A lot of lasts

...well, this post was going to be up a lot sooner, but then Blogger decided to delete my mostly finished post.  Entirely.  THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR, BLOGGER.  NOT ACCEPTABLE AT ALL.  So, yeah, guh, this is me trying to reconstruct this post while packing and getting ready to head back to the States.  Wheeee.

新しい原稿を書き終わったけど、コンピューターは死んでしまって、原稿を完全になくしてしまった。いやだああああああ。;_;  もう一度書かなきゃ。。。

So last Tuesday was Susanoo Shrine's tsukinamisai plus the summer festival.  Even though there was a lot more to do in terms of set up (there were about twice as many offerings as usual), there were a lot more people attending than usual, so I wound up running around like a headless chicken quite a bit less than usual.

先週の火曜日に須佐之男神社の月次祭と夏祭りが行われた。読んでいる皆さんはたぶんもう祭りについてよく知っているから、説明のほとんどを和訳しない。（それと、全部翻訳するのは時間かかる。>.>）

Sekihara-san's husband is making a website for the shrine, and he wanted photographs of the festival, so I got drafted to take pictures, because I am "good at taking photos."  Um.  Well then.

私は祭りの写真家になることになった。「写真が上手だ」からだ。どうかな。。。

Anyway, pictures:

All the attendees...  There weren't enough chairs, so I was lurking in the back.

参拝者。いすは足りなかったから、私は後ろに立っていた。

Everyone carrying the offerings to the inner altar...

This is what the offerings look like, by the way.  The three trays on the right are for the mountain kami, who is enshrined in a separate building.

So because it was the summer festival, the norito was much longer than usual.  Before the festival started, Nakano-san collected the names of everyone attending, and she read them off as part of the norito.  There are few words I can use to describe how it felt to hear my name in there.  My first reaction was that I really wanted to giggle, because my name sounds pretty friggin' ridiculous in among a bunch of Japanese names.  (Actually, let's be honest; my name is pretty ridiculous even without Japanese names to compare it to.)  My second reaction was, "WOW.  WOW, THIS IS ACTUALLY REAL."  I can't express how grateful I am to everyone at Susanoo Shrine for accepting me into the shrine community and putting me up with my strange questions and my stuttering and my folding papers the wrong way (I swear I have it right now!).  Not only was attending the monthly festivals good for research, it was just generally a great experience.  (You have no idea how calming it is to prepare offerings.  Repetitive actions are a great destressor, let's be honest.)

ちょっとだけ祝詞について話したいと思う。祭りの前に中野宮司さんは参加者の名前を集めた。今年、色々な神社で見学したり、神職の話に聞かせてくれたりしたけれど、どんな神社でも「ありがたい」という概念について話が出た。中野宮司さんが祝詞を読んでいて、私の名前が祝詞の中に出ていた時、本当に「ありがたい」という気持ちがよく分かってきた。学者の本を読むと、神社で色々な見学の問題に関する話が出てしまう。「色々な許可が必要だった。」「一部分の祭りしか見させなかった。」「見学の前に六ヶ月も待たなければならなかった。」が、私は外国人なのに、有名な教授じゃないのに、日本語が下手なのに、いつも変な質問していたのに、須佐之男神社で見学させていただいた。色々な話を聞かせていただいた。言えないほどありがたい。研究の上で、精神的にすばらしい経験だった。須佐之男神社の皆さん、真にありがとうございます。m(_ _)m

Offering tamagushi!  All the people in chairs got to offer tamagushi individually, and those of us who were standing prayed with the last person.

Offering tamagushi is not that hard, but a lot of people don't know how to do it properly.
Step 1: Take the tamagushi from the priest.  Bow as you do so.
Step 2: Approach the altar.
Step 3: Turn the tamagushi clockwise 90 degrees.  The stick should be pointing toward you and the leafy bit should be pointing toward the top.
Step 4: Grip the leafy bit with your right hand and then turn the tamagushi 180 degrees before placing it on the altar.
Step 5: Bow twice, clap twice, bow once. <-- this is the praying bit
Step 6: Take a small step backward and then bow (slightly!) once more before backing away from the altar.
Step 7: Bow to the priest and then sit.
...okay, maybe it's a bit more complicated than I originally thought...

(上述した英語は玉串の説明だ。複雑でしょう。）

That was the end of the main ceremony, so then we went to the shrine for the mountain kami to perform the ceremony there.

次は山の神様の祭りだった。

I was way in the back, so my pictures are not all that great.
Also, when I showed Sekihara-san the pictures I took, her first response was, "MY HUSBAND'S SHIRT IS GLOWING!"  (It kind of is.)

