Ryohei Watanabe's one way ticket [Archive 10] "The real Hollywood [A lost foreigner]"

In October 2007, 3 months have passed since I came to LA. I felt time went so fast. I was learning English hard though I was getting frustrated because I wasn’t doing what I wanted to do most in the US. The dream to become an actor in Hollywood was my biggest dream I had in my life. I felt the pressure sometimes from that.. Anyway I didn’t reach the place where I could tell it was hard to become an actor here or not. I spent 3 months just to improve my English skills (I still had strong Japanese accents though)

It was about time to make moves! I started looking for an acting school. I didn’t expect to be on movies by chance. If I could be on movies only by luck, the meanings of challenging here for me would be nothing. Where would I find information?? The modern world gave us internet. It greatly helped me! When I was looking for some information, I always used internet or magazines for actors. I noticed how much internet helped me for my dreams. I got my ticket to the US online and I also applied for my language school online. At the point maybe I was lucky that I could use it. But the laws of immigrations and so on were getting more strict these days, so maybe becoming an actor in Hollywood for foreigners was as hard as before. Then the most important thing to challenge was just myself. I was looking for information for a while…

I always believed my intuition. I followed my intuition after long deliberation. Then after a few days, I found a right school finally! I really wanted to take everyday acting courses though I was a language school student, so I chose to go to an acting school once a week. The school was nearby Hollywood. I was getting so excited! I called the school. A lady answered. I asked her if a Japanese guy could attend classes there. She said yes. But she had to ask me some questions to test me. She said, “Why do you want to study acting here?” She me asked some of other questions. I answered what made me come here and so on and we finally finished the test. At the end she said “OK , the new class will start next week. Come to the class next week!” This class was short term class though no matter what I decided to join the class.

Next Sunday I was heading to the acting school. The distance between my place and the acting school was even farther than the one between my place and language school. But I really didn’t care about that. It had been about half a year since I last acted. I had 3 months to study acting in this school. I didn’t know what I could learn in this acting school. I just had to do what I could.

I arrived at the acting school. There were some people. The rest came there after a while, then we got total 20 students there. The teacher came into the room and she explained what the purpose of this class was. It was to develop ourselves and stand at the start as an actor. We introduced ourselves first. By the way everyone were foreigners! Oh well I meant I was the only foreigner there. My introduction with Japanese accents finished. We did some exercises and then we were about to do improvisation. We made some groups with 2 men and 2 women and we sat on a sofa. That was all about the scene. We just sat down there and we could say whatever as we liked.

I saw they were acting then the foreigner had to act in the last group in this class. All of us got on the stage one by one. 2 girls and 1 guy were already on the stage. I was the last one to walk in. I got on the stage and sat on a sofa like others did. They were talking casually and I thought “Oh this is how Americans talk..” and joined their talk. Sometimes they couldn’t understand what I said though I was doing well at the time. When we were about to finish the scene, girls left the stage suddenly! Only I and another guy Dino were on the stage. He had some accents not from California (sorry for saying this Dino..) and of course I had the strongest accents from the island Japan. Then what happened ?? We could barely understand each other. The scene was getting funnier in a way. After 5 minutes I thought we should have ended this scene soon and I also thought maybe Dino would finish this scene. But that never happened. OK I was the one to finish this scene. He said, “What were you doing by now??” Well I just answered generally and said,

“But what were you doing in my house??”

All of students never expected that I would say this. The audience burst out laughing! This was my first acting experience in English. I had never had something like this experience , so I was glad about that. It had been 7 years since I stood on my first soil stage in Japan. “Now I’m standing on the stage in America” It was just a small stage. Though it was only a departure of my long journey…

To be continued...

Ryohei Watanabe's one way ticket [Archive 09] "The real Hollywood [Survival Trainings]"

Today let me talk about some extra stories in Hollywood!

To clarify everything, at first I have to talk about my life in the US…

My place was around Los Angeles. It took 45 minutes to go to LA. So you would know my place was kind of in the country side. I was living in an apartment with my friend Oscar , his younger brother and his mom. They liked animals so they had a dog and a cat. I had never dreamed to have animals in the US! I was so glad about that. But there was no way that the cat would put me in a hard situation…

I didn’t think it was home-staying. I think they thought like the same way too. But anyway I appreciated them so much that they helped me a lot. So I got one more reason to succeed.

