Noh theater and evacuation training
Just because I said I wouldn't be joining many other events as an exchange student there were two more... on the same day. Never say never, I guess...
On November 14th, an "international friendship group" called Kamogawa-kai organized a "mini-Noh workshop". Although there was no actual performance scheduled, there would be a short lecture and some "experiencing".
I've never seen noh myself, and at times I thought that I could understand the explanations better if I had. Nevertheless, the explanations were easy to understand; especially considering its a performing art about 800 years old that even most Japanese can't understand completely.
On the "experiencing part" we could try walking like Noh performers on stage and someone was chosed to wear one of the clothes (the whole set is heavy!) and testify that peripheral vision goes away when one wears a Noh mask. For those reasons, some characteristics of Noh aim at avoiding that performers fall from the stage.
Still, I was more surprised at the stage itself. From the outside it looks like an ordinary Japanese house, but there is a relatively large Noh stage inside. As the lecturer said herself, people usually don't expect to see that stage when they first enter the building.
As one event wasn't enough, on the very same day there was another.
This time it was an event organized by the Kyoto City International Foundation. And with a relatively more serious aim, too. It was a Overnight Evacuation Shelter Training Program focused on explaining procedures in case of natural disaster.
Among the items on the program there was experiencing famous earthquakes in Japan on a truck that simulates those tremors, use of a defibrilator and eating emergency food. It was also a training exercise for volunteers who offer support to foreign residents.
It is nice that they go all that way to explain to foreigners those evacuation procedures. Most people don't know or don't care, and many (like me) come from regions where there are no earthquakes. That sort of drill makes people remember better than just a lecture on safety, but it is also expensive for those who organize it (it was free of charge for foreign residents).
It seems that those drills explaining procedures to foreigners started after the Great Hanshin Earthquake. That quake hit Kobe - a city with many foreign residents - and many foreigners didn't know what to do in those situations.
What I didn't like much to hear was that I'm basically living on a fault line. There are basically three in Kyoto, and if the worst happens (a 7-magnitude earthquake on one of those lines) I'd have an earthquake at home with intensities 7, 5-strong and 6-strong respectively.
On November 14th, an "international friendship group" called Kamogawa-kai organized a "mini-Noh workshop". Although there was no actual performance scheduled, there would be a short lecture and some "experiencing".
I've never seen noh myself, and at times I thought that I could understand the explanations better if I had. Nevertheless, the explanations were easy to understand; especially considering its a performing art about 800 years old that even most Japanese can't understand completely.
On the "experiencing part" we could try walking like Noh performers on stage and someone was chosed to wear one of the clothes (the whole set is heavy!) and testify that peripheral vision goes away when one wears a Noh mask. For those reasons, some characteristics of Noh aim at avoiding that performers fall from the stage.
Still, I was more surprised at the stage itself. From the outside it looks like an ordinary Japanese house, but there is a relatively large Noh stage inside. As the lecturer said herself, people usually don't expect to see that stage when they first enter the building.
As one event wasn't enough, on the very same day there was another.
This time it was an event organized by the Kyoto City International Foundation. And with a relatively more serious aim, too. It was a Overnight Evacuation Shelter Training Program focused on explaining procedures in case of natural disaster.
Among the items on the program there was experiencing famous earthquakes in Japan on a truck that simulates those tremors, use of a defibrilator and eating emergency food. It was also a training exercise for volunteers who offer support to foreign residents.
It is nice that they go all that way to explain to foreigners those evacuation procedures. Most people don't know or don't care, and many (like me) come from regions where there are no earthquakes. That sort of drill makes people remember better than just a lecture on safety, but it is also expensive for those who organize it (it was free of charge for foreign residents).
It seems that those drills explaining procedures to foreigners started after the Great Hanshin Earthquake. That quake hit Kobe - a city with many foreign residents - and many foreigners didn't know what to do in those situations.
What I didn't like much to hear was that I'm basically living on a fault line. There are basically three in Kyoto, and if the worst happens (a 7-magnitude earthquake on one of those lines) I'd have an earthquake at home with intensities 7, 5-strong and 6-strong respectively.
