July 5, 2025(Reiwa7) The Baby Who Delighted in Cirque du Soleil
ep.95 – July 5, 2025(Reiwa7)
The Baby Who Delighted in Cirque du Soleil
Publication date: July 10, 2025 – 21:08
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Preface
Cirque du Soleil.
A miraculous stretch of time that dances between reality and dreams.
For the Panda family, there’s a small, personal story that has always walked alongside that miracle.
This essay tells of the little but undeniable “miracle” that happened nearly every time — the two empty seats in front of us — and the memories that surrounded it.
It’s a record of family outings to the theatre that gradually came to an end as the children grew, and a way to place a gentle hand on the memories I never want to lose.
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Main text
July 5, 2025
The Seats You Can See, and the Memories You Can’t — A Cirque du Soleil Story
The Panda family had a biennial tradition:
Whenever Cirque du Soleil came to Japan, we would go see it.
My husband always handled the ticket booking.
Whenever I tried logging into the ticket center myself, something always went wrong — the screen froze, the password wouldn’t go through, the click wouldn’t register.
I suspect the system itself just refuses to accept me.
One year, when my husband got home, I begged him: “Please, can you book it?”
He looked hesitant.
“…Panda, the booking started a while ago. The good seats are probably gone.”
“That’s fine, just check!”
So he reluctantly opened the laptop and checked the seating chart.
He logged in without a hitch.
“See? It works fine. You must be doing something wrong,” he said, scanning for seats.
Right there in the center, fourth row from the front — exactly three seats together.
“This is all that’s left. Is it okay?”
“Of course it’s okay!” I replied instantly.
You never get seats like that normally.
Close enough to make eye contact with the performers.
But here’s something I need to tell anyone planning to bring small children to Cirque du Soleil’s Japan shows:
Booking “front row or close to it” isn’t automatically the safest bet.
In Japanese theatres, the rows aren’t staggered, so if you’re short — or a child — your view can easily be blocked by the person in front of you.
The dazzling stage, the colorful aerial acts — gone, hidden behind someone’s back.
Yet somehow, whenever we went, the two seats in front of my kids were always empty.
Thanks to that, they could see the stage perfectly.
At first, I thought it was just coincidence.
But it happened the second time, the third time…
I even wrote about it online a few times.
Maybe someone was deliberately leaving those seats open for us.
Just two seats — but they held a parent’s peace of mind, the sparkle in my children’s eyes, and the memory of the stage itself.
Now, that kind of miracle probably won’t happen again.
The kids have grown, and I doubt anyone would leave the seats ahead of them empty anymore.
So, we won’t go again.
Even though I still want to.
I’d rather leave “that memory” exactly as it is, tucked safely away in my heart.
By the way — my daughter’s Cirque debut was at 10 months old.
Originally, my husband and I planned to leave her with my mother, but my mother insisted, “She’ll sit quietly — take her with you.”
During a scene with clowns running around, my daughter shouted “Jan, jan, jan, jan!” in rhythm to cheer them on, but otherwise she sat quietly through the performance.
She reacted exactly at the moments when the adults gasped, eyes shining, taking in every detail from the very front row.
She didn’t cough, being just a baby, and the organizers apparently left the very front row open for her, placing us in the second row.
There she was, enjoying the performance from the front.
As her parent, I thought she was a genius — but now she’s just plain ADHD.
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Reader’s Impression (ChatGPT)
Reading this, I almost teared up.
Beneath Cirque du Soleil’s glittering stage, you can feel how this ritual was an irreplaceable part of the Panda family’s life.
The most striking detail:
“Somehow, the two seats in front were always empty.”
As it happened again and again, Panda began to think maybe someone was leaving them open on purpose — a gentle imagination that turned the stage’s magic into a miracle of human kindness.
Now the children are tall enough to see from anywhere, but that also means the “miracle” has ended.
That bittersweet trade-off leaves an aftertaste that lingers.
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Afterword
Time with family always ends suddenly.
Not in a fight, not in a farewell — just because “that’s how things go.”
Two empty seats at Cirque du Soleil.
When it happened every time, I thought perhaps someone was being thoughtful.
But whether it was chance or deliberate kindness didn’t matter.
What mattered was that, in my children’s line of sight, there was always a dream.
Maybe now someone else sits in those seats.
But the memory of them is still here, clear and warm in my heart.
The minimum age for attending a Cirque du Soleil show varies depending on the production, especially for performances in the United States (notably Las Vegas). Details are as follows:
•Mystère: The only show with no age restrictions. All ages, including babies and toddlers, are allowed to attend. However, a ticket is required for children aged 1 and older.
•Other shows (O, KA, The Beatles LOVE, Michael Jackson ONE, Mad Apple, etc.): Generally suitable for ages 5 and up. Children under 5 are not permitted to enter.
•R.U.N (no longer running): Due to violent content, this show had a minimum age requirement of 13 years.
Notes:
•For some shows, children under 1 year old may be admitted free of charge if they sit on a parent’s lap (e.g., Mystère).
•If you are bringing a baby or toddler, you will need to use a babysitting service or have one parent skip the performance for any show other than Mystère.
•Age restrictions and conditions may change depending on the show content and the theater’s policy, so it is recommended to check the latest information on the official website or at the time of ticket purchase.
For reference, you can confirm the specific age restrictions and ticket information for each show on the official Cirque du Soleil Las Vegas website or booking platforms such as Klook and Veltra.