One of the hardest situations came to me in Summer. California is so dry and sunrays are so strong. Of course oranges grow up good. One of the reasons I went to LA was to get to know about America. That was why I didn’t only study but enjoyed too. I went to some beaches with my close friends. First time when I saw American sea was on Independence Day. I realized there were so many American people! Usually nobody was walking outside though.

Then I went to Laguna Beach and Long Beach . American beaches seemed to have their own characteristic. Laguna Beach had the highest waves I had ever seen. I was swallowed by the waves and they threw me to the ground. Luckily I just got some bruises on my body.. My friends got them too. But the worst thing happened at Long beach! It didn’t have high waves. But the streams of the sea were so strong that we couldn’t stay still. And sometimes they pulled us diagonally. I didn’t know why but that reminded me of an avalanche of rocks and earth. This beach had some other characteristics. It was a shallow beach. I wanted to check where it got deeper, so I went to further out alone. The streams were not that strong at the time though I didn’t know why I did that.. Anyway when I was going to far away , it didn’t get deeper at all. So I looked back and I noticed I was going too far!! I tried to go back to the beach.. But… My body was being pulled strongly, and my body didn’t go forward.. I could only proceed to the beach little by little.. At the time … I heard something snapped! <.p>


I was swimming though my sight became dark.. I saw some goggles were floating ! They were mine! I remembered something! The cat in my place she was biting cables and messing them up! My goggles were one of them.. The rubber was ragged… I tied up everything by swimming in one place trying not to go underwater. I tried to go back the beach again. I suddenly thought I came here to become an actor and I couldn’t die this way! I called up all my courage and tried it again harder! Finally I could handle the streams and my body was proceeding to the beach! While I was going back the beach, a surfer asked me if I needed help. I answered. “It’s ok but thanks” I was really ok at the time because my goggles were alright and I finished the most difficult part already. I arrived at the beach! I was exhausted… but I made it! After a while my friend told me that I should have swam diagonally against waves. I didn’t know about that tactic.. But I learned something from that experience. And I got to know I should be always paying attention to cats.

Another occurrence happened in the morning one day. I was getting ready for school. I had to concentrate always for driving because it was a 1 hour drive. Nothing special happened until I got on a freeway. Then something happened to me…

I got on the freeway and stayed in the 2nd lane from the left. I was listening to the radio. The weather was nice so I felt good. Then I heard a weird noise.. The sound of the engine was weird .. It was too high pitched compared to usual. I thought maybe something was wrong with my ears. But I could hear the music from radio like always!! When I noticed about that, the car was slowing down itself. The accelerator didn’t work.. Then black smoke came out from in front of the car and car was wrapped by the unhealthy smoke.. Then white smoke was coming out next!! It was like a movie! But anyway I had no time to think about stupid stuff, so I tried to pull over. I turned on the emergency ramps. My car was getting slower still and the speed was already 40miles/h (About 60km/h). The only good thing at the time was I was being calm. Then I could reach the space at the right side.. It was over. I survived! But the engine died. So I called my friends and Oscar and Dai came there and helped me. At the time a towtruck from the government happened to find us and helped my car get off from the freeway.

Then we called another tawtruck and took my car to a mechanic. I thought maybe this would be nothing but it was something.. The mechanic said he couldn’t fix the engine. I had 2 choices that was to change the engine or change the car.. Anything could happen in America. That was beyond my imagination and became real. The reason why my car broke was because it was leaking oil. The ex-owner thought she fixed it but it wasn’t repaired. Anyway she had no idea about cars, so it was not her fault. I decided to fix it. It would cost $1000. Maybe I was lucky in a bad situation because the mechanic could also change the timing belt and the water pump which we had to change once in a while. Then I stared my train life again. It was ok because I could meet some of my train friends again.

I want to warn all of you, when you buy an used car, you need to do a full-check on the car.

I could go through extraordinary experiences and survived. That was why I realized how much it was great for me to just live and pursue my dream to become an actor in Hollywood. I would stand a hard life. I just wanted to continue pursuing my dream. It was worth trying in this place.

Hollywood is the center of the movie industry all over the world. I will not regret anything. All I need now is to have stronger spirit and continuation. I will fulfill other needs later.

I survived and finally was about to take a small step forward…

To be continued...

Ryohei Watanabe's one way ticket [Archive 08] "The real Hollywood [A Greenhorn]"

I got my driver’s license for California and my car. they were simple but they were special for me. I felt I accomplished my little missions.

