The Art and Style of Storytelling in Japan - Day 3

A Story of Butoh and Manga

Today was a very eventful day. I cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast and they turned out better than anything I have ever cooked. It seemed weird, but I seasoned the bacon with soy sauce which I have never done before. After breakfast we got a tour of Kyoto Seika University where we are staying this week. There were interesting animal sculptures, paintings, and the library and architecture were all uniquely amazing. We then took public transportation to the Manga Museum where we participated in a workshop and got a tour. I bought some manga called Devil's Line and Tokyo Ghoul. Afterwards we walked around the area a little bit and I got some Starbucks and some delicious pork buns for dinner. After dinner we saw a really interesting  performance called butoh dance that involved an old woman dressed and painted all in black and white. The music was really good and the performance was really unique.
-Dante

I guess I have jetlag because I woke up today at 5:00am! We all went out in the morning to Kyoto city center to visit the Manga Musuem. This place was amazing! It was literally filled with all kinds of manga and everything related to manga. I am a big fan of Naruto manga and they had every series in all different types of languages. They had around 300,000 manga books and magazines at the museum and many of them were Shonen Jump which has been published every since the 1960's for young boys and girls. Each book contains about 15 different manga artists and each artist has to make at least 20 pages per week. We did a workshop and I was able to try drawing manga and saw how hard it would be to draw 20 pages every week. The museum is open for the public so that many people can learn about manga and visit the manga library. The museum has helped to inform people about manga and change the stereotypes that manga isn't just bad entertainment by worthwhile reading for children. At night we got to visit the Shinkyogoku Market. It was gorgeous and very crowded and we had many fun and new experiences.
-Sil

This has been a great experience so far! My favorite activity has been the butoh dance performance that we watched today. It was just amazing! Very few tourists get the chance to watch such a unique show like this. I loved the dance so much that I researched it more afterwards to learn about it. I saw the beauty of the human body and the amazing effects of light and music and the balance of tension that help bring a performance to life. All of these experiences will be useful for me as I create stories and art and animations in the future. I really appreciated this incredible experience!
-Tina

Visiting the Kyoto International Manga Museum.

Learning about the history of manga during our workshop at the museum.

JP is having a great time working on his manga comic during our workshop at the museum.

Working on our own Manga comics during our workshop at the museum.

Eva works on her manga comic during our workshop at the museum.

Checking out the plaster casts of famous manga artists.

The program from the butoh theater performance.

Posing for a picture with the amazing butoh performer.