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We went to an open air theatre on one of the free days of our trip and this was absolutely fantastic. The location was a low building with walls which were open on three sides. We sat on the floor, which is rather killing for Westerners, but the Japanese didn’t seem to mind. It was a combination of monotonous percussion sounds and wailing songs along with lots of masks and stylized dancing. At first it was weird, but after a while the regular dink, dink sound of the music grows familiar and it is very soothing. There wasn’t any dialogue, and the songs were of course in Japanese but nevertheless I understood the story was a love story involving a princess and a river god. It was simply unforgettable.