HOLIDAYS IN JAPAN

I saw three pieces. The first was Shigenoi, a tale about the nurse to a young princess who had an illegitamate shild with a samurai 11 years ago. A young pack horse driver comes who is to take the princess on a journey to Edo. But when the driver speaks to Shigenoi alone he reveals that he is her son. He should have been a samurai, but Shigenoi cannot herself to expose what she has done. There was a lot of recitatvie-type singing in this. During part of this one there was a singer to the side of the stage who was singing Shigenoi's thoughts, which I thought was a nice touch.
The second was Meoto Dojoji (Male and female Dojoji). This about a celebration of the arrival of a new bell at a temple (the Dojoji). Two supposedly female dancers appear, but it becomes apparent that one of the dancers is a man. But no matter, they are allowed to dance anyway.....and that's all there is to it. It was basically one long dance. This .
    The final piece, which was rather longer than the first two, was 'Tsuta momiji utsunoya toge' ('The killing of the blind Masseur Bunya'). This a tale about a merchant Jubei. He is staying at an inn somewhere on the Tokaido highway where he meets a blind massuer, Bunya. Jubei is returning to Edo having made an unsuccesful trip to Kyoto to collect 100 gold coins to help save the life of his lord. Bunya is travelling the other way and is being pursued by a thief, Daiba no Nisa (whom was played by the same actor). Jubei offers to help Bunya escape from the thief, even though it means walking the wrong way. So they travel up until the point where Jubei believes that they have escaped the attentions of of Daiba, though that is actually not the case at all. before saying goodbye Jubei asks Bunya what he has that is worth stealing. The answer is 100 gold coins, money that Bunya is going to use to buy a rank. As this the money that Jubei needs he is tempted to steal it. After quarreling with himself, he kills Bunya and takes the money. About month later Daiba, who saw everything, catches up with Jubei in Edo. Jubei has to kill him as well. In the end though revenge is exacted when Jubei has another massage, this time by a ghost.
    I enjoyed the final piece most, but it was also the least 'kabuki-ish'. It reminded my of some Chinese ghost story films that I have seen. Part of the essence of kabuki is to replace realism with presentation. For exmple in Kabuki it doesn't matter that sometimes actors quickly take off one brightly coloured cotsume in the middle of the stage to reveal another one underneath (as happened in Meoto Dojoji). It also doesn't matter much of the action looks unrealistic or that there were ninjas (I call them ninkas, they were stage hands dressed in black) handing props to the actors when they are needed. I should say though that many of the men who were playing women looked very feminine. In 'Tsuta Momiji Utsunoya Toge' all of the words were spoken and there were no ninjas passing props. Only the background music and the two fight scenes were really kabuki-like.

    Anyway it was an enjoyable afternnoon/evening. The English radio commentary certainly helped!

