Kabuki

Before we left for Hong Kong we took a daytrip to Kyoto and met our friends Matt and Tara for a kabuki show. It was our first trip to a kabuki show and it was...interesting.
While theatres in Tokyo and Osaka have English audio guides you can use to follow the story, the one in Kyoto doesn't, so we were on our own. It was extremely difficult to follow what was going on. Some of it seemed so strange that I'm not sure speaking Japanese would make it understandable, but then I can't say that for sure. Somewhere in the middle of the second act I began to suspect that not all of the plot elements were connected. That made it a bit easier to follow, since I was no longer wondering when the killer cat-man was going to return.
The show was a lot longer than I had been expecting. We were at the theatre for more than four hours, although that included two intermissions (one of which we used to get lunch). The theatre itself was quite nicely decorated, and before the show we could gawk at some geisha-in-training sitting in one of the box seats. The costumes and makeup on the performers were really something as well. With most of the actors in white makeup, however, it was difficult for us to tell some of the characters apart. This was especially a problem in the grand finale, when several characters would walk around stage and do a quick costume change when they met another character. It was deftly done and fairly impressive, but sometimes we missed it because we didn't notice two characters had changed clothes - they just looked the same to us. Only the audience applause tipped us off.
It was maybe one of the stranger days we've spent in Japan, but it was a good experience to have before we leave.
-Jason