Two weekends ago, I had my first mikoshi-carrying festival experience. I did not carry the mikoshi myself but it was the first time I’ve seen it toted around. A mikoshi is a portable shrine that is carried by men (women aren’t really supposed to do it) around the town/city during certain festivals. Supposedly, spirits live inside it. This one in particular is called the Danjiri Festival. The danjiri are the large wooden structures that men also carry with the sole purpose of ramming them into each other or pretending to do so. Instead of a shrine on top of the wooden structure, there are people perched up in it playing the drums.
Danjiri Festivals <- Pictures
On Saturday night, I was in Kinosaki with several of my friends and watched people run around with the mikoshi and the danjiri. They’re all very nicely decorated. I ran into one of my co-workers from an elementary school – that took me off guard. You know how you see a person in the same setting all the time and you’re never ready to see them anywhere else? It was like that. We also ran into a pair of tiny junior high school girls who liked talking with us. It turns out that their ALT is my friend Alvin, so when my other ALT friends and I told them that, they were so shocked! Yes, us ALTs have a pretty tight circle – I think that’s one of the best benefits of the JET Program, having a network of people like that.
After we trailed after the people with the danjiri, we headed back to Toyooka for another ALT get-together.
Sunday morning I woke up to the sounds of drums banging in my neighborhood. Now, I knew that a mikoshi would be going around near me because one of the teachers at Takeno Minami told me about it. I quickly showered, got dressed, and dashed out the door to find it. And after a short search, I found a troop of elementary school aged children carrying a small mikoshi. My co-worker who told me about this happening said she’d be with the children. Unfortunately, I didn’t see her. I started hoping that some of the many children would be my students – that was not the case. Since I was unrecognizable to anyone and only appeared as a random foreign lady watching their kids parade around town, I took a quick picture and went back home. I felt a bit awkward.
I hitched a ride with Chi and her sister to go up to Izushi to watch that Danjiri Festival. This one was famous for fighting, and not just the slamming of danjiri together, but actual fist fights. How exciting! We got there early though so we could explore for a bit. We visited Izushi Castle and ate delicious soba, which Izushi is famous for, by the way. Before all of that, we met an old lady selling adzuki manju (little pastries full of red bean paste) and handing out samples. She happily gave us some to try and they were warm and tasty. She gave us a little card advertising a nearby soba restaurant. We told her we would go to it and then went on our way. After Izushi Castle, we came back to her to ask her where the restaurant she suggested was. Instead of just telling us, she took me and Chi’s sister by the hand and walked us there. Just left her shop to take us! She was even singing a little song and once we were in the restaurant, she jovially said, “The Americans are coming! The Americans are coming!” I couldn’t stop giggling at the sight I’m sure we were. Anyway, the soba was just as good as I hoped.
Once we ate our fill of soba, we ventured off to find the black team. In Izushi, for the danjiri smashing event, there are several teams composed of the people in certain neighborhoods in Izushi. Apparently, Chi managed to get herself on the black team one time, so we went to them, hoping that at least a few people would remember her. Also, if we were with the team and got to wear the happi (short coats often worn during festivals), we’d get closer to the action. Luckily, some of them did remember Chi and many of them were friendly to us anyway, so we stuck with them. Also, another ALT that we knew was on the team, so that helped us solidify our reason for hanging around like groupies. Only drawback was that they did not have any extra happi, so none of us could wear one – not to mention, we weren’t allowed to touch the danjiri. Women are bad luck, you see. To further imprint this idea, the black team at one point had won three years in a row – the year that Chi was on their team, they got in a tie. The coincidence was too strong to let that go. Oops.
Regardless, we had good times talking with some people, talking amongst ourselves while we followed them, etc. The actual danjiri smashing started a little slow at first and then began to get very interesting. Not a lot fighting this year since the police force definitely had a presence there. I don’t actually know the reason behind the danjiri smashing but it’s exciting and cultural, so that makes it cool! I later found out that my principal of the junior high school was on the red team. Too bad for him though because they lost to the black team!
When that finished up, we had some more soba and visited an ALT and her boyfriend that lived in the area. We had a riveting conversation about politics in America, education, our living situations, our students, and everything in between it seemed. It had been a long time since I’ve had such an in-depth discussion, so it was quite refreshing. We eventually had to leave them though because we promised to meet at Namaste, Toyooka’s Indian restaurant. Even though we sort of just ate, we couldn’t possibly say no to Namaste.
