JAPAN ^^ Things I did today

• Slept in. Oh man, that was nice.
• Lunched at a beautiful hidden-away little sushi restaurant called Kizushi (been around for 300 years) with exceptional chefs and tiny dining ware — my water glass resembled a large shot glass — where we were presented with 15 different types of sushi, handed over one by one, with just the right amount of homemade wasabi
• Went to a toothpick shop (also approximately 300 years old). Yes, a whole shop just for toothpicks. Royce had already made numerous purchases there, and ended up making another one today. I don’t question his judgment often, but seriously.
• Visited a tea shop that has been around since 1690, plus a shop specialises in products from Mount Fuji, such as candied fruits and cherry blossom wine. Beautiful.
• (The too-much-information post) Made an attempt at buying some, uh, feminine hygiene products because I, uh, needed some. And infuriatingly couldn’t find any tampons in the shop. So I had to purchase the equivalent, which I haven’t used since the age of 12, because, uh, uncomfortable. But I wasn’t about to play charades with the Japanese shop keepers to explain what I needed and why, though goodness that would have made for a hilarious comedy sketch.
• Went to Kiddyland, which isn’t as creepy as it sounds. But as my host said upon entry, if you feel like you’re missing gallons of ‘cute’ in your life, then this is the place you want to go. Let’s just say there’s an entire floor dedicated to Snoopy paraphernalia. For serious.
  

  There’s also a LEGO bathroom.

• Wandered around the fashion district Hara Juku, where I fell in love with numerous outfits. I made a sorry attempt at trying on an adorable banana and strawberry shorts & shirt set and realised that my hips are too wide to fit into any clothing in this sizeist fucking industry.
• Visited Condomania. No explanation needed.
  

  Yeah, baby.

• Visited this expansive indoor food market Saibu with hundreds of different stands, including one that sold rather expensive fruit.
  

  Check out these $100 melons…

• Enjoyed a fantastic picnic of pork tonkatsu, dumplings and octopus salad.
• Tried 10 different kinds of ice cream: avocado, shark fin, salt of Okhotsk, wasabi, rose, cherry blossom, green tea, green tea with red bean, butternut, and eel. You know you’re jealous.
• Attended a surreal theme park combo of zombies and happy kiddie stuff. Originally, the owners of the venue wanted to open a zombie theme park, but ran out of money while building, so other people bought them out and wanted to open a kiddie theme park, but ended up leaving in a lot of the zombie stuff. So as you wander around, you may see some scary-freaking-zombies, and then in the next room meet some adorable Hello Kitty type characters. For the messed up child in all of us.
  

  I’m not sure which part was more terrifying.

Tomorrow we’re catching an early flight to Okinawa, so I may not be able to update until we’re back from the remote island. Sayonara!

JAPAN ^^ St. Patrick’s Day greeting in Tokyo

Tokyo’s national holiday, apparently!

JAPAN ^^ What do I know about Japan…

My associations with Japan prior to visiting Japan:

• I’ve read all of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels, some of which are set in Japan, though he lives in London. They are all wonderful, except perhaps The Unconsoled, which was a bit of a trial to read.
• I once purchased a Japanese wood block print painting from a shop on Sussex Street in Ottawa. The woman who worked there also offered classes in Ikebana, which I had intended to try and never did.
• I love sushi. My favourite type is eel, which I thought was called ‘unagi’ but the guide book I’m reading refers to it as ‘anago’. One friend of mine bought me sushi-making materials for my birthday, and I once made lots of different types of sushi for a Valentine’s Day date.
• I watched a lot of Sailor Moon when I was younger. In fact, when we first discovered ‘the internet’, the first thing I wanted to do was look up pictures of the characters online and print them out on our colour printer. My favourite Sailor Scout was Sailor Mercury, because she had blue hair and she was super smart.
• I’ve seen Princess Mononoke and My Neighbour Totoro. Recently I started watching, on recommendation from R, a series about a girl named Kino who travels the world on her talking bicycle.
• My first lover had an African mother and Japanese father. He also had a modest collection of Japanese swords and a small scar across his right eyebrow from playing with them. I found him incredibly beautiful.
• One of my favourite monologues in The Vagina Monologues is called ‘Say It (For the Japanese Comfort Women)’ about women sold into sexual slavery during the Second World War. These women, now in their 80s and 90s, demand an apology from the Japanese government for the horrors they endured.
• I love haiku, and write many of my own, though they don’t always follow the thematic requirements of the classical Japanese haiku. Sometimes they even rhyme. I have made fridge magnets out of them; several of my friends have them on their fridges. I found out not too long ago that the plural of haiku is, in fact, ‘haiku’.

JAPAN ^^ A pineapple for you…

I spent a little over an hour in the Beijing airport, where I had just enough time to visit the washroom (one sign inside the stall said ‘Please lock for your convenience’, which made me laugh) and the duty free shop, where I bought some Chinese pineapple biscuits for Royce, my friend, host, and gracious tour guide, who would be meeting me at the next airport. I bought them specifically because once in conversation I mentioned to him that I had had this obsession with pineapples (don’t ask) when I was in high school, and he told me that there existed (I kid you not) a pineapple theme park in Japan. I told him it was cruel to tease me with such fantastic tales, but then he showed me photographs he had taken on a previous visit (oh, the pineapple greeting gate…!), and even offered to take me there himself, and, at that moment, I think I might have swooned.

