Kabuki

Today we went to the National Theater of Japan to watch a traditional kabuki performance. I was expecting it to be really boring and awful, but it was great! The set was good, and I had a machine that told me what was going on in English.

It was actually a very sad story about greed and love and death. :)

Apparently the writer of the play (who lived in the Edo period) not only wrote plays but invented electricity, the thermometer, eating eel, and the internet. Okay, not the last one. But, seriously! These people are more shameless than the Chinese claiming they invented fire and herpes! "Number one best shop in whole China!"

For a glimpse at what Kabuki is like...


In this scene, the father has just stabbed his daughter thinking that she was a fugitive. The daughter had fallen in love with the fugitive, let him escape, and then hid in his place so no one would know he was gone. Now, her dad is pissed that she let him get away and beats her. She's like, "Dad, you just stabbed me, I'm about to die because of you, and now you're beating me?" and he's like, "yeah."