The Ballet’s international tour this year is to the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan theatre, Japan.

I arrived with the advanced party (mechs / stage management / Operations Manager) a few days ago and had the first day in the theatre today.

What do I do on tour? Glade you asked.
It’s my job to ensure all technologies are working when traveling. I liaise with the venues about Internet connectivity so staff can connect to the VPN back in Melbourne and get email and documents and also ensure any printer or photocopier that’s toured is available, preferably over a network.

In the case of Japan, as they rely solely on a 3G mobile phone network here, I had to hire in Blackberry units and phone units as our Australian ones were not going to work.
All the units came out of the UK, with the Blackberry units UK units and sims (O2 network) and the phones 3G Nokia units with Japanese sims.

So far, so good. All the mobiles and BBs are working and Internet and printer access at the venue is sorted.
I now should have plenty of free time to explore before I leave in a few days. Or should I say, explore even more…

Yesterday I had the day free to sight-see and that I did.
I covered Shibuya, Harajuku, the IT hubs that are Shinjuku and Akihabara along with a trip on the Yurikamome over the Rainbow Bridge to the man made island of Odaiba. (no wonder I have sore feet!)

I hung out with Astro Boy and that strange blue guy at the Tokyo Anime Center in Akihabara and of course went to NHK Studios to say hi to Domo-Kun. (amongst other things)