Tokyo - Monday, November 10, 2014 Dang it - its our last day and my post-vacation-blues syndrome has ALREADY begun... Ive been fighting it all day and cried when Amy Serpa left me at my gate. This has been an extraordinary trip - full of surprises and adventures, including the Kabuki experience this morning... I had already packed the guide book and we had planned to hang out in Ginza, then have a last lunch, but we decided to wander over to the Kabuki theatre 2 blocks from our hotel and see what was going on there. We arrived a little bit after 10 am, and single-act tickets went on sale at 10:30 for the 11 am performance (which thankfully ended at 11:30.) We stood in line, paid 1000 yen ($10), and found our seats (not reserved, but at least we got seats - people arriving later had to stand) along the front row of the 4th floor balcony. Suddenly gongs clanged, a banjo-like instrument was strummed, and the curtain rose to a line up of a flute player and 5 bongo players sitting stage left, and on the right, 6 banjo players and 5 other fellas sitting behind the banjo players with some sort of unidentified musical instrument. I wasnt wearing my glasses, so I cant truly describe it. (It was box-like and they were kneeling behind it.) Then, from a large square hole in the stage floor, four kimonoed figures rise on a platform, arms akimbo. Banjos are strummed erratically, bongos beaten on erratically, kimonoed figures stomped... This went on for 10 or 15 minutes, it all sounded like cats fighting (sorry, Kibuki, I just dont understand you), the whole time additional guests are being seated, and several people in the audience are shouting things at the stage. Amy and I look at each other in pain. Happily, these figures stomp off the stage and two new black kimonoed fellas stomp out and hai karate all over the place, flute screeching, banjos & bongos going a mile a minute NOT tunefully, one guy drops his fan (on purpose? Ill never know) and after what seemed like 3 hours but was actually only 30 minutes we were released. We descend the four flights of stairs and consider ourselves very lucky indeed that we hadnt purchased tickets for a whole performance - which can last 4 HOURS. This called for some retail therapy, so we went to the worlds largest UniGlo (12 stories) and picked up a couple of souvenirs (haha). For me, paper-thin fine gage merino wool sweaters; for Amy, a pair of jeans and a couple of very thin polar fleece turtle-necks. Now I absolutely had NO extra room in any bag headed back to the US with me, so we called it quits and went for one last sushi lunch. The trek to the airport from Ginza is quite easy if you are not now carrying 2 bags and a carry on. Grrr. Luckily, there are elevators at every station and we were not in a rush at all, so we slowly but surely made our way to the skyliner high speed train which took us directly to the international terminal. Perfect. Checked our bags - I had a 10000 yen ($100) charge for my second bag (CRAP!) Went through immigration, no problem. Went through security, didnt have to remove shoes or metal necklace (I forgot I was wearing it), no problem. Found a place to get snacks for the plane (yes we each bought one of those triangular seaweed wrapped around a rice-ball stuffed with salmon) and a giant bottle of water, then Amy walked me to my gate (my flight left 15 minutes before hers). Tears. Hugs. Talks of our next adventure... Lisbon next year? Or maybe even Hong Kong (Amy has never been and I had a marvelous time 12 years ago). All we know is the following year were going back to Paris for Amys 50th and Im buying tickets to Paris Opera Ballet. (Id better start saving NOW!) And here I sit, sprawled out in economy plus (the flight is not at all full and the flight attendant said I could move), tapping out my last entry into my travel journal. So happy. So exhausted.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 21:55:34 +0000
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