MORIMACHI Festival

Sorry, about the month wait between the post. I doubt that there really is anyone out there that is really following now, but I will still post. I have been trying to post this story for such a long time. It really did seem like it was cursed. Everytime I was about to post it something would go wrong. I had trouble with the photos , uploading, electricity, time/availability, and the list just goes on. Hopefully, this time it actually gets posted correctly,


Thanks,


Charlee


Nov. 6, 2009


Trip from OKAYAMA to MORIMACHI: Day 1


Alright, this is the first real trip that I have taken out of OKAYAMA! I was really excited about this. I really couldn’t sleep the night before. It really was working out well for me too. I was going part of the way with my friend SAKINO, whose interview will be coming up shortly, and then I would go meet up with my friends in MORIMACHI to see the Harvest Festival.


So it started with me not going to bed until three, because a friend just arrived from the US, and I went to pick him up with NORIKO and SAKINO. We ended up just staying up all night and then I had my first class at 0840 HRS. Yes, I went to that class and it sucked. Thinking that I would just return to my room to sleep at the end of class, I came back to find my buddy sleeping in my bed. Thus, I decided to just forgo the sleep and make something to eat.


After eating, I began to pack for the trip. I decided to pack light for the 3-day adventure. The camera equipment was limited to: REBEL XTi w/ extended battery pack, one 580EX flash, speedlite transmitter, rechargeable batteries, the chargers, a Fong diffuser and 24-70 2.8L lens. I CANNOT BELIEVE I FORGOT A DAM TRIPOD! As for clothes, I packed like a guy would: pants, boxers, socks, and 2 shirts. I also bought an OMIYAGE (souvenir) for the family that I was going to see. It is actually something that OKAYAMA is known for. I forget the name of the item now, but I will post it when it comes back to me.


When I finished packing I noticed that it was nearly 1300 HRS, and that I had to meet SAKINO at the fountain (more on this later) in front of the JAPAN RAIL (JR) station in 10 minutes. Now, the dorm is about 15 minutes away from the station, so I grabbed my gear and started to haul. I made it to the fountain with 30 seconds to spare, and I get a phone call, apparently she was going to be late. Figures…. Oh, well! It is a woman’s prerogative… or what not. We ended up missing the train that we were supposed to take, but I will say that it was worth the wait!


SAKINO came by another train to the station to meet up with me, and she was all dolled up. Apparently, the reason that she was going with me part way on the JR line, was because she was going to a NOMIHODAI (all you can drink bar, more on this at a later post) with some friends in TOKYO that she met whilst on a trip to CAMBODIA. She looked gorgeous! I’m shamed to say that I did not get a photo of her! SORRY!



So, we grab the next NOZOMI Super Express Bullet train heading for TOKYO. This was quite normal for me, and actually if SAKINO wasn’t there, then this would have been really boring. During the trip, we were talking about her time in CAMBODIA. There were many things that she was surprised about, and maybe I will put an excerpt about it in her interview.


We also talked about the things that are hard, for the JAPANESE people to do and/or say. It was a very interesting topic, and I will post more about this later, especially since the transfer people here are very adamant about this topic.


The trip was very quick and before I new it we were in NAGOYA. I got off the train to get onto another that was heading for KAKEGAWA in the SHIZOUKA prefecture. SAKINO continued onto TOKYO. I hope she had a safe and fun time. Prior to leaving me, she wrote down the information about how to get to MORIMACHI and back home. I am extremely appreciative for this, because I would have never made it to MORIMACHI if it weren’t for her.


From NAGOYA it took about an hour to get to KAKEGAWA station, and from KAKEGAWA it took about 45 minutes to get to TOWATA station in MORIMACHI on the local train. It was an incredible experience. It was the first time that I got onto a train in JAPAN that was only one car. After I bought the ticket there was no machine to take and punch a whole in the ticket like everywhere else that I have been too. A train officer took the ticket, which looked identical to the ones that you slide into the machines and he stamped it. This blew my mind! This is why I love JAPAN. The oxymoronic things that just keep you going, the traditional with the new age technology.



When I got to TOWATA station, there were no machines! To get off the train you needed to hand your ticket to the conductor! I assume to get back from TOWATA station I need to give the conductor cash. Inconceivable! I was greeted at the TOWATA stop (really look at the photo, can you call that a station?) by my friends mother. It is there house/temple that I am staying at while in MORIMACHI. This is why there are photos of the TATAMI room that I’m staying at. I stayed inside the temple in a very traditional room, on a FUTON.


After dropping my stuff, my friend’s mother, YUKA, wanted me to eat dinner with her friends. They were very nice, and would always make sure that I had a fresh beer in hand. It was insane, before I was even done taking the last sip; they were pouring me another full cup. I was very moved. We also ate an assortment of SUSHI, grilled squid, a bunch of different fried items, mainly meat, and JAPANESE MELON!! The MELON here is awesome, and for some reason doesn’t affect me like the MELONS in the USA do. I’m actually allergic to melons, but I was eating this one fine.


