|
a day with Toki Doki-Jido (sunday - 28/3)
several members of the Japanese Modern Theatre group called Toki Doki-Jido had yet to return to Tokyo after performing the Lightology at the actors studio recently. zal and diy got to join the group and performed the Lightology with them for two days. i'm still jealous. sheesh!!!!
this group is collecting hundreds of video and camera shots of Malaysian culture and faces for their next performance in Tokyo next month. The performance which will be called The Street of Malaysia and Philippines will showcast the multicultural and faces of both countries as an audiovisual works during the theatre performance.
so when naomi, the actor, singer and translator of the group wanted to shoot a traditional Malay house, diy, zal and I decided to ask ajue (my officemate) if we could use her grandma’s house in Kajang as the venue. so our sunday morning’s adventure, started with the shooting of ajue’s grandma’s house:-
11.30 am: picking up naomi and okubu at the lanson hotel in ampang.
11.45 am: zal and diy introduced me to both of them.
12.30 pm: we finally arrived at the house of ajue’s grandma.
i’d never really noticed how beautifully-intricate an old Malay house was. the ceiling was absolutely beautiful. rows of bamboo woven like a “mengkuang mat”. according to ajue, the house was built by his grandpa in 1973. sheesh! the two japanese had fun shooting the house. we showed them the traditional chilli blender the “batu giling”. We had mee hoon soup for lunch and those two japanese had gobbled down the food as if that was their last meal. Oishi! Oishi! They said. Oishi means delicious. All in all, we spent 1 ½ hours at the house before making our way to central market.
2.30 pm: naomi and okubu were waiting for the the rest of the Toki Doki-Jido members.
3.30 pm: when the rest of the members had regrouped, they started their performance at the central market’s sidewalk. with their trumpet, small single drum, saxophone, singing and crazy steps, they soon attracted lots of people. everybody was enjoying the show. i was enjoying the show too. this theatre group was made of a really interesting creative people, a body sculpture model, musicians, video game designer, to name a few. these are a bunch of loudmouths highly creative and crazy artistes.
3.45: we then made our way to Jalan Masjid India for their next performance. the whole group about eight of them and the three of us took a walk from central market to jalan masjid india.
4.15pm: just when we were about to reach wisma yakin, the sky opened up and let the rain fall down. it was raining cats and dogs, so we decided to have a drink at the mamak’s restaurant there. those japanese were crazy about ice kacang or ABC. while eating ice kacang, they still managed to shoot a few pictures of an old malay couple and an indian muslim man.
5.45: they decided to perform in front of the indian shops not far from the semua house shopping complex. again, they attracted lots of people with their unique display of singing and dancing talent. there was a huge crowd at jalan masjid india.
6.00 pm: they told us, they wanted to do their last performance at the china town/petaling street. the three of us were already half dead at the time. these were a bunch of hyper active people. what had we’d got ourselves into? so, we walked again heading towards petaling street.
6.45 pm: they managed to squeeze into this small space between the pirated vcd seller and the fruit seller to perform. the crowd seemed to enjoy their performance. some even shouted for more. that was really nice. i was glad to be part of the group even only as a guide and observer.
then and there, we said our goodbyes. lots of handshakes and hugs but still our adventure had yet to end. one of the members kazuka really wanted to buy a baju kurung and a headscarf. so, from PS we returned to jalan masjid india for some shopping. and this time we took my car to go there.
7.30 pm: kazuka found a baju kurung that she liked and bought it complete with a headscarf. we bought her a pair of brooches for the headscarf. she was almost screaming with joy, arigato, kawaii!kawaii!! Kawaii means beautiful.
8.15 pm: we dropped the three of them at jalan alor, bukit bintang. there, the group would have their last dinner in kuala lumpur with the people from the Japan Foundation. we hugged each other and exchanged e-mail addresses. they promised to send us the tape.
I couldn’t believe I’d just spend a day with a japanese theater group called Toki Doki-Jido. we’d learned a lot from watching them and they learned a lot from us too. these were not the typical japanese I’d met before. these are a bunch of friendly, creative and uninhibited artistes who simply loved to entertain people. my only regret was I didn’t bring my camera. sheesh! I will never forget this day, a special day, special people and a special friendship was born.
last modified Mar 30, 2004 at 2:25
u make me miss kl soOOoo much.. huhu i miss home!
seronok menjadi kita dan melalui kehidupan yang rancak.
dulu masa baca iklan masa diaorg mintak volunteer 30 org nih. rasa mcm nak join sangat2. tapi bila memikirkan zaza ni kesini kesana guna pengangkutan awam terpaksa pendamkan hasrat hati. ish.... kalau tidak dah tentu zaza boleh eksen ngan ekau......
Menarik bunyinya... No one can ever say your life is boring!!
|