Tsukuba-Dooba-Doo

Getting from Kawaguchiko Lake to Sado Island required a cornucopia of vehicles: shuttle bus --> local train (x2) --> limited express train --> super express Shinkensen --> local bus --> Jetfoil boat --> and a rental car.  We were mostly excited to ride on the jetfoil!


A jetfoil is a boat which has jet engines and hydrofoils underneath that lift it above the water at certain speeds (same principals as airplanes).  The huge reduction in drag allows it to travel very fast for a passenger ferry.  Our ferry got up to about 45 mph, it reduced our travel time on the water from 2.5 hours to 1 hour, AND the ride was as smooth as a baby's bottom.
   
Upon our arrival on Sado Island, we rented a car and drove to our hotel.  We were greeted by an amazing hotel staff at Hotel Aikawa Yamaki and were shown our rooms.  Luckily, their staff let us get settled in without the hour long lecture we had received the previous night.  First on the agenda was a hotel-sponsored dinner.



With our bellies properly stuffed, we started our walk to a performing arts show down the street.  Just outside our hotel we could see a fantastic sunset across the Sea of Japan.


The show we were about to see was the official "kick off" show of the Earth Celebration, which just so happened to be going on that weekend.  It was to be performed on a Noh Theatre  and was a trifecta of traditional Japanese performing arts.


I must admit, I didn't do an inkling of research beforehand.  Sooooo....during the entire 90 minute show, I had no idea what was going on.  Listen to this audio of the first performance I recorded as you read the rest of the description of the show (below).  This should help set the mood. 


As far as I could tell, the first show told the tale of a samurai fighting a ghost.  This was accomplished through a hodgepodge of chanting, singing, drums, flutes, and a guy in a mask doing gestures on stage.  It was cool, but from my ignorant-non-Japanese speaking-ADD-American perspective, it was painfully long and bland.  The next performance was a wordplay based battle between two Japanese gods...?  The Japanese audience members seemed to really enjoy it, but it was monologue and dialogue heavy.  Naturally, I resorted to thumb twiddling for entertainment.  The final performance was the most entertaining and perplexing show of the night, Tsuru-nyobo.


This is what I thought happened based on what I saw:
An injured crane is rescued by a man...the crane flies around, plays with the man, is happy, then sad, then dies, then recovers, then dies, then lives, then plays, then dies, then comes back to life, then flies away forever...the man is sad.  

This is what it's really about:
Once upon a time, a young man rescued an injured crane.  As a gesture of its appreciation to him, the crane turned into a beautiful girl and then went to the home of the young man to become his wife. Having become wife of the young man, the crane told the young man he should never see it when It was at work. Then the crane went into a weaving shop. It wove clothes with the feathers pulled off its body. The clothes were sold at high prices. One day, the young man felt anxiety and peeped into the weaving shop. There, he saw a crane weaving clothes with its own feathers.  With its identity known to the young man, the crane flew away to join its friends.

Hey, at least I got the first part right, right!?  Actually, the interpretive dancer is very famous in Japan and is quite good at what he does.  After the show we walked back to the hotel scratching our heads as we tried to make sense of what just happened.  It wasn't too long before it was lights out.


The next day we took the car up the coast to do a glass bottom boat tour.  We were on the boat for at least 30 minutes and it wasn't until we exited that we noticed a Japanese man wearing a University of New Mexico shirt!  But wait, there's more...I just so happened to have thrown on my New Mexico State University shirt that morning.  As it turns out, he and his family lived in Albuquerque for a couple years AND now they live only a stones throw away from Tsukuba.  Truly crazy.

We still had some time to kill before heading down to the Earth Celebration so we got a little more familiar with the island's unique beauty.


Determined to get in the crystal clear water, we then found a beach and took an hour to swim around.


Finally, it was off to the Earth Celebration.  While there, we browsed around the shops and food vendors.  The main attraction, however, was the performance of KODO.



KODO is a drum group who play the traditional Japanese "taiko" drums.  In many ways, they're all about being BIG.  Big muscular dudes hitting big drums with big sticks.  You could feel the testosterone pumping in the air!  Don't feel bad for the ladies, though.  As if watching these gods-among-men perform their brutish ballet wasn't enough, KODO would occasionally slow it down with very talented female drummers.  All in all, I was blown away and highly recommend it.