The Japanese have no shame.
They really don't. I'm serious. Okay, Saturday night I went to my friend Gavin's symphony concert at the Saga Cultural Hall (which is a really beautiful place, I'll post pictures sometime). Gavin has a Master's degree in Tuba and through Mama-san he got connections to the orchestra and now plays with them (did I mention this woman was cool?) I've never been to a symphony concert in Japan and I expected it to be at least somewhat similiar to going to see the Cincinnati Symphony.
Yeah right, and pigs will fly. The concert was actually a joint performance of two symphonies from different cities and they started out normally enough, with a really beautiful 20th-C. piece that sounded a little like the soundtrack from Armageddon, very dramatic and militaristic. They even had a cool bit where some of the trumpet players sang a choir accompaniment (they were good too!). So they finished, we applauded, and waited eagerly for more.
Only to be horrified when a bunch of people in ridiculous outfits came dancing from the wings to do a rendition of the musical scene from The Full Monty. Oh. My. God. The most energetic dancer was a guy in red glittering suspenders and a giant bow tie. The others were women in what looked like jogging outfits. After that another guy (thankfully in a tux) came out and along with the orchestra sang some song in Japanese that everyone in the audience except us seemed to know. I know this because half of the audience broke into song (ruining the performance, really) and the other half started doing something which I've come to understand is distinctly Japanese...they wave their arms over their heads like people in a baseball stadium. Back and forth, back in forth, in time with the music. Weirdness. Later in the song the trumpet players put down their instruments and motioned for the audience to clap along (ruining the song even furthur, because now you couldn't hear the music over the clapping). The Japanese love to clap along to things for some reason. I've witnessed this phenomenon far too many times now to discount it.
I was relieved when after that they did a normal concert piece...but I was horrified again when they did a Disney suite (actually quite pretty) with costumed people running around the stage distracting us from the skillfully played music. I found it annoying, the other ALTs were dying from laughter in their seats, and then I was dying too when in the middle of Aladdin four guys came out dressed like the Blues Brothers and acted out the climax of the movie. Okay, I'll admit, that was funny. Completely pyscho, but funny.
Right before the end of the concert at the second intermission the staff came around and handed glowsticks out to everybody. How ironic; after an entire childhood of being denied glowsticks on every occasion except Halloween, I get handed a nice blue one for free. Go figure. We sat there as the music began a bit apprehensive about these little sticks; surely they were going to be used for something appallingly cheesy. I was right. After the awesome finale piece, the orchestra played another arrangement of the mysterious song, and everyone in the audience, as if following some sort of script, picked up their glowsticks and started waving them back and forth in time with the music. I finally admitted defeat and decided to be a gimp; I conducted with mine, ignoring the rolling eyes of some of the ALTs around me (though most of the rest I noticed were waving theirs too).
Sometimes, when in Rome you have to suck it up and do as the Romans do. That's life in Japan so far for us poor befuddled gaijin. Sunday I went to Arita (Kyushuu's famous ceramics village), that will be a post with pictures and I don't have time to write it right now, but look for it sometime this week! Ja mata, minna-san!
Yeah right, and pigs will fly. The concert was actually a joint performance of two symphonies from different cities and they started out normally enough, with a really beautiful 20th-C. piece that sounded a little like the soundtrack from Armageddon, very dramatic and militaristic. They even had a cool bit where some of the trumpet players sang a choir accompaniment (they were good too!). So they finished, we applauded, and waited eagerly for more.
Only to be horrified when a bunch of people in ridiculous outfits came dancing from the wings to do a rendition of the musical scene from The Full Monty. Oh. My. God. The most energetic dancer was a guy in red glittering suspenders and a giant bow tie. The others were women in what looked like jogging outfits. After that another guy (thankfully in a tux) came out and along with the orchestra sang some song in Japanese that everyone in the audience except us seemed to know. I know this because half of the audience broke into song (ruining the performance, really) and the other half started doing something which I've come to understand is distinctly Japanese...they wave their arms over their heads like people in a baseball stadium. Back and forth, back in forth, in time with the music. Weirdness. Later in the song the trumpet players put down their instruments and motioned for the audience to clap along (ruining the song even furthur, because now you couldn't hear the music over the clapping). The Japanese love to clap along to things for some reason. I've witnessed this phenomenon far too many times now to discount it.
I was relieved when after that they did a normal concert piece...but I was horrified again when they did a Disney suite (actually quite pretty) with costumed people running around the stage distracting us from the skillfully played music. I found it annoying, the other ALTs were dying from laughter in their seats, and then I was dying too when in the middle of Aladdin four guys came out dressed like the Blues Brothers and acted out the climax of the movie. Okay, I'll admit, that was funny. Completely pyscho, but funny.
Right before the end of the concert at the second intermission the staff came around and handed glowsticks out to everybody. How ironic; after an entire childhood of being denied glowsticks on every occasion except Halloween, I get handed a nice blue one for free. Go figure. We sat there as the music began a bit apprehensive about these little sticks; surely they were going to be used for something appallingly cheesy. I was right. After the awesome finale piece, the orchestra played another arrangement of the mysterious song, and everyone in the audience, as if following some sort of script, picked up their glowsticks and started waving them back and forth in time with the music. I finally admitted defeat and decided to be a gimp; I conducted with mine, ignoring the rolling eyes of some of the ALTs around me (though most of the rest I noticed were waving theirs too).
Sometimes, when in Rome you have to suck it up and do as the Romans do. That's life in Japan so far for us poor befuddled gaijin. Sunday I went to Arita (Kyushuu's famous ceramics village), that will be a post with pictures and I don't have time to write it right now, but look for it sometime this week! Ja mata, minna-san!