We ate our fill and then Chi brought me home where once I again, I completely passed out immediately. I really ought to get some rest on these weekends. Weekends are simply not long enough, that’s the problem. I need to have time to explore and have fun while I still can and yet, be able to reenergize. Oh well, if wishes were fishes… (what is the rest of that idiom anyway?)
The week went by as usual but with a few highlights. Elementary school visits are always fun. Since I had no classes in the morning, during one period, the third grade teacher at Naka Takeno invited me to come outside with his students and dig up the sweet potatoes they’ve been growing. I kid you not, I was bit by a mosquito within the first five minutes of helping the kids. It’s all good though. The third graders were happy to have me help them and I must say, I don’t think I’ve ever done it before. One of the students taught me what to do. At Takeno Minami, fifth period was devoted to cleaning up around the town. I was assigned to work with the 6th graders, so we walked a ways down the street to a mini rest stop of sorts to pick up trash. So many cigarettes! Since coming to Japan, my aversion to smoking has increased by 10 fold – I think it’s because people smoke a lot here and I never liked smoking in the first place. After we had come back and the students finished up their last period of class, we had some time to stay outside and play. This is when I had the pleasure of watching a bunch of kids riding unicycles. I guess in America, it’s rare for someone to be able to ride a unicycle, but here it’s totally normal! Or at least, at this school. They have a bunch of unicycles outside actually for you to ride on if you want – well, for the kids anyway.
Junior high school has been prepping up for their culture festival this weekend. At the end of the day, they always practice their chorus song. I like to come upstairs and listen to them sing. They sound beautiful! Also, there are two songs I have to learn by this weekend that I will be singing with the staff and the PTA. The fact that the song is in Japanese doesn’t worry me nearly as much as remembering the harmony. I haven’t sung in a choir in years! Hopefully, it will be like riding a bike.
This last weekend I went to Osaka! With some train ride/time coordination, I managed to meet my friends Kyle and Johnny on the train on the way down. We had a few places in mind to get to when we got there: The Pokémon Center, the Apple Store, and Shakey’s. Pokémon Center to feed into my 12 year obsession and the Apple Store to figure out what was wrong with Kyle’s Mac computer. Shakey’s is a California-based pizza/pasta buffet – I thought it was Japanese until Kyle told me otherwise. While the three of us rode the train in an energy deprived state, we decided that Starbucks needed to be added to the itinerary. We got to Osaka station and we went to this big building that I’m not sure whether you call it a department store but it had everything, including that much needed Starbucks. We got our delicious overpriced drinks and walked around the Disney Store, where I ooh’ed and aah’ed over everything. We headed over to the Pokémon Center which was obviously full of children and their parents. The three of us really stood out more than usual. I managed to not spend all my money there, content with a custom made Pokémon coin (with the new Black and White starters on it) and a hat – Ash Ketchum’s hat. I’m not a baseball cap sort of person, but often there are times when I’m expected to wear a hat when we go outside for sports or outdoor functions. Now, I have a cool hat. Now, I will probably be laughed at by my students/co-workers but I don’t care too much.
We had to wrap up things up and make our way to the Apple Store since Kyle had an appointment. Once Kyle was situated in line to get help, Johnny and I started doing what one does in an Apple Store – play with technology. We tested out iPhone/iPod speakers and took pictures of ourselves with Photo Booth on the iPad, which was entirely way too funny. Everyone else in the store actually seemed to have a serious reason for being there – I know we must have looked very silly. Kyle’s computer was successfully fixed, we met with some ALTs and headed off to Shakey’s to eat ourselves to oblivion. In the end, Kyle stayed out with the others while Johnny and I went back to Kyle’s place in Sasayama to crash for the night. The next morning, we picked up Kyle from the station and brought him back to his own place where he could catch up on sleep. At first, I thought I was ready to tackle the world and whatnot, so I played on Kyle’s Wii (Sonic and the Secret Rings!!!) for a while – until I got hit with fatigue just went back to sleep.
After the power nap, Johnny dropped me off at the train station so I could go back up to Toyooka. The ride back was uneventful as I was asleep for it. Back at home, I worked on my Halloween lesson plan and watched the movie 2012. It was fascinating to watch! I certainly don’t like watching the world fall apart in real life, but I absolutely love it in movies. I was cutting out pictures but when things started getting really crazy, I had to put the scissors down. I think I’ll have to watch it again.
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