Week 37 & 38 in Japan: Kabuki & Shabushabu

       On Saturday June 7th I saw a Kabuki show at the theatre in town. Kabuki is a classical Japanese dance drama theatre show. Kabuki has been around in Japan since the 1600s in Japan so it was definitely a great thing to see in terms of Japanese culture. I was surprised when talking to some of my Japanese friends that almost none of them had seen a Kabuki performance. The majority of the people who were at the show were old Japanese people and some foreigners. Another thing to note about the Kabuki show is that it was all in Japanese with no translation. Not only is there no translation but unless you around a native speakers level at Japanese you likely won't understand a majority of what is going on. I'm at an intermediate level and I went with some friends that were at an advanced level of Japanese but we didn't understand well becase the kind of Japanese the actors use is fairly archaic. One final thing that sticks out about Kabuki is that all the actors are males. Males do the acting of both the woman and man's parts so they wear makeup and talk in high voices and everything. That is the way Kabuki has been and that is how it has stayed. That is definitely one of the things that makes it such a unique theatre show in comparison to theatre arts in other places. I enjoyed the show but it was about 3 hours so it got to be long. Also because I wasn't understanding a lot of what was happening it was a little dull. I knew it wouldn't exactly be action packed when I bought the ticket to go but I wanted to experience it regardless and I'm glad I did.
      Next on June 10th I went to eat Shabushabu with my friends after classes. Shabushabu is thinly sliced meat that you dip in a pot of broth that is around boiling temp. Shabushabu is supposed to be the sound the food makes when you swirl it around in the water. The Japanese language uses a lot of onamonapia like shabushabu. At the restaurant you could order beef or pork which I think is pretty standard, we ordered a lot of both because we got the 2 hour buffet deal. Overall the taste was good but there is not a whole lot of flavor attached to the meat. You swirl it in a broth and then dip it in a sauce but it's not a flavor grenade in your mouth like fried meat can be. Also for people from western countries the meat may be a little pink/raw for your liking even after cooking. My friends probably dip the meat for around half as long as me (maybe around 15 seconds) because they are Japanese and they are worried about eating raw things. Anyways it's not my favorite thing to eat but it was a fun experience and even for the buffet it came to under 20 dollars (although from what I've heard that's an exceptional deal).
      I'm happy I got to share a couple experiences I had with you and stay tuned for my next blog cause I got a lot of fun stuff planned for my summer in Japan :)

 I ended up eating 20 trays of meat. All being either pork or beef. At the point where the picture is taken I ordered I think 8 trays at once because I was eating them real quick.

 My friends with me were Kano, Ebizo, and Hiroto.

 Normally there is a stage set up like a house or boat or something but this scene was a little diferent.

 The theatre was pretty packed. I was on the 2nd floor but I could see well enough. The art on the curtains was pretty awesome.