One week

Tonight I rounded out my Japanese theater experience with a horror Bunraku performance. That's right...cute, little puppets gone mad. For all those people who have nightmares about dummies and clowns...this is not the art form for you. I literally watched an innocent bystander have his face cut off. Cotton and wooden body parts were flying everywhere. You should never mess with a samurai's heart.

Nevertheless, it was amazing and impressive. Before the show, Ikeda sensei took me backstage to meet some of the performers (the men and the puppets). She goes about 20 times a year, so she has an unofficial backstage pass. They let me hold a beautiful puppet and attempt to make her face and hands move, but I failed miserably. I learned that most performers have to begin by 15 or they have little hope of ever becoming good in their lifetime. In fact, one of the musicians tonight was around 80 and had been training since he was 9. Now, with fashion and pop stardom on everyone's mind, Bunraku is gradually disappearing because no new performers are signing on.

Afterward, we ate oden (a very traditional Japanese food...basically any food you can think of boiled in a special broth) at the most famous oden shop in Osaka (Takoume). I felt so Japanese, in fact, that when I arrived home and saw the mess of suitcases, I was jolted back to reality and remembered I will be American again in only a week...