Imagine you are reading this 3 days ago when it was written…
I am currently inhaling five bit fat pieces of sushi. I am not sure what is inside of them but they feel good in my stomach. To accompany my wolfing, I am trying to write but so far it has been difficult…a bit tired I am. Possibly, if I just keep moving my fingers over the keyboard and wait a bit, the food will finally get to my head and I can start writing about something meaningful. I guess a good exercise to start with would be an outline to what I would like to write about. Here we go:

(another bite of sushi)
- sankeien garden
- noh performance
- ice shaving dessert (kakigoori)
- the current state of my affairs
- my perception of the rest of my life
hmm, that’s a big one and we might not get to it today but…
…I think…
…the food is kicking in.

Sankeien Garden
I was invited to go to a Noh performance this past Saturday. It took place in Sankeien Garden, a big Japanese-style garden in Yokohama. I love Japanese gardens. I am not a garden freak, I do not know much about plants and if someone says to me, “hey, let’s go to this garden!” I don’t pipe up “yes! let’s!!”, but when I go to one, the moment I pass through those gates I feel calm and happy. Japanese gardens especially. I love how in some places they look meticulously planned, layed out, and kept and in other places they look wild and natural…but still meticulously planned to be that way. I love the ponds and bridges and oh boy!…the koi! Finally, I love how the paths lead you along courses where at every small distance you feel you are in a unique place of the garden, with a unique view and possibly unique thoughts. If that does not make sense then just think of the monotony of driving along a straight highway in Saskatchewan.

My Japanese teacher told me that gardens were not very popular with The Young People. Should they be? Are gardens really for a youthful state of mind cause to be honest, they make me think a lot about death. Not in a bad way, but sometimes I go somewhere and the first thing that pops into my mind is “yeah…I could haunt here” and I think I could haunt Sankeien. Not exactly Tokyo Disneyland (but maybe it has some good haunting grounds too). What would a hip garden look like anyway? I am tempted to design one (try) and find out.
(side comment: I know I am getting a teeny bit older when someone older than I refers to “The Young People” and I cannot decide whether or not I am included in that class.)

Noh Performance I
The performance was held in what I think used to be the main hall of an old temple in Kyoto. We came before lunch to see an opening flute and drum performance and left during “the readings”. I am not sure if these are traditionally part of the performance or not. If I was a good little blogger I would research all this and tell you but sorry, I don’t have the time or energy! If you know Noh, please leave comments. Anyway, we sat on red felt mats and they gave us tea and candy.

The music started and I immediately went off into my own little music listening world.

Lunch
After the music, we left to have lunch at one of the garden’s small, semi-outdoor restaurants. Talk revolved a lot around men which was great cause I have not had a “girl talk session” in a while but I also felt a little guilty because I knew I would go back to watch the Noh performance probably still thinking about the conversation. Which I did, but I still had enough attention to really appreciate what I experienced.
For lunch we had soba noodles followed by kakigoori, Japanese ice shaving with syrup dessert.

Now when I first saw this stuff I though - oh good - but there was no more excitement than that as I had a youth full of snowcones, slurpees, and slush puppies (well, not that many slush puppies cause that dog looked way depressed). My friends were excited about it though and when they told me the flavours a little interest sparked. Matcha…red beans…sweetened condensed milk…??I ordered one with with sweet red beans under the ice and sweetened condensed milk drizzled on top. It was so delicious. Short lived but delicious. The dessert was fated to end up in red beans floating in watery sweetened condensed milk but it was sugar-y and good…hurt my tummy good. Is there anything made with sweetened condensed milk that isn’t good? I swear – it’s the devil’s nectar.

Noh Performance II
Back at the temple things were starting. A bit apart from the usual (or what I assume is the usual cause I have no usual with Noh), the audience was seated in the back of the hall, facing the gates. The stage scenery usually consists only of a tree and for this performance, the trees of the garden seen through the gates served as the background. While at lunch we heard a storm approaching and right before things began the rain started to come down in sheets. Then as the performance came to a close, so did the rain. It added an amazing surrealness to the already otherworldly work of art.

That is my conclusion to seeing a Noh piece – it is otherworldly. Not because I didn’t know the story beforehand so was lost in that department, but because of the space that was created. I can’t really pick out specific things and say “oh I liked that part” or “this was the climax”. I was just mesmerized by the music and the actors slow, rigid movements across the stage.
Epilogue
This took me a long time to write. Probably because I feel like I should be informative and tell you the history and meaning of Noh and the Sankeien Garden – thus everything I write seems inadequate. I am pretty horrible at getting that information. I go and see and enjoy and that’s that…except for food and sake. Those I get the details on.

I never got to the current state of my affairs but maybe I alluded to them in previous posts - sweaty and busy. Live performance is this weekend so I am a little nervous…you’ll hear how it went on Monday…or next Friday.