Culture Day in Tokyo - Kabuki theatre and the Hard Rock Cafe

 Christmas Eve and we've a day of Culture booked by way of a Kabuki performance; an art form of acting where masked faces give emotion by way of voice intonation, and very little, slow movement is made. 

 

Slight blip on the metro this morning - found ourselves in the 'Women Only' carriage - OK for me, but not so for Col; realising our error, we apologised profusely and moved up a carriage asap before Col got himself arrested! Maybe there is an element of truth in the Tour Guide book rumours of perversion during rush hour?

Off we went to the National Noh Theatre to collect our tickets, waited around until 30 mins to spare, then found out at the information office we were actually at the wrong theatre.... PANIC......  £50.00/ticket and we're about to miss it!!  Dived into the first taxi we could flag down and zoomed off to the other side of town to the National Theatre Japan - 5 mins to spare before the performace started - phew.....  Honestly, how were we to know that the Kabuki performance wouldn't be held at the Kabuki Theatre?

Above:  picture of a typical Kabuki character - one of the scary, meaner ones!  

Below:  a photo of the National Noh Theatre - which we should not have been waiting at!!!  P.S.  If you look closely, you may spot a rare sighting of Col in a photo...

You're not allowed to take photos inside the Theatre once performing has started; a shame, because the costumes were really fantastic, and the face make-up for the masked appearance was incredible.  It should also be noted that the performers do not line up and take a bow at the end - I was hoping this would be my opportunity for a costumed photo, but it didn't happen.  Below is the stage area.

It has to be said, the show was absolutely amazing, and certainly an experience not to be missed.  The storyline is one of loyalty, disloyalty, love and sacrifice'.  The fight scene was particularly interesting - I've never witnessed such an inactive fight, where the samurai waved his hand (almost) to knock over the marauding enemy (who were fighting with bunches of flowers)..... and went on for 5 hours!!!!!  This was after they skipped Acts 1 and 2 at the beginning, just giving an introductory write-up in the theatre guide, started at Act 3, summarised Acts 5 and 6 by way of a story-teller, then again skipped Acts 8, 9 and 10 before going to the final Act 11.  Also, each Act contained a number of different scenes and background changes.  They perform different schedules of the Acts on different performances.  Strange how it still managed to make sense (sort of) to a non-Japanese speaking visitor.  Admittedly, there were three breaks, and had we known how long it lasted, we probably wouldn't have rushed so much to not miss the opening!  

The Theatre itself was an impressive building, with a really beautiful, art-filled interior.  The lights were like dandelion heads once turned to white puffs, but made of crystal for the ultimate shine and glitz.  I should also mention the heated seat toilet/bidet - totally unexpected!

Once we'd had our fill of Japanese culture, we made our way to a 'trendy wine bar' for a bowl of pasta; then off into town where we found a Tokyo take on the Hard Rock Cafe.  Had to go in just out of curiosity really....

The Staff were great.... really into the Christmas spirit.  Stayed for a couple of bottles, then off home (absolutely reeking of an ashtray - smoking is still allowed over here - hadn't realised how quickly we'd got used to the ban).  Needless to say, I was slightly merry, but Col got us back safely...

Elvis wannabe....

[Below:  Col was very polite and only photographed the top half of this Santa's helper - they seemd to be wearing indecently short serving outfits; felt embarrassed for the staff who had to keep taking meals upstairs!!]

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A young, trendy couple - he went to University in Manchester!

 

A great day and night out.....  Christmas tomorrow - hope Santa hasn't forgotten us.  

Tokyo Emperor Akihito's Birthday Speech, The Edo Museum and a Boat Ride Home

Our Feet are Aching, Our Backs are Stiff, but still we carry on.

Today was going to be a day for resting our feet, but as usual the day opened up ahead of us and we followed as fast as our limp plates of meat would carry us.

It was 9.30am as we entered the city centre. The sun has been glorious and in the shadows of the high office blocks the sky seems bluer than I have ever seen it. The temperature is a perfect 18 degrees and the stiff warm wind makes walking a lovely experience. We had read that the Emperor of Japan, Akihito, gives his birthday address to his subjects within the grounds of his palace on the 23rd December each year and we thought it only right that we should pop along to thank him in person for a lovely holiday.

Many thousands of us attended the first sitting at 10.30am. The organisation was amazing and also very respectful of the people (something that the UK police could learn a thing or two about). From each corner of the surrounding garden we are guided in towards the single bridge that enters the private palace grounds. The palace is beautiful in it's simplicity and show no over the top pomp that you would see in European palaces.

The mood of the crowd was one of respectful excitement. We had all been handed flags to wave on the way in by the Japanese cubs, scouts and other helpers, but it was noticable that these we not abused by the public. Only upon the opening of the interior curtains and the first step into view of the 77 year old Emperor did the grounds erupt with joyous screams and mass waving of flags. The moment that the emperor set to speak the crowd silenced and listened intently to the gracious words of an aging Emperor. Flags waved again at the end of the speech, plenty of waving from the royal family and the an orderly emptying of what seemed to be around 50'000 or more people ... in time for the next sitting in half an hours time.

