In the foyers of theaters in Tokyo's new "happening" hub of Ikebukuro — where the provocative Festival/Tokyo (F/T) drama event is running through November — odd exchanges can often be overheard.
"Have you ever been to Shinagawa?" seemed a strange question, for instance, as Shinagawa is a mere 30 minutes away on the Yamanote Line rail loop that encircles central Tokyo. Another odd query was: "How many areas did you evacuate to last week?" — Evacuate? From where? For what reason?
Perusal of the F/T program, and a few questions of my own, soon solved the mystery. It turned out that one of the events on F/T's self-avowed "disrobing theater" schedule was the cause of all this: an up-to-the-minute participation production titled "The Complete Manual of Evacuation — Tokyo."
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