Today it rained, hard and cold. We continued to delve (slightly) deeper into Japanese culture. In the morning we took a taxi to the outskirts of the city to Katsura Imperial Villa, with some of the most famous and sublime gardens in Japan. We only brought one umbrella, so the tour guide kindly found an extra for the foolish gaijin huddling together.
Even in the rain--or perhaps especially in the rain--or perhaps equally well in all weather--the gardens were sublime. Word do not do justice, and pictures fall short of the full glory.
Soaked, we took the bus back to Kyoto Station, had hot soup for lunch, and shopped for a bit before heading back to the hotel, where we relaxed before our evening's entertainment.
In the early evening we headed for Gion, the famed geisha district of Kyoto. Keep in mind that geisha were primarily entertainers--the western view of them primarily as prostitutes is erroneous (although it certainly happened). Although many gaijin tourists wander through Gion, many of the tea houses and restaurants have signs and menus only in Japanese and some have no signs at all; you have to be invited in order to enter.
One of the skills of geishas is dancing (mai in Japanese). In April it is, apparently, traditional for the maiko to perform dances. This afternoon we went to a spectacular performance. The theater, Gionkobu Kaburenjo, was in the same complex as Gion Corner, a slightly cheesey rendition of traditional Japanese performing arts, five performances a day, six days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, for crowds of sweaty tourists. (Which we saw two years ago--we're not above such a thing.) Donna had read about maiko performances in April, but in the states all we could find out about were performances at hotels, including overpriced meals. Once here we were able to track down the Miyako Odori performances at Kaburenjo (which locally is not hard--there are signs all over Gion advertising, and throughout April there are several performances a day). It was 1/5 the cost, and probably ten times better.
No pictures were allowed once the curtain went up. Which, while understandable, is a shame because it was truly spectacular. On both sides of the stage were musicians (women--maiko and geiko--on all instruments and in all roles) playing traditional instruments and singing traditional songs, as maiko in elaborate turquoise kimonos processed up to the stage.
During the hour-long performance, the maiko took us through spring, summer, fall, winter, and back to spring again, with stories of love, rejection, and red-haired demons. I didn't understand half of it, but I felt I got more out of it than the kyogen. (This may have been the compressed nature; the kyogen plays, performed by monks, were in their original format, unedited for your television viewing.) The stagecraft was magnificent, and I'm sure no matter what, the overpriced performances at the western-style hotels could not possible compare to this spectacle. It was a great climax to our week in Kyoto.
Of course, it's hard to know how to place these performances. Are they akin to, say, compressing the Ring cycle into one hours (which, frankly, I'd gladly pay $40 to see a good staged summary for), or more like the musical staged version of Disney;s Beauty and the Beast?
Afterwards, happy and full of culture, we went to an Indian restaurant near our hotel. The food was excellent, much better than I frankly expected, and the Japanese owner who also waited on us, even understood when I said "Bahut achaa" ("very good" in Hindi). There is a dish called curry rice in Japan, but it is terrible compared to real Indian dishes.
Tomorrow we transition to Osaka, where we'll spend the weekend celebrating the wedding of Donna's friend Aya and Aya's fiance Kazushi.