Next we travelled across town to visit the Tokyo Edo Museum. A massive collection of reconstructions of different periods in Tokyo's history. You couldn't help to be drawn into the different models and architectural reconstructions that were so complex and accurate, yet hold an amazing sense of human interaction by way of the inclusion of many thousand tiny people within the models.

In all, this museum took us 3 hours to complete, including watching a professional story teller perform in front of the reconstructed Kabuki stage. (We are off to see real Kabuki tomorrow ...)

It's a shame we can't stay a little longer to experience the excitement of the opening of the Sumo season in January, but visiting the stadium and surrounding city you get a sense of its importance over here. I stood for ten minutes and managed to spot several young trainees heading off for their training massgaes, towels in hand.

After all this plodding it was time to get the crusie boat back towards home. We've got the hang of the Metro system now and can easily whizz from one side of the city to the other, but there's something nice about a boat cruise ... dozing off ;-)

Everyone, eventually, will lose their job to a machine ...

Saw this today and thought of you ... all !

We're in one of those hotels that everyone thinks of when they think of Tokyo ;-)

Tsukiji Fish Market, Hama-rikyu Gardens and Tokyo Tower

Once we'd finished up on the laundry we got a metro pass to see the Fishmarket. [Luckily] it was too late in the day and all the fish was gone, and the sellers were just tidying up.  The smell remained (imagine - a nice hot sunny day in Tokyo, and fish juice everywhere!).  We took a stroll through the enormous area of warehouses, then made our way (limped in Col's case) towards the Hama-rikyu Gardens.

This was an interesting looking fellow just sat around having a ciggy.... so I broke into his peace and quiet with my beeping camera and clicked away merrily.  Some people just have no thought for others!!

Nomiyoke Inari shrine - a shrine dedicated to the protection against waves.  Wandered past this in the fish market area, an absolutely beautiful shrine with heads on each side.  The gold was absolutely gleaming, and I'm certainly one for being attracted to the shiny shiny....

Still walking/limping to the Gardens, we stopped off at a supermarket and, inspired by our fish market visit, decided it was about time we tried sushi.  Above is just part of the bento [japanese for lunch box] which we tucked into once we arrived at the Gardens.  Have to say, it was really nice; admittedly I did find the pudding side first - an egg pancake full of rice and soaked in a kind of maple syrup.  We even managed to eat this in public, using chopstix - really getting the hang of this culture stuff now!

Wandering around the Gardens. A serene, calm and relaxing place of historic importance and scenic delight.  The above and following are views from around the walk.  A breath-taking place designed for self-reflection.  The contrast of idyllic and ancient landscaping against the modern, stark back-drop of buildings was wonderful.

One of the views from around the sea-water lake.

Meditating ducks?.....

One of the many trees wrapped in a grass matting.  Never did find out the significance of it, but looked interesting nevertheless.

A view looking across the bay of Tokyo to the business area.

I was trying to focus on the red tree, but there was just so much other lovely surrounding, I couldn't bring myself to just zoom in on that, hence the variety of greenery.  We took a lot of other photos, these are just a small selection - it really was an amazing place.  After a couple of hours wandering these grounds, we headed back out into rush-hour and set off for Tokyo Tower - the ideal evening for high rise views.

Our first close-up(ish) view of Tokyo Tower - a 333m high version of the Eiffel Tower, opened in 1958.  Stunning in the evening, lit up against all the block buildings surrounding it.

A view of the football stadium and mass sprawl of Tokyo central from the Main Oservatory (150m height).  Breathtaking!

A view of one of the many bridges crossing across the Tokyo Bay to the business area, from the Special Observatory (250m height).  The tower was well worth a visit; it gave a dazzling view of all that makes up Tokyo central; a shame there was nowhere to sit down - our feet were absolutely throbbing by this point!  Could really have done with just sitting around and taking in the atmosphere.  Managed to make our way back to the metro and stagger home.... Col's  just polished off the wine, so must be time for bed 49 past midnight!) so time to turn off shopping channel.

Laundry Day

An exciting start to the day.... I'm doing the laundry!  It's incredibly cheap compared to launderettes in Norwich, and the oil used for cooking does tend to permeate through your clothes..... yuk, stinky!

Once its finished we're off to Fish Market, Electric Town (for some cable to link laptop to tv screen) and Tokyo Towers.  Temperature is up to 18 again, and it's nice and dry...

Back later.

Does it rain in Tokyo - Live witness account !

Short Video of some lights ...

Well, we decided to check out the Techno Area to get some stunning night light photos; unfortunately it absolutely hammered down with rain, so took half a dozen naff shots at most, then made our way back towards the hotel (glad we didn't decide to climb Tokyo Tower - would have been right miserable). Juggling umbrellas in the densely populated area is quite a tough task.

Was just gone 10.00pm by the time we got off the metro (thank god we had bought a day ranger) and most places were closed; luckily for us though, the "English Pub" on the corner of La Qua stays open til 1.00am; fish and chips all round (not sure on the type of fish, but it was white and chunky).

Watched lots of soaked, dripping, pitiful people walking past the window whilst cosied up enjoying our meal and bottle of Soave - contrary to popular belief they do serve normal wine over here (albeit on the pricey side - but worth every penny).  Cheers.....