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.

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????

帰国

...so obviously this isn't a post about my Misogi Shrine trip.  My life has been insanely busy the past few days--today, for example, I finished packing my entire room into two suitcases and two boxes (and spent more than $200 sending them back to the States, EW), cancelled my cell phone contract,* hauled two boxes down the post office to send them off, sent my big suitcase to the airport, and then failed to get to the bank in time to transfer money back to my American account.  In unrelated news, my arms hurt.

最近忙しすぎるから、みそぎ神社についてのレポートをまだ書き終わっていない。明日名古屋から東京に行って、水曜日に帰国する予定だから、今日は荷物を送って、携帯電話の契約をキャンセルした。

ところで、携帯の契約をキャンセルしに行ったとき、他のアメリカ人のお客さんもいたけど、英語で店員に叫んで、すごく失礼だった。店員は本当にかわいそうで、辞書を使って説明しようとしたら、お客さんに叱られた。私は本当に恥ずかしかった。「アメリカ人の皆はそんなに失礼じゃないから、ごめんなさい！」と言いたかった。いつも「デイナちゃんは普通のアメリカ人と似ていない」と言われているけれど、アメリカ人と言ったら、そんな失礼なアメリカ人を考えれば。。。本当に恥ずかしい。

Anyway, I'm definitely going to work on blog posts on the airplane (YAY, MORE AIRPLANE BLOGGING; WE KNOW HOW WELL THAT WENT LAST TIME!) if not before then, so expect actual posts with actual content at some point soon.  And for those of you in California, I'll be back on Wednesday!  (For those of you in the Boston/Providence area, I'll be back August 18.)

飛行機で東京からサンフランシスコまで九時間かかるから、飛行機で書こうと思う。たぶん時差ぼけのせいですごく疲れるが、その後で最後の日本の冒険についてのレポートをブログに載せる。

*It took friggin' forever and was also pretty awkward 'cause when I showed up at the Softbank store there was this American woman there who was LITERALLY SCREAMING in English at the employees.  This woman was just being so horrible and treating the employees like they were idiots (OBVIOUSLY THEY'RE NOT GOING TO UNDERSTAND YOU SPEAKING ENGLISH, ESPECIALLY IF YOU KEEP TALKING TO THEM LIKE THEY'RE BABIES), I just wanted to apologize and say that not all Americans are that rude and aklslkfhdskjfhkjsahfdsakfaljka.  'Scuse me, being ashamed of my nationality.

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