MCLA Blog

Discussing the morning plan.
I’m going to try to keep this brief because it’s waayyyy past my bedtime. Today was the beginning of the actual conference. We started the morning off by talking to an agent, a presenter, and an artist involved in APAP to get a better understanding of the different ways of being involved. To sum it up the rest of the day, well we went and sat in rooms and listened to people talk about marketing and the like. It was weird for us as they talked about how to market to the MySpace generation as we sat there timidly thinking “That’s us.”

Then we headed to the Japan Society to for a dance showcase. We also met with the artistic director, Yoko Shioya, whose tremendous energy gave me a big boost. The dance showcase was somewhat hit or miss but in my opinion, I’m just amazed I’m able to see something like this. I have not yet (up until tonight) seen a modern Japanese dance show, and it was just phenomenal to watch. Craziness!

AND THEN, the dinner to trump all other dinners I have EVER had – we went to Aburiya, a Japanese restaurant. Man, oh, man. We had a meal planned out for us with probably 20 different courses. (EDIT: It was actually 10.) Each was brought separately starting with the appetizer (which I don’t even remember what it was because it was literally so many courses ago.) Talk about new food – I tried everything put in front of me (and really tried to eat all of it too.) Eel, rice paddy, crab pate – I can’t remember it all. But a bunch of us walked home (a good 45 minute walk) to try to burn some of it off.

Tomorrow, we start all over again, bright and early. I’ll end with a couple of pictures I said I’d post.