ZED
Had the opportunity to go watch Cirque Du Soleil’s “ZED” today, and I have to say that it was probably the best Cirque show that I have seen yet. I’ve never been to a Cirque show (I’ve been to several) that I didn’t like but I definitely thought that the performances in ZED were amazing. I won’t say much more because I would hate to spoil the show but for those who have never seen it I definitely recommend it. In fact, if you’ve never seen a Cirque show, then you’re missing out. There’s Cirque shows going on all over the place. In fact, I know that there is show, “Corteo” playing in Tokyo, and for all of you in the Bay Area, there’s one playing in San Francisco.
The ZED logo projected onto a wall
The venue for ZED was also really nice, and being that it was right next to Tokyo Disneyland, made it even better. Didn’t get to go into the actual park but all the decorations and illuminations during this time of the year was really fun to see.
The ZED Venue
Anyway, I can tell why a lot of my friends are in Cirque. It’s a great way to continue to keep performing after retiring. It must also be really fun to be able to perform in front of such a large crowd!
Cirque often goes around the world to recruit people for their shows. If you’re an athlete, artist, performer and are interested check out their site here!
Rain: Go That Way ==>
The weather has been up and down ever since I got here over a month ago. Sometimes it’ll be warm and sunny, and the next day it’ll be raining cats and dogs. According to my coach, this type of weather is pretty normal during the winter (someone please correct me if I’m wrong). Each time it rains, the temperature drops until it turns into winter.
Today was actually no-good for me because I went off to practice without looking at the weather report, and being that it was sunny, I thought it was going to stay that way the whole day. I turned out to be completely wrong, and to make matters worse, I forgot my umbrella at home. The worst part about the whole thing was I usually have to walk about 10 minutes from the bus stop back to my house. I was lucky though as I was wearing a water-proof jacket that my friend got me before I left for Japan (Nick – if you’re reading this: Thanks!!!). Nevertheless, it’ll be a long rainy season for me. When I get back to California in January, the rainy season will begin (if not it’ll begin pretty soon after).
On a good note, I have the opportunity to go watch “ZED,” a Cirque Du Soleil show stationed in Tokyo. I’m a big fan of Cirque shows, and being that I’m a gymnast with a lot of gymnast friends, I know a lot of people that perform in these shows. I’ve been wanting to see ZED for a while so I’m very excited to go see it! It’ll be a fun experience!
Tokyo's Cirque Show - ZED
Training Update
It’s been about 4.5 months since I had my knee repaired and I’m gradually starting to look like a gymnast again. The only problem is I’m not supposed to do anything too risky yet because there’s the possibility of tweaking my knee from falling off an equipment. That being said, I’ve been doing a ton of basics. There is one problem, however, my wrist and elbow hurts! Like I said before, it’s not that I’ve been taking time off (I’ve been continuing with conditioning this whole time) but the stress that the body is put under when doing real gymnastics is actually a lot more than many people (even gymnasts) think. I just have to make sure that I don’t overdo it and aggravate my healthy parts!
With All Japan over, the atmosphere in the gym is a lot more relaxed. Most of the guys do not have any competitions until the spring so they are training new skills. It’s much more easy for me to train with them now that they are done with doing routines for a while. It’s funny because if I was in the States right now, the guys in the gym would be working on routines and getting ready for the season coming up. The competitive season here is pretty much the opposite of the US’s. Nevertheless, I think that this is a great atmosphere for me to be in, especially at this stage in my comeback process!