Let’s talk about my school life! By this time I always walked to the station and took the train to get to the subway. It always took 1 hour to get my school. What was hard was that I had to walk about 30 minutes under strong harmful sunrays. I understood why Americans wore sunglasses and of course I got mine. My school zone became a freeway. I should have known what that really meant.. It took 45 minutes to get to school. But if there was traffic, it took..

2 hours

2hours.. I thought finally I ended my train life which lasted from Japan.. Then this happened! But I still liked driving. That was the only help. Anyway I had to continue school to stay in the US longer. I had no time to think I hated this or that.

Going to school wasn’t only meaningful for staying in the US but it also developed my English skills. Sometimes Americans couldn’t understand what I said.. I decided to complete all classes and graduate. Language school was kind of scary for me because if I wanted I could stay there for 4 years or longer. I didn’t need that stability. I thought stability would kill my possibilities. I kept studying English though my English didn’t seem like it was getting better for awhile…

September. Of course I tried something to get involved in the entertainment industry in the US. I found a Japanese reporter’s audition by chance. I had no experiences as a reporter but I just wanted to have my first audition in Hollywood. I went to the Japanese TV station to have an audition. The result was.. I failed.. I had no experiences and my Japanese was getting rusty.. I had another audition on another day. That was a dancer’s audition for a Japanese singer. I hadn’t danced for a few years. I couldn’t move my body well and failed this audition too. These were the Japanese auditions I had in Hollywood. I wasn’t ready to have these auditions though I wanted to start something in Hollywood. I also thought I could do dancing or modeling without a native American’s English accent.

How about becoming a model? I tried out for it. I was looking for chances as a model at the time. 2 or 3 months had past since I started my school, so some of my classmates had to go back to their country. We had a little farewell party for them. One of my best friends Ernest had to go home because the US denied his visa. I realized this country was severe. We promised to meet someday again. We were eating at a Thai restaurant. When we were leaving, someone talked to me and he said “why don’t you do modeling?” I couldn’t believe what he said because I was thinking about that those days. I said “I will think about it” and we left.

I went home and thought maybe it was good to have some experiences in the modeling industry. After a awhile , I called him and went to meet him. He said “How about going to the Asian’s model contest next year?” That was his plan. He used to be a model too. He was working in a local TV station at the time. After that I started going to his model lessons after school. I also started learning how to do modeling by watching some movies. After a few weeks , I had a chance to meet his models. They all were Thai and I heard they were famous in the Thai community. But I doubted if they wanted to do modeling in the American industry. After that we went home.

I rethought about modeling. I knew I didn’t come here to do modeling in the Asian community in America. If so, it was better to do modeling in Japan. About modeling, I watched some movies of the top models. But actually it was not really attractive to me.
It was ok to just see the industry but it smelled so much like advertisement. I called the guy and finished it. As I thought before, my life as a model became a really short one.

The model industry which I never got involved and the dance industry which I worked in for 3 years, they were not what I wanted at the time. I didn’t pursue my career as an actor at the time though my experiences at this time clarified my aim. They also made me and the past me in the dance industry separated.

I arrived at Hollywood. But I was still looking for the place which Hollywood existed...

To be continued...

Ryohei Watanabe's one way ticket [Archive 07] "The real Hollywood [Entering America]"

I went through the main gate of the airport. Here is the exit of Japan. I saw some young guys were waiting for the airplane alone. I wanted to know why they were there and what made them go abroad. I arrived at the gate for my airplane. The weather was getting worse and it was cloudy. I didn’t really care about the weather because I was about to see the new world. When I noticed , I was already in the airplane and the airplane started flying. Let’s go!

It would take about 10 hours to get to LA. On the way , the airplane went into thick clouds and it was thundering inside. That was scary and I thought “Will my life end here ?” Well after awhile , we got out from the thick clouds and everything was just fine. I was listening to music and then fell asleep.

I felt strong vibrations below my feet.. I didn’t know what happened! Oh I arrived!
OK I couldn’t see the American continent. That was why I couldn’t realize that I was already in America. I arrived! The airport smelled like a foreign country. There were so many kinds of people, so I thought this was the whole world! My friend Oscar was there.
He was with Dai. We went to their house..

We went on the freeway. There were 5 lanes on each side. I noticed each lane was much wider than Japanese ones. I noticed trees around the freeway were almost dead. I never expected those brown trees in California. After one hour we got off from the freeway. The area of their apartment was in a good area. We brought my stuff into their apartment. “ Here is my new home! ” I was excited to live in a new place because I had lived in the same house my whole life. We went to eat something American. We ate thick American foods and enjoyed them!

