Saturday, February 28

We got up a little earlier this morning, and I felt well enough to get on the treadmill, although since I hadn't exercised in five days, I walked somewhat more slowly. I should be back up to speed in a couple of days.

We had snow showers most of the day, though it melted as soon as it hit the too-warm ground. The air outdoors was sharply cold, however. Our part of the state is in a winter weather advisory for tonight, but since temps are to rise into the 40s tomorrow, it should be a mild event here, though the evening news noted that towns east of us have already experienced seven inches of snow, with a chance for about ten inches by morning.

Mother came over around 1 p.m., and at 1:30 we went to a local college to attend a Japanese puppet show. This free performance, by students from a university who traveled to Japan to be trained, was very interesting. Three puppeteers, dressed in black, with black hoods over their heads, operated each puppet. One puppeteer operated the head, body and right arm. Another operated the left arm, and one in the middle operated the feet.

When the performance began, we were aware of the puppeteers, but soon we were able to ignore them and focus our attention on the colorful puppets and the stories they demonstrated. The first performance was a celebratory dance, meant to purify the theater and scatter good fortune on the audience.

The second performance was the story of a grocer's daughter who is willing to sacrifice her own life to take a lost sword back to her lover by dawn, who will die if he does not get it.

The third performance was a lion dance, a charming story of a lion who brings good fortune...for instance, a lion bite on the head will confer intelligence on children. So, of course, the lion went up and down the aisles, nipping at children's heads, to their delight.

The final performance centered on a young woman who falls in love with a young man, who, unbeknowst to her, is a prince who changes his name and accepts the hospitality of the young woman's family. When he leaves, the young woman wants to cross the river to get to him, but the young man has paid the ferryman not to bring her across, because he is in love with someone else. The young woman begs the ferryman, to no avail. The ferryman finally tells her about the young man's infidelity. She becomes enraged, and in her demonic jealousy, dives into the river, and is transformed into a sea serpent, which terrifies the ferryman and dooms the young man.

All of the performances were accompanied by a narration, in Japanese, which was subtitled in English to the audience on a small screen at the side of the stage. Mother could not read the screen at that distance, so I interpreted. The sentences went by very fast, so Hubbie had trouble reading them, too. I was able to get the gist of them, though...enough to relate the story.

Unlike last night's free performance of "Afrodesia" at another college, where only about 25 of us comprised the audience, there were about 200 folks at today's event.