a tangle across my pillow.
It’s quite possible that I have never spoken another language in my dreams. I don’t recall ever having done so. To me, such a thing speaks to the indelible mark Japan has made on my psyche. Japan was a dream. A faraway place, out of reach, but a place I am certain that would not only entrance me, but would love the art I make. Zany, colorful, outrageous, sometimes surreal. Kawaii.
To summarize fourteen madcap, bursting at the seams, kaleidoscopic days in Japan in a thousand words or less is a fantasy not worth having. But, I will happily paint you a glimpse of traveling showgirl life across the vast expanse of Tokyo and a sliver of Kyoto in postcard brevity.
A five-year, long story short: in 2018 I began to book a nationwide Japanese tour of Tokyo, Osaka and Hiroshima scheduled for March of 2020. We all know what happened next. Fast forward to June and July 2023 and the gates of a faraway place being flung open once again and my neon platform sneakers landing on the soil of a mesmerizing land bustling, rushing and oh, so polite.
Nestled between a proper holiday experience bookending showbiz, there were 5 days, 4 shows and 5 performances across Tokyo and Kyoto. Shows booked, bags yet to be packed, I recruited my comrades The Great Dane and Eddie Lockwood to join me for some magic making.
Show One
July 1, 2023
In the Heart of Shinjuku lay ROSSO 198, a cabaret tucked down two flights of cement stairs and past a hallway that served as a sanctuary for smokers clutching onto a habit now shunned from the public streets. The vision of this charming hideaway conjures up the familial and beloved atmosphere of the AllWays Lounge & Cabaret in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The gregarious Toku San, proprietor, and man at the helm of the modest stage, replete with a runway, kindly mounted 'New Orleans Burlesque Carnival' on our behalf. A sold out affair, the show was bursting with incredible talent from a rousing and near hysterical group rendition of a famed scene straight out of Chicago, to the avant garde stylings of SNATCH, a veteran of the stage pumping out anarchic energy and impeccable musicality.
The Tokyo debut of my Pineapple Mambo act, where I enter as a pineapple with legs and emerge as a glamorous, hula hooping showgirl was a huge hit and the exclamations of “Kawaii!!” are a treasured memory and affirmation that I chose correctly when trekking to another hemisphere with 13 hula hoops. We celebrated through the night and emerged into a city aglow in neon lights.
Show Two
July 2, 2023
Dear, lovely Kyoto. The Heart of Japan (as I’ve been told). A charming city where we glimpsed a real life Geisha under the light of the full moon. I am eager to return and will never forget our first moments there. Sparing you the melodrama of the bullet train, we hurtled toward Kyoto from Tokyo in about 2.5 hours, arriving just as rehearsals were beginning. Our taxi deposited us and all of our worldly possessions onto a noteworthy street and we tumbled out, blinking and bleary, looking for the venue sign.
“Miss A!, Miss A!” I hear from above, searching, I look skywards and MECAV, my friend and one half of the production team, was hollering from a third floor window. We sardine into an ancient lift and we step into a hallway where she ushers us towards a door, flings it open and we are hit with a darkened room, a stage bathed in red, a single spotlight and a hauntingly gorgeous vocalist singing House of the Rising Sun in Japanese.
This moment is one I will forever cherish. Every moment of each day is packed with a thousand stories but in the interest of concision, I end Varietease Kyoto with the happy moment I am tipped not in a thousand yen bill, but a ten thousand yen bill (around $70 USD) which I discover in confusion after purchasing a glass of wine and receive a bounty of bills in return.
READ PART 2: TOKYO
MORE FEATURES
MEET YOUR LOCAL PERFORMERS