When Green Meets Blue

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(VIDEO AT THE BOTTOM)

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It was a heavy week of training, but not for the usual reasons. The Beleza team was laden with injuries and influenza, and as the numbers at training dropped the tension mounted. Scheduled to play the number one team in the league on Saturday, it was a hard week to be short players. It all started a month ago when midfielder, Yayoi, first injured her knee. Everyday she works hard to help the healing process, completing a full page of exercises and receiving acupuncture treatment regularly. Then, two weeks ago, Sawa strained her right quad muscle. Playing in pain until her body finally said, "enough". This week she was sidelined and forced to rest. Next, Naga (lone forward in a 4-2-3-1 formation), came down with the swine flu, and her younger sister, Asano (right midfielder), was also forced to be absent until Naga recovers.

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Jo and I wished we could dress with the team. It would have been awesome to play with the Beleza women in Saturday's big game. However, not permitted on the field, we put on our team jerseys and stationed ourselves in the middle of Beleza's die hard fans. Doing our best to chant, jump and cheer Beleza to victory, we enjoyed watching our friends do battle. Young players gave everything they had to fill the big shoes of missing legends like Sawa. The game ended in a 1-1 tie, and as the players lined up and bowed in gratitude to their fans, I could see the disappointment in their eyes. They were missing key players, but had come for a win anyway, and were disappointed with the tie.

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After the game we had big plans. With four tickets to see the Blue Man Group (thanks to Kelly, who I will stop introducing and re-introducing since we have referred to her a half dozen times in the blog already --- http://www.magnifeco.com/ --- check it out), we were so excited to spend the afternoon with the Tako Tomodachi. With only two short weeks left with our Japanese teammates we are acutely aware of how finite our time here is, and we are so grateful to Ganchan and Mai for being such good friends and helping us make the most of our time in Tokyo.

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Armed with enthusiasm for Blue Man, we hurried to the train station. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and jumped on a train to Roppongi. Dashing through rain drops, Mai wheeling a suitcase full of game day equipment, and checking our damp and fragile map for directions, we slipped into our seats right before the doors closed and the show started. We were glad we didn't miss anything, and twenty minutes later, we found out just how glad we really were.

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Around that time, it was the middle of Blue Man's third skit, a couple walked in and everything stopped. A spotlight shined brightly in their faces, illuminating them as they went to their seats. A camera followed them as they walked on their tippie toes, shoulders hunched and hands covering their faces. The image was projected onto a big screen TV for the whole audience to see. Through the sound system a big, booming voice sung out, "you're late, you're late, you're late", in Japanese. We laughed with the rest of the audience, but man were we glad we weren't those people!

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During the show we wore our white paper headbands, indicating to the Blue Men that we wanted to be called from the audience to join them on stage. When they climbed on chairs and marched through the aisles looking for a volunteer, we raised our hands and cheered (Ganchan even held up baby oranges, hoping that might tip them in our favor - unfortunately, it didn't work). When, alas, they picked the little old lady next to us, we couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. Five minutes later, she stole the show, and we forgot our qualms with the Blue Men.

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Riveted by bright colors and black lights, drum beats and live music, and, of course, the theatrical performances of the Blue Men, we watched the show from the edge or our seats, slack-jawed, and turning to each other in between bouts of laughter with confirming looks of bewilderment. It was an awesome performance and even cooler to experience in Tokyo with the Tako Tomodachi. After the show, the producer came to give us a tour of the backstage. He explained how they do some of the stunts in the show (we can't tell you these important secrets, but we can recommend seeing the show in person - it's AWESOME).

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The highlight of our tour, however, was playing the PVC pipe drums with the Blue Men. The drum itself was pretty cool, a huge set of twisted PVC pipes, intertwined to look something like a cross between intestines and the brain. The end of each pipe, left open, faced upward. Different pipes were responsible for different notes. The sound was elicited by banging a flat, semi-soft, paddle on the open end of the pipe (see picture for further explanation). We banged on the pipes, making a mess of the musical notes that followed and smiling from ear-to-tone-deaf-ear, until the Blue Men joined us for our much anticipated photo op.

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Not wanting our Blue Man Group experience to end or the memory to fade with time, we bought matching Blue Man Group T-shirts to commemorate the night (promising to wear them when we climb Mt. Fuji together in the future). Afterward, the Tako Tomodachi headed to a delicious yakitori restaurant down the street (more on dinner delicacies in the next blog). Although Jo and I told Mai and Ganchan that they were not allowed to pay for anything, Mai slipped off under Ganchan's cover and paid the entire bill before the end of dinner. We tried to fight with them, but unable to express ourselves in Japanese, we were left, yet again, thanking Mai and Ganchan profusely for their never ending generosity.

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We are so grateful and so lucky to have made such good friends in Tokyo. I hope they will come visit us in the U.S. and give us the chance to repay their generosity.

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