m36_i_a_2b_i_94_04_21

TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS "IMPHO TOKYO"

Imperial Hotel
Tokyo

We were back here about five - thirty and wondered what to do
in the evening and found that the show across the street was
Japanese lasting 4 hours starting at six. At first we didn't
know what to do. but in the end got the man at the office to
write down that we wanted 2 seats etc and across the street
we went about seven. It is a very modern theater, more so
than any but Radio city I guess. Has a stage twice as wide
as the Metropolitan, perfectly tremendous, and goodness knows
how many in the audience. We managed to get 'good?' seats
corresponding to the last row in the opera house in Boston on the
floor, and we saw only four other white people. I don't know
which was more interesting the play or the audience. The first
part of the show was really a modern Japanese musical comedy
with music and dancing. We were in time to see the hero
fight off eight man with a sword, the whole thing being so
well planned and rapid that it appeared to be a fight but
no one was hit. You could see each one fling at the other
in turn and the other act as if he'd been hit though the
weapen came only within a foot of him. It was very funny.
Then the finale exactly like our musical comedy kind.
After this there was an intermission and the next was a long
play. We stayed until the end and the National Anthem
was sung, inspite of sitting directly under the cold air
ventilator. The scenery was much like Opera in the older
days though some scenes were quite lovely. The Japanese
& Chinese costumes were lovely but the European ones
rather funny. We understood two words during the whole
evening "Arigato" and "Sayonara" but as Pete said it