Dutch in Japan, French in Tokyo and Germans in France

The last week I've had the chance to meet some of my fellow students of Leiden who visited Tokyo. Right now, ten of them are studying in Nagasaki in the South of Japan and lately five of them came all the way to the north to see Japan's capital.
First, I met Gijs, Bart, Colling and Rob who were here for about five days. Eriko, my girlfriend, was planning to go to a musical by students of the University of Tokyo, so we ended up going there with all six of us. Even though the campus was somewhere in a residential area with nothing of any interest nearby, it was fun to see what the university looked like and the musical was definitely worth watching. Later that week we also went to a kabuki play (Japanese theater), which was wonderful as always. Even though kabuki is a traditional form of theater, they use such exquisite sceneries, costumes, make-up, 'special effects' and jokes that it looks more like you're watching some futuristic play instead of something that's written a few hundred years ago. We saw Touryu Oguri Hangan, about the hero Oguri Hangan who has to protect his lover and himself from an evil warlord (daimyo) who wants to expand his power. To give you some examples of the 'futuristic features': when there is a set change between the scenes, then really everything changes. But even during a scene the scenery can change because of the revolving stage. The costumes are basically traditional Japanese clothes, but they wear the most luxurious materials in all kinds of colors and patterns. Together with the strong make-up they wear (especially the bad guys to accentuate their evil looks) this makes for a spectacle even without the acting. During the play, there was also a horse that consisted of two man in a costume, but which looked quite natural and on which Oguri Hangan even performed some tricks. Also the death of any character is always spectacular, especially in this play were it ended with the death of one of the good guys as the apotheosis (of course sacrificing himself for Oguri's lover, thus making his death more something of a brave, laudable act than something sad).
Anyway, we had a nice time at the Kabuki theater. For the rest I showed my dutch friends Waseda University, we ate ramen (actually chinese noodles but now almost more famous in Japan) at one of the many ramen restaurants at Waseda-street and we went to a club were the American DJ Premier was playing. It seemed that the Nagasaki-students weren't very enthousiastic about that last part, but I really liked to hear that DJ again.
The next day they left for Nagasaki, but Kim, another student of Leiden studying at Nagasaki, had already arrived in Tokyo with a dutch friend. With them I went to a party at the French-Japanese Institute, where ambassies of french-speaking countries offer food and drinks. After that we also went to a party at a French club, so we fully enjoyed some of the international aspects of Tokyo. Now that I think of it, even though there are relatively few foreigners in Japan, there are many opportunities to enjoy foreign culture in Tokyo. Music, theater, movies and those kind of parties are quite numerous, but I think the Japanese fancy for fashionable foreign influences is a more important cause for this than the many different cultures of the foreigers living in Tokyo.
Actually, after going to that club, I went to a French movie (after eating at a Mexican restaurant) with Keyaki, who I had met in France when I studied in Avignon. He's still studying French, so this closing movie of a French Film Festival was sure something of interest to him. It was the movie 'Joyeux Noël' about the way French, English and German soldiers celebrated Christmas Eve together during the First World War. Even though Japanese liked to stress the fact that they were very much moved by this wonderful story and that they hope that nobody will ever make war again, the director (who was there to give some explanation and answer some questions) said that it was actually about the fact that, even in this world with so much bad and horrible things, people can make something good happen. So whether it's the First World War or just a rainy monday, it's important to try to make the best of it, help other people and create happiness.