My new life just started. I thought about what I needed to become an actor. There were some reasons I decided to stay in Los Angeles. One of reasons was to study acting. One of the other reasons was to find out if I liked everything here. If I hated it here, how could I become an American actor here? I had to make sure if it was worth challenge Hollywood.

I became a student to stay here longer. My school life was supposed to start after 1 week. My place was really great but I had some problems. It took at least 45 minutes to get tto my school from the house. So I asked Oscar to drive me to the DMV, then I could get a guide book for a driver’s license. I could only study at home because of transportation problems. It was weird to study how to drive in a foreign country because I didn’t drive in Japan.

It would take maybe 30 minutes to go to a convenience store. Nothing was convenient. After 3 or 4 days, I would go to the DMV to take a test. I was surprised because I could take a paper test in Japanese language! So I chose it. But it didn’t work well.. I was studying with a English guide book. So I didn’t understand questions in Japanese.. I failed.. If I failed 3 times, I would have to pay $30 extra. I felt I had 2 more chances.

My language school started. My English was still immature. I didn’t know about American accents and I didn’t know how to talk casually. I saw some Japanese people. It was my first time to see other Japanese here in America. Only teachers were American and others were foreigners just like me. I could communicate with a lot of people and cultures there. After a while, my friend Steven from school drove me to the DMV. But I failed again.. Was I rushing ? Yes I couldn’t waste one moment to become an actor.

How was I commuting to school ? I was taking the train. I couldn’t believe that I used the train even in America! Me and the trains couldn’t be separated.. I used a local line and a metro line. Some American people talked to me. That was funny, so I couldn’t forget about that. Sometimes to get home, I had to wait for the train for 1 hour in a station..

OK this was third time to go take the paper test! The result was… I passed it! I got a temporary driver’s license. Then I went on the streets. Oscar and his brother Bobby were working day time on weekdays. So they helped me learn how to drive at night. I appreciated them a lot. I asked Oscar why he could help me a lot and he said “I wanna believe your dream and help you to make your dream” I couldn’t betray them. Then I got one more reason to succeed as an actor. My practice days started. It was a manual car, so I could barely start the car in the early days.

After 3 weeks since I arrived here, I got used to see everything here. It was not like a fantasy anymore. I decided to take the exam for driver’s license. A white lady was an instructor and she was talking so fast. I guess it was too speedy. I couldn’t understand what she said and I made mistakes. Then I failed.. After 1 week, I challenged it again. Finally I got my license! What I needed at the time was only my car..

How could I find my car?? I checked free papers and looked online. I went to look at some cars but they were bad cars… I found a good car in a Japanese website. I went to see the car. It had some dents but still ran strong. I talked with my friend and decided to buy it! The owner was going back to Japan. So I could get the car after a few weeks. We went there again. The owner was washing the car for me and said “Good luck!” and gave me the keys. I hoped someday after I grew up , the owner would see me on movies. The keys were also keys of becoming an actor…

I finally got my car. Everything seemed like it was going good. I had to overcome some trials later…

To be continued...

Ryohei Watanabe's one way ticket [Archive 06] "My challenges in Hollywood [Trail 6 The Finale]"

OK now it’s time for the grand finale for the past me!!
I was writing this column to make the past me catch up with the present me. I had to tell a lot of stories to show the reason why I chose to become a Hollywood actor. I never thought about my past as I described it here. Now let’s go back to the topic!!

March 2006, when I was 19, finally I was thrown into the entertainment industry with nothing. Actually I did it by myself. I had nothing left. I didn’t have any savings at all and I didn’t belong to any agency. “Well what should I do??”
At this time in my mind, the idea to become an actor became solid. I just couldn’t figure out how to become an actor. I had nothing , so if I would become an actor from there, I thought I would become a skilled actor. It was I that was putting myself in harder situations. That could make me be more challenging. I remembered that when I was in junior high , I always challenged my limit. I also remembered my original intention.
“What should I do??” I talked to the true myself again. I always thought if I calmed down and talked to my real mind, my mind could always give me the real answers. I did it again like I did it when I decided to quit belonging to the biggest agency! I took a while until I found out my answers. At first I had to clarify what choices I had…

The first choice was finding an agency. Belonging to an agency meant I could have a lot of opportunities. The second choice was to belong to a training school for actors. Maybe most actors had to go through this step. My skills as an actor were not enough to get me back on the stages. Though I had experience in both already. Would I repeat the same things?? I didn’t like doing the same things over and over. So I tried to find other choices. I didn’t belong to any community at the time. But I didn’t think it was hopeless. I thought to myself, I couldn’t lose anything and that gave me freedom! I enjoyed spending time with my friends. But I also enjoyed being alone. When I was with my friends I could have fun and change ideas And when I was alone, I could discover ,more about myself. So I could face my true self. “Do what I really want to do! Do what others don’t do!” If we pursue to get ideas, they would always come into our brains suddenly. Then I got an idea..

