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I don't know if the late nights are finally hitting or what, but I did NOT want to get up for class today. I had to give myself an extra 8minutes to sleep in. why 8min? Well mostly because if I gave myself any longer I wouldn't have woken up in time to get breakfast. Anyways, i did eventually roll out of bed and get ready for the day. Our pop culture topic for the day was Magazines; so that was exciting enough to wake me up a bit. Fun fact: the title of the magazine "CanCam" is actually short for the full title "I Can Campus". Target audience isn't exactly ambiguous.
Econ... well, it was econ. I had to get hot cocoa from downstairs right before class and during the break to keep from falling asleep because I was so exhausted and... you know... it's an economics class.
This week is open campus, so there were high schoolers EVERYWHERE. I still can't get over how adorable their uniforms are!
I swung by the CIEE Study Center after classes to pick up my package from my mom. She included a nice surprise that really made my day! I also picked up some stationary for the 'Letters to Tohoku' project. Tohoku is an area just outside of Fukushima that was affected by last years nuclear disaster after the earthquake and tsunami. They still can't drink public water, so we are donating water bottles and writing letters to high school students. I haven't written mine yet, but I'll do a few tomorrow since I have a perfect time block for it after class while I'm resting up for Saturday (don't worry, you'll hear ALL about that when the time comes). From the study center, I headed back to the hotel and took the worlds best nap. It was great, I felt sooooooo refreshed after that extra hour of sleep.
After sleeping, I went down to the lobby to meet Anica and Rachel to find our way to the Noh Theatre. Noh is a type of masked performance play. I was a little nervous about going because I'd heard a lot of poor reviews of the art form. Things like "It's really slow", "It's boring", and "I fell asleep". But of course I try to experience everything, and I had never seen a Noh play for myself, so I was up to try it. I was so pleasantly surprised! The first few minutes I was worried, it seemed to be starting out slow; but very quickly I was drawn in and the hour and a half performance felt as if it had taken only a few minutes. The minimalist nature of the staging makes the actors have to draw you in on their own, and the whole performance really does pull you into it. My only comment on Noh is that the masks are REALLY CREEPY. I mean just downright scary. The good news is that only main characters wear them, so it's okay. We saw "Aoi no Ue" which is basically an episode from The Tale of Genji. I have never read Genji, but it is very famous and after seeing this performance I may have to read it because I would love to hear the rest of the story. I really wish I could've filmed part of the show, or at least taken pictures. Sadly photos were not allowed once the show began. At least I was able to capture a few shots of the stage.
After the show Anica, Rachel, Nidah, and I all went in search of food. The Noh theatre was in a haute fashion district, so there wasn't much to eat in that area. Luckily for us our train transfer was in Shibuya, so we just hopped over there and looked for somewhere to eat right in the center of all the action! Once we found our way out of the ginormous station and around to the proper side, we crossed the road at Shibuya Crossing and started to check out the back areas behind Shibuya 109. There's a lot of shopping in that area, but there's also a TON of food.
We looked around and around trying to decide what sounded right for the night. Finally, I spotted a sign that said pancakes. Pancakes have been brought up for various reasons over the past few days so I saw the sign and thought immediately "This is the place!".
Peace, love, and hairspray!
~Jenn
Econ... well, it was econ. I had to get hot cocoa from downstairs right before class and during the break to keep from falling asleep because I was so exhausted and... you know... it's an economics class.
This week is open campus, so there were high schoolers EVERYWHERE. I still can't get over how adorable their uniforms are!
I swung by the CIEE Study Center after classes to pick up my package from my mom. She included a nice surprise that really made my day! I also picked up some stationary for the 'Letters to Tohoku' project. Tohoku is an area just outside of Fukushima that was affected by last years nuclear disaster after the earthquake and tsunami. They still can't drink public water, so we are donating water bottles and writing letters to high school students. I haven't written mine yet, but I'll do a few tomorrow since I have a perfect time block for it after class while I'm resting up for Saturday (don't worry, you'll hear ALL about that when the time comes). From the study center, I headed back to the hotel and took the worlds best nap. It was great, I felt sooooooo refreshed after that extra hour of sleep.
After sleeping, I went down to the lobby to meet Anica and Rachel to find our way to the Noh Theatre. Noh is a type of masked performance play. I was a little nervous about going because I'd heard a lot of poor reviews of the art form. Things like "It's really slow", "It's boring", and "I fell asleep". But of course I try to experience everything, and I had never seen a Noh play for myself, so I was up to try it. I was so pleasantly surprised! The first few minutes I was worried, it seemed to be starting out slow; but very quickly I was drawn in and the hour and a half performance felt as if it had taken only a few minutes. The minimalist nature of the staging makes the actors have to draw you in on their own, and the whole performance really does pull you into it. My only comment on Noh is that the masks are REALLY CREEPY. I mean just downright scary. The good news is that only main characters wear them, so it's okay. We saw "Aoi no Ue" which is basically an episode from The Tale of Genji. I have never read Genji, but it is very famous and after seeing this performance I may have to read it because I would love to hear the rest of the story. I really wish I could've filmed part of the show, or at least taken pictures. Sadly photos were not allowed once the show began. At least I was able to capture a few shots of the stage.
After the show Anica, Rachel, Nidah, and I all went in search of food. The Noh theatre was in a haute fashion district, so there wasn't much to eat in that area. Luckily for us our train transfer was in Shibuya, so we just hopped over there and looked for somewhere to eat right in the center of all the action! Once we found our way out of the ginormous station and around to the proper side, we crossed the road at Shibuya Crossing and started to check out the back areas behind Shibuya 109. There's a lot of shopping in that area, but there's also a TON of food. |
| Corn soup: one of my favorites |
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| My awesome pancakes of delicousness |
I pointed it out to the group and we all took the elevator up to the 8th floor where the restaurant was located. As soon as we saw the big menu setup, everyone else decided it was definitely the place. Everything was as delicious as it was adorable! Also, since their pancakes are thicker, they were extremely filling and they incorporated dessert into the dinner experience. I haven was able to have some corn soup! It's one of those silly little foods that I love in Japan but hadn't found yet this year. Today wasn't a big day for pictures, so basically all I've got is food pictures. I'm sure you don't mind, they're cute!
Peace, love, and hairspray!
~Jenn
Not going to lie, when you started off this blog post talking about how tired you were, I was afraid of when you got to Noh. XD I'm glad you liked it, though!
ReplyDeleteThose pancakes... I must have them! O_O *writes down "Mee's Pancakes in Shibuya" for next year*
Oh, I'm a little jealous that you got to see a Noh play! But I'm glad you enjoyed it.
ReplyDelete