Last night I had an all-nighter in Shibuya. (All-nighters generally happen when one gets stranded somewhere. Last trains, you know. So around midnight there's always the inner debate - should I leave right now when the party's just getting started, and get my last train? Or should I stay, thus committing myself to another five hours here?)
It was a fun night. But I was a little surprised. I thought of Shibuya as the city that never sleeps - there are lots of 24-hour places and lots of clubs, bars, etc. But a lot of those clubs and bars close around midnight. Accordingly, we did a *lot* of wandering around. We ended up in the love hotel district. I couldn't believe it. There were SO many love hotels, there must've been at least 100 or 200.
(Love hotels are places where you can rent rooms for a short time - 'rest' - or the rest of the night - 'stay'. They are themed hotels, often with decorated rooms, where couples can go discreetly... some of them were boasting Wii or DVD, and some had sexy costumes you could wear...)
***
The weather continues to be wonderful. So much nicer than last year's spring. In the last two or three days, suddenly azaleas bloomed everywhere. I never realised just how many azaleas there are around here. A student told me that Kawasaki's 'symbol' flower is the azalea. It would make sense. There's also a big underground shopping mall in Kawasaki called 'Azalea'.
***
I am hoping to go to Korea next week. It's very close to Japan, after all. I found someone to travel with (it's easier to find someone to go to Korea for 3 days than someone to go to the US or something). But nothing is booked yet, so I'm not sure.
The other night I went out with some students and we had Korean food. Korean food is Magnificient. We had bulgogi (a kind of beef and thin rice noodles dish) and chijimi (vegetable pancake), and a kind of pork yakiniku (barbecue) where we wrapped the pork in lettuce leaves. Yum!
***
Yesterday I went to the Edo Tokyo museum in Ryogoku. It was really interesting. I was lucky to get a free English guide, in what was basically a private tour. His English wasn't that high level - he could talk quite well but every time he asked me a question, and I replied in my clearest, simplest English, he wouldn't understand my answer. Hahaha...
But he was a very nice man and I learned lots of really interesting things about Japanese history. When someone explains things to you, it comes clear and alive in your mind a lot better than just reading loads of signs.
After this, I went to Akihabara for a while. They have some interesting souvenirs. I bought some Maid Cookies. (Maid cafes are a famous thing in Japan.) They also have oden in cans, and bread in cans. I bought bread in a can (with cute anime girls on the outside) for a friend as a gift. It sounds pretty gross, but it's one of those 'only in Japan' things... hahaha...
***
Life is good. I've started studying Japanese a bit again. I'm going to take a one-off lesson today, though generally I've stopped taking lessons. As I think I mentioned, I am finishing my contract in early September. I've been thinking vaguely on-and-off abut what I might do next. I'm still not sure I'm ready to leave Japan; I like it so much.
There is some possibility in my mind that I would try to stay on for another 6 months, in a different job. On the other hand, it'd be a lot of hassle (organising visas and taxes and accommodation, etc), and much easier to just go back to Australia. So I haven't made any decisions yet. I suppose it would depend a good deal on whether I could secure another job.
I hope everyone's doing well. I wish I could come over to Adelaide for a week or so, just to say hi...
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Kabuki
After reading this blog entry, Pete and I decided we wanted to see kabuki. Accordingly, today we went, with three friends. (Two of them are students - I went white-water rafting with one of them - and the other I just met today.)
Kabuki is a style of traditional Japanese theatre where all the roles are played by men. There is a famous, old kabuki theatre in Ginza called Kabuki-za. Next year, this lovely old building will be torn down - apparently it's not earthquake-resilient and there are various other reasons - and relocated into a more modern complex. Thus, this year is like a 'farewell' year where each month, they play various famous or favourite shows.
You can purchase tickets for a whole session - a few hours - but we decided to see only one act. It was 1 hour and 20 minutes, so it was long enough to enjoy. Since we couldn't get reserved tickets, we lined up a short time before the show. I was disappointed that we could only get 'standing' tickets - thinking that 80 minutes is a long time to stand - but actually I enjoyed it. We were in the very back row of the theatre and we had a good view, though it was at a distance. There was a row of benches behind us, though if we sat down, we wouldn't have been able to see.
They also rent out English earpieces. It's a headphone that goes in just one ear, and during the performance they give you explanations of what's going on. You can listen to the show with the other ear. This is really good, because they don't try to translate every single word; they summarise it. Eg: "Rokusuke reveals that he lost the fight on purpose. He knew that his rival was caring for his elderly mother, and he felt that he needed this job. Rokusuke was moved by his rival's dedication to his mother."
When compared with Western-style theatre, there is a lot more emphasis on stylized movements and in creating an attractive 'picture' than in representing situations in a realistic way. According to the earpiece, if you were to take photos of a kabuki show at 3-second intervals, and looked at them, each would look like an ukiyo-e (woodblock) painting - nothing out of place, each character and item perfectly positioned.
The tale we watched was called "Keya Mura". According to the Kabuki-za website:
"The evening program begins with KEYAMURA, a play from the puppet theatre, that shows a master swordsman named Rokusuke (Kichiemon) living humbly in the countryside only to meet his fiancée, a powerful woman named Osono (Fukusuke) and goes to avenge the death of her father, his fighting teacher. The highlight of the play is the contrast between the two highly contrasting sides of Osono’s character. She is a fierce fighter on the one hand and delicately feminine when she learns that Rokusuke is her future husband."
The characters wore white facepaint and traditional costumes - kimono, samurai clothes, etc - and extras, dressed all in black, would scurry about the stage removing props etc. To the side, musicians would sing/narrate, or play the shamisen, and one guy's job was to strike the ground loudly for dramatic effect. The actors warble operatically rather than speak, and they didn't seem to have microphones; they spoke loudly, but did sound a little quiet from our vantage point at the back of the theatre. Add to that the fact that kabuki includes a lot of archaic Japanese, and I was very grateful to have the English explanations.
After the show, I realised that our Japanese friends had barely understood any of it. I asked one girl how much she understood; she said 20%. But then when I was explaining some elements of the plot, they were like "ohh! So that's what they were doing?" etc; so in fact they hadn't even understood as much as they thought they had... Overall I think it was more interesting for us foreigners, and I really enjoyed it.
After the play, we walked down to Tsukiji, which is famous for its huge fish market. The weather was lovely. The market was closed, as it was night time, but we went to one of the many sushi restaurants. I still don't like sushi... but I tried crab brains (yuck) and we got a huge tuna head (delicious).
As we left, the clerk gave us all candy shaped like sushi. Pete was rather startled to find that what looked like nori (seaweed), actually WAS nori. That's right, they made fake sushi out of sugar candy, and wrapped it in real seaweed. Hahaha...
Kabuki is a style of traditional Japanese theatre where all the roles are played by men. There is a famous, old kabuki theatre in Ginza called Kabuki-za. Next year, this lovely old building will be torn down - apparently it's not earthquake-resilient and there are various other reasons - and relocated into a more modern complex. Thus, this year is like a 'farewell' year where each month, they play various famous or favourite shows.
You can purchase tickets for a whole session - a few hours - but we decided to see only one act. It was 1 hour and 20 minutes, so it was long enough to enjoy. Since we couldn't get reserved tickets, we lined up a short time before the show. I was disappointed that we could only get 'standing' tickets - thinking that 80 minutes is a long time to stand - but actually I enjoyed it. We were in the very back row of the theatre and we had a good view, though it was at a distance. There was a row of benches behind us, though if we sat down, we wouldn't have been able to see.
They also rent out English earpieces. It's a headphone that goes in just one ear, and during the performance they give you explanations of what's going on. You can listen to the show with the other ear. This is really good, because they don't try to translate every single word; they summarise it. Eg: "Rokusuke reveals that he lost the fight on purpose. He knew that his rival was caring for his elderly mother, and he felt that he needed this job. Rokusuke was moved by his rival's dedication to his mother."
When compared with Western-style theatre, there is a lot more emphasis on stylized movements and in creating an attractive 'picture' than in representing situations in a realistic way. According to the earpiece, if you were to take photos of a kabuki show at 3-second intervals, and looked at them, each would look like an ukiyo-e (woodblock) painting - nothing out of place, each character and item perfectly positioned.
The tale we watched was called "Keya Mura". According to the Kabuki-za website:
"The evening program begins with KEYAMURA, a play from the puppet theatre, that shows a master swordsman named Rokusuke (Kichiemon) living humbly in the countryside only to meet his fiancée, a powerful woman named Osono (Fukusuke) and goes to avenge the death of her father, his fighting teacher. The highlight of the play is the contrast between the two highly contrasting sides of Osono’s character. She is a fierce fighter on the one hand and delicately feminine when she learns that Rokusuke is her future husband."
The characters wore white facepaint and traditional costumes - kimono, samurai clothes, etc - and extras, dressed all in black, would scurry about the stage removing props etc. To the side, musicians would sing/narrate, or play the shamisen, and one guy's job was to strike the ground loudly for dramatic effect. The actors warble operatically rather than speak, and they didn't seem to have microphones; they spoke loudly, but did sound a little quiet from our vantage point at the back of the theatre. Add to that the fact that kabuki includes a lot of archaic Japanese, and I was very grateful to have the English explanations.