JAPAN ^^ Flying over

I’m visiting Japan for 9 days to visit a friend of mine who is studying Noh Theatre there for a month. We’ll be staying in Tokyo and also visiting an island in Okinawa. Here are some of my stories…

—

 I boarded the first plane and walked straight to the back toward my selected window seat. There was a middle-aged Chinese man sitting in the spot next to mine, and when he saw me he smiled and said “I’ve been waiting for you!”

Once I settled myself in, we talked about our respective flights, and he told me he was traveling from New York, where he has lived for the past 30 years, to China for business. Why was he traveling through London, rather than crossing over the Pacific?

He had originally booked a flight to London for a holiday with his wife and two boys, but then he suddenly had to go to China for a business trip, which cut into the holiday. When he tried to alter the flight, the airline told him it would cost over $2000 US, so he found it cheaper to simply book a round-trip flight from London to China and back again. But this meant, for him, being in air transit for over 24 hours. What fun!

Despite his intense schedule, he seemed well-rested and cheery and we embarked, as strangers sometimes do, into polite topics of conversation such as the history slavery, the legal limits of abortion, same-sex marriage, matriarchal societies, the decline of the family unit, and human rights versus cultural traditions. It was comforting to realise that we shared a number of fundamental values, though we had come to them from very different perspectives and experiences.

I also asked him if he was a spy – since he seemed to do an awful lot of traveling for work – and he told me, no, he was an IT consultant. Growing up in communist China, a liberal arts degree wasn’t exactly encouraged, so he pursued the sciences instead. Though, he said, he’d be interested in seeing my show about Sappho when it plays in New York in a couple of months (…shameless plug).

I made the mistake of going out drinking the night before this flight, so I’ll admit I’m not exactly in the best shape to be enjoying a cramped 9 hour journey with a stopover in Beijing, and then another flight to my final destination. But I’m keeping my mind focused on my arrival in Tokyo, on devouring epic quantities of sushi, on exploring markets and temples and fashion districts, on cherry blossom season, on lush islands surrounded by ocean waves and whales, on on on, and and and…

The Vaginas Are Coming!

Win or Die: A woman’s odyssey through theatre

“In the end I distilled everything to one wonderfully simple principle: win or die” (Dangerous Liaisons).

Inspired by the Marquis de Meurteil’s infamous creed, ‘Win or Die: a woman’s odyssey through theatre’ presents some of the sharpest and boldest female characters in dramatic history.

From Shakespeare to Mamet, this showcase observes women who employ sexuality as strategy in an all-consuming game of chess with consequences.

Featuring Kate Milner Evans, Sevda Levent, and Rus Kallan.
Directed by Jessica Ruano.

As You Like It, October 1-26, The Rose Theatre

★★★★ The Public Reviews   ★★★★ Everything Theatre
★★★★ Plays to See   ★★★★ Views from the gods

“A unique theatrical experience” WhatsOnStage

“Entertaining and highly creative” Bargain Theatreland

“Bizarrely, it works” DIVA Magazine

AS YOU LIKE IT by William Shakespeare

The Rose, Bankside
56 Park Street, SE1
(near London Bridge Station)

1st to 26th October, 2013
Tuesday to Saturday at 7.30pm
Sunday 13th & 20th at 3.00pm

Featuring: Declan Cooke, Bonny Davis, Tom Hartill, Matthew Howell, Suzanne Marie, Stacy Sobieski, and Andrew Venning

Director : Jessica Ruano
Designer : Ana Ines Jabares
Lighting Designer : Sarah Crocker
Sound Designer : Luca Romagnoli
Props Designer : Esther Hills
Production Manager : Oliver Michell
Stage Manager: Jeryn Daly

Advance tickets: wegottickets.com £12 / £10 

AUDITIONS: As You Like It

The Rose, Bankside presents a new production of As You Like It, by William Shakespeare, directed by Jessica Ruano (jessicaruano.com).

‘men have died from time to time and worms have eaten them, but not for love’

When Rosalind and Orlando are forced to flee the court, they believe they will find sanctuary in the Forest of Arden.

But security is deceiving with the court citizens on constant watch, and their game of love plays out like a battle for survival.

Seeking: several male and female adult actors of all ages, backgrounds, and ethnicities

Auditions: Monday, August 26th, 11am to 5pm at The Rose, Bankside

Rehearsals: September 1st to October 1st (some daytimes and Sundays) near London Bridge

Performances: October 1-26, Tuesday to Saturday evenings 7:30pm & two Sunday matinees 3pm at The Rose, Bankside

Payment: everyone involved in the production receives a share of the profits

To book an audition, please email ruano.jessica[at]gmail.com with your email address and telephone number, preferred audition time, and confirmation that you are available for the aforementioned rehearsal and performance dates.

REVIEW: Am I Not, by Em Kwissa

After three straight days of reading, I’ve finally finished Em Kwissa‘s masterpiece of a novel-memoir. It is a masterpiece, and I don’t use the term lightly. It is by far the most moving piece of literature and one of the best-written contemporary works I have ever encountered.

It is available for download on her website in the ‘Media’ section.

The controversy surrounding the publication of her book (see Lulu.com) is only an added bonus, one that I hope will help her reach a much wider audience in the long run. The book is a glorious triumph in itself, and frankly, needs no further context.