While many junior high school boys spent their summer vacations on the beach in their swimwear, Ichikawa Fukutaro III got very little fun in the sun, spending much of his day in a kimono in the backstage dressing room of a kabuki theater.

But he feels his role as apprentice to one of the most popular and talented kabuki actors alive today is such a privilege that having classmates to hang out with is not at the top of his agenda.

"I don't have close friends at school but that's OK. It's always been that way," Fukutaro says.