I will go to Hollywood!!

Finally everything I did in my life came together. Everything was making sense about going to Hollywood. In my first column, I described that "Friday Foreign Movies Theater" gave me inspiring experiences. The experience was living inside of me quietly.. I had nothing left.. I only had time and freedom. That’s why I thought I shouldn’t waste my time as an actor by doing lessons inefficiently. I thought I wanted to touch the real entertainment industry at least in a few years. Because I knew somehow those experiences in Hollywood would help me someday. “OK let’s do my best and die for my dream!” Because I also thought America was dangerous. Anyway if I died when I was rotten, I would regretted , but if I died when I was trying to reach my dream , I wouldn’t regret it. I had to bet my life.

Then I had to get everything started. At first I felt I wanted to stay there at least 3 months. I wanted to study about America and wanted to make sure I liked it there. It was hard to keep my desire to go to American and work in Japan. Well what would I need ? I had to accomplish more things to make my dream come true.

The first thing I needed was better English skill. English .. Oh English!? That was familiar with me the most! I was studying English since I was in the 2nd grade in junior high. Finally my efforts for English came into an effect. My mother and older brother used to say “Why did you waste a lot of money for English??” I betrayed their bad expectation. The idea that I would use English in my life was correct. I became English an addict again. This time I tried to study English by myself.

One of the other things that I needed was information. I knew nothing about America. I didn’t know where to live , how long to visit and whether if I’d go to school or not. I just thought maybe the end of this year would be a good timing to go there.

The next thing I needed was money. For my aim , I decided to work harder. I didn’t like to make money by doing regular jobs though I had no choice, so I started working full time. I started taking it seriously and I threw away my biased view about regular jobs. I noticed I shouldn’t have waited for fortune to bring me good things. To get what I really wanted , I said to myself “Rely on myself. I’m the only one who can make my way!”

Of course one thing I had to get was a passport. I was 19 years old at the time. So I could only get a 5 year visa. It was the first time that I felt the time of my birthday’s importance. I decided to get a 10 year passport when I became 20 years old.

I might have had more stuff I needed. I knew what I had to get at the time. Then I became a job-hopping part-time worker. But I had strong ambitions.

To make my dreams come true , I didn’t care which job I chose. I just wanted to experience what I had never experienced and I also thought maybe it would be great if I got some skills by doing jobs. I got a lot of jobs like a trainer, a shop assistant, a bartender, a guard, a web developer, a worker in a warehouse, a salesman, an operator, and a photographer. Of course I worked as an actor. I liked creative jobs always but I disliked the job which I had to stay in one place like a guard. I kept working...

When I noticed, I was about to become 20 years old. My close friends celebrated with me. I was so happy about that because I didn’t have those kind of experiences a lot. When I was a teenager, I decided not to drink. So it became my first time to drink. I never thought beer tasted good. I thought other possibilities and responsibilities appeared to me. I went to the American embassy after a while. I could never forget the solemn atmosphere there. To get a passport, some people waited for 3 months. But I couldn’t wait that long, so I was worried about that. But I got it in 5 days!! Finally I got my own ID card with a picture of mine. The day I was suppose to leave was getting close. I was planning to have $3000 to $4000 for the US and go there in the end of this year. But I never happened…

I shouldn’t really get in to detail about this but my family had financial troubles at the time. My family asked me to stay in Japan longer. I was wavering between my dream and my family. I was suffering to make my decision. Finally I made my decision. “I will stay!” I wanted to do something for my family and I didn’t know what I could learn in America in 3 months. I had just quit the job as a photographer, then I had to find other jobs. I didn’t expect it but I would meet my destiny later..

One of the photographers like me asked me something. He told me his friend was looking for an actor. So my friend asked me to meet the aspiring director. I accepted and went to meet him…

I had 6 more months to make money in Japan. So to have more experiences , I accepted the director’s offer and I acted for him.

Well now about my English. I started learning English through the internet, books and friends. I was starting to remember how to speak in English. Still my accent of R and L were terrible though..

