The Last Day

My last evening in town my host mother made a wonderful dinner. All matter of tasty things, from special foods like sashimi to foods that, while not technically meant for special occasions, were things that I had grown fond of, such as ochazuke (hot tea poured over a pickled plum and some rice). I broke out a bottle of wine that I had forgotten about, and overall it was just a great night, even though it was sad to think that I’d be leaving soon after lunch the following day.
I had already pretty much finished packing by Sunday morning, so when my host mother remembered that there was a special exhibit going on nearby I was able to jump on the chance. My host mother, host sister, and I hopped in the car and drove down to the temple that sits alongside Doushisha University. The exhibit was of the work of a 105-year-old master weaver, who had woven select chapters from the Tale of Genji into long scrolls with sections of text and illustrations. The scrolls were extremely beautiful. One of the most striking things about them was the fact that, while the style was still very traditional and in many ways resembled other illustrations for the Tale of Genji, if one looked closely, the use of perspective was flawless, making things seem 3d where usually such drawings would be very flat. After we had seen the scrolls, we headed back to the house, with a brief stop at the local bakery for some sandwiches and breads to have for lunch. The shuttle to the airport arrived not long after I finished eating. Before I knew it, I was on my way home.

The last show

May 9th was a day that really brought home my imminent departure from Kyoto: my last Takarazuka show of the trip. My friends and I had decided that we had to finish out our study abroad experience by seeing the last of the 5 Takarazuka troupes perform in the Grand Theatre, and the only way to do so was to go to the opening performance of ‘Love and Death in Arabia’. This performance was not only the first day of the show, but also the first Grand Theatre performance for the new Top Star of Flower Troupe, which made it extra special. Since this was probably our last chance to do so, my friend and I wore hakama, which attracted a decent amount of positive attention. The show itself was interesting, especially since the entire thing took place in Egypt. The opening number belonged in Vegas: gold silk stretched across the stage to suggest sand, a full cast in gold-bordered robes, and a large glittery pyramid in the centre of the stage, which opened to reveal the top star herself, who was wearing a headdress meant to suggest Horus. The plot was a little hard for me to follow, but had to do with a Scottish man named Thomas being drafted to help fight for Egypt’s independence because of his perfect marksmanship. I don’t think that this show would have gone over well in the more politically-correct circles in the US. It was full of stereotypes, belly dancers and turbans, though the Japanese audience didn’t seem to mind overmuch. The revue part of the show was called ‘Red Hot Sea’, and was set underwater. It was a pretty interesting revue, though still not my favourite. The highlights included: a fight between men wielding sticks and men wielding whip-like ropes, an amusing piece about a ghost ship, and some very nice pin-striped suits. The more painful parts included: sequin-covered wing-like shoulder pads that haunt me still, and massive amounts of leg-ruffles on seemingly every member of the cast at one point. Overall it was a lot of fun. After the show itself, we decided to stay to watch the actresses leave the theatre, which takes awhile. Since this was such an important show, we watched large numbers of massive orchid plants and bouquets being taken out of the theatre, at times seeming to dwarf the women carrying them. None of the actresses seemed to notice us, which was fine, but they were all (as always) extremely well-dressed. At one point something very puzzling happened. A woman in a white blazer (I couldn’t see her very well) walked out and headed for (I believe) the parking lot. As soon as she was within sight, a line of women that had been waiting to one side RAN after her, which would have been strange enough if the woman had stopped at that point and gone through the usual fan-club ritual of receiving gifts and waving. However, while the line of women pursued her, she kept her head down and forged ahead. It looked as though she was being chased, which neither my friend nor I had ever seen before. After that we waited a while longer for the #2 star to come out. Her fan club was very large and had rather cute matching sweaters, and she just stood there as they filed past her with their cards and gifts. When the top star finally came out (we had been waiting for quite awhile by that point, and I was getting hungry), her fanclub (all wearing the girliest pink sweatshirts I have ever seen) recited a message to her about how they had been cheering her on from the audience etc. We had heard them practice their speech earlier, but since we hadn’t known what they were doing it sounded almost like they were praying or something. After she had received all of the gifts from her fanclub, the top star (Matobu Sei is her name) went over to say ‘hello’ to the #2 person’s fanclub and then drove off. By that time I was dying for some sort of dinner, but a lot of the restaurants were closed for the night. We managed to find a soba restaurant that was both open and delicious, which was very fortunate. After that we rode the train back, my last time on the Kyoto subway system.
-I’m really going to miss wearing kimono.
-I don’t shop well under pressure. Even knowing that it was my last chance to buy Takarazuka DVDs until my next trip to Japan (the shop doesn’t ship abroad) I was unable to decide on what I wanted to buy, and thus left virtually empty-handed.
-When you spend over 3000yen at the used goods shop you’re allowed to pick a program or magazine from the bin by the register. They won’t tell you this, you just have to know.
-When you are in a Takarazuka fan club, the club president chooses something for each performance that your chosen actress is in (such as a scarf, sweater, jacket, etc.) and as a member of the club you are *required* to purchase one for each show. You just hope, I guess, that your fan club president has good taste.

The last party

The last couple of days in town were pretty much a blur of packing and last-minute shopping. On one of our last days in town, one of the students had arranged another all-you-can-eat beef night, which was fun, even if I was late for it. It was a different restaurant in the same chain as the last time that I went, which meant that the food was equally good, though the service was also rather slow. I think that the waiters dreaded stepping into our little party room, which contained about 30 Americans, half of which were male. After dinner, most everyone went out for karaoke, but my closest group of friends had opted to go wander around Shijo instead and so I went with them. We mostly looked around in various shops, talked, and then went home. My feet were a little worse for wear by then, but I had managed to pick up some last-minute gifts and spend some last-minute time with people.