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Published: February 10th 2009
In two days I think I covered all realms of Japanese culture.
Starting with DisneySea, a branch of Disneyland that is part Epcot part MGM studios. A bit less childlike than the MagicKingdom-heavy Disneyland. Some of the attractions are the Tower of Terror, various adult themed rides like Indiana Jones, etc. There was also a beer garden in the park, not your typical disneyworld. One thing, it was COLD, but still packed. I guess thats what happens when you put a small but incredibly famous amusement park in the most populated area of the world. (Tokyo and surrounding areas has 35 million people...its hard to imagine that population density.) I had to take a video of hte Mermaid world because it was really well put together. Wish America had one of those. Most signs in Disney were in English oddly enough. When both languages were used, English was actually listed first. Odd.
Next day I met up with Minoru, the student coming to Laf next year and who will become my lifeline to Japan while I'm in Easton, PA. Turns out he's pretty much a musical genius. Studied violin rigorously for 8 years, interest in Noh performance, and also
happens to have perfect pitch. Music Dept. is going to love this kid. We have a good relationship already, doing a language exchange in school and then taking it out of school to Asakusa and now a Culture imersion.
We started at one of his practices for Noh. As expected, pretty rigorous. They bring a Sensei in 3 times a week to teach the music and chanting. The music and score is the most complicated thing I've seen, written in the 15th century Japanese format which makes no sense. Notes and pitches are not indicated, only wavy lines next to letters to imply an intonation. Actually pretty hard for Minoru because he always relies on perfect pitch. In Noh there are no perfect pitches. I got the chance to put on one of the actor's kimonos, sword, and fan. I gotta say it felt badass having the sword. Samurai knew how to look fashionable and it apparently carried down to the Japanese youth of today.
After practice we went to his recommended place for tsukemen, a form of ramen where the noodles, pork, egg...mmm...and nori are served separately from the soup and you dunk the ingredients into the
soup. This is much better than the pre-assembled ramen and from now on, when available, I will order this. Full entry will be up after Korea on food blog.
We then went to his dorm behind waseda, which turns out to be a patch of green in the big city. All of a sudden things got quiet and there were parks and very old buildings. A long linage of samurai owns the grounds of the dorms plus the surrounding area which consists of a chapel, an art museum, and a park. Everything was incredibly serene, its like stepping out of Tokyo. The museum was exhibiting the Tale of Genji, one of the oldest written Japanese works dating from around 1000.
After today I'm off to Korea for a 4 day, 3 night trip with the fam. Lots to write about afterwards.
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anonymous
non-member comment
Pix are unbelievable! You look fantastic, as usual. I want to hear all about this adventure after your return from K. xo mom