Puppets, Curry, Thanksgiving

This was a busy weekend. On Friday, I went with my friends Shoichi and Yoko to see a performance of Japanese puppetry and shinnai.

I was very impressed. This was my first chance to see Japanese puppetry. It was a bit different than the bunraku that I knew about; the style of puppetry we saw is called kuruma ningyo and, unlike bunraku, which has three performers manipulating a single puppet, has a single performer manipulating the puppet. He accomplishes this by sitting on a sort of stool with wheels (the kuruma), and manipulating the puppet's feet by grasping them between his toes, while manipulating the arms and head with his hands.

On Saturday, I met my friends again to watch Godzilla versus Ghidora (also featuring Mothra and Rodan). I received this DVD from my parents for my birthday (thanks!) and enjoyed it a lot. Shoichi made curry rice, and Yoko made katsu, and we all ate too much. Yum.

Then on Sunday, we celebrated Canadian thanksgiving at my house with a bunch of friends from the department. Again, I ate too much.

And today I'm celebrating Columbus's "discovery" by getting the work I should have been doing over the weekend done. Speaking of which...