【体験】Japan theatre - Nohgaku 能楽

Japan has 3 very important theater

which is registered as the 

Intangible Cultural Heritage

無形文化遺産

Part of UNESCO

which is 

Nohgaku, Bunraku, Kabuki

能楽，人形淨瑠璃文楽，歌舞伎  

Fortunately 

I have all the chance to experience all of this Cultural Theater

all fully sponsor by my scholarship (ASJA)

First I will be introducing 

Nohgaku 能楽

★★★★★

(well I will be not explaining about those history stuff )

I will just explain the things that I saw

and my experience of watching it

I went to SuginamiNohgakudou
(more info here)

It is located near Shin-nakano station 新中野駅

東京都杉並区和田一丁目

At that time

My scholarship association booked the hall for us

and there are also experience session

Starting with lecture session by the professional

This SuginamiNohgaku building

has a very interesting story

here the story comes

In long long time ago
(I dunno how long)

In the WWII
(Please don ask me when is it)

There are a fighting and bomb all around the area

As you all know

There are also War Jet

It fires up all over the place

and somehow there is a miracle happened

Only SuginamiNohgaku Building have not being blew up

They believe that the sacred place is being protected by the GODS

and after that they are very grateful

and trying to protect this building

and the Nohgaku Cultural Theatre

till now

This is what I heard in the lecture session

Ok next I will explain what actually is Nohgaku 能楽
(for who wants to know more bout it click here)

★★★★★

We are not allowed to bring our camera in

so I will just have to get some photo from the internet

to explain what I saw inside

(please forgive me.. hahaha)

This is the hall

where the theatre will be performed



Nohgaku 能楽

Registered in UNESCO in year 2001

there are two types of performance

Noh & Kyogen

能＆狂言

From the very beginning

both been performed on the same stage

★★★★★

Noh 能

Noh is through its pursuit of a symbolic ideal beauty

is a performance using various Mask

They said the mask will create different expression

with the view of different angle

I have not get the chance to see this yet

This is one of the performance of Noh
(Taken from youtube)

★★★★★

Kyogen 狂言

Kyogen is through its realistics expression of humor portray the true essence of human nature

 and have been passed down to us today in these mutually complementary roles

(I saw this performance)



This Kyogen is being performed using facial expression

and some small item such as fan etc

This performance is basically base on imagination

You will need to imagine there are a tree or river

The dialect that they are using is more easy compare to the other theatres

such as Noh, Bunraku, Kabuki

They are using more to Kansai Dialect

The story of the performance is all base on our daily life

like anger, selfish, crooked etc

This theatre is usually trying to teach the younger generation

to become a better person

not to cheat and be honest

I kinda love this theatre

very interesting (^^,)

After watching it

we get the chance to go up the stage

and learn few steps of how they perform

I can say is kinda hard

One is you must sit on your feet for very long time

and you must walk and run with your feet touch the floor

means you must not raise your leg nor leave your feet from ground



This is one of the performance of Kyogen
(Taken from youtube)

【静岡】Ride with Japan Electric Car - Leaf

CAR talk time

(I do not know much about car though)

well

after HYBRID generation

Now Japan is promoting
Fully ELECTRIC Car (EV car)

No Ekzos = No Smoke

No Engine = No Sound

very ECO

★★★★★

I rent and had a ride with Nissan Leaf 

日産リーフ
(Exterior look at here)

Car price at 2,990,000yen (RM98k)

Japanese Government is encouraging the people to use EV car

so 780,000yen is being subsidies

So this car is only 2,200,000yen (RM72,600)





★★★★★

My experience with the EV CAR

The car is very POWERFUL

in driving up the mountain

and very STEADY in Highway

It can run up to 120km/h easily

but the electric consumption is HIGH

when you use for mountain and highway

SO

You will need t search for Charge point all the time

a bit troublesome

as the car Battery tank only can charge up to 150km

40km will be reduced if air conditioner in on

and distance will reduced twice faster for driving on mountain and highway

watching the meter of the battery

like watching stock market

up and down

★★★★★

There is 3 common types of charging point in Japan

100V, 200V, Speed Charge(400V)

If you use 200V

1 hour charge up to 3～4km

(very slow)

Usually Speedy charging point is recommended

but the charging point is limited

Speed charging point will cost you 30～60mins

to fully charge (110～150km)

very time consuming

★★★★★

When we searching for a charging point

an EV QUICK sign will be shown

which is the place for Speed charging



It looks like a petrol station

but it is individual

the number of station around is very limited



Get the pump

and plug into the hole in front of the car



Then press the start button

then after sometime

The input voltage and ampere will be shown

and so as the battery's percentage 

Since it is under government campaign

It is FREE for charge

Just leave your car at the charging spot

and leave for meal break or toilet break

of course you need to lock your car

EV car is very comfortable, spacious, soundless

BUT

the charging system is a bit troublesome

good for riding in town

but not for long distance

unless you willing to spend time waiting for charging

I had a great experience with this EV car

【体験】Daruma Drawing (Japanese Dharma doll)

Shinshirakawa 新白河

is famous for Daruma だるま

 A Japanese Traditional doll

There is a Huge Dharma doll standing at the station too

In my field trip

There is Dharma doll making session 

for us to experience how to draw it

There is meaning and rule to draw it though

there is a tutor is guiding us all the way to draw it

First 

there is a blank face Dharma doll

Just with the red body and peach face is being drawn ready

We just need to draw the face and the Kanji (chinese character) wording 

of 「福」 Fuku on the tummy

which the word meant for prosperity

You will need to draw the face

and the EYES

is the most important thing in Dharma doll

Why???

Actually Dharma doll is a wishing doll

where you can make your wish upon buying the doll

at the temple (not all temple sells it and it has period as well)

BUT

Usually they will sell during New Year season (Jan 1st)

which you make a wish for the year

So what is so important about the EYES??

★★★★★

If you buy a ready made

The face is all ready but the EYES  

You can see from the photo that 

the Dharma doll has a gold circle around the eyes

The gold circle will be drawn AFTER your wish come true

(I accidentally draw it without listening to the instruction of the tutor... haha)

Below is the Dharma doll that I had drawn

(Usually is being sold in temple without the circle around the eyes)

This is the behind of the Dharma doll

usually is blank

But I drew my own name on it

Actually there is an important part

BEFORE making the wish

which is

write your wish 

below the Dharma doll

and put the doll in your house

till your wish comes true

then draw the circle around the eyes

(My wish is a SECRET so NO photo... hahahaha)



You can get it at some tourist spot

or Disneyland with Mickey mouse ears on the Dharma doll (^^,)

Hope you all enjoy this Japanese doll experience!

【体験】Japan traditional culture - Ikebana & Kimono

In Japan

There are a lot interesting culture to be experienced

In my field trip 

I experienced 

Ikebana & Kimono wearing

Ikebana means flower arranging

Kimono is Japanese traditional costume

Below is the preparing for flower arrangement

There are professional sensei came and taught us how to arrange the flower

well 

in Japan

you can be famous or professional as a artist

such as flower arrangement

But I still cannot understand the theory that taught by the sensei

e.g. height of the branch then height of the flower

etc...... 

This is what we made

you can see that the flower is sided to the left

The next experience is 

Kimono wearing

Kimono is very expensive in Japan

cost more than RM8000 or more

just for 1outer piece

normally kimono is 3 layers

and the waist part need to be tighten very tight

It takes lots of time to wear a kimono

if you don get used to it

Usually kimono is being worn in special occasion

such as 

Tea ceremony

where you need to sit on your foot for the whole ceremony

dam hard though!!!

【体験】Blood donation

Went blood donation the other day

It was my fourth time blood donation in Japan

for the first 3 times was being done in the 

moving blood donation bus

This time

when I finished gathering with my senior in Shinjuku

I saw there is people carrying blood donation sign board

(It is around East exit... above suit shop)

That dragged my attention 

So I decided to try blood donation at the center

When I go up to the center

I was SHOCKED

This is what I saw

It is very hard to imagine that 

this place is a blood donation place

Those fashion is from the wizard of Oz

It seems this place collaborates with one of the fashion school

to exhibit students collection at the place

Below is the entrance

too beautiful for a blood donation center

The waiting place is very cool!

comfortable and relaxing

there is a vending machine

that you can drink anything you want for free

There are

Coca Cola, Royal milk Tea, Green Tea, Cocoa, Matcha Latte,
Coffee, Calpis water, Calpis Soda and various fruit juice

All are free!!!

There are tibits and donuts too!!



There is a bookshelf full of manga

of course all in Japanese



During the blood donation

first they will get some blood for test

to see whether you are suitable for which process

and to confirm your blood type

I am being asked to

donate 400ml



During the donation

the chair is dam comfortable!!!!!

There is a private television for you to watch while donating

after finished donating

you can enjoy the drinks all you want

and there are free gifts too!!!!

Nice experience of blood donating at the center!!!

【体験】小川和紙 Kogawa Japanese Paper

Field trip to Saitama

for making Kogawa Japanese Paper

well it is just to experience how to remake paper

We arrive a place call 

Ogawa-machi

小川町

Where a town  famous for Japanese Paper

和紙のふるさと

It is located 2 hours from Tokyo by train

(very far T^T)

There are lots of type of Japanese paper

such as

papers to make paper dolls

Hanging paper dolls etc....

Here our Japanese paper making starts!!!!!!!

The person in charge is explaining the process of making to us

In this process

we are making postcards

There are special mold

for making the postcards

first insert the mold into the special paper liquid

Then balance the liquid in every mold

Then the person in charge will help to press

away the excess water

and left the wet paper for us to design



Here is where we experience out Japanese postcard making



We are free to design anything

on the wet paper

This is my design

After finished design

just pass this thing to the person in charge

and they will help us baked the paper

to become the real postcard

that can be use

It will takes some time for the post card to be dry

So basically you cannot bring back your post card on that day

unless you have enough time to wait though

haha

well just a small postcard making experience for me

It is quite fun (^^,)