Exclusive USJ Viewings

I have over a dozen pictures to shed light and insight into my world working at Universal Studios Japan.  Exclusive pictures that mainly only employees would have access to.  So enjoy the RANDOMNESS of them all as a cluster of life and structures of systems that my life here is about

This strange looking building is where I call home.  Tis strange looking but is VERY comfortable and provides everything I could ask for.  I even have a balcony, as other posts have disclosed with some videos I took out on it.  I never thought I’d live in an apartment, but here I am, livin’ it! Ha, so true that saying, “Never Say Never”.

This is “Our FERRY God Mother” hahah! But in all truth I am sooooooo blessed for the simple little ferry that takes under 2 minutes to cross the river to work.  It is a major hook up that is a free city service for everyone.  Bikes are allowed on it and so most people choose this mode of transportation to work.  The funny thing is that it is faster to walk to the ferry and then walk to USJ than to take the subway and train.  The service starts at 6a and finishes at 830p, a cross over happening every 30mins!

There are signs around the streets showing you the way to USJ, this one in particular is just off the Ferry.

This is an OLD PICTURE from YEARS AGO! Kidding   It just feels that way as it was from orientation in MID FEB.  I may have actually posted it before, oh well have another look!

This was my first visit to The Land of OZ! Hooray for LIME GREEN! One of my favorite colors!

More OZ.  Funny thing is that the Land of Oz is a dead end corner in the park, but makes it cozy that way.

These tin’s were gifts from our opening day, they had cookies inside.

Japan has some pretty darn cute and compact cars and vans, makes sense with the heavy population.  Here is USJ’s Emergency Medical-mobile  that the First Aid Specialist uses to zip here and there.  Everyone has been pretty healthy at Wicked with only one accident, so we do not have it pull up to our venue often. I trust it will stay that way as well.

The USJ Park is not very big, but I guess it would take some people over 20mins to walk to their venue from the entrance gates.  And so around the perimeter of the park in crew only areas there are 2 buses that operate every 15mins to drive around the park and drop people off at their venues.  It’s colorful and cute with Characters on all sides and a map inside with a button to push to get off.

I rarely take this bus as I usually ride 99.9% of the time.  But it is cute and cool to take it and see all the different employees on their way to “MAKING THEME PARK MAGIC” ha

I love all the different mandatory uniforms but of course would rather just  look than wear them.  However I was jealous of one of them.  An apron that says, ‘ARTIST’ on it! I wanna be an artist too!!! But then I realized I AM and need not prove it with an apron.  Although would be cool

A few weeks back there was an “Employee Appreciation Day” where we all got free ice cream.  They were giving them out in the cafeterias so I thought to swing by the 2 that we have, but they used our ID cards in a computer system to know who came before or not.  Yoshie and I choose “Green Tea and Red Bean” which I later regretted as it was not very refreshing, but it is a very Japanese flavor so I thought I’d seize this unique time.

The “REAL WIZARD of OZ” with all the answers and clarity is this white board.  It states what is going on with the day and who is involved. There sometimes are lots of writing with many occurances and sometimes very minimal. I just look for my name.

It is a tradition at Wicked to surprise the birthday boy/girl and then watch them open their presents and eat the cake bit by bit and take a group photo in this exact cluster of the room.  Maybe I mentioned it before but our cast has more Japanese people than foreigners (gaijin).  I will not be experiencing this as I leave Jan 3rd and my birthday is on the 10th.  Every day is a celebration for me though! Yippee

Japanese men and Puerto Rican men are tied for the most “PLUCKED and GROOMED” eye brows are for the norm of a whole country!  And we are not talking just the gay men either.  It is actually a fun hobby of mine to people watch and see the different eye brow shapes.  They are like hairstyles. HAHAHA, anyhow.  The above picture is of Tacci grooming Tim’s eyebrows.  It was a very “Gay Mens Beauty Shop” moment in our greenroom and I loved it!

Randomly one day I went outside to have peace and calm away from my cast to write a few emails on my iPhone when I was like, “aww, cute! A Furry caterpillar”.  I have always loved seeing them as they are furry like a cat or dog and somewhere in my “furry associations” makes that cute!  Then I saw another one and another one…..they were everywhere and girls were screaming! HAHA, silly Japanese girls.  There was something VERY UNIQUE about these caterpillars that  I have never seen before!

Another MAJOR BLESSING and PERK of working at USJ is that we have an “Offsite Gym”.  It has exercise equipment and weights and so on, and 2 spacious studios to dance/rehearse in. I go often to work on my choreography and stay balanced in my passions of movement and not just be a showbiz bunny! HA

They had boxes and boxes stored in the studio I was in, so I helped myself to my curiosity and found a snowman head! I put it on, but quickly took it off as it brought memories of RADIOCITY Russian Bear fears back!

In one of the cafeterias there is a ticket system in operation.

Where you place $$$ in the machine and make your selection to print a ticket.  Then you take it to a staff member to get ur meal.  Or you place it in a basket and help yourself to the buffet or breads (this is a trust system)

I wonder if this could work in Canada? Or is it just another wonder of Japan…..

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