Kabuki today!

こんいちわ！

Oh man was yesterday a doozie. I’ve learned more about navigation in Japan that’s for sure. So I wore my nice new brown and green skirt for the kabuki and as such could not ride my bike in it, so I had to get up early to walk to school. No problems. The day was as long and hard as any other day. At lunch I met up with a few friends. We decided that since we had until 4:30 to meet up for the trip (the current time was approx. 1:00) we would check out this store called Don Quixote. Funny name right? Well imagine a super Walmart, with every imaginable item packed into a third of the size of a Walmart. The entrance sign said “Welcome to the discount jungle!” and that’s exactly what it was. Unfortunately my battery charger decided to lie to me and not charge my batteries, so no pics now, but I’m going to try to shaft some off friends who were taking pics. Also, I’ll probably check out Don Quixote again at some point. Just because.

So that was a 10-20 minute walk for ICU. So we head back and its about 3:00. We decide to chill out in the Global House lounge (Global House being the dorm I would have stayed in if there had been rooms left). I made some new friends in the upper classes and it was fun. We then met up on the CP lounge to get into three groups of 20 to head to the stage. First we took the bus to Musashi-Sakai station, the train there to uh, one stop beyond Shinjuku (Yo- something), then the subway (first time on a Japanese subway!) to another stop I don’t remember the name of. We then grabbed a quick meal at the three stores by the subway entrance (I got my first McDonalds here! It was comfortingly familiar to say the least), but had no time to enjoy it as we were herded along another 10 minute walk to the National Theatre. We then spent 20 minutes waiting outside for the last group to arrive, especially as they were the ones with the tickets.

At about 6:45 we entered the theatre (keep in mind we left ICU at 4:30) and sat down. The program leaders gave us all little one ear headsets and receivers that we put in so we could hear an English translation of the performance. It started promptly at 7:00. We quickly found out that this was not a whole kabuki show (which could last 5 hours) but instead a kind of teaching show, accompanied by two portions of kabuki plays as examples. First the guy came out and described what all the musicians were about and what various things represented. He had a ‘battle’ with some actors, it was all very pretty. Then we saw two scenes. The first was a portion of a famous Japanese story about two brothers whose father was a great lord until he was assassinated by another lord who took power. The boys grew up training to get revenge, and finally did. It’s a hero story.

The portion we saw was the younger brother, wearing the white makeup with red lines and everything chilling on this porch thing, making a bunch of clever puns about the gods of fortune and new year’s food, greeting a friend with a new year’s gift, and finally having a dream where his older brother contacted him with the news that he had been captured by the enemy and was imprisoned. The brother leapt up awake and set about to get to his brother. He then essentially beat up an old farmer for his horse as transport (not very heroic to me, but this is Japan we are talking about, and this show has apparently been playing since the 1700’s). He even got on the horse! This was amazing because the horse was two guys in a costume, and their costume must have weighed a ton, not to mention putting an actor also wearing a ton on top of them!

He then rode off stage and there was an intermission. The next performance bit we saw was the wisteria maiden. She was played as in all kabuki by an onnagata, a male playing a female role. Apparently the only time actual women played any role was in the Meiji era in the late 1600’s, when Japan was undergoing vast westernization. But it didn’t last as women were not seen as able to play the role properly. Reasons cited were, they were too natural, and kabuki is supposed to seem like theatre not reality, the costumes were too heavy for most women, and a few other reasons. All of this seemed very logical to me.

So the wisteria maiden came out and danced in a way that was supposed to be an interaction between her and her lover. He promised to stay true but then I think he didn’t and she refused sake and tried to leave but then he convinced her to have some or something. It sounds kinda weird but it was amazing to watch. He was very graceful and that’s saying something in that tight kimono. The end was when she was a little tipsy from the sake and performed a dance again, only now while drunk. He pulled it off amazingly, still graceful and beautiful but weaving a little and sloshing around. It was awesome.

That marked the end of the kabuki, but not my night by far. It was 9:00 and a few of us headed out and back to ICU. We remembered the way back well enough. So we got to Musashi-Sakai station alright, and it was about 10:10. We stopped at the Starbucks there because we couldn’t resist. It was funny to see some Japanese pastries and katakana menus there. I got a hot chocolate like always and was disappointed when it tasted the same, but their small is about 2 thirds the size of our tall. Sigh, and it was 360 yen too (about $3.60). Not doing that again so soon. Then we realized that the last bus to ICU left at 10:12 and it was now 10:30. We now had too hoof it. Again. So we made our way slowly, talking and stopping at a couple convenience stores along the way. Keep in mind it was a 10 minute bus ride.

We got to ICU Global House at 11:10, and I started to make my way home from there saying goodbye to everyone. Mom, I know you don’t like to hear that but it was perfectly safe. The entire way was lit with streetlights and in very public places. I even saw police at one point. I found quickly however that the south gat I go out of was locked. That meant I had to go literally 30 minutes out of my way to go back through the main gate (which I had just come in through) and down two extra streets to get home. I got back at around 11:45, tired sweaty, irritated and with giant blisters on my feet from walking a few miles that day in my Teva sandals. Ugh. Then I felt bad because Kuzuhara-san had been a little worried. I apologized and promised her I’d call next time and headed for bed.

Now it’s noon the next ｄay (yay Saturday!) and I woke up about an hour and a half ago. In a half hour, I’m leaving to go meet some friends in Harajuku. I hope I’m not getting myself in trouble again!

しよんなら！

(Note: Don’t have time to post this now but I will later. Again, its noon my time, 11 pm yours as I write this.)