Edo Wonderland Nikko

Friday, June 7th

Yesterday was wild and when I woke up today, my 37 year old body felt the aftermath of hours of tennis, dodgeball, basketball and volleyball.  My tooth feels good though so I'll take.  Muscle aches are better than tooth pain. 

After breakfast we all got in the buses and left the camp.  It was a little sad.  I really liked this place.  At breakfast I something wonderful.  When we got to camp and had our first meal on Wednesday night, the tables were rather segregated.  International students sat in groups and Japanese students sat in groups.  This morning when I looked around every table was a mix of students.  At one point early on I kind of wondered why the schedule took us away from Tokyo for three days after only being there for three days.  Now I get it.  It doesn't feel like "them" and "us" anymore.  It feels like we're all one big group experiencing this journey together.  I like that.

We took a 3 hour bus ride from the camp to a place called Edo Wonderland Nikko.  This place is kind of like a "Colonial Williamsburg" for Japan.  It is a village set up to look like a village from the Edo era of Japan.  It is located in the town of Futami in the Mie region of Japan.  (BTW... "regions in Japan are called "prefectures" so I should say that it is in the Mie Prefecture.)

Edo Wonderland has 6 different shows that are kind of the highlight of the place.  When we arrived we were given a rundown of the shows.  There were ninja shows and shows that were deemed as being  more "traditional," etc.  There we also shops and displays and then things like haunted houses.  In truth, the place was a rather bizarre collection of things but there were lots of interesting aspects to it. 

A shot of one of the streets in Edo Wonderland.

There was an entire building full of displays depicting the history of the Samurai in Japan.  It was very bloody.  Here you can see the one guy on the right has cut another guy's arm off.  His arm is on the ground.  Schoolkids come to see this stuff!

Here's Sobi Mo, a professor at the China University of Science and Technology, hanging out with a horse that you can ride around the village.

Edo Wonderland has a very strange mascot.  I think it's a dog with a samurai haircut.  Bizarre.  The mascot merchandise is equally as strange.

So the highlight of my trip to Edo Wonderland was during the second show that I saw.  I went to this show because it was advertised by Sho as a more traditional form of theatre.  Great!  Perfect for the theatre professor.  So I went and I ran into a few of the other professors and faculty from Technos in the audience. 

So the show started and it was clearly comic.  It was one man and two women and I really had no idea what was going on.  Then, all of the sudden, the man walks into the audience and it became clear that he was looking for a volunteer.  Well, Mrs. Sobi Mo was determined to get me on stage and she was successful.  All of the sudden I was being rushed back stage and I was dressed in a samurai costume and brought behind the curtain.  The actors would occasionally say something to me but I rarely knew what they were saying.  I figured... "Hey... I'm an actor... just roll with it." 

The curtain opened and the scene began.  It was clear that my character was high status so I played with that.  The other actors worked around me and with me and occasionally handed me a cue card for what I should say.  They were written in Japanese Characters and in the alphabet we use for English.  I rarely knew what I was saying but I always went for it in how I said it.

All of the sudden a beautifully dressed woman walked into the scene.  We hadn't seen her before.  She sat next to me and started to serve me.  We smoked fake opium together.  She poured me a huge bowl of real sake for me and I had to drink it in front of the audience (that was good for some laughs), she danced for me, etc. 

I was on stage for maybe 15 minutes.  Afterwards, the curtain closed and we all got in a line on our knees and placed our heads near the ground for the curtain call.  The whole thing was pretty hilarious.  I was happy to get some laughs and now I can say that I have performed in Japan!   haha 

After the show, Sobi asked me if I knew what was going on.  I said no.  She told me that the scene was depicting how a Geisha would treat a Samurai.  No wonder I was getting such good treatment! 

Afterwards I took a picture with three of the four cast members.

A couple of pictures with my cast.  hahaha

Later in the afternoon there was a special geisha procession through the streets.  It was a very beautiful procession.  Everyone walked in a special cadence and the geisha wore these traditional tall shoes.  I can only assume this was to ensure that the geisha could be seen by all.

Check out those platform shoes that the geisha is wearing!

She's already forgotten about me.  Sigh

After our stay at Edo Wonderland Nikko we headed back to Tokyo.  The drives through Tokyo really help us see just how massive the city is.  The number of large skyscrapers is unbelievable.  They just seem to go on and on.  When you go to New York City, by the time you get to a place like Astoria, most of the buildings are easily under 20 stories.  In most American cities, the concentration of really tall building is fairly concentrated in a few small areas when compared to the overall boundries of the city.  In Tokyo, they seem to just keep going and going. 

Once back at the hotel we found our luggage waiting for us in the lobby.  We checked back into our rooms and a group of the faculty headed out for dinner.  Some of the students left for the weekend for a home stay with a Technos student.  The weekend is pretty open but more on that tomorrow!