Things of note today included an argument with my wife about the fact that my new work will interfere with our plans to go to Tokyo on the 12th for her cousin's wedding. I don't know her cousin but i can guess that one missing white guy won't be missed much. My wife (and i'm still just getting used to calling her that) on the other hand claims that she will miss me. Sweet - except in that tone of voice. But it is out of my hands. The fates wish me to work at the University on a national holiday. In this case the fates are made up largely of University Admin staff. Meh.
Perhaps far more interesting today, we went to join our good friends Peter and Yuki and some of Peter's students for an afternoon of English Rakugo. For those of you unfamiliar with Rakugo, it is a Japanese style of stand-up comedy - except that the comedian is sitting. Well, kneeling really. The performer tells humorous stories using hie or her voice and only a limited set of props to imitate anything at all. It takes a little getting used to the style of storytelling since the cultural differences are numerous. Japanese humour is definitely different to what i grew up with in Canada. But it is well worth investigating.
Mr. Katsura Koharudanji (Special Adviser for Cultural Exchange in Fiscal 2006)
Photo courtesy of some other website.
The performances today were all by Japanese performers, though they had an American in their troupe. And they were all in English. We had fun and enjoyed the stories and the telling. Afterwards there was a brief workshop to demonstrate and explain some of the aspects of Rakugo. I was called on stage to participate by mimicking the actions of the performer. Apparently i did pretty well. I know i had fun. I have been trying to figure a way to get other my debilitating and irrational stage fright and over the last year i have been getting much better. Yay!
After the show, with the Rakugo troupe:
Symian is: worried when she's angry.
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Kanji of the Day: 着 チャク／き／つ ーThiskanji can mean both "arrive" and "wear," which says a lot about the Japanese attention to trend and fashion. Oddly, it also means "adhere." Hhmm...
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