Sunday damage report.
The last two weekends have involved evenings with back-to-back restaurant gigs in a single night. How not-glam is that? Three solo shows in two days on top of dance lessons can be killer…and I haven’t modified all my costumes to not pinch the pack of my neck.
To show you what a figurative pain in the neck double gigs are, I give you SATURDAY NIGHT.
Here I am in restaurant closet/office/changing room #1 of the night. Both restaurants (in Shibuya) are owned by the same guy…otherwise I wouldn’t do a double. There’s too much chance location one will run late and mess things up and location two…but with the same owner that onus to keep everything on time is on the staff, not me.
If I did gigs for restaurants owned by competitors I’d be in the wrong if I was late for a second gig.
Here I am in restaurant closet/office/changing room #1 of the night. Both restaurants (in Shibuya) are owned by the same guy…otherwise I wouldn’t do a double. There’s too much chance location one will run late and mess things up and location two…but with the same owner that onus to keep everything on time is on the staff, not me.
If I did gigs for restaurants owned by competitors I’d be in the wrong if I was late for a second gig.
changing/waiting room selfies
These restaurants are within walking distance of each other so after my first, sweaty, set I put on a cover-up robe and my full jacket and just wheeled my cart to location two.
The week before I danced at restaurants in different areas of Tokyo which required a train ride. I changed out of costume for that one.
Location two actually has no heated changing area. You go down the building stairs to the basement. To your right after the stairs is the TINY restaurant.
To the right behind the check-out and the owner’s son, that’s the kitchen. You might think that to the left it’s BIGGER. nope. To the left, the area of the restaurant you can’t see, it’s only about a elevator width wider than what you see. One row of tables. I’m very good at dancing with a 3-meter silk veil in a confined place.
To the left after you’ve come down the stairs…is a wall with a a fake-wood screen against it. The other side of the screen is fake-gold.
That’s the changing room. It’s opened up into an L shape and I scurry Into that space near the storage closet.
And that’s where I huddle, in my jacket over my costume and standing on my shoes for warmth.
The owner used to insist on putting a heater in the changing area and newspapers on the floor. I was afraid of catching fire.
(Picture from last year, December)
And that is why I’m resting today.