I started working as a sales person. When I was a teen, I didn’t have a lot choices about work. Because in Japan, they don’t give young people responsible jobs. I hated the fact that people saw only my age. I guess that was why I went into the field where older people worked..

By joining a student film, I realized I was still nothing as an actor. I had to prepare everything for my role. But no one helped me like when I acted on TV. The director’s existence was big for my life. I couldn’t act well at all. I got stressed about it and swore to myself to grow up. The director said he didn’t know why young aspiring actors like me didn’t watch movies. That was true. I had to know what kind of world I was trying to get into! I started watching movies more. I could learn something about acting through this shooting. I still couldn’t compare myself to other actors though. Finally we finished the long shooting. The day of my flight was coming…

How could I stay in America longer?? By becoming a student, the problem was solved. I became a language school student. I had less than $10000 though I decided to stay in America as long as possible. I couldn’t find a place to live until the last 2 months before trip. But my friend which I guided in Tokyo helped me. He told me that I could stay at his place. I couldn’t have met him if I went to America last year. It was like a miracle that I met a guy like him. It was time to say goodbye to my friends in Japan. I didn’t miss them because I thought we would be same even if we were staying in different places. I wasn’t scared about America but only one thing was on my mind. It was about my loving dog which I lived with for 14 years. I knew my family and my friends would be alright. But dogs can’t live as long as like we do. I thought this might be farewell.
Some people might think it’s stupid, but I could hardly avoid crying. I got a lot of things from him. Well finally the day was about to come…

June 30th

The day. The sky was so clear and I felt good. I talked to my family one by one. I was feeling the excitement which was swelling up from my mind! I spent a little time with my dog and left. My parents drove me to the airport. Some of my friends also went to the airport for me. I was happy to have good friends. We talked and laughed a lot. I ate curry rice at the restaurant in the airport. We took some pictures. It was about time..
I could never forget this moment. I went through the gate and I said to them

“I’ll be gone for a while!”

PS. Thanks for reading my column for 3 months!! I never expected, it would take 3 months! My life before going to Hollywood was like this. If I wrote everything too seriously, sorry about that!

This sounds like farewell?? No it’s not! I will continue writing my column as long as possible! Well I will write more in a couple of weeks! See you.

To be continued...

The real Hollywood [Survival Training ～

Today let me talk about some extra stories in Hollywood!

To clarify everything, at first I have to talk about my life in the US…

My place was around Los Angeles. It took 45 minutes to go to LA. So you would know my place was kind of in the country side. I was living in an apartment with my friend Oscar , his younger brother and his mom. They liked animals so they had a dog and a cat. I had never dreamed to have animals in the US! I was so glad about that. But there was no way that the cat would put me in a hard situation…

I didn’t think it was home-staying. I think they thought like the same way too. But anyway I appreciated them so much that they helped me a lot. So I got one more reason to succeed.

One of the hardest situations came to me in Summer. California is so dry and sunrays are so strong. Of course oranges grow up good. One of the reasons I went to LA was to get to know about America. That was why I didn’t only study but enjoyed too. I went to some beaches with my close friends. First time when I saw American sea was on Independence Day. I realized there were so many American people! Usually nobody was walking outside though.

Then I went to Laguna Beach and Long Beach . American beaches seemed to have their own characteristic. Laguna Beach had the highest waves I had ever seen. I was swallowed by the waves and they threw me to the ground. Luckily I just got some bruises on my body.. My friends got them too. But the worst thing happened at Long beach! It didn’t have high waves. But the streams of the sea were so strong that we couldn’t stay still. And sometimes they pulled us diagonally. I didn’t know why but that reminded me of an avalanche of rocks and earth. This beach had some other characteristics. It was a shallow beach. I wanted to check where it got deeper, so I went to further out alone. The streams were not that strong at the time though I didn’t know why I did that.. Anyway when I was going to far away , it didn’t get deeper at all. So I looked back and I noticed I was going too far!! I tried to go back to the beach.. But… My body was being pulled strongly, and my body didn’t go forward.. I could only proceed to the beach little by little.. At the time … I heard something snapped! <.p>


I was swimming though my sight became dark.. I saw some goggles were floating ! They were mine! I remembered something! The cat in my place she was biting cables and messing them up! My goggles were one of them.. The rubber was ragged… I tied up everything by swimming in one place trying not to go underwater. I tried to go back the beach again. I suddenly thought I came here to become an actor and I couldn’t die this way! I called up all my courage and tried it again harder! Finally I could handle the streams and my body was proceeding to the beach! While I was going back the beach, a surfer asked me if I needed help. I answered. “It’s ok but thanks” I was really ok at the time because my goggles were alright and I finished the most difficult part already. I arrived at the beach! I was exhausted… but I made it! After a while my friend told me that I should have swam diagonally against waves. I didn’t know about that tactic.. But I learned something from that experience. And I got to know I should be always paying attention to cats.

