Journey to the other side of the world...

Bustling with new life,

Whispering tales of bold hearts,

An ancient city.

That’s right, I’m now in the lovely city of London! The last few weeks have been pretty full on, with heaps of big outings, sad farewells and plenty of early nights (due to time differences!) I’m finding it hard to stay awake past 8:30-9pm at the moment (about 4:30-5am Tokyo time) but hopefully I’ll be fully settled into London life in no time. Meanwhile, I’m getting a good 10-11 hours of sleep each night, which is a nice change! 

But before I get ahead of myself, I have yet to say goodbye to Japan! As I mentioned in my last entry, I managed to get a ticket to see a Kabuki Theatre performance with my sister, and it was absolutely amazing! It was quite unlike anything I had ever seen before. Firstly, a few basic things about Kabuki Theatre: it is a traditional Japanese theatre in which all roles are played by men (including specialist performers who train for decades to portray female roles), and the focus of the performance is on creating beauty and putting on a display, rather than creating a realistic story and characters, so ‘presentational’ rather than ‘representational’ theatre, which is what Western theatre is based on. This means that the stage is made up with beautiful props and sets, and actors adorn fantastic costumes, which can weigh up to 20kg (one of the reasons why women aren’t allowed to perform – it’s doubtful they would be able to sustain the weight of the costume for the duration of the play). Also, did I mention that performances are four hours long? Because they are. It’s quite amazing.

 Lauren and I waiting for the theatre to open

 Outside Shimbashi Enbujo Theatre!

Japanese people often already know the stories that are being performed, and so are usually attending in order to be shown a beautiful portrayal of the story, and as such, the theatre is put on in a way that says “We are putting on a show, come and watch!” rather than the traditional Western approach of “Please suspend your current grasp on reality and come into our world as a temporary alternative.” Because of this idea, Japanese people like to be able to see how a performance is done. As such, they have created a method of using props, supports and other things that would usually be hidden on Western stages, but are instead simply coloured black, which in Kabuki theatre means it is ‘invisible’. So although you can see people or supports on stage, you are supposed to pretend they aren’t there, as they are coloured black. This was very interesting and novel to view, especially as people would run on stage with stools for performers to rest on in order to hold extravagant poses for extended periods of time – otherwise they would have collapsed under the weight of their costumes! Also common in Kabuki Theatre is audience interaction, as they already know the stories and will call out from the audience at certain points to exclaim things that support the actors and performance. There was one guy directly behind Lauren and myself that would call out regularly, and he gave us a fright a few times!

 Anyway, this particular performance was a rather complex old story which featured betrayal, the attempted murder of the heir of a Lord in order to take over a clan, and a son seeking revenge, given the weapon that killed his father, a sickle empowered with the curse of the Rat, among many other things. As the play, "Date No Juyaku [ The Ten Roles of Sendaihagi ]", was entirely in Japanese, Lauren and I hired English audio translation guides, which you wore in one ear and would explain what was happening on stage as the play progressed, which was really great. The most astonishing thing about this play though was the fact that the main actor, Ichikawa Ebizo, portrayed 10 different roles, making a total of 47 costume changes during the performance. Each of his characters looked completely different, being both men and women, young and old, hero and villain, with a variety of hairstyles, clothes, and some with different facial makeup as well. These costume changes would often happen within seconds, with him leaving the stage on one side and appearing seconds later from the other side, completely changed and in character. One change even occurred on stage, with another actor, dressed as his next character, coming on stage, face hidden, and then twirling around with him and somehow in the process changing costumes with the main actor. I was thoroughly impressed (as was the rest of the audience, who gasped and applauded appreciatively). Also of interest was the fact that the actor taking on the ten roles was the descendant of the man who first performed the same roles when this version of the play first came out centuries ago. Kabuki Theatre is a profession handed down through families, after all!

All in all, my sister and I spent over five hours in the theatre, with four hours of performance time and three intermissions (one main one and two short ones), but it was completely entertaining and the time whizzed by. If you ever get the chance, make sure you attend a Kabuki Theatre performance, as it is truly unique! However, if you do go in Tokyo, make sure that you book super quickly. My sister and I booked only a few hours after tickets were released but all B- and C-Class tickets were already sold, which meant we had to spend well over $100 each on tickets in A-Class. And this is for something that happens in a theatre with thousands of seats, every day for a month per performance, with two performances each day (although different plays), for the whole year. Japanese people must have a lot of money and leisure time for Kabuki!

