Kagura - Japanese Theatre

Wednesday, August 2, 2017
Finding out that today was the only day we could get an English speaking guide at the Hiroshima Peace Museum, we moved our trip out to Miyajima to Thursday.  This is one of the few museums in the world we decided was a must visit for all of us, the others being the Anne Frank House, Robin Island, and The Killing Fields.  The museum has been revamped since our last visit, and is still exceptional.  After several hours, our tour of the museum and Peace Park are over.  The Park is being prepared for the major day of remembrance on August 6, the actual date of the bombing.
Then time for another food experience.  Okonomiyaki is a famous dish is Hiroshima.  We found a little restaurant in the Okonomiyaki Village (a section of an outdoor mall) where the locals where, and then watched.  The island that we sat at is the cooking surface is very hot as Levi found out.  Food is prepared right in front of you.  Okonomiyaki could be described as a Japanese pizza.  We are proud of the boys as they have had a very positive attitude toward trying new foods.  All the boys liked the Okonomiyaki, but would have made it without the dried fish powder.  That being said, no food was left on the grill.  For the evening, we tried out Japanese theatre.  The costumes were incredible.  The story line, not so much.  There were two 45 minute plays.  We did read the story lines prior to give us an idea of what was going to be happening.  Good thing, as the plays involved some speaking (in Japanese of course), and lots of spinning.  For an efficient country of people, they can make a simple story line difficult to follow and last for what seems forever.  Both shows climax with a showdown, music and spinning between combatants increasing until the bad guy is striked down with the sword, and the end.  We knew there was a section of comic relief due to the crowd response.  A good experience that will not be repeated by us.  It was McDonald's sundaes after as our reward for sitting through well behaved, and we all got one.