Day 69 - Play

So, today was Saturday, and thus one of the busiest days of the week. Lovely day today, though a little too hot. I'mma need shorts and skirts again really soon. Kind of a surprise since when I first got here, I couldn't sleep without a heater on, but now I have the windows all the way open and am still sometimes too hot. It was supposed to rain today, but thankfully didn't.

Most important thing about today is the fact that we went to go see Kabuki, as a group with the OUS people. Super fun. Well. A good amount of fun. We saw a play called Heikei Nyogo no Shima, which is a story written by this really famous japanese playwright, Chikamatsu Monzaemon and meant to be set in the 12th century. It's about a monk who conspires to hold a coup against the ruling emperor, and is exiled with his two conspirators. They're sent to an island, where the youngest falls in love with a local pearl diver woman. They get married, but when the emperor pardons them, she's not allowed to come with them. The monk fights for her right to go with, and has her take his place on the boat. It's all very dramatic and emotional, but very difficult to understand in the Japanese. Thankfully, there were english translations available. I liked it enough, but actually fell asleep partway through. It was warm and I'd had a big lunch… There's actually a summary by the company that is producing it here, and they do a much better job than I did.

I think I'd like to go see Kabuki again, but a more exciting one? When I think of Kabuki, I think of this:

Not really of old men fighting and falling down every other hit. I wanna see some dramatic fighting and yelling. Maybe. The ticket for this one wasn't hugely expensive, but I don't know how much another one would be. One thing I really loved, that they didn't really make amazing use of, was the stage. We got to see a little bit of how it worked before the show, as a learning kind of thing. The whole freaking stage moves. Rotates. And lifts. There's three huge platforms built into the stage that lift a good 20 feet in the air. It was amazing. And they only thing they did in this play was rotate it a bit. I wanna see more!