"You are a natural boy!"
I turned on the option to leave anonymous comments, so (ab)use that to your heart's content.
It's been a long 4 days. Since I last wrote we had another day off from class (our second of three) which I used to study and rest. Memorization of the script is going to be a bitch. While I normally have a very good memory, I've never tested it with something in a different language, and such a complex one at that. If I lose my place on stage I'm more or less dead in the water. Hooray. I may have to get some ninja smoke bombs so I can make a quick escape.
On Sunday we worked with our third teacher, Doji Shigeyama, the twenty-three-year-old son of our first teacher, Akira Shigeyama. Doji is rail-thin and pretty hip. He's also been studying Kyogen since he was three. He's a lot more relaxed than our other two teachers and he doesn't like to drill us as hard as Mariushi-sensei does. He joked that he's not as tough about exact pronunciation because he says the lines differently every time, but as far as I can tell he says the lines exactly like his father does. It's not often one gets to see how traditional arts are passed from father to son.
After class we went out for drinks with a Bunraku puppeteer (whose name I don't want to butcher, I'll edit it in later) who wanted to "get to know us" before he gave his workshop. It turned out to be an amazing night. He's got quite the penchant for beer, and loves to speak English to all sorts of hilarious ends. At one point, Phillipe was telling him that he should go to Belgium since he loves beer so much, but he had such a problem understanding him that he just started laughing, exclaiming, "Your English is so bad!" Irony at its finest. Three beers later, he put his arm around Phillipe, looked him in the eye and said plainly, "You are a natural boy. No? You are a natural man!" I'm not quite sure what he meant, but I'm sure it was a big compliment.
The workshop was fantastic. It lasted for about three hours, and not only did we get to see the puppeteers perform (they work in intricate three man teams), but we also learned some of the Bunraku kana (forms). The puppets are pretty complex. Some of them are fairly static, but the craziest ones have movable fingers, eyes and lips. I took a lot of pictures -- I'll upload them ASAP.
The next day we decided to go to Club Metro, a tiny club located in one of Kyoto's subway stations. They were having a Beatles/Rolling Stones themed night and while it started off slow, the club was soon quite full of people. Before we left for the club, we invited Doji and after a late night meeting he decided to stop by. I chatted with him for a while and he's pretty cool. I also found out he just got married. Congrats. Anyway, I quickly realized that all the cool gaijin have obviously heard of this aptly-named club, because it was approximately half Japanese and half ex-pats and travellers. Actually, and you can file this one under the Small World Phenomenon, I met some dude from Chicago who is teaching English in Kyoto. Random. I also did a shot with a mustachioed Japanese man and my dancing antics were described as "legendary" by an Australian. I guess I can check those off my list of Things to Do. Oh, and I just want to say it's pretty difficult to hit on a girl when you don't speak her language. Luckily, my powerful pelvic thrust seems to be universally understandable.
The last thing I want to tell you about is something very serious. It involves a perfectly circular patty of grade A meat, perfectly cooked, topped by a thin slice of mozzarella cheese, a touch of mustard, a dollop of sweet chili, mouth-watering onions and the freshest half-inch of tomato that you'll ever see in your life. And that very serious something is Mos Burger. I ate there for the first time two days ago, and it revolutionized my fast food consumption habits. I'm seriously considering giving up this whole "acting" thing so I can start a Mos Burger franchise in America. But not because I want to share the beauty of Mos Burger with my fellow citizens. Fuck that. I just want to be sure that I can get my fix. I don't even eat the burgers anymore. I just freebase that shit. These burgers are seriously that good.
Pictures soon.
~
It's been a long 4 days. Since I last wrote we had another day off from class (our second of three) which I used to study and rest. Memorization of the script is going to be a bitch. While I normally have a very good memory, I've never tested it with something in a different language, and such a complex one at that. If I lose my place on stage I'm more or less dead in the water. Hooray. I may have to get some ninja smoke bombs so I can make a quick escape.
On Sunday we worked with our third teacher, Doji Shigeyama, the twenty-three-year-old son of our first teacher, Akira Shigeyama. Doji is rail-thin and pretty hip. He's also been studying Kyogen since he was three. He's a lot more relaxed than our other two teachers and he doesn't like to drill us as hard as Mariushi-sensei does. He joked that he's not as tough about exact pronunciation because he says the lines differently every time, but as far as I can tell he says the lines exactly like his father does. It's not often one gets to see how traditional arts are passed from father to son.
After class we went out for drinks with a Bunraku puppeteer (whose name I don't want to butcher, I'll edit it in later) who wanted to "get to know us" before he gave his workshop. It turned out to be an amazing night. He's got quite the penchant for beer, and loves to speak English to all sorts of hilarious ends. At one point, Phillipe was telling him that he should go to Belgium since he loves beer so much, but he had such a problem understanding him that he just started laughing, exclaiming, "Your English is so bad!" Irony at its finest. Three beers later, he put his arm around Phillipe, looked him in the eye and said plainly, "You are a natural boy. No? You are a natural man!" I'm not quite sure what he meant, but I'm sure it was a big compliment.
The workshop was fantastic. It lasted for about three hours, and not only did we get to see the puppeteers perform (they work in intricate three man teams), but we also learned some of the Bunraku kana (forms). The puppets are pretty complex. Some of them are fairly static, but the craziest ones have movable fingers, eyes and lips. I took a lot of pictures -- I'll upload them ASAP.
The next day we decided to go to Club Metro, a tiny club located in one of Kyoto's subway stations. They were having a Beatles/Rolling Stones themed night and while it started off slow, the club was soon quite full of people. Before we left for the club, we invited Doji and after a late night meeting he decided to stop by. I chatted with him for a while and he's pretty cool. I also found out he just got married. Congrats. Anyway, I quickly realized that all the cool gaijin have obviously heard of this aptly-named club, because it was approximately half Japanese and half ex-pats and travellers. Actually, and you can file this one under the Small World Phenomenon, I met some dude from Chicago who is teaching English in Kyoto. Random. I also did a shot with a mustachioed Japanese man and my dancing antics were described as "legendary" by an Australian. I guess I can check those off my list of Things to Do. Oh, and I just want to say it's pretty difficult to hit on a girl when you don't speak her language. Luckily, my powerful pelvic thrust seems to be universally understandable.
The last thing I want to tell you about is something very serious. It involves a perfectly circular patty of grade A meat, perfectly cooked, topped by a thin slice of mozzarella cheese, a touch of mustard, a dollop of sweet chili, mouth-watering onions and the freshest half-inch of tomato that you'll ever see in your life. And that very serious something is Mos Burger. I ate there for the first time two days ago, and it revolutionized my fast food consumption habits. I'm seriously considering giving up this whole "acting" thing so I can start a Mos Burger franchise in America. But not because I want to share the beauty of Mos Burger with my fellow citizens. Fuck that. I just want to be sure that I can get my fix. I don't even eat the burgers anymore. I just freebase that shit. These burgers are seriously that good.
Pictures soon.
~
posted by Matt Hooks at 7:13 AM
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