From September 2002 to June 2003 i 've spent an exchange study year in my beloved city, Madrid. Back then i wrote a kind of diary email to my friends back home about once a week. Publishing these emails was the starting point for this blog. They were written in German, so sorry, folks, this'll be a partially German blog. After publishing my Madrid mails i now continue it with whatever i feel like.
Cheers.
A Russian name, but in Japan: Okhotsk. That's where i am right now, a region in the north of Hokkaido, in the very north of Japan.
Basically a rural area, meaning small towns, all spread out in a snowy landscape. Enjoying yummy food and improving my Japanese, staying with a local family.
I am writing this from my mobile phone, attaching some photos. Hope they turn out allright. Main reason to write this is to wish you all: よいをとしお！ (once again, that'd mean "Guten Rutsch!" in German)
I guess i will be in the new year hours before most of you, hehe. (^-^) Cheers!
Yeah, it's that time of the year again. I know it's not a popular thing to say, but i am no fan of it. Anyways.
Funnily enough, x-mas is not a family celebration for the Japanese. You know, they have no Christian background like people e.g. in Europe, they just took this opportunity to celebrate because they liked it and adapted it in their way. Which means that x-mas here is more something for couples, a time when you go for a fancy dinner in a restaurant with your girl-/boyfriend. X-mas spirit in tha house.
A nice video, classic, in German, about "Weihnachten":
And a picture from today's lunch in Todai's cafeteria:
Looked yummy behind the display window. When i bought the ticket to get this Ramen the friendly lady behind the window was a little worried and made sure that i really want this "kurisumasu ramen" (get it?) because it is with milk. Was actually quite tasty! And it did not remind me of any kurisumasu-taste i knew so far :)
So, happy celebrations, everyone! よいおとしを！ (that'd be "Guten Rutsch!" in German)
I'll be in Hokkaido, far up in the north end of Japan, for the next two weeks, so, see you next year (またらいねん！）!
See what I've done there? The title is a slight hint that I am not the biggest fan of theatre (yup, no typo, that's British English). Nevertheless, you know, moving to other countries for me is also about getting to know the culture of those. Plus, they offered traditional Japanese theatre shows for free for students, so I've already been to two shows here. Hah, if you thought I'll only blog about shopping here, let me prove you wrong ;-) even though shopping is a very important activity for young Japanese people.
So, here we go. The first theatre show was called "Jiuta-mae" and it was actually traditional Japanese dance. Two musicians playing on traditional instruments, and once dancer. At a time. All in all there were about five different dancers. In full make-up, meaning that their faces were completely white, special hairdo, and what i guess are kimonos. Gracefully doing their thing, i.e., dancing. Here are some blurry pics:
As you can see - a t least a bit - it's a wooden stage, with a wooden roof. The whole thing built inside a bigger hall. I imagine that in 'the old days' these kind of stage were built outdoors, in villages, and people sat under the sky, kinda open-air.
The stage looked the same for the second show that i saw in a different place: Noh theatre. For hundreds of years, this traditional form of Japanese drama has been performed by male actors. Interestingly enough, there were female actors in this one. It was the show of the Todai theatre group and it took place here. I was happy to see that even with this very, very traditional form of theatre, nowadays both women and men can play it.
Anyway. It reminded me of classic Greek theatre - choir and all. Quite similar setting, choir in the back and few actors in front. Well, plus some musicians. And unlike the first one, this was a full play, plot and all. It was the classic Atsumori. Fortunately they provided the text, in both Japanese and English. We got that in my language course, the day before. One of my teachers told me that sometimes even she reads the English text, since the Japanese is a bit old-school and can be hard to understand even for native speakers. And another teacher told me that she doesn't like to go to Noh because it makes her fall asleep :D sweet. Some pics:
One of the first scenes. Many actors, choir in the back, drummers/singers on the left.
Atsumori's ghost doing his thing with a sword. Wearing a mask since he appeared in his ghost form.
To give you a better idea of the atmosphere, here's a video:
Especially note the two guys on the left. Doing the "oooh/wooh/ooih" thing, followed by a clap on their wooden drum. They did that during the whole show.
The luxury 'seats' in the loges. Actually Tatami mats with some pillows. I wouldn't be able to sit comfortably like that, so i would not pay more for these seats...
The nice group of people from my department who were in the theatre with me.
After the theatre i went to a vernissage where i knew one of the artists. So i had a cultural Saturday last week, you might say :)
if you know me well, you know that i love going to the cinema. A week ago, i went to the cinema the first time here in Japan. Well, no big surprises here. It basically looked like any "megaplex" cinema I've seen so far. Went to see the most recent Harry Potter movie - was as expected, looking good because there is a lot of money put into the special effects, but the plot still seems quite randomly stuck together at many moments. Anyways. Two things worth mentioning about cinema in Japan:
it's damn expensive. More than 16 Euros for a regular ticket (1800 Yen), two Euros more for 3D movies
funny: all people sat through the whole credits. That has never ever happened to me in Europe. Here they don't even turn the lights on as long as the movie credits are still running. And everyone was still there when the credits ended.
Even though it's so damn expensive, i plan to go again this week to see Tron 2.0. A movie I've been waiting for, the trailers looked pretty damn cool (didn't watch the last one, to not see too much already). And it seems i am lucky: the movie was released last Friday here in Japan. Thought it'd be a worldwide same-day release, but now i saw that people in Austria will have to wait until the end of January. Well, well. Here's a pic of the posters that you can find down in the metro right now:
Nice, huh? The Dude, geeking it out. Keep watching.
