Kabuki and Tsukiji

We had jotted down a couple of things that we wanted to do in Tokyo while we were still on the train, but when we got to our room there was a pamphlet about the current Kabuki performances being shown at the ‘Kabuki-za’ kabuki theatre that peaked our interest. Two of the pieces on the program looked interesting to us, the first being a dance piece called ‘Onna Date (that’s ohn-na dah teh)’ which means ‘female dandy’ about a woman who fights off would-be suitors, and another called ‘musume dojoji (mu-su-meh do-jou-gee)’ or ‘the woman of Dojoji temple’, which we had studied in class. I was most excited about this second piece, as it is famous for having a great many costume changes, ending with the main character turning into a snake demon. I wasn’t aware of this before, but apparently there is the option of buying same-day tickets to individual pieces within a day’s program instead of a whole act, so we decided to see if we could get in. Before the tickets that we wanted went on sale, however, we had time to look around the neighbouring Tsukiji area, famous for being where fish are taken off the boats early in the morning and sold to the area’s restaurants. The sushi in this area was supposed to be amazing, so we made a point to have our lunch there, finally deciding on a nice-looking place that had been around for over a hundred years. It was, in fact, the best sushi that I’ve ever had. After that we bought our tickets for the kabuki dance piece, which also included (because ‘Onna Date’ is rather short) the piece directly following, about a young man who, having been disowned by his rich merchant family for spending too much of his time with the courtesan Yugiri, returns to see his love again after three years. The protagonist in this piece was played in something called ‘wagoto’ style, which originated in Kyoto and is used to depict sensitive men of good breeding. I have to say, however, that while the effect was interesting and definitely amusing, the man’s courtesan lover showed more backbone than he did. After the first selection was over, we decided to go to ‘Musume Dojoji’ as well, and so had another couple hours to kill in the other direction from Tsukiji, the ritzy Ginza district, which is full of designer stores and boutiques. We, however, happened to be looking for a restaurant that my friend had seen on tv, famous for being the first restaurant to serve something called ‘katsu kareh’, which is basically a breaded fried piece of pork or beef that is put on rice and covered in Japanese curry. The restaurant was called ‘Grilled Swiss’ (I couldn’t tell you why) and was pretty good, but a little more expensive than I’m used to. Finally, the kabuki play was well worth waiting in line for and then standing through when there were no more seats left. The main character went through 8 costumes, some changes were offstage, but others were done by having attendants pull off layers onstage, which is pretty amazing to watch and hard to describe. The climax of the piece comes when the woman stands under a large bell that is suspended from the ceiling of the stage and has it come down around her. At this point, the actor inside the bell changes, not just clothes, but also wig and costume to go from a beautiful young woman to a demon snake. The snake is confronted (but not obviously defeated) by a man acting in the flamboyant and much more masculine ‘aragoto’ style, a nice counterpoint to the hero of the previous piece. After a full day, we decided that we might as well take a look at Roppongi, an area that is most famous for having a lot of clubs that foreigners tend to frequent, but also a good view of Tokyo Tower at night. The way the clubs were described in the guidebook made them sound more than a little bit sketchy, not that we were much in a clubbing mood anyway, so we were there pretty much to look at Tokyo Tower. Every building that was not affiliated with the new, ritzy, Roppongi Hills development was dirty and unappealing, and everywhere we looked there were roving bands of drunk foreigners. We took our pictures and headed back to the station, where there was, against all odds, a Wendy’s. The spicy chicken sandwich was smaller than in the US, and the frosty was considered a desert and therefore could not be included as the drink in a value meal, but otherwise it was a very nostalgic dinner.
-A normal Kabuki program consists of two acts, each made up of several small, self-contained stories and lasting over 3 hours. This seems to be a theme with traditional Japanese theatre, as a traditional Noh program also lasts all day.
-I’m not certain if I’ve mentioned this before or not, but Kabuki is always performed by men with some men (called ‘onnagata’), specializing in women’s roles.
-Everywhere we looked in Tokyo there were groups of foreigners. It was unnerving.
-For some reason the main street of the Ginza shopping area is blocked-off with benches where there would be medians normally. It was really odd to see people sitting in the middle of the street, especially since it in every other way looks like a normal road.
-There is something called ‘Natural Lawsons’ here that seems to be the Whole Foods of convenience stores. I think that everything in there was supposed to be organic, I only know that it was more expensive.