On to other things! I did also visit the National Museum of Science and Innovation, which was pretty cool. My favourite thing was a huge globe suspended above an open space, which was covered in thousands of LEDs and shone brightly with a moving picture of Earth. It was really beautiful, and I spent a while relaxing on a couch beneath it, watching the clouds drift over the rotating countries. Periodically the globe would go through an informational cycle, with announcements about climate, day and night, and so on, with the surface changing to reflect the current topic. The museum was full of information on the world, robotics, futuristic technologies, space, water, earthquakes, and so on. I wandered through a space capsule and a tiny submarine, became a resident of a futuristic city (my given profession was cold case investigator), saw ASIMO (although I missed his demonstration, sadly), was tricked by optical illusionary artwork, and learned heaps about what science has learned and is doing for the future. 

The LED globe complete with viewing deck!

 ASIMO safe in his case (I heard a commotion but didn't realise it was his daily demo... sad!)

 Guess what this room in a space capsule is for?

My other major trip was to the Ghibli Museum! For those who are not familiar, the Studio Ghibli films are amazing and beautiful Japanese animated films, which I highly recommend. The Ghibli Museum building was in itself a wonderland, beautifully decorated with trees, hidey holes and a naturalistic feel throughout. As they say in the guide, they want you to get lost exploring the museum. There was a room full of stop animation and cute films, and a whole series of rooms set up like the Ghibli team’s desks (including Hayao Miyazaki’s work space) which was simply covered with trinkets, pictures and inspiration, like a magpie’s nest of natural beauty. On the roof was a life sized model of one of the robots from “Laputa: Castle in the Sky”, and a giant Totoro greeted visitors from outside. One of the features of the museum is getting to view one of a series of short animations that are only shown at the museum itself, and is changed daily. The one I got to view was a cute short about a boy who goes out to a field and meets a rabbit child, and they have childish competitions over a cane before the grandmother rabbit comes out and claims it before taking them in for tea. It was cute and in true Ghibli style. All in all the museum was amazing and a must for any Ghibli fan, but unfortunately they don’t allow pictures inside!

 The Laputa robot outside

 Totoro spectates

Suddenly I found my days in Tokyo running out. I desperately wanted to spend as much time as possible with my sister before I departed, so I ended up sneaking over to her place for a few nights, especially my last night in Tokyo (before I went to an airport hotel for the last night in Japan). As part of our last weekend we went to Comicon, a huge doujinshi (fan-art comic book) convention in Japan, over the course of which over 500,000 people attend. We were astonished by how many artists and books were on display. We walked into the first massive hall, which must have held thousands of artists, and wandered between the tables, which were sectioned into fandoms, and then found that there were three more of these gigantic halls, filled just with artists. These people aren’t professionals, I’ll add (well, they aren’t the creators of the original artworks, at least). It is all just artwork and comics created by fans, for fans. Upstairs there was a ‘professional’ area, which basically consisted of official merchandise which people could buy, (including towels of naked anime girls, which guys then felt compelled to drape over their shoulders because it was hot outside). There were a lot of cosplayers wandering around (people dressed up as characters from stories), but you could only take photos of them out in the carpark, so Lauren and I had a quick wander through there as well. It was a pretty fun day, and afterwards we encountered several street performers, who were pretty talented and funny. 

 The entrance to the convention

 Lightning cosplay from Final Fantasy XIII

 CC, Cheese-kun and Jeremiah (Orange-kun) from Code Geass

 ?!??!?!

 Persona 4 cosplayers (yay Yosuke!)

We also caught up with our good friend again (who I met in my "Kyoto and back to Tokyo" post), as she was back in Japan, and spent the day wandering through Harajuku and Shibuya. We had tempura for lunch, which I hadn’t had yet and knew I had to try before leaving Japan. Tempura is deep fried anything, so I had a bowl of tempura vegetables and seafood on rice, which was pretty tasty… but I prefer other Japanese cuisine, to be honest. Regardless, it was a wonderful day filled with a lot of fun and also deep conversations, so it was a very valuable day, too. 

All of a sudden though, I had run out of time, and was scheduled to move on to London. As my sister walked me to the train station, we chatted about Korean shows like “Running Man” (which she’d finally showed me only a couple days before I left, and which I thoroughly enjoyed… run, Jae Suk!) and also K-Pop (woo Big Bang! haha), and avoided the fact I was leaving. I finally reached the gate at the station though, and we could do nothing but laugh and wave, pulling ‘sad’ faces and then laughing again, as I rode the elevator up to the platform and we lost sight of each other. It’s kind of sad knowing I won’t be seeing my sister face to face again for I don’t know how long. We’re very close, and I’ll miss being able to just lie on top of her and talk about nothing. But really, we’ve already chatted a bit on Skype and it’s been less than a week since I left, but still…

Once I finally reached my airport hotel accommodation I found out they didn’t have my reservation, annoyingly, so I had to wait for a while as they fussed about, sorting out a room for me. Eventually though, I was able to collapse on my bed and sleep for the last time on Japanese soil.

