Going to see Kyogen

I went to Kawasaki today. I think it was Kawasaki at least. It was very near to Kamata station, and it was at a place called Aprico Hall. I’m not sure what that means or anything. What was there waiting for me is a farce called Kyogen. It’s traditional Japanese theater. It was interesting because I had arrived about an hour early to the facility so I was having a conversation with one of the teachers at the entrance as we were escorting other teachers, parents and students to the second floor.

The first 30 minutes was one of the main guys of the show explaining certain parts of the farce so that when they performed the audience would understand. The performance would be done in entirely old Japanese, so it would be hard for everyone to understand. This farce is done by a very famous family who specialize in doing kyogen. It was done by the Izumi family and they take this stuff seriously.

The second 30 minutes was the actual play being acted out. It was hard to understand since it was VERY different from normal conversation. I didn’t understand ONE word in the entire performance. It was really tough to get through since I was starving at this time too. I mean it’s all in Japanese, but if it was normal, I might have gotten an idea of what was going on, but I didn’t understand anything.

The last 30 minutes was just going over some parts of the play again. And then they were teaching the students some strict behaviors of the old Japanese era like how to greet and to meet people. They used to have a very strict code when doing things like that. Like at my school, before we start class, they have to stand and bow and say please teach us. But back in the older days, it was stricter and they even had a certain way of sitting with shoulders straight back and knelt down. So it was interesting to see, even though I still didn’t understand. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but then I didn’t think it would be in traditional Japanese either. Most teachers and I’m sure all the students didn’t understand a word either.

After that, I went with another teacher to get something to eat. We decided to go to T.G.I. Fridays to get some food and have a little chat. I think this lasted about 5 hours, but I think it’s some of the best 5 hours that I’ve had in a long time. I really feel at ease talking to this teacher. We have a great connection and can just talk and talk. So I like that. We didn’t order that many things, but somehow it managed to be very pricey. I paid for all of the bill as a gesture of politeness since last time I was treated so I wanted to return the favor.