Our lead carver and most senior employee, Matt, gets better each time he sculpts woodgrain. It is hard to believe it is only concrete when he's done. He is an artist extraordinaire! Matt has been a valuable member of our team for ten years. He welds, sculpts, does lath, paints and anything else we need. There’s not a job he doesn’t do exceptionally well. He also leads our crew when Peter and I are busy with other things.
Ten years ago, almost to the day, Peter and I visited Tokyo Disney to witness firsthand the awesome work of both the parks there. The craftsmanship we observed is the best in the world, and our visit has inspired countless projects since. Lately, I’ve been hankering to return, for they have added many, many things to Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea in the years since. With the impending opening of the Under Hill in a few months, Peter couldn’t go with me. Janis had travelled with me there thirty-five years ago, and she wasn’t eager to travel that far to visit a Disney park. (We are currently planning Disney trips closer to home). The obvious choice for a travelling companion to Tokyo was Matt. He eagerly jumped at the opportunity.
Matt has long admired our hundreds of pictures from our last trip. He has done a lot of online research on his own. Even so, there is no substitute for seeing this world-class work firsthand, from every angle and up close. We will study every detail of the parks over six long days onsite. I have no doubt we’ll both come away truly inspired and much better equipped to do even finer work in the future.
The plane tickets and hotel rooms are booked. We’ve selected our seats on the plane. We have our park passes in hand. We’ve ordered our Yen spending currency. The airport parking is reserved. Matt listens to Tokyo Disney podcasts as he works each day, learning the secrets to getting the most from every minute we are onsite. Now, we count the days until it is time. It is an educational trip above all, but that doesn’t mean we won’t have a ton of fun along the way. Twelve more sleeps until we depart on an incredible adventure…
