Noh, random thoughts, and party

This has been a fairly eventful week. I will try to recap :-)

1) Noh theater.

I've posted some pictures on Facebook from my night of Noh theater in the Matsuyama castle courtyard. It was totally fun! Even though I couldn't follow. For awhile there was some uncertainty where it was going to be held--either indoors if it rained, or in the castle courtyard as planned if it didn't rain. Luckily, it was clear the whole day and it didn't start to rain until the very end of the performance, so I got the full effect.

Matsuyama castle is on top of a hill, so to get there in time we took the ropeway up. It was way cool! Gorgeous view over the city as we were going up. Several women in the audience came in kimonos--not just kimonos, but the full deal. Kimonos, tabi and geta (traditional socks and fotwear), done-up hair, the works. They were quite lovely.

On the program were three short shows. The first and last were Japanese in origin, one from the Tale of Genji (the part where Lady Rokujo possesses Lady Aoi) and the other from the Tail of the Heike (samurai ghost reenacts his death). There was no way I could follow either of them, and I think it was tough for Japanese people too. It was very slow, dramatic, and...drawn out. I went with a friend who explained to me a bit of what was going on, but honestly, not much was going on. Most of both plays consisted mainly of one soloist.

The middle play was Chinese in origin, and it was a comedy. It was also performed in a more spoken, colloquial Japanese style, so I could actually follow a fair bit of what was going on. It was a hilarious story about a drunken tea maker? I think? He's very drunk on his way home, and he has a huge barrel of tea on his back. He collapses in the street, and another guy comes by and wants the barrel of tea. He can't pry it from the drunken person, so he shakes the drunken person violently awake, then pretends to be passed out drunk as well. The bad guy in turn gets "shaken awake" by the tea guy, and when they both come to, they start fighting over the tea barrel. The bad guy insists that it belongs to him! A judge comes along and the rest of the play is about trying to prove who really owns the barrel of tea. The bad guy simply imitates everything the tea guy says about the tea in order to try to prove it belongs to him. Okay, it doesn't sound that hilarious, but really, a lot of it was in the body language and the imitation. I can't tell an anecdote worth shit. Enough of plot summary.

2) Random thoughts
a) Eating alone. It strikes me that eating out alone here is very common, which then strikes me that it is very uncommon in the US. Even at fast food joints, it's mostly families, or couples, or whatnot. Very few people are eating out alone. I wonder why? I sort of feel like many people would rather skip meals than eat alone. I saw this in the Harvard dining halls too. Aside from breakfast, which is eaten alone with a newspaper because nearly nobody eats breakfast regularly, most people wait to find a lunch or dinner partner before eating, unless they are trying to write a paper at the same time or something. But whenever I've eaten out at fast food udon or donburi places, I've always been alone as have most people. On my way home from downtown, I passed by a pretty large donburi place and every single person inside was male, and eating alone. It was...strange! Again, perhaps it points to the odd work hours, social isolation, etc. etc. My advisor doesn't appear to spend much time with his family, either, despite having two kids. He basically took me out to dinner after the Noh theater (on a Wednesday night!) on a moment's notice. I sort of jokingly said--"But shouldn't you have to go home and eat with your family and spend time with them?" His answer was in Japanese and I couldn't understand all of it, but it was something to the effect of "give up." Who's given up on who, I'm not sure, but it's still somewhat disturbing.

b) Types of girls. Stereotypes of girls--many of whom I observed at the matsuri. They are pretty much the same as the stereotypes here. There are the ditzy popular blonds. Even in Japan, they are blond! They have super long blond curly hair, or its extremely "done." That is, it's teased up into artificial looking hairdos, and looks completely fried, even at 5:30am. They also wear short skirs, stilettos, and large shiny accessories. They travel in groups and twitter, and wear wayy too much makeup. There are also the "ugly athletic girls." Short, stocky, never wearing makeup, and with undyed short black hair. They are perpetually in sporty wear, like matching adidas tracksuits, tennis shoes, and carrying a duffel bag. That's all that really stands out to me right now in terms of extremes....I'll add to this list if I spot more later.

3) A party! I threw a small housewarming party on Friday night. I made it a potluck so I wouldn't have to work so hard. I invited my host family's students, the same girls that I traveled to Kochi with. My host family came for the first half hour or so, to toast and try some of the food and show the first batch of students where I lived. They left early to "leave us young people to ourselves." Even though I was comfortable with them, the students breathed a huge sigh of relief when they left! They were all quite nervous about my host dad tasting their food, since he is such the foodie. About 6 or 7 students came eventually, each bringing something with them. They are so incredibly nice! And they really thought of everything. There was some amazing homecooked food, some people brought dessert, fruits, bread, and of course, drinks. They even brought a bag of ice with them! I totally forgot about ice. They peeled and sliced fruit, fried fish to heat it up again, and even did some of my dishes afterwards.

I made an enormous plate of Chinese-ish stir fried rice noodles, with broccoli, chicken, onions, and egg. Only, my host dad immediately pointed out that it was Japanese style, which was true since as seasoning sauce and marinade I used the same sauce as for making oyako-don: mirin, soy sauce, water, and sugar. But, it turned out very yummy, and it was completely finished down to the last bite, even before the last person came. Heehee! I feel like a successful hostess. Surprisingly, it took 1.5 hrs to cook from beginning to end. (Very slow) slicing, then cooking the meat, eggs, veggies, and noodles all separately, then putting it together at the end.

I think my guests had some fun, and I could follow a lot of their conversation. I could even contribute sometimes. I think my Japanese is sort of improving. And we all ate and drank for like 5 hours straight, from 6-11pm. When all the food and drink is just sitting in front of you, its hard to restrain yourself. Hehehe. I was soo uncomfortably full afterwards, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one! It was fun, and even more fun than I expected. Again, it's nice socializing in Japanese, since I'm not expected to contribute a whole lot, or even to be understanding and paying attention all the time. I can tune out when I feel tired and chalk it down to bad Japanese rather than rudeness. And at the same time, it's still fun, and chill, with Madeleine Peyroux, Sophie Milman, and Vienna Teng as background music.