Sunday, December 28, 2008

Kabuki-ish


We went to a local Onsen (hot tub joint) with our hostess, and it included, for some reason, several hours of kabuki- style theatre. The first half was a long and ponderous drama. Something about a boy with a sob story looking for his long lost older sister. Really, that was the plot of an hour and a half. Lots of talking with very little to say.

The second half was more fun, each of the actors doing a classical style dance and going through many costume (and wig!) changes. This is the 12-year old girl. The patrons will approach the stage and stuff money in their obi, or if they have a whole lot they pin it fan style to the collar. The paper you see over her shoulder is one of ten 10,000 en bills. That's right, that twelve year old just got handed more then a thousand bucks.

And this lovely michiko, is actually a man. These actors are that kind of good. They clean up real nice eh? For that matter there were also women dressed in men's kimono. I don't know what was going on!

And here we have the punk/rock-a-billy dude. Doing an umbrella dance. Elvis in a kimono!

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