Japanese June 18, 2005: Bunraku theater
	Even in the midst of Tsuyu (rainy season), we have beautiful days such as today. We will drive out today with Mr. Wyatt. The winding road in the mountainous land may look anew to Mr. Wyatt who lives in the Great Plains of Iowa. Kuju mountain range smiles at us. In commemoration of good calligraphy he made yesterday, I presented him a T-shirt with Hadou (Dynamic Wave) characters printed on it
The green highland was very good. We will head to Mt. Aso over there.
	Volcanic plume rises high in the sky.
I smelled something strange. Just as I was afraid of, the area was closed for active volcanism today. All the gates were closed.
	It was very sorry for Mr. Wyatt who had been expecting to see the mouth of the volcano, but we can't control nature. He said he would come back to see it.
From Mt. Aso and through Takamori town, we arrived at the destination after four hours drive at last, Seiwa Bunraku Hall in Yamato town, Kumamoto prefecture.
	We can watch Bunraku theater from now. We first bought the tickets and then headed to Tsujun Bridge.
This beautiful stone bridge was completed in 1801 for rice paddy irrigation. Water runs in the culvert of the bridge. As it is high season of rice planting, there is no water spray show from the center part of the bridge.
	Mr. Wyatt stand atop of the bridge way.
Even a Godzilla is used for local festivals in the Yabe area of Yamato town. Mr. Wyatt challenges to knock down the Godzilla.
	We returned back to Bunraku theater at 12:30 and watched a video that outlined the story. The story was "Shinrei Yaguchi-no-Watashi 4th scene." It was a sort of tragedy of an old Japanese local farmer. (Yaguchi-no-Watashi is a name ofa ferry passage of Tamagawa River in Tokyo. By a curious coincidence, my husband was born there.)
After the Bunraku show, we could touch the dolls, and we learned how to move the head or hands.
	From right, Mr. Wyatt, Miss Ofune, the heroin of the story, the performer, and Oita mom Mieko. The performer was soaked with sweat on her forehead. Yes. it is very hard to manipulate the heavy doll just as if it is alive. Thank you very much for your impassioned performance.
We enjoyed Bunraku park.
	White Yamaboushi flower was in full bloom.
We were really lucky to have a chance to watch Bunraku we had been longing for. We dropped in at Aso shrine on our way back home.
	Large Shinto straw festoon and gate were new to Mr. Wyatt.
After a long drive, we still tried to make pizza. Wyatt and dad made the topping. The huge pizza was so good that all of us were full up to our necks.
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