As I was walking back from my trip to accomplish some grocery shopping, I decided on a goofy, yet inappropriate name for my non-existent travelogue of Japan:
Crooked Teeth and Knock-Kneed Girls: A Gaijin's Visits To Japan.
Of course, I wouldn't seriously name a book that. There might be some serious Brazil-vs.-The Simpsons-style fallout from that. Except, you know, Japan mostly has a sense of humor. It might make it a good seller at Urban Outfitters or something like that.
Today I had my first brush with the ugly side of my job. Even though we had only two shows today, the shows are scheduled with about 30-40 minutes in between, After each show except the last of the day, this makes for a real turn-and-burn energy. Sometimes when one of us is retrieving props from the floor, audience members want to shake our hands. This is frowned upon, since people see someone shaking the piero-san's hand and they want to do it, too. At that point, house staff – who are also performers – get a little annoyed and the woman in charge of that part of the show operations gets really ornery and has been known to yell at people.
As I was retrieving the board, two audience members wanted to shake my hand and thank me for the show. I had to express my appreciation and my apologies in what limited Japanese I have. Fortunately, they seemed to understand, but even then, it stunk that I had to do that. It was a bright spot in what was otherwise a slightly frustrating show marked by the textbook Kyoto stoicism. At least I hear that it's pretty textbook.
The big surprise of the day was when I purchased fried shrimp from the grocery store. When I arrived home and pulled it out to eat it, I noticed they still had their heads on. Oh well. I've eaten shrimp heads before.
I just didn't do it today.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment