Sunday, August 12, 2012

Oiden Matsuri

Heeeeey, everyone.  I'm still alive.  I'm just busy with Life, and I'll be leaving town tomorrow, which will mean that I will get busier.  I don't actually have much left to talk about, in terms of stuff I did in Japan, so the next couple of posts will probably be mostly pictures.

こんにちは、皆さん。最近結構忙しかったので、このブログをあまり書かない。ごめんね。日本について話したいことはまだ残っているけど、忙しいからたぶんゆっくり書いて、記事はほんとんど写真である可能性が高い。

On the 29th I went to Oiden Matsuri in Toyota City, also known as the third biggest fireworks festival in Japan.  Joy (one of my classmates from Japanese who also lives in the dorm) and I were invited by Kocchan, who lives in Toyota.  Joy also brought her friend Akina.

7月29日に日本国内で三番目大きい花火祭りのおいでん祭りを見に行った。豊田市に住んでいるこっちゃんに誘われて、クラスメートのジョイとジョイの友達のアキナ君と一緒に行った。

Kocchan invited us over to her house beforehand so Joy and I could get dressed up in yukata.*  (I brought my own yukata, but Joy borrowed on from Kocchan.)  None of us can actually dress ourselves,** so Kocchan's mom helped. (Thank you!)

祭りの前にこっちゃんの家に行って、こっちゃんのお母さんが浴衣を着せてくれた。(ありがとう!)私は自分の浴衣を持ってきたけど、ジョイはこっちゃんから浴衣を借りた。


(Picture totally stolen from Kocchan.)

Look at me, looking like a dork.  Yukata aren't made for people with hips.

似合わないでしょう。>.>

Aaaand then we went to the festival!  Where we met up with two of Kocchan's other friends.

そして、祭りに行って、こっちゃんの友達たちと会った。


It was pretty crowded.

結構込んでいた。


(Look at these super attractive people.)

(アキナ君とこっちゃんとジョイ)

(...I just realized that some of these captions will be hilarious if you are bilingual.  Oh dear.)



So getting a place for the fireworks is Serious Business, which means you have to mark out your territory DAYS in advance with tarps and tape.


Also, we were on a hill.  It made sitting interesting.


 (Picture totally stolen from Kocchan again.)


Yes, those are zebras.  No, they aren't real.


Walking up a hill in a yukata is REALLY HARD.

浴衣を着ながら、坂を登るのは大変だよ。


It started getting more crowded the darker it got...



Awkward pictures~

(The two girls behind me are Kocchan's friends.)

(私とこっちゃんの友達たち)


And then...fireworks!

そして、花火!



Japanese firework shows are pretty different from what we're used to in the States.  For one thing, the whole show was almost two hours long.  Also, the show was split into different acts, each one lasting no more than about 5 minutes.  Some of the shows were designed by students at an art school, so they would consist of a single firework that fit a certain theme.  For example, one of them was called "sunflower" and LOOKED LIKE A SUNFLOWER.  It had little green offshoots (for the leaves) and then a big yellow burst at the top.  So cool.  I would say about 1/4 of the acts were set to music (and I mean REALLY set to music; so the fireworks would mirror the song lyrics), and those were definitely the coolest.

日本の花火とアメリカの花火は結構違う。例えば、アメリカでは花火はたぶん20~30分かかる。おいでん祭りのように2時間かかるのはありえない。それと、日本では花火は5分あって、ちょっとだけ止まって、もう一度始まるでしょう。アメリカでは全然違う。ショーが始まって、花火が20~30分あって、完全に終わる。それと、アメリカの花火ショーでは音楽があるけど、音楽のタイミングや歌詞は花火の形やタイミングと関係がない場合は多い。









These letters are part of a wooden structure they set on fire during the course of the festival.























...and then my camera died.  It was pretty unimpressive.

そして、カメラの電池が消えてしまった。;_;

Anyway, it was pretty awesome!  Afterwards Joy and I headed back to Kocchan's place, where we chilled for a little bit so the crowds could dissipate.  We apparently didn't wait long enough, 'cause when Kocchan tried to drive us to the station, we got stuck in traffic.  The cars weren't even moving.  At all. It was the weirdest thing.  So Joy and I hopped out of the car and walked the rest of the way to the station and took the train back home.  Which was, uh, more exciting than entirely necessary, 'cause it was a really crowded train, and Joy and I got separated getting on and I couldn't get back over to her, and there was this drunk guy who was harassing this girl by trying to pull the straps of her tank tops off her shoulders with his fan, and she was laughing awkwardly and saying, "Stop!  Stop!" and HE WASN'T STOPPING.  GAAAAH.  Also, he kept ogling me and trying to fan me and I was edging away as far as possible, and there was this other dude who was intentionally leaning on me and it was really bad and I was just about ready to punch ALL THE PEOPLE.

祭りの後で、ジョイとこっちゃんと一緒にこっちゃんの家まで歩いた。込んでいないまで待とうと思ったけど、こっちゃんが車で駅まで連れて行こうとしてから、すぐ渋滞に入ってしまった。誰も動けないほどひどい渋滞だったから、ジョイと一緒に駅まで歩くことになった。満員電車だけではなく、酔っ払っている男性は女性をいじめて、私に変に見たので、怖かった。それと、他の男性はわざわざ私を触ろうとした。セクハラかな。。。:(

But, aside from the super awkward train ride, the festival was awesome, and I loved the fireworks, and it was awesome to get to hang out with Kocchan one last time before I left.

が、祭りはすばらしくて、花火が美しくて、こっちゃんと帰る前にもう一度遊ぶのがよくて、うれしかった。

Next post will be a bunch of miscellaneous pictures from Kawahara Shrine and various stuff involving the Kawahara folks I've forgotten to talk about.

次回:川原神社との別れ

*Yukata are the summer version of kimono.  I like them much better.
...what is up with this font?

**This may sound really, really pathetic, but that means you have never worn a yukata before.  Putting on a yukata is HARD.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Misogi Shrine adventures


(This post was actually written two days ago, but I'm posting it now that I'm less jet-lagged.)

(これはおととい書いたけど、時差ぼけのせいで今載せている。)

Hey, everyone!  It’s time for AIRPLANE BLOGGING.  I am slightly sleep deprived, so please forgive how incoherent/weird I may be.

こんにちは、皆さん!私は今飛行機を乗っている。六時間が残っているので、ちょっとみそぎ神社について書こうと思う。

Anyway, Misogi Shrine!  Sunday before last I walked down to Gosha Shrine to meet with Nakano-san and the Sekihara family (both parents and Yushin-kun) to begin our epic journey across Japan.  For those of you who aren’t intimately familiar with Japanese geography, Misogi Shrine is located in Yamanashi Prefecture, two prefectures and a three hour drive away from Nagoya.  This meant five of us in a car for three hours, driving through Nagano.  Needless to say, I heard of lot of exciting stories.  We wound up stopping for lunch at a rest stop, where I got some surprisingly good kara-age (fried chicken).

先週の日曜日に中野さんと関原家と五社宮で会った。みそぎ神社は山梨県にあるから、車で3時間ぐらいかかった。だが、皆の面白い話のおかげで全然つまらなくなかった。

Being the brilliant person I am, I brought my camera…but managed to leave my camera card at home.  Great.  So I don’t have any pictures, which is a huge shame, because it was beautiful.

カメラを持っていたけど、カメラカードを全然忘れてしまったので、写真はない。ごめんね。

Misogi Shrine, by the way, is unaffiliated with Jinja Honcho (the Association of Shinto Shrines), which means it’s technically not part of “Shinto.”  Rather, it’s part of one of the 13 sects of “Sect Shinto,” which is the term used post-Meiji Restoration to designate “religious” Shinto as being separate from the “non-religious” Shinto used by the state.  Although the religious/non-religious distinction ended with the war, there’s still a difference between “Sect Shinto,” each sect of which is seen as a New Religion based on Shinto, and “regular” Shinto, which is governed by Jinja Honcho.

ところで、みそぎ神社は神社本庁に入っていない。「普通」の神道ではなく、教派神道の一派のみそぎ教だからだ。「教派神道」というのは明治維新後に作った言葉だ。政府が使っている神道は非宗教として考えられたので、宗教的神道のための言葉は必要だった。戦後、教派神道と神社神道は両方宗教として扱ってきたけど、今でも教派神道が神社本庁の神道と違う。教派神道は神道に基づいた新興宗教として考えられている。
今日の歴史のレッソン、以上です。(笑)

We were planning on attending a fire purification ceremony that was starting at 2 p.m., but we arrived at about 1:30, so we had some time to look around the shrine and drop into the shrine office.  The shrine grounds include a fully functional noh stage that overlooks a small pond—apparently there are sometimes concerts and performances on the stage during festivals.