In September 2004 I took a two-week holiday in Japan. I spent most of that time in and around Tokyo. Fpr the most part I stayed with our friend Kentaro Matusbara, though I frequently had dinner at his mother Sumiko's house. My brother James was there for the first six days that I there, though he arrived a few days before.
Here are James and myself at a Cambodian restaurant. James has a few banking connections in Japan (need I say more). Below are the photos of many of the sites I saw in Tokyo. Unfortuately James does not appear on the remainder of this page. However we did go to Kyoto together for three days. I also took days to Hakone and to Kamakura. So see snaps from these places, go to the second page.
	I went to the Asakusa Kannon Temple, a large red temple in central Tokyo which is surrounded by many small gift shops and things. It is the oldesr temple in Tokyo. The area is usually crowded, but I visited in the early evening when it was less so. Even so, without the shops and the people, the area would lose its 'energy'.
Here is its Sanmon gate, with another impressive lantern. Most of the larger temples in Japan seem to have this type of entrance gate.
	Here's a close view of one of the demons
Here is a closer look at one of the lampshades and one of the demons. I think they belong to the Karinarimon, the gate of the God of Thunder.
	There aren't as many major shrines in Tokyo as there are in Kyoto, but I did briefly visit the Meiji Shrine in Yoyogi Park.
There was a very big drum there.
	I went to the zoo in Ueno Park. The most famous residents there are the giant pandas.
I thought the red panda was cuter though. Can't see its face here though.
	There were a lot of birds at this zoo. Here's an owl doing the head-spinning trick.
These green parrots are known as 'lovebirds'.
	There were some little penguins.....
and some bigger ones.
	I can't remember what these birds are called, but they were having quite a squabble over a bit of cuttlefish.
Here was the victor when I left the scene, though I'm sure it carried on after I left.
	There were several brands of ibis.
And no zoo is complete without flamingoes around a few palm trees.
	There were various monkeys there. Here is a cute little baby one.
There were some anteaters. Here's one showing off its tongue.
	I also went to the aquarium at Sunshine City (some tall buildings in the Ikeoburo district). This coral reef-dwelling fish is called 'Look down', aparently.
The purple ones in this picture are called 'Purple Queens'
	The stripey ones with spines on their backs are Red Firefish.
Here are some impressive Japanese deep sea crabs.
	There were some turtles. I'm not sure if these two are courting.
There were also some jellyfish. This one is of teh species Chrysaora Metanastus. I'm quite proud of this photo.
	Have you ever seen a black and white dolphin before. Not me, prior to seeing this one.
There were some sea anenomes
	There were also some non-aquatic animals like this squirel.
and this chameleon.
	I went to the Kabukiza Theatre one afternoon to see some Kabuki. Kabuki is an performaing art form that started in the early 17th century, something of a development from No. It is a little bit like opera though the music oftens sounds somewhat out of tune to Western ears (it doesn't use the 'equal temporament' system that is so familiar) and typoically there are only a handfu.l of instruments in the band, or even just one. All the adult parts are played by women and has been since 1629. This came about for moral reasons as many of the early performances were somewhat erotic. You might think that by now this tradition wuol have ceased, but traditions don't seem to change very often in Japan.
I saw three pieces. The first was Shigenoi, a tale about the nurse to a young princess who had an illegitamate shild with a samurai 11 years ago. A young pack horse driver comes who is to take the princess on a journey to Edo. But when the driver speaks to Shigenoi alone he reveals that he is her son. He should have been a samurai, but Shigenoi cannot herself to expose what she has done. There was a lot of recitatvie-type singing in this. During part of this one there was a singer to the side of the stage who was singing Shigenoi's thoughts, which I thought was a nice touch. The second was Meoto Dojoji (Male and female Dojoji). This about a celebration of the arrival of a new bell at a temple (the Dojoji). Two supposedly female dancers appear, but it becomes apparent that one of the dancers is a man. But no matter, they are allowed to dance anyway.....and that's all there is to it. It was basically one long dance. This . The final piece, which was rather longer than the first two, was 'Tsuta momiji utsunoya toge' ('The killing of the blind Masseur Bunya'). This a tale about a merchant Jubei. He is staying at an inn somewhere on the Tokaido highway where he meets a blind massuer, Bunya. Jubei is returning to Edo having made an unsuccesful trip to Kyoto to collect 100 gold coins to help save the life of his lord. Bunya is travelling the other way and is being pursued by a thief, Daiba no Nisa (whom was played by the same actor). Jubei offers to help Bunya escape from the thief, even though it means walking the wrong way. So they travel up until the point where Jubei believes that they have escaped the attentions of of Daiba, though that is actually not the case at all. before saying goodbye Jubei asks Bunya what he has that is worth stealing. The answer is 100 gold coins, money that Bunya is going to use to buy a rank. As this the money that Jubei needs he is tempted to steal it. After quarreling with himself, he kills Bunya and takes the money. About month later Daiba, who saw everything, catches up with Jubei in Edo. Jubei has to kill him as well. In the end though revenge is exacted when Jubei has another massage, this time by a ghost. I enjoyed the final piece most, but it was also the least 'kabuki-ish'. It reminded my of some Chinese ghost story films that I have seen. Part of the essence of kabuki is to replace realism with presentation. For exmple in Kabuki it doesn't matter that sometimes actors quickly take off one brightly coloured cotsume in the middle of the stage to reveal another one underneath (as happened in Meoto Dojoji). It also doesn't matter much of the action looks unrealistic or that there were ninjas (I call them ninkas, they were stage hands dressed in black) handing props to the actors when they are needed. I should say though that many of the men who were playing women looked very feminine. In 'Tsuta Momiji Utsunoya Toge' all of the words were spoken and there were no ninjas passing props. Only the background music and the two fight scenes were really kabuki-like. Anyway it was an enjoyable afternnoon/evening. The English radio commentary certainly helped!
One afternoon I went to the Kokugikan stadium to see some sumo.
	These two are in the shikiri position. It looks like they're ready to start, but I think they did a bit more salt-throwing first. Throwing salt onto the dohyo (the ring) is supposed to purify it and project them against injury. The referee (or gyoji) always has a wizard hat and a sword. The tradition says that if the referee makes a poor decision he is carry out seppuko (ritualised suicide). Good job they don;t have to do that in the Premiership!
It was day 7 of the September tournament. In this photo Asashoryu has just pushed Tamanoshima onto the dohyo.
	This is the Yumito-shiki (bow dance) that follows the final bout of the day.
I took a trip to the Sciemce museum in Ueno Park. The museum was more than half taken up by natural history. Here is most of a Tyranosauris Rex in the museum's old building.
	There were several pretty stained-glass windows in the old building. And several moose's heads.
The new building was not a pretty, but definitely more hi-tech. I managed to sneaky shot (from the museum's restaurant) of this room in the new building was not quite ready yet.
	I went the Tokyo National Museum as well which is very close to ths Science museum. There were some attractive pieces of Japanese laquerware.
The items I was most keen to see at the museum were the weapons and armour. I found out after my trip that there is a weapons museum in Tokyo, so maybe I should just have gone there? Here are some suits of armour. I'm not sure what all that blond hair is about.
	Here are a couple of katanas, sharp enought to cut man in half.
There were bows and arrows on show as well.
	This is a kanjo-ban, a banner which is typically hung from a canopy or pillar in a buddhist temple.
Close to dusk one evening I ascended Tokyo Tower.
	Here's the lower section at close range. It is modeled on The Eifeel Tower, as you might expect.
The views were better than I had expected. Here is a view vaguely to the west of the tower.
	Here is a view to southest towards Tokyo Bay. Visible in this picture is the Rainbow Bridge and big wheel, similar to The London Eye, lit up in blue.