Backstage at Buranku

A friend kindly offered to introduce Sam and me to a friend of hers who was a Bunraku puppeteer. We visited him backstage at the National Theatre. We got to tramp all over the stage and even hold a puppet - just 10 minutes before the curtain went up.

On stage before curtain-up. Neither the stage nor the brown-painted parts
are visible from the audience.

Sam is standing in the puppeteers' trough. To his left is the audience.
Along the front edge of the stage there is 3 feet of masking so
the puppeteers are only visible from mid-thigh up.

In the dressing room. Puppeteers are responsible for dressing their own
puppets but there is a professional seamstress for helping with new costumes

The puppeteers wear different-height clogs to give the characters different
prominence on stage. 

The woven patches muffle the clogs on the wooden stage.

The major characters are operated by 3 puppeteers each. The most junior
operates the feet while the left hand is operated by the middle-ranking puppeteer.

The female puppets don't actually have feet or legs so the illusion is
created by using the hands underneath the kimono.

The senior puppeteer (the only one not hooded on stage) operates the
head and the right arm.

The right arm.

Female puppets have a needle in their mouth. The kimono can be hooked
on to it to give the impression it is being chewed. This is a typical thing
for a Japanese girl to do and might represent shyness, bashfulness, worry &c.

A few assorted snaps

Dachshunds are every which way you turn in Tokyo.

There are quite a lot of nice manhole covers, too.

A park I stumbled upon.

Couldn't resist.

You see a lot of this sort of outfit walking around areas like Shibuya.

There are very few tramps. At least where I hang out.
This is the only one I've seen.

Another typical kitsch outfit.

The school uniforms you see around are priceless. They have as much
fun dressing up their children as their dogs out here.

We visited some friends in a rather nice patch of Tokyo
with lots of temples and shrines. NB the plasters on his face.

I'm Back

I don't have a bin. It's easier just to put rubbish on the floor and the collection system is so complicated - there are 6 collections a week for bottles, cans, combustible (twice), non-combustible and paper - that if I had a bin for each one I wouldn't have space to live.

It took me until a week or so ago to start getting the hand of the collections - which are very confusing because all sorts of plastic stuff is in fact combustible even though we would recycle it. And you cannot recycle paper packaging, it seems - only flat stuff you can tie up in neat bundles (which my neighbours do).

So when I got back after Christmas I cleared the floor in my kitchen and here was the rubbish I generated:

The last bag was taken away this morning so things are now cleaner. To celebrate I went and bought a broom type thing. And while so doing was also seduced by a chopping board which also strains vegetables and a ceramic knife. You see, the latest installment of grant came through yesterday.

Here is a fun menu. I ended up ordering the 'pork pluck' - not something you see very often on menus, even if it is legitimate:

I also liked the title here:

If you go down to the woods

Enticed by a poster I found at school for a folk music/dance gathering which happened to be in my local park, I pottered down one Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago. It was considerably more inspired than I ever could have imagined and proved one of my must amusing afternoons yet.

When I arrived at the clearing in the trees there were not many people in evidence - but there was  a bunch of alphorns propped up on a fence.

And, on a near by table, a Wagner tuba.

And some tuned cow bells.

Before long dozens of Japanese dressed in Swiss mountain garb emerged in this central spot from all over the park. The alphorn fanfare was rehearsed and the event kicked off. This lady played the bells ever so well.

Albeit with a bit of cheating.

This chap had acquired a somewhat larger bell and a fine red smock.

The event was MCd by a brilliant chap with a felt pumpkin stretched across his chest.

There was quite a lot of alphorn. They were very good. They bunged the crowed in the middle and spread themselves out around the outside. Quite a blast.

And there was plenty of dancing in lederhosen to keep warm.

Smocked man came back with even bigger bells and was clearly happy. They rang out very, very loudly across the park and attracted quite a crowd.

Things were strange enough, to be in a park in the centre of Tokyo with two score Japanese dressed as Europeans, when this chap arrived. He spoke French to me.

You cannot see that he is wearing traditional Japanese shoes which are like flip flops but the bottoms are wooden and rectangular. On the subject of odd footwear, one of the spectators was wearing these:

Then this fellow in the tracksuit started doing quite vigorous (yet balletic) Tai Chi right by the action.

Just when I thought it could not get any stranger or more inspired the alphorn conductor came around offering all the spectators a small carton of milk.

At that point they made us all join in a dance so I had to put my camera away. It was all quite brilliant.

Weddings and 7-5-3

I went to Meiji Jungu at the weekend, a shrine in a large park in Tokyo. The place seems to be something of a wedding factory. In a couple of hours I think I saw 4 or 5 different wedding parties. They assemble, parade across the temple courtyard following a large red parasol and disappear into a sanctum somewhere. A few minutes later you hear a large drum being gently banged. They all troop out again, have photos taken in a clearing in the woods and then scarper off somewhere for some slap-up sushi.

This weekend was also one of the main weekends for Shichi-Go-San (literally Seven-Five-Three), a traditional Shinto rite of passage. Girls of 3 and 7 and boys of 3 and 5 visit a shrine with their families to drive out evil spirits and wish for longevity and good health. Traditionally at 3 the children are allowed to grow their hair for the first time (no longer observed), at 7 girls are allowed to fasten their kimono with an obi (sash) rather than cords and at 5 boys are allowed to wear the hakama (pleated skirt-type affair) for the first time.

The Japanese love a good photo-opp and there seemed to be more people there taking photos than there were taking part. So I joined in.

A newly-wed couple. Nearly all the brides wore these Maria-esque
head coverings for the ceremony, removing them afterwards.
Their traditional hair-styles are exceptionally beautiful.

Amazing hair as mentioned.

Before the procession.

Guests following the parasol into the main courtyard.

A clearing in the woods with fine light spilling through the trees.

The men are wearing hakama (see above).

The ladies' kimonos took an awful lot of adjusting before the photos.
It seemed mostly that only the bridal party wore traditional Japanese outfits.
They are very keen on Western garb: there were lots of morning suits for the men
and this little boy is wearing the kind of thing I used to be dressed in.

This is the obi.

There were dozens of these enormous flowers dotted about.

Vegan wedding breakfast.

7-5-3 girls.

The boy on the right is wearing a hakama and celebrating 7-5-3.

You can see the medal the 7-5-3 children get.

This lad has an exceptional hat. I think he might be some kind of acolyte.

Spotted by a temple.