And offering tamagushi again...

And that was the end of that!

終わり。

So then everyone trooped inside...

Festivals usually involve hauling a lot of tables.

Next were the festivals for the kami enshrined in shrines in the shrine office.

次は社務所の中に祭られている神様の祭りだった。

By the way, that photograph over Nakano-san's head is from the Meiji era.  This shrine is OLD.

...so that was the end of that.  My camera died immediately after the festival, because it is a pro like that.  I seriously think I need to get a new battery or something, because this is getting kind of ridiculous.

After the ceremony, we had naorai and I got to eat delicious bento and listen to cool stories, because apparently this is my month to eat delicious bento and listen to cool stories.
...also, apparently Nakano-san's daughter saw pictures of me in priest garb and declared me "cool." WHAAAAAAAT.
Also also, I saw a goshintai, which is the object that is actually enshrined as a symbol of the kami. You're not normally supposed to see it, but there's some construction going on at the shrine (I believe a fence is being repaired?) so Nakano-san had to take the goshintai out of the mountain kami's shrine and she showed it to me, because she wasn't entirely sure what was in the box.  So, yeah, this year has been the year of me seeing all sorts of things I'm not normally supposed to see.  (That sentence wound up sounding a lot sketchier than I intended it to.)

祭りの後で直会があって、皆の話に聞かせてくれたり、美味しい弁当をいただいたりした。

So, yeah, that was my last tsukinamisai at Susanoo Shrine.  I'm going to miss everyone, and I'm going to miss heading over on the 17th to fill sake containers (Did you know that if you accidentally spill sake on your watchband, your watchband will smell like sake approximately forever?) and listen to really cool stories and wipe down trays.

その後でレポートを書くために帰った。
毎月１７日に須佐之男神社にいって、祭りの準備を少しだけでも手伝ったり、面白い話を聞かせたり、皆さんと一緒に祭りに参加したりして、本当によかった。帰国しても、皆さんの優しさを忘れないよ。;_;


The next day was my last penmanship class!  I was actually kind of sad, 'cause only one other woman came...but then after class A WHOLE SLEW OF PEOPLE showed up, because apparently Nakano-san contacted everyone who had taken class with me and said, "Dana's leaving, so you better come if you want to say goodbye to her."  Oh gosh, you guys, I love you all.
...also, I got a lot of (super thoughtful and sweet) presents and I was super embarrassed and stuttered a lot and may have kind of cried a little and GOSH.  GOSH.

次の日、最後の習字稽古があった。私以外に一人の学生しか来なくて、ちょっと悲しかったけれど、昼ご飯にたくさんの人が来てくれて、本当に嬉しかった。ちょっと恥ずかしかったけれど、皆さんと一緒に昼ご飯を食べたり、話したり、皆さんから贈り物をもらったり（本当にありがとうございます！）するのは泣くほど嬉しかった。言葉が出なくなることがいっぱいあっても、皆さんより若くても、友達が出来て、本当に嬉しかった。

ANYWAY, ENOUGH TALKING ABOUT FEELINGS; HAVE SOME PICTURES OF MY LOUSY CALLIGRAPHY:


自分の気持ちについて語りすぎたから、写真を見て：

This is actually from the week before; I just forgot to take a picture before...

二週間前の習字だけど。。。

And this is from this week...
It's pretty embarrassing that I've been writing hiragana for 5 1/2 years now and this is how good my handwriting is.  OUCH.

先週の習字！
五年間以上ひらがなを書いたのに、そんなに下手。。。

WAIT WAIT WAIT, is this ACTUALLY PRETTY OKAY CALLIGRAPHY?  Yes, yes, it is.  Nakano-san was in the other room while I was writing this and she came back and said, "WHOA, your corners just got weirdly good!"

これは。。。下手じゃないかな？

...anyway, my last last for this post is that last Thursday was my last Japanese class.  (I used "last" a whole lot in that sentence.  HMM.)  It wasn't as sad as it could have been, because I'm seeing some of my classmates again on Saturday (we're planning on going to the Toyota City Fireworks Festival).

木曜日に最後の日本語の授業があった。今週の土曜日に豊田市の花火祭りでクラスメートをもう一度会う予定があるので、そんなに悲しくなかった。

...so that's all the news for this time.  Next post will be about my trip to Misogi Shrine last Sunday. (Gosh, I am so far behind, and I am going to get farther behind, because I need to finish packing and cancel a bunch of stuff and ahhhhhh busy.)

次回：みそぎ神社