2時に特別な火の祓いに参加する予定だったが、1時半ごろ到着したから、祭りの前に社務所に行ったり、神社の境内を見たりした。境内は本当に綺麗だった。社の以外に池と能舞台がある。

Anyway, before the ceremony we wrote out wishes on little blocks of wood to be burned in the ceremony (although I think our particular blocks were burned in the next ceremony, not the one we attended).
The ceremony itself was pretty unlike anything I’ve ever observed before.  For one thing, fire purification ceremonies are incredibly rare in Shinto—they’re much more commonly performed in Buddhist temples.  Also, normally no one aside from the priests speaks during ceremonies, but everyone chanted together during this one.

みそぎ神社のお祓いは他の神社のお祓いと結構違った。例えば、火を使っているお祓いは神社神道で結構珍しい。それと、普通のお祓いだったら、参拝者は全然喋らないけど、みそぎ神社のお祓いで参拝者の皆さんは清めのために言霊を言った。

After the ceremony, Nakano-san introduced me to a few of the priests, including her husband.  (Yeeeep, her husband works at Misogi Shrine.)  It was interesting talking to them, ‘cause the shrine technically doesn’t have ujiko (‘cause it’s Sect Shinto), so it’s an interesting contrast with the shrines I’ve been studying.

お祓いが終わってから、神主とちょっと話した。教派神道のみそぎ神社は氏子がいないので、私が研究した神社と比べるのは面白い。みそぎ教に関する本を見つけたらいいなと思う。私が知らないことが見つかったら、いつも「図書館に行こう!」と思う。(笑)教授になりたい理由かな。。。

After that we hung around the grounds for a little bit, and chased dragonflies around. (Okay, Yushin-kun* and I chased dragonflies around.  The adults were too dignified to do such a thing, and also had cameras so they could take actual pictures.)

その後で、池で鯉を見たり、トンボを見たりして、楽しかった。

After we left, we stopped by a cheese store.  Apparently cheese is a big deal in Yamanashi?  They had AMAZING cheese cake (I tried a sample and nearly melted into a puddle of OH GOSH DELICIOUS all over the floor; I may be suffering from cheese cake deprivation) as well as…really odd cheese.  Like wasabi cheese.  And sausage cheese.  And regular cheese which was still kind of odd.  Of course, given that the majority of the cheese I have eaten in Japan was, in fact, filched** from Louki (DUTCH CHEESE IS DELICIOUS, OKAY***), I may be mildly biased.  But the cheese cake was amazing.  (Japanese cheese is weird, though, okay?)

神社から出発した後で、ちょっとお土産を買うためにチーズの店で止まった。その店のチーズケーキは本当に素晴らしかった。まあ、チョコレートケーキの他に一番好きなケーキはチーズケーキだけど、日本のチーズケーキはアメリカのよりふわふわで味が弱い。(日本のチョコレートケーキはほとんど味がないから、買うのより自分で作ったほうがいい。)いいチーズケーキを食べたのは久しぶりだったから、たぶん普通より感動した。(ケーキで感動するのはちょっとありえないでしょう。)

Aaaand then we returned home!  The Sekiharas were nice enough to drive me back to my dorm, so I didn’t even need to walk back in the dark.  Thank you!

そして、帰った。関原さんが寮まで運転してくれて、ありがとう!

All in all, a pretty awesome trip!

素晴らしい体験だった!

*Can I take a moment to talk about what a trooper Yushin-kun was?  He is 6, and is potentially the best behaved kid I have ever met.  I mean, he dealt with being in a car for six hours better than many of the teenagers I know.  He gets ALL THE WELL-BEHAVED FIRST GRADER AWARDS.  (He is also adorable.  Just saying.)

**Well, filched with permission.

***In other news, I think Louki and Kim have officially broken my brain, ‘cause I have started mentally referring to things as “Dutch” when I actually mean they are orange.  WHAAAAAAAT.  WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME????