The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1936-03-20

| in the afternoon and last until ten
| o'clock at night.
Huge Theater Stage.
The stage is enormous, the lighting
| and scenic effects superb. 1t is prob
ably true that the Japanese were the
| first to have revolving stage for quick
shifts of scenery. The actors strut in
| the ancient style and chant their lines.
| In fact, if the lines are emotional, they
| are sung by the musicians at the sides
| of the stage, since it is not considered
proper to show too great emotion.
But, in spite of all this, the actors
| men, of course, take the women's parts,
and Japanese lady explained this as
| being necessary because men are so
much more gracefur'-are really great
| and make a profound impression on
| any foreigner who has the intelligence
| to rise above the "queerness" of the
| performance.
1t may be true, as some have said,
that the living actors of the stage
adopted their stilted style from the
| puppet shows of old, but the style
cannot hide their power of character
| portrayal. You feel, on leaving the
theater, that you have been living in
| all the color of past centuries.
And then the movies are just as
| crowded as the theaters. There is
a movie industry in Japan, but this
does not detract from the popularity
of the Hollywood productions. Talk
ing pictures were hard to deal with
at first, but now a solemn individual
sits at the side of the picture and
translates, apparently to the satisfac-
ton Of the audience, as the play
progresses.
| The translator's endeavors to keep
up are more interesting to the for
eigner than are some of the plays.
The contrast between the two types
of entertainment is merely character
istic, like all the other contrasts.
| The Japanese are voracious read
ers of newspapers. Newsboys run or
bicycle throughout the city, dropping
their papers in every shop. At i'm
| portant street corners stand women
with bells, which they ring contin-
ually to show that here are news
stands with the latest papers.
Where fifty years ago the newspaper
was unknown, they now are read far
more generally than in the United
States, two of the great dailies hav-
ing a larger circulation than any stand
ard-sized papers in the United States.
These great papers are thoroughly
up-to-date. They have regular air.
plane services of their own to. carry
pictures from Osaka to Tokyo, and
transmission of pictures by wireless
or by wire is as much used as in the
United States. Moreover, the papers
carry on large humanitarian work in
the maintenance Of hospitals or well
fare enterprises.
Lots of Gay Cafes.
Toyko is full of cafes, always crowd
| ed, modelled somewhat on the cafes of
Paris. In former days people gave
| geisha parties, those rather solemn af-
| fairs at which geishas danced their
| symbolic dances. They were very en-
| pensive and those who coud not afford
| the expense contented themselves with
| picnics. Now the cafes are crowded,
their principal patrons being, perhaps.
| the "mobos" and the 'mogas."
The Japanese, more than any other
nation, love to abbreviate, and ''mobo"
is the abbreviation for modern boy,
and "moga" is the abbreviation for
modern girl. Indeed, these mobos and
mogas, dressed almost always in Eu-
ropean clothes and trying to adopt the
| freedom of European manners, are
about the most modern aspect of
Tokyo.
One might go on almost indefinitely
| in pointing out the various contrasts
of this city, where at every point the
contrasts between the old and new.
between the occidental and the ORR
entail, is so striking. 1t should never
| be forgotten that both the old and the
new, both the western and the eastern,
are real in Tokyo. Somewhere in the
fusion Of the two lies the truth of
Tokyo. When one remembers that the
western ideas have been naturalized
for less than a century. one can under
stand the inevitable outcropping Of or
iental ideas.