After the show, I realised that our Japanese friends had barely understood any of it. I asked one girl how much she understood; she said 20%. But then when I was explaining some elements of the plot, they were like "ohh! So that's what they were doing?" etc; so in fact they hadn't even understood as much as they thought they had... Overall I think it was more interesting for us foreigners, and I really enjoyed it.
After the play, we walked down to Tsukiji, which is famous for its huge fish market. The weather was lovely. The market was closed, as it was night time, but we went to one of the many sushi restaurants. I still don't like sushi... but I tried crab brains (yuck) and we got a huge tuna head (delicious).
As we left, the clerk gave us all candy shaped like sushi. Pete was rather startled to find that what looked like nori (seaweed), actually WAS nori. That's right, they made fake sushi out of sugar candy, and wrapped it in real seaweed. Hahaha...
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Hanami season
Haven't blogged much about my recent activities but I've been keeping busy and still doing something every weekend.
Three weekends ago I went to a house party that Pete had, and then went to all-night karaoke. (^_^)
Two weekends ago I went to a hanami (cherry blossom-viewing party) with some students, and I saw a movie ('Yes Man') with my co-worker, Yumi.
Last weekend I went to a festival in Kawasaki and a kind of mini-hanami at Daishi Park, nearby. The following day I went to Odawara Castle, another popular spot for seeing cherry blossoms. Yesterday morning I went to Mitsuike Park, which is not far from Kawasaki. It's supposed to have about 1000 cherry trees.
This year I've been very lucky; the last few days have been prime for cherry blossoms (as in, the trees have been at their peak - cherry blossoms don't last at all long), and the weather has been perfect. As of last week, it actually feels like spring for the first time.
I've been taking excessive numbers of pictures, especially of the cherry trees, which are beautiful. I finally updated flickr so you can see my last few weeks on there.
Three weekends ago I went to a house party that Pete had, and then went to all-night karaoke. (^_^)
Two weekends ago I went to a hanami (cherry blossom-viewing party) with some students, and I saw a movie ('Yes Man') with my co-worker, Yumi.
Last weekend I went to a festival in Kawasaki and a kind of mini-hanami at Daishi Park, nearby. The following day I went to Odawara Castle, another popular spot for seeing cherry blossoms. Yesterday morning I went to Mitsuike Park, which is not far from Kawasaki. It's supposed to have about 1000 cherry trees.
This year I've been very lucky; the last few days have been prime for cherry blossoms (as in, the trees have been at their peak - cherry blossoms don't last at all long), and the weather has been perfect. As of last week, it actually feels like spring for the first time.
I've been taking excessive numbers of pictures, especially of the cherry trees, which are beautiful. I finally updated flickr so you can see my last few weeks on there.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Tanoshikatta
Today we had a potential student, an elementary school girl. When I came to meet her she was fairly quivering with excitement. This girl's love for English had to be seen to be believed. I taught her a few words in a fairly simple way and she was jumping about and saying 'tanoshikatta!' (that was fun!!).
She was brought by her grandparents, and I don't know if my teaching was especially impressive, but there was no denying that this girl was INTO it. Before I started, she had an air of 'oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm actually about to study some English!!' In fact, her grandparents said that it was the girl's decision to come to an English school - she was the one who begged to be able to come.
After mentioning that we were having a class of that level less than an hour later, they decided, on the spot, to join. And I mean, she actually stayed around and joined that class, the same day. I tell you, seeing this girl's face, you'd think all her Christmases had come at once.
So today I had three new students in my kids' class. This class has always had only one girl - for a full year, only one student - so our lessons have been fun but more subdued and with more direct interaction. Needless to say, the dynamic today was very, very different indeed. Instead of participating in every game, I was organising them and monitoring what they were doing. I kept it very energetic and we did a lot of running around etc. I'd been a bit apprehensive about it but it was a lot of fun. ^_^
She was brought by her grandparents, and I don't know if my teaching was especially impressive, but there was no denying that this girl was INTO it. Before I started, she had an air of 'oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm actually about to study some English!!' In fact, her grandparents said that it was the girl's decision to come to an English school - she was the one who begged to be able to come.
After mentioning that we were having a class of that level less than an hour later, they decided, on the spot, to join. And I mean, she actually stayed around and joined that class, the same day. I tell you, seeing this girl's face, you'd think all her Christmases had come at once.
So today I had three new students in my kids' class. This class has always had only one girl - for a full year, only one student - so our lessons have been fun but more subdued and with more direct interaction. Needless to say, the dynamic today was very, very different indeed. Instead of participating in every game, I was organising them and monitoring what they were doing. I kept it very energetic and we did a lot of running around etc. I'd been a bit apprehensive about it but it was a lot of fun. ^_^
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