this festival was actually more than 2 days, i just went on two days. Man you guys missed out. There was some awesome stuff goin on. I posted about this shrine before next to Harajuku in Yoyogi park. The Autumn Grand festival is for the birthday of Emperor Meiji.
they had a graaaand display of chrysanthemum flowers. Japan stays warmer a lot longer than other places, i guess being and island and all. There will still be beautiful fall leaves at the end of nov. and even into early dec. in the more southern part of honshu. So there are lots of flowers still in bloom around the city.
these flowers look so crazy
started out with some Kyogen, which are short humorous plays that accompany "Noh" plays (the plays with the masks). The humorous plays are whatever to me cuz i dont get it and the humor is so old school like 1333-1573 old school.
The japanese are often villanized in hollywood and cartoons in the US so when i see guys like this with their huge triangular shoulders i think of teenage mutant ninja turtles and evil and the footclan and that guy that is Shredder's right hand man and kicks a young student in the face after he took his eyes off him when he bowed. They were chanting this weird creepy creepy chant/song. The music was awesome, and seemed very difficult to keep time, was in such a weird time, and the musicians would screech or yell out from time to time which was awesome.
finally what i came for, the Noh play. not a full play so i only got to see this mask, and man is it creepy cuz its slightly smaller than a real face, looks weird yet quasi human so when this guy turns slowly to the crowd you wonder is it looking at me? it was pretty cold too so he was shaking, i dont know if its was cuz of the cold or cuz its part of the act but it was also creepy. add in those old guys chanting and you have creepy soup. but i liked it. want to see more. The no pictures ninjas were out in full force so i only got a few crappy shots.
the rest of this post is especially for my mamma, i wonder if she likes "ikebana" the art of japanese flower arrangment. ikebana has a few rules like everything must be organic. it also stresses minimalism. some of the crazier shapes are interesting. Imagine how much more you would enjoy life if you had the capacity to TRUELY appreciate things like ikebana.
minimalism stressed, so other parts of the flower are emphasized a lot like the stems and leaves, and only minimal blooms
wat is that fish thing, i must have one!
now onto the bonsai exhibit. i can totally see myself doing this when im older
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