bits of tokyo

after a longish absence, i'm back (for a bit!)

here are some excerpts from my tokyo trip.

most memorable moments: the Disgusting rush hour crowds and the manymanymany pple (who by the way, behave worse than singaporeans on mrts - Tokyians - if they can be called such - don't just walk/push each other out of rush hour trains, they FLING each other out at great speeds. i kid you not. the speed and naturalization of this violence is shocking. I think Tokyians are a hardy bunch.





we also watched Kabuki (traditional japanese theatre) where All Roles are played by MEN! and kabuki is a theatre were men can get famous for playing women's roles! this is the theatre that we were at.


3 shows, back to back, 4 hours in total! the first show, 'The Chrysanthenum Garden' was a play adapted from Japanese puppet theatre, and clearly emphasized more on symbolic meaning than realism. Even when one character gives another a simple pat on the shoulder, there must be a dramatic pause before the pat! imagine that! this play had beauty, dazzling costumes, and symmetry of movement and actor-placement. Wowed me!


the second show, 'The Courtesan Yatsuhashi and Sano Jirozaemon' was cool! similar to one of the climactic moments in memoirs of a geisha, where zhang ziyi wore towering clogs and did a sophisticated dance? the clogs are actually meant only for top ranking courtesans to wear, and these courtesans have to, not only wear elaborately fashioned kimonos, BUT have to wear the clogs that TOWER over everyone else, AND walk in the shape of a figure eight!! its so difficult that they had to have an assistant beside them whose shoulder they could hold on to while they walked. incredible!


the final show, 'Oni-Zoroi Momiji Gari' is a tale about an aristorat who travels to a mountain to view autumn leaves and meets a beautiful princess and her entourage who are really demons in disguise. there was alot of dancing in this final show, and at 3 different sets of on stage music ensembles! in this show, one of the things that struck me about Kabuki theatre was that, despite the lack of 'realism' - definitely not hollywood style- kabuki is a very refined, very sophisticated style of performance. kind of brings to mind wat YK always says to us regarding scuba - as long as u look good, its ok! kabuki looks VERY VERY GOOD. in a scene where the princess and her entourage were serving drinks to the aristocrat and his 2 friends, ONLY FANS were used to mimic the action of serving and drinking. AND it was done So Well it looked beautifully refined! also, to symbolise sleep states, actors point 1/2 open fans to their ears! instead of just curling up on the ground/putting heads on table etc.. like 'normal' western style movies/plays. one of the highlights from this show was the child actor who played one of the God for the mountain (who saved the aristrocrat from the demons) and did a dance - not like sas' hip hop type, kabuki 'dance' has alot of slow, synchronized moments and stamping of the feet.

the pics aren't from the theatre, as photography wasn't allowed. the pics u see are from models of kabuki actors we saw at the history museum we visited the day after!