Another occurrence happened in the morning one day. I was getting ready for school. I had to concentrate always for driving because it was a 1 hour drive. Nothing special happened until I got on a freeway. Then something happened to me…

I got on the freeway and stayed in the 2nd lane from the left. I was listening to the radio. The weather was nice so I felt good. Then I heard a weird noise.. The sound of the engine was weird .. It was too high pitched compared to usual. I thought maybe something was wrong with my ears. But I could hear the music from radio like always!! When I noticed about that, the car was slowing down itself. The accelerator didn’t work.. Then black smoke came out from in front of the car and car was wrapped by the unhealthy smoke.. Then white smoke was coming out next!! It was like a movie! But anyway I had no time to think about stupid stuff, so I tried to pull over. I turned on the emergency ramps. My car was getting slower still and the speed was already 40miles/h (About 60km/h). The only good thing at the time was I was being calm. Then I could reach the space at the right side.. It was over. I survived! But the engine died. So I called my friends and Oscar and Dai came there and helped me. At the time a towtruck from the government happened to find us and helped my car get off from the freeway.

Then we called another tawtruck and took my car to a mechanic. I thought maybe this would be nothing but it was something.. The mechanic said he couldn’t fix the engine. I had 2 choices that was to change the engine or change the car.. Anything could happen in America. That was beyond my imagination and became real. The reason why my car broke was because it was leaking oil. The ex-owner thought she fixed it but it wasn’t repaired. Anyway she had no idea about cars, so it was not her fault. I decided to fix it. It would cost $1000. Maybe I was lucky in a bad situation because the mechanic could also change the timing belt and the water pump which we had to change once in a while. Then I stared my train life again. It was ok because I could meet some of my train friends again.

I want to warn all of you, when you buy an used car, you need to do a full-check on the car.

I could go through extraordinary experiences and survived. That was why I realized how much it was great for me to just live and pursue my dream to become an actor in Hollywood. I would stand a hard life. I just wanted to continue pursuing my dream. It was worth trying in this place.

Hollywood is the center of the movie industry all over the world. I will not regret anything. All I need now is to have stronger spirit and continuation. I will fulfill other needs later.

I survived and finally was about to take a small step forward…

To be continued...

Ryohei Watanabe's one way ticket [Archive 05] "My challenges in Hollywood [Trail 5]"

I wanted to start a lesson. I started by buying a book which had almost all the training schools of the entertainment industry. I read through again and again. I didn’t realize that in Japan, there were that many agencies and schools in this industry. I didn’t know how to choose a good one for myself. Then after a while, I found one that would fit me. The first condition was that it didn’t interfere with my high school, the second condition was to find a school with cheap tuition, the third condition was it had to be a school which belonged to an agency and the last condition was to find an agency with famous people. Now I know some of the schools tuitions were cheap, but the quality of lessons were good but also some school’s tuitions were expensive but the quality of lessons were so bad. I finally found one which met all of my conditions! I don’t know why I chose only one school, sent only one resume. But my mind was ready for the school’s audition.

After a while , the training school replied. It’s been one year since I received an envelope for auditions. I went to have an interview. It was in September or October. The interview was held in a coffee shop. The guy from the school asked me some questions about why I applied and so on. I felt I did pretty good after that. Then the school called me. They told me that I passed! So I could join their lesson after 1 week. My first acting lesson was about to begin. My second life was also about to begin too…

OK now I’d like to write about my high school life a little bit to not forget about it! I was in the middle of third grade in high school ( Last year of high school in Japan. Students were about to have an entrance exam for a University). I was still struggling to see if I could proceed to a University but I was studying a little to not kill my choices. My thoughts changed a little by that time and I started thinking that maybe it would be good to study English in a University. My fever for English since I was in 2nd grand in junior high school was still there. I found a University where I could learn English more. But the other aspects of my life didn’t let it happen though…

Now go back to the previous topic! The training school was in the same town which I used to commute to for dancing. I couldn’t avoid remembering what I had done before. I met myself in the past sometimes. We were suppose to practice singing , acting and so on in the new school. Then I had to face my poor singing skills. And poor acting skills too. I realized I really couldn’t do anything… I was stressed because of my skills.

