Kabuki Theater

Seth was invited to a Kabuki play by the professors at Kyoritsu.  He was told they were VIP seats next to the Greek and Iranian Ambassadors.  A few days before the play they contacted Seth and said they had extra seats they needed to fill and could he help.  He said that he could take one more ticket and either Kelly or I would join him.  The play started at 430 in downtown Tokyo and was supposed to go until late so Kelly wasn't able to go because of Marley.  So I got to go!  I was extremely excited because it is a traditional Japanese play that I will likely never get a chance to see again.

So Seth and I left at 2 o'clock to head to the city where we would meet a professor halfway to take us.  We ended up being at the wrong entrance to the Marinochi line and not being able to find her. Thankfully someone on the street helped us find the right entrance.  While on one of the trains, particularly crowded, two girls came on and stood next to where I was sitting.  One was hold a clear dixie cup with a red liquid inside, it looked like Kool-Aid.  But it was definitely NOT juice.  I could instantly tell by the way they were talking and the way the cup was swishing about that it was more the juice.  She came so close to spilling her drink on my grey skirt multiple times and  just kept holding my breathe!  Thankfully she got off after only a few stops and I was still Kool-Aid free.

The seats we had were amazing.  We were in the first row of the balcony level.  We were each given an earpiece that was our translator.  Unfortunately the device did more of general overview/summary of what was being said instead of each persons line.  It also was a few seconds fast so we knew what was going to happen before it did.

The first act was 2 hours! Then a thirty minute intermission where we were given a bento box for dinner, then act two which was 1  1/2 hours! Then a ten minutes break before act three of 30 minutes.  The play started at 430 and we didn't leave until after 9pm!  We were exhausted!  The play was okay but slow!  Apparently Kabuki is known for being of slow nature.  The whole play could have probably been performed in 2 hours and been exactly the same.  I counted over 10 people who had fallen asleep, several of which fell asleep multiple times!

The Greek Ambassador and his wife sat behind us.  We were surprised how unhappy they seemed to be about being there.  Both fell asleep, his cell phone rang several times, and they left after act one.  Next to us turned out to be two Irish Fullbright professors (like Seth).  The one closest to me feel asleep on 4 different occasions haha

It was at the 10 minute intermission we realized the gates at Tsuda College close at 11pm and there is no admittance after that.  It was coming to 830 at this point and we had at least a 2 hour commute back to Tsuda.   We high-tailed it out of the theater as soon as the curtain closed and thankfully made all the trains we wanted and were back at the gates by 10:45!

Train station below the theater

BBBrrrr

Yesterday we bicycled to take Marley to school at 8:45am.  It was 39 degrees outside!  That is already cold but when you have to bicycle for 10 minutes in it, it feels even worse.  I could see my breathe! By the time we got to school I felt like my nose was going to fall off!  But besides the cold it was sunny and gorgeous out.  So deceiving...

Visitors

Seth's contact at Tsuda college emailed him a few days ago mentioning that there were a few students interested in meeting Marley and possibly helping out after I leave.  It feels weird to think that I'm going home and they will still be here doing all of this without me haha

Anyways, they agreed that he, Kiofumi, would bring the two girls by today at 3:30 to meet and get to know each other.  We got home from school and had lunch.  A great combination of PB&J, miso soup, and baby oranges.  At this point Seth had to leave to teach and Marley looked exhausted.  Kelly debated putting him down to nap because they were coming at 3:30 but since it was only 1 o'clock she decided to.  He fell asleep by 1:30.  She came out and started some work while I read.  About 2:30 I thought I could use a nap and still had an hour before they came so I snuggled under the covers and closed my eyes.  Not 10 minutes later the doorbell rang.  I peeked out of my covers and gave a confused look to Kelly.  She made the same face back as she headed to the door.  At the door was Kiofumi and the two girls.  They were an hour early and Marley was asleep.  She politely mentioned that he was asleep and they just looked at us haha

So we talked with them for a few minutes before Kelly reluctantly went to wake up Marley.  He isn't usually in the best of moods after being woken up.  I made small talk with the girls until Kelly finally came back with Marley.  They talked with him for a bit and gave him some chocolate they had bought (that won him over!)  We asked them hoe to say certain words in Japanese.

We asked them how to say frog.  At the same moment they both responded with two different words haha it was the funniest! They looked at each other and then talked in Japanese before agreeing and telling Marley.  Overall one of the girls made a good impression and will hopefully be of help once I'm gone.


Here is a picture of how we know what to order.  Pictures are our best friends!

One hotel room

In Gora we got hotel room.  It had three small twin beds, two of which we pushed together for Marley, Kelly, and Seth while I got the other one.  I was worried the space would be small and hard to keep Marley happy but I should have been more worried about the lack of sleep I was going to get.  Marley snores!!

He has been sick for at least 2 weeks now with a stuffy/runny nose and a sore throat.  I was tired by the end of the first night and was so happy to crawl into bed.  That was until I heard Marley.  He was snoring and sniffling at the same time.  I figured that once Kelly got into bed and he began nursing he would be quiet long enough for me to at least fall asleep.  Nope.  He can snore, sniffle, and nurse all at the same time!

It was a long three nights! And to make matters worse I caught his cold.  Now I'm sniffling and feeling a tickle in my throat. I was SO happy to come back and sleep in my hole in the wall! haha

Marley and me reading in the hotel

Dinner

You mean late lunch?  With Kelly's work schedule Marley has to go to bed around 6pm in order to get enough sleep and be up for her to go to work at 6am.  Therefore dinner has to be before his bedtime, along with time to shower, brush teeth, and watch a short dinosaur video so Kelly can get everything ready for bed.  Our dinners started out around 5 but have slowly moved up and up and now we often start eating dinner at 430! This is definitely more like a late lunch than dinner!

Recently we have even had a hard time finding places to eat out at that are open at that time.  Many places close for an hour or so in between lunch and dinner.  In Gora we bused to a nearby town that was larger and appeared to have many dining options.  None were open haha
By the time we bused back to our hotel (after getting semi lost and confused at the bus signs) the restaurant near our hotel opened so we decided to eat there.

We ordered two udon dishes and a rice dish.  The udon dishes came with green onion, seaweed, wasabi, and a raw quail egg to mix in.  Needless to say Kelly and I avoided the egg while we ate our meal.  When we were finishing up she said that one of us had to try it.  Then she looked at me with that "you go first" look haha

Success! It didn't taste all that bad, just like a squishy egg yolk.  But of course after I ate mine Seth "accidentally" knocked the other egg over and it spilled.  Likley story... 

Cable Car and Ropeway

One of the big attractions to the city of Gora is the cable car and ropeway that lead to the lake near the top of the mountain.  You already feel like you are high up on the mountain and yet you keep going higher.  Marley loved this part of the trip the most!  Seth was a little less thrilled about this part of the trip because of the height and fragility of the car we were in.

The views from the ropeway were amazing! The leaves were just beginning to change colors and we were able to see Mount Fuji!  

Food Truck

We ate at our first Japanese food truck last week.  There were two located at the large park.  The first one was serving a Japanese take on a gyro.  It was meat, cabbage, onions all inside a pita pocket.  Unfortunately the three sauces they had all had diary, which Kelly can't have, so we got them without any sauce.  I thought it was going to be dry but it was actually really good!  The other was an ice cream truck which of course we tried as well