When the cirque moves it is usually a smooth transition: there one minute, gone the next. But just occasionally, just rarely, it is a messy thing, a series of lurches that everyone feels and that sends unsecured items toppling, like its own little earthquake. It was a lurch just like this, almost twenty years ago, that caused considerable damage to circus buildings and even injured a few of the workers.
The move from Hyderabad is not that intense, but it is uncomfortable and unsettling, especially for those who have been with the cirque five years or less and would have never experienced it before. For 25 long seconds the very ground beneath the cirque shakes and jerks, waking some from sleep and breaking some small unfortunate items. 25 seconds is a long time when the world is shaking, and long enough that people might start wondering if something has gone terribly wrong.
But the cirque doesn't get stuck and it doesn't damage itself, and when the shaking stops it has landed in its new temporary home. Still. Quiet. As though nothing happened at all.
A group of young people who have been winding down their night in the same place the cirque set itself down suddenly find themselves shifted a kilometre to the north. They feel a vaguely strange about it, but each individually chalks the feeling up to the long night they've had. The one of them who looks over at the cirque finds nothing unusual about its presence. Why wouldn't there be a circus there? It must have been set up during the day.
YOKOHAMA, JAPAN.
The second largest city in Japan by both area and population, Yokohama is the capital city of the Kanagawa Prefecture and is located 20 minutes south of Tokyo by train. Situated on Tokyo Bay it is home to almost 4 million people. As one of the first cities to open up to the West after Japan's self-isolation ended, Yokohama and its port grew quickly from its beginnings as a small fishing village, and is today a city brimming with lights and activity.
Refuel at Yokohama Chinatown, Japan’s largest, where slender alleys are festooned with crimson paper lanterns. Try the searing xiaolongbao soup dumplings and crescent-shaped, pan-fried gyoza. From here, it’s a short taxi ride south to Sankeien Garden. Walk your meal off in this 43-acre park, passing quiet temples, wooden teahouses and bobbing lotus flowers, soundtracked by a stream of cascading water and surrounded by those famous cherry blossoms.
Back in the hum of the city, Koganecho has grown phoenix-like into the unassuming epicentre of Yokohama’s art scene. Squeezed between railway arches and the Ooka River, the streets have bright murals and many studios are a spectacle themselves, with tall windows offering an insight into the artists’ creative process.
Yokohama’s seductive sea of neon glimmers as the sun sets and the Ooka winds into Nogecho, the city’s traditional nightlife area. Its cramped alleys are stacked with eating options and wall-to-wall with microbars serving up sake and highballs, all under the watchful eye of the cities own colourfully lit Ferris wheel (much bigger than the cirque's own).
The circus has sprawled itself across a large dog park and the adjoining soccer field, and as usual no locals will find this in the least unusual. It is almost 4.30am.
The Crystal Pavilion is nowhere to be found after the move, and instead there is a brand new tent, taller than every other but the Big Top, and with stairs outside that lead into to the top. The sign on the outside reads WELL OF DEATH and eventually it will house performances of two motorcyclists doing tricks along the inside of a circular horizontal wall, with a chainsaw juggler entertaining the crowd between bouts. But for now it sits silent, waiting for its performers. Perhaps they are already in the circus and it will call to them, or perhaps the circus knows they are about to join.
In April the spring weather in Yokohama is mild (average high: 19C/66.2F; average low 10C/50F) and the city brings in many tourists who come to view the cherry blossoms in full bloom. By the last week of April they were all be gone, but for now they are everywhere. When the circus opens to the public come Thursday, it will run between the hours of 8pm - 4am.