Went to watch a Bunraku(traditional Japanese puppet theatre) performance today in Osaka. I had to change trains twice just to arrive at Nippombashi, the station nearest to the theatre. The last time I was in Osaka with Fulin, we were like two lost sheep and ended up getting lost a few times. However, today, I managed to arrive at my destination without getting lost at all! Not even a single time. My biggest accomplishment up till date!!! Hehe =D
Was supposed to meet Ichiko at 3.15pm but since I thought that I would get lost while making my way there, I purposely started my journey early. Since I turned out to be superb at directions, I reached the place like half- an-hour early so I went to look at this exhibition on Bunraku...free-of-charge anyway~. There were volunteers there who gave me lots of interesting information about Bunraku. So anyway, this lady was talking to us in Kansai dialect, which is like seriously difficult for me to understand. After she realised that I was a foreigner...she continued talking in Kansai dialect. -_____________-. Oi! Normally the Japanese will revert to standard Japanese when they realise that they're talking to a foreigner because foreigners usually learn that instead of the Kansai dialect. wtf...but at least she was damn nice. :D
Me holding a puppet...damn freaking heavy can...and I realised that the puppet's almost as tall as me!!!
The Bunraku stage. The place where the Tayu and Shamisen players sat was seriously interesting. They actually 'swivelled' in during the performance and the swivel effect's done manually, not automatically. Damn cool. Watched two stories today, "Futatsu Chocho Kuruwa Nikki" and "Hachijin Shugo no Honjo". They were surprisingly interesting and I didnt sleep through the performances, unlike the last time I watched a Noh play. Okay, I think the reason why I didnt sleep was because I rented this English guide earphones so I wasnt like totally lost throughout the play. There were Japanese subtitles but they were in classical Japanese or something so I probably wouldnt have understood anything if I didnt rent the earphones. Another reason why I didnt sleep was because I'm supposed to write a paper on it so I was busy taking notes...hehe.
The play started at 4pm and ended at 7.55pm (I like how the Japanese like to end at weird timings. Why cant they just end at 8pm?!) In between, we had like 30minutes to buy and eat bentos there. The bentos sold at the theatre were freaking expensive so Ichiko and I shared one omusubi(rice balls) bento. Halfway through the bento, I had a craving for ice-cream so I bought one and before I could finish it, we were supposed to re-enter the theatre...wtf.
Anyway, it's like 1.19am here and I still havent finished my homework...:( I initially planned to start doing my homework after the performance but I didnt realised that the performance took 4 hours. Arrgh...have to chiong my homework now. :( Will probably end up dozing off halfway through anyway. Heh.
More pictures at http://tinypic.com/useralbum.php?ua=mbpGGni3KZ622Qj%2FLUO%2Bpg%3D%3D.
Was supposed to meet Ichiko at 3.15pm but since I thought that I would get lost while making my way there, I purposely started my journey early. Since I turned out to be superb at directions, I reached the place like half- an-hour early so I went to look at this exhibition on Bunraku...free-of-charge anyway~. There were volunteers there who gave me lots of interesting information about Bunraku. So anyway, this lady was talking to us in Kansai dialect, which is like seriously difficult for me to understand. After she realised that I was a foreigner...she continued talking in Kansai dialect. -_____________-. Oi! Normally the Japanese will revert to standard Japanese when they realise that they're talking to a foreigner because foreigners usually learn that instead of the Kansai dialect. wtf...but at least she was damn nice. :D
Me holding a puppet...damn freaking heavy can...and I realised that the puppet's almost as tall as me!!!
The Bunraku stage. The place where the Tayu and Shamisen players sat was seriously interesting. They actually 'swivelled' in during the performance and the swivel effect's done manually, not automatically. Damn cool. Watched two stories today, "Futatsu Chocho Kuruwa Nikki" and "Hachijin Shugo no Honjo". They were surprisingly interesting and I didnt sleep through the performances, unlike the last time I watched a Noh play. Okay, I think the reason why I didnt sleep was because I rented this English guide earphones so I wasnt like totally lost throughout the play. There were Japanese subtitles but they were in classical Japanese or something so I probably wouldnt have understood anything if I didnt rent the earphones. Another reason why I didnt sleep was because I'm supposed to write a paper on it so I was busy taking notes...hehe.
The play started at 4pm and ended at 7.55pm (I like how the Japanese like to end at weird timings. Why cant they just end at 8pm?!) In between, we had like 30minutes to buy and eat bentos there. The bentos sold at the theatre were freaking expensive so Ichiko and I shared one omusubi(rice balls) bento. Halfway through the bento, I had a craving for ice-cream so I bought one and before I could finish it, we were supposed to re-enter the theatre...wtf.
Anyway, it's like 1.19am here and I still havent finished my homework...:( I initially planned to start doing my homework after the performance but I didnt realised that the performance took 4 hours. Arrgh...have to chiong my homework now. :( Will probably end up dozing off halfway through anyway. Heh.
More pictures at http://tinypic.com/useralbum.php?ua=mbpGGni3KZ622Qj%2FLUO%2Bpg%3D%3D.
