It is 4:19 AM

Why am I still up? That's a good question. Last Thursday, I stayed up until 5 in the morning, trying to finish one of my essays. I halfway succeeded. I ended up finishing the essay on Friday evening, even though it was due on Monday. :) Meaning that I had a free weekend. :) But yes, that messed up my sleep cycle. Not that that's an excuse for my staying up this late. But it does tell you why I'm not tired at all.

I'm updating with probably one of the most ridiculous things that's happened to me in a long time. One of my friends, Bernadette, is an art major from UCLA. She needs to relate her study abroad experience with her major somehow. We both took Japanese theater together and have this strange kind of Kabuki obsession and thus, she asked if I could help her out. I told her that sure, I'd love to since, after all, I did a Kabuki mie in public and she did a pose from Aoi no Ue in public (with her right sleeve off and everything) so hey, why not?

I later asked her about it, asking when it was. She replied, "Next year, probably?" I was really confused. I thought that we were just going to dress up and she was going to take some pictures. But no, this was not the case.

It turns out that upon my saying ok, she rented out a space to showcase whatever she's doing. She's not entirely sure yet but it's going to involve me, some white face paint (I hope that she can get the real thing :D), and... Kabuki. Yes, this has turned into something that I did not expect but I'm ok about it.

So yes, I'm extending this invitation to whoever wants to come out to this event. 'Cause apparently, I'm going to be dressed like an onnagata. Or something. I don't know, she needs to figure out what she's going to do first. That's all she knows about it right now. Hahaha.

And this talk about doing a mie in public-- here is proof. (Bernadette dared me to do it. It was not my idea. And note the girl in the corner, giving me a strange look.)


Me.


Ichikawa Danjurou

Yeah, I tried.

Hikinuki

I finally found a hikinuki, after weeding through some kabuki videos on youtube.




Go to 3:20 if you don't want to watch the entire dance. Hahaha I knew that there had to be a hikinuki somewhere!

Kabuki-za

I went to go watch kabuki today with my theater class. I must say that it was one of the most amazing things that I've ever seen and may very well be my favorite thing in Japan. I don't think that anything can top it. There were two hikinuki throughout the three performances. What is a hikinuki? Arg, can't find a clip for it but it's when literally, the stage assistant pulls the garments of the actor to reveal a whole other outfit underneath. It's so trippy but so spectacular that everytime a hikinuki happens, the audience breaks out into applause.

How can I describe what I saw? Man, all I can say is kabuki is so dramatic! And spectacular! And fantastic! I'm not using spectacular and fantastic synonymously with "wonderful," but with what they literally mean.

You wouldn't think that the overstylized kind of acting could move someone to tears but at the end of one play, I was hurting with the female character!

The last play was the lion dance and it was absolutely fantastic and beautiful. Here's a clip of it:





It's not the same dance as the one that I saw but quite similar in many aspects. I suppose that it's very stereotypical Japanese. Hahhaa.

Anyway, just wanted to tell you all how fabulous kabuki is, as outrageous of an art form as it seems. I now have a composition to write for Japan. We just got the prompt today and it's due tomorrow. Yay!

BTW! I forgot to mention-- the dancer is a man. Only males do professional kabuki. I'm doing my research paper on onnagata, men who play women in kabuki. Isn't that trippy?