Being an unabashed theater nerd, one of the things I wanted to do while I was in Tokyo was see a Kabuki performance. Kabuki-Za, the theater here in Tokyo, does matinee performances that consist of a single act of a longer Kabuki work, averaging about 45 minutes long, with English synopses available. The first one was at 11:00 AM. Perfect.
I didn’t realize until I got most of the way there that Kabuki-Za is in the Ginza district, Tokyo’s most fashionable street, and home of Mitsukoshi, the department store that runs all the merchandise operations at the Japan pavilion at Epcot.
Unfortunately, when I arrived at the theater, all the staff were standing out front issuing apologies to anyone that approached. Apparently, due to something they were referring to as a ‘seat malfunction’, they had cancelled all shows for the next three days.
I don’t know what kind of catastrophic seat malfunction closes a theater for three days, but here we are.
With live theater off the table, I moved on to my next destination, Meiji-Jingu. Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shoken (living around the 1870s) decided to build a shrine and surround it with forest. The trees came from all across Japan, and were strategically designed to both provide a shaded canopy and replace themselves over time so that the shrine would still be beautiful centuries later.
The first thing I did was eat lunch in a lovely little cafe in the center of the forest.
It was delicious and had great views, as well as a crow that invited itself to partake.
For dessert I had a special mochi that was wrapped in an actual oak leaf.
Emperor Meiji is pretty much worshipped as a deity here, so every year a bunch of barrels of sake are gathered as an offering to him at the site.
There’s also a bunch of Burgundy wine that is blessed every year as a tribute to Meiji, who was the one that really brought Western culture into popularity in Japan.
The shrine itself was a very different vibe from yesterday–instead of a crowded tourist spot, this was way more quiet and serene.
As you enter the shrine, you’re encouraged to purify yourself by washing your hands and mouth.
Inside was another chance to draw an omikuji (fortune), and I was hoping to cancel out yesterday’s bad one. This time the chopstick had my lucky number 3 on it, and the fortune it contains is, if not enthusiastically good, at least not bad.
Photographs weren’t allowed near the actual shrine, but I got to observe many Japanese conduct their prayers: they’d toss some coins into a trough, bow and make their prayer, and then clap their hands twice when they were done. After only a few moments of observing this, a Shinto ceremony began. Shinto is Japan’s second religion, coexisting peacefully with Buddhism (Senso-Ji, where I was yesterday, was a Buddhist temple). The ceremony began with a white-robed priest beating the heck out of a massive drum–like, you could drive a car through this drum and its vibrations actually rattled my bones. Then two other priests took turns in silent prayer. The staff at the shrine were very vigilant in making sure that everyone was being respectful and quiet.
As I exited the shrine proper, I noticed a little side path that apparently led to Emperor Meiji’s garden. It was a suggested donation of 500 yen (like, three dollars) to enter, and not a lot of people seemed interested, but I was.
TOTALLY WORTH THE THREE DOLLARS, AND THEN SOME. This quiet, secluded path led past the Empress’s tea house…
Through her azalea gardens…
To the Emperor’s fishing spot.
There were some nice benches there so I sat down for a rest a bit and chatted with a grandmother and her granddaughter, who were trying to get some shots for the granddaughter’s Instagram. I helped out a bit taking pictures of the two of them together, and the granddaughter took some for me as well.
Down the path was the Empress’s iris garden, which wasn’t in bloom yet so it just kind of looked like a marsh. There were some cute ducks there, though–and a whole murder of crows.
The path ended at a freshwater spring with a well that was originally dug by some feudal lord 500 years ago.
All in all, it was an incredibly serene, relaxing afternoon–which was a good thing, because after dinner I went to the VIP preview of the merchandise for Star Wars Celebration, which was a torturous three and a half hours of waiting in line (which, at this point, is pretty much tradition.)
Tomorrow the Celebration begins, so if you’re here for the cultural content, I apologize in advance, but my focus is gonna be solely on pop culture content for the next three days.
Laura Writes 