Noh Plans for Monday

Today we had no school, as it was ‘Respect for the Aged Day’. Sakiko and I went out for a short walk down to see the hotel where my family will be staying when they come to visit and discovered that it was very close. After that, we went back home for lunch, and Sakiko made me somen, which are thing noodles that are iced and, like soba, dipped in dashi broth mixed with whatever you want, in this case sesame powder, salty seaweed and wasabi. My pre-modern literature class had been given tickets to a traditional dance and music recital at a Noh theatre, so I took Sakiko with me to see that. It really was lovely. The first dancer was an extremely good-looking guy who did a remarkable piece with jumping and many sharp movements. After that, it was an older woman doing a very popular piece called ‘Kurokami’, or ‘Black Hair’. After that, there was a trio with two koto and a traditional Japanese bamboo flute doing a piece that was based on the ‘Akashi’ chapter of the Tale of Genji. The third dance was a woman with an umbrella (instead of the standard fan) doing a piece called ‘Yuki’ or ‘Snow’. The final piece was to my mind the most unusual, with one woman dancing and about four men singing in unison with no other instruments. It was a very strong, resonant sound that I almost preferred to the previous music. The audience contained many older women in a variety of different kimono, which always makes me happy. After that, one of the other students and I went in search of a café, but ended up buying bread from a local bakery and sitting outside of the Family Mart convenience store. When we were crossing the street to get to said resting place, we comented (in Japanese) on the extreme heat and humidity to a businessman standing next to us. We didn’t think anything of it until a bit later when he passed us where we were sitting and gave us flavoured ice packages and left. We were very surprised, as we had at no point been properly introduced, and he gave us no time to thank him as he sped on his way. It really did hit the spot though.
-People really don’t seem to worry about their stuff being stolen here. A couple of middle school girls sitting near us left their bags sitting outside the convenience store with no one to guard them.
-There are only ever cafés when you aren’t looking for one.
-It seems perfectly fine to take video or flash-photography during concerts and the like here. I can’t say that I know why that is.
-Noh plays can only run for one show, though some now have ‘practice performances’ that are less expensive but are in all actuality full performances in order to generate enough interest and revenue.