Free as a bird

Okinawa has its own version of kabuki plays. It is called "kumi-udui," and "Manzai-tichiuchi," a story about two young men trying to get revenge on a man who killed their father, is arguably the best and the most popular among all kumi-udui plays. At the beginning of this "Manzai-tichiuchi," the bad guy goes to a beach after a pigeon flew into his house and perched on the family alter two days in a row. He interprets the incident as a sign of bad luck and feels he has to cleanse himself. The trip to the beach, of course, becomes a trip to the other world, as the two youngsters get a chance to approach the man and kill him. 

Two days ago, a little white-eye flew into our house. The bird was an adorable little fellow and we didn't see it at all as a bird of ill omen. Rather, the bird looked the opposite, and after wavering for a while over what to do with it, we decided to keep it and asked the carpenter who was helping us renovate our house to make a cage.

As he was deftly cutting timbers and assembling them into a cage, two more white-eyes appeared from nowhere and flew around the garden, stopping frequently on the top of a basket we were temporarily using to keep the bird. The trapped bird responded to them by chirping and we were beginning to have qualms about keeping it. 

The cage was completed in no time and we put the bird in it. He seemed relaxed, which made us feel better about our plan. As we were placing food and water in the cage, however, the bird slipped through a gap of the ceiling, sat on the top of the cage for a moment with a confused look as if he wasn't sure if he was out, and flew away. All of this happened so quickly that the three of us didn't realize what happened immediately. When we did moments later, we burst into laughter, although my husband and I felt a little sorry for the carpenter. After all, the bird wasn't meant to be with us and there wouldn't have been any better ending to the whole episode. 

The cage soon found a good place of its own, by the way, hanging now from the biggest tree in our garden and waiting for little feathered visitors.