The flight to London was uneventful and quite pleasant. The seat on the aeroplane was comfortable, and I managed to get a few hours of sleep, which was good. I watched “The Avengers” (finally!), and “The Pirates: Band of Misfits”, which is the latest effort from Aardman Productions, who did “Wallace and Gromit”, “Chicken Run” and so on. “The Pirates” was actually reaaaally funny, and I had to struggle not to chuckle loudly on the plane as everyone else was sleeping. I managed to recognise Martin Freeman’s voice pretty early on, but strangely enough it was actually his nose that I recognised first, even though it’s a plasticine figurine of an original character! They must have used his nose, I’m sure. (Maybe a sign that I’ve re-watched “Sherlock” too many times, haha). Navigating Heathrow Airport was a breeze, as it was practically empty. I was out almost instantly. Not bad, from what I've heard!

My accommodation here in London is very nice, as although I’m sharing a 12 bed dorm, my little bed has a privacy curtain and the bed itself is very comfy. The building is this huge old red brick place, with high decorated ceilings, huge wooden doors, comfy chairs and a free continental breakfast. It even has its own suit of armour guarding the staircase, called Bruce!

 The exterior of my hostel (a beautiful old building)

 The staircase with plush red carpet (and Bruce, hiding on the bottom level)

Since I’ve arrived here, I’ve made a few friends, including Stacey from Melbourne, with whom I visited the Borough Markets by London Bridge, Regent Park, including Queen Mary’s garden, and Oxford Street shopping outlets. We clicked really well and had a lot of fun chats! I also met Cecile from France, who shares my room, and with whom I went out with today to the Natural History Museum, but somehow I managed to lose her in the business of the museum, and even though I searched, I couldn’t find her again. She has yet to return, so I hope she’s not lost forever!! The Natural History Museum was so much fun, full of so much history, animals, science and biology. I managed to spend the whole day there. The building itself is grand, beautiful and so intricate. It’s like many of the other buildings I’ve seen so far in London: old and magnificent. 

Outside the Natural History Museum

 Inside the Natural History Museum

 Checking out the workings of a camel

 With a huge, extinct South American sloth

 Some of hundreds of tiny birds on display

 Cecile and I checking out some pretty minerals

 Entrance to the Earth part of the museum

 Dinosaur!

  A roaring, stomping, angry T-Rex

 At the Borough Markets

 Hello!

 Merangues, anyone?

Near the Borough Markets

 The Black Friar (next to Blackfriar's Bridge)

Regent Park

 One of Queen Mary's roses

 In Regent Park

 Squirrel!! :D

On my first full day in London I actually caught up with an old friend from Australia, and we visited the Science Museum together, which was also fun. We had a fantastic chat as we wandered through. One of my favourite parts of the museum was the Orchestra section, which was playing “The Planets” over the speakers, and for which we stumbled across a museum employee who thrust various instruments at us and got us to play along for the climactic ending of the piece. I got to try out the huge drum and also the wind chimes, as we all crashed together in melodic chaos for the finale. 

Finally, yesterday I went for a walk along the Thames, starting at London Bridge and wandering down past St Paul’s Cathedral, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament and then catching the tube from Vauxhall. The buildings were absolutely astounding, so intricate and imposing, and I thoroughly enjoyed wandering around them. Big Ben was particularly lovely, and I arrived just in time to hear it announce three o’clock, pounding out three resonating chimes to herald the hour. 

 Walking along the Thames

Red bus! (They're everywhere... always...)

St Paul's Cathedral

 Tea time! (I'd been looking forward to a scone!!)

 Big Ben nears 3 o'clock...

 The Houses of Parliament (detail)

 Big Ben

 Houses of Parliament

Anyway, that is more than enough for now. I think I have caught up at least. I am very much looking forward to all the adventures that await me in this cosmopolitan city (no really… so far the most prominent language I’ve heard is French, not English…), but I have so much to sort out in the next week! Finding housing, starting to look for a job, getting a phone… aaah! But I have faith that it will all fall in place. London is empty at the moment anyway (everyone escaped for the Games, so much so that British Airways now has adverts all over the place saying “Don’t Fly!”) so at least I’m getting a seat on the tube, at least when it’s not delayed!

Here's a picture of a Tokyo sunset to finish off. :)

Until next time! x