After a while since I started my lessons.. I quit my English school because of time. It was about time to have an entrance exam for us. One day the guy from the training school called me and I went to his office after school. I had no idea why he called me. Then he told me the reason. He told me that I could join an audition for a TV drama! The drama would start in January. He asked me if I wanted to join. But I had some problems. If I passed the audition, I had to give up going to a University because of the shooting schedule . My answer was of course yes! Then the day of the audition came…

The audition was held at a TV studio. I saw a lot of young actors like me. I thought I had to win them or I wouldn’t get any rolls. The audition started! I didn’t have a lot of experiences as an actor , so I just did my best. It finished quickly, and I didn’t know if I got my roll or not…

After a few weeks, the result came up. They told me I passed!! I couldn’t believe it! I would be on a TV drama! The drama was “Gokusen 2”! It was my first experience as an actor and it was also the start of my actor’s life. We all were getting ready to shoot the drama..

I was surrounded by trained actors , so I did my best to catch up to them! I had acting lesson for only a few months, so that’s what I could only do. The drama made me think about acting and characters. My understanding wasn’t that great, so it was hard to understand the script. Other actors sometimes gave me advise. 3 months past and we finished shooting! I couldn’t have made it without everyone’s help. I really appreciated them. But I didn’t become an actor who I still wanted be. I found I still had a lot of things to do to be an impressive actor.

Graduation. I graduated school in the drama and in my high school. They synchronized. After that I said goodbye to most of my friends. This meant a new page of my life was starting …

OK I won’t stop writing my column here! I’ve written my column about my past for 2 months. Now it’s time the past me moves forward!!

A new April came. I was still in the training school. I temporary belonged to the agency which the training school was in. So my lesson was still one day a week. I graduated high school, so I was finally able to make my own decisions. Nothing restricted me but nothing was certain about my future. I felt I started my life all over again. I was still a teenager at the time. My days with lessons and auditions started. I failed auditions again and again. As an actor I was still immature. There were thousands of actors like me in Japan. I was just one of them and didn’t stand out at all…

There was another aspect in my life. I was doing a part-time job. To do something not relating my dream was really hard for me. As I described before, I earned some money from my part-time job. I didn’t want to work 5 days. I really disliked working at my part-time job.

Lessons continued. I couldn’t find a big difference in myself like when I was practicing dancing. I thought this was really bad. I knew I would get old soon even if my acting didn’t improve. At the time, someone suddenly gave me a good opportunity!

In the drama, there were 2 comedians which did comedy together. One of them told me that they separated. He told me he wanted to enter our training school. He had a strong personality and it affected our school a lot. We didn’t get along first and argued. But soon we started always kidding with each other. He said he had an idea and told me.

“Why don’t we do stand-up comedy together??”

There were some comedian groups in the school. “Will I do stand-up comedy??” If so, I didn’t know where I would end up! But I knew I could study acting while studying comedy. I thought to myself what actor studies comedy in his life ?? I didn’t want to become a typical actor. I wanted to get something different that other actors didn’t have. Then I said…

“Let’s do it”

I danced in the school too. So I did whatever I could do.

Comedy was as deep as acting. Stand-up comedians and comedy actors are totally different. I didn’t know which was better, but it became a chance for me to learn both of them. Comedy isn’t about timing and strength and weakness only. My partner knew almost everything about comedy even though he was young. He was about 21 or 22 years old at the time. He is 2 years older than me though I could always say to him whatever I thought. We could talk about anything.

We kept practicing comedy. Acting lessons in the school weren’t as great as comedy lessons with him. I learned a lot about acting by learning comedy.

I noticed my life changed every 6 months. Maybe you can notice to believe this too.
When we started performing better, something happened. We both had strong opinions and he had a quarrel with the chief of the training school. They became really angry with each other and he quit being a student there. We stopped doing stand-up comedy. We had no choice. If this didn’t happen, I possibly may have became a comedian. Maybe..

The ordinary training days started again. I had acting lessons and singing lessons and so on. It was once a week. I still didn’t like doing something other than my dream. I thought I wasn’t living to do what I wanted to do one time a week. After about 6 months, I decided to leave the school. I said goodbye to my friends who were also rivals, hoping to meet them again in this industry someday.

It was February 2006. I didn’t belong to anything involving my dream. It was back to the beginning for me.

My life was becoming plain, but now I realize I made a good decision...

To be continued...