The reason I ate it, was because even though I am allergic to melon, it is EXTREMELY expensive here. After being offered three times to eat the melon, I ate the melon. I was pleasantly surprised that my throat didn’t swell up and I didn’t need to drink a ton of water. I actually ate a good share of the melon!



After we finished getting drunk and full, we went to the festival, which started at about 1900 HRS. You can hear the distinct sound of the JAPANESE flute and the TAIKO drums being beaten. Following the noise, we came up onto the first of 14 gigantic floats. Now these aren’t like the ones in the MACY’s X-Mas day parade, but they were fantastic. People were running around with HAPIs on and shouting and jumping. The main thing that you could see, aside from everyone being drunk, was that they were all HAPPY!


Now, I can’t say that I understood the whole thing, but I can say what I did get. There are 3 different shrines here in MORIMACHI. The 14 floats represent the 14 districts of this city. The floats are supposed to go to all three shrines. Along the way the floats will stop when they run into another, which always seem to be at least 3 floats meeting up with each other, and all them team members of the floats will go into a mosh-pit like frenzy. It was crazy! People jumping onto other people, people getting trampled, and people climbing places and jumping off… it was hectic!


I tried to get as many photos as I could. Being so dark made life hard with just one flash. There was also one point where a guy got popped on the nose, and it began to squirt blood. I kid you not, squirt blood, not leak/drip/drizzle, but squirt. I luckily got the camera out of the way in time, but I did take some spray of the blood. Therefore, I missed a part of the celebration, because I was cleaning the blood off of me. Other than that though, the rest of the night was uneventful, and just good CLEAN fun.



Nov 7, 2009


OK, so as the night ended I went into my room to pass out. This wasn’t the first time that I slept in a TATAMI room or on a FUTON, but it was the first time that I had to make my own bed and put it away. The room as you noticed is spacious. It is actually much better than most of the apartments that you can rent in the area. The way they do the room size is by how many mats your can fit in the room, and my room could fight 18 TATAMI mats. I think the average is like 5 mats. Falling to sleep was easy with the booze in my system, and walking around town all night.


I was awoken at 0600 HRS by fireworks. It was the signal to people to start getting prepped at ready for work. I didn’t find it too helpful, and went back to sleep. Then, around 0730 HRS I was awoken again, by a random guy walking into my room. I decided that I needed to get up and find out what was happening then. I quickly put away the FUTON, and grabbed my gear and moved into grandmother and grandfather’s living area.


Now, I don’t think I really gave a reason to why I came out to a MATSURI in a little country town yet. It is because I knew some of the people who were sponsoring it. The SUZUKI’s were the owner of the temple that I was sleeping at. They were also donating the space in their temple and a stage for people to come watch performances for free. I thought that because I was invited to come, that I should really take up that offer. Not to mention I get to meet some friends of mine again in JAPAN, rather than the U.S.



Because they were donating the rooms in the temple though, that also meant that the unused room behind the temple, that I was using, was also donated. The gentleman, that was noted earlier, who came into my room, thinking that he would be able to use it to change into his costume and get ready for his performance. Knowing this, when he politely excused himself, I needed to get out of the room. So I had my first traditional JAPANESE food with the family. I found out that it was a little different than what I expected.


I ended up eating a sandwich. Yes, I said it a sandwich. It was a little different from what you are thinking though. There is a method to the so call madness. First, let me list the items: toast, butter, mayonnaise, mustard, SA-SU (kind of like the sauce for TONKATSU), ham, lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumber. Now, we move on to the process of making your SANDOUICHI.


First, you take a slice of toast, and put butter on it. Follow it with a bit of mayo, and then put a little mustard and sauce on. Next, you put 1-2 slices of ham on it. After that, you put the vegetables on. Finally, you fold it in half and eat it. Repeat the steps over if you want to have seconds.


I unfortunately, have no photos of this delicate exhibit from the first morning, but I do think that I have one from the next morning. I can say that I had coffee with this breakfast, followed by green tea when I was done. Quite the experience, if I do say so myself.



It was about 0900 HRS, when I finally left the house and started looking at the festival. It was still quite early and the stalls were still getting ready. I took the opportunity to go back to the train stop that I will have to go back to tomorrow morning to get back to OKAYAMA.


The thing I noticed the most during my way to the stop, was how beautiful and serene the area was. I also noticed how much bigger the spiders were here than back home. If the spiders in OKAYAMA were about the size of a dollar coin, the ones here in MORIMACHI are about double the size. After finding my way to the train stop, and remembering where everything was, I made my way back to the festival.


Now, it is Saturday and there were very kids running around at about 0930 HRS. Maybe it was too early, but the stalls were pretty much up and running when I got back. I decided to walk up towards the Northern Shrine. I made it about half way when I figured it was too far and started to make my way back. I’m still kicking myself about being that lazy, and wishing I got to see it before I left. Oh, well…. Guess there is always next time?


I was walking down a side street and ran into a little old man who was watching a TAIYAKI stall for a little old lady. I asked him for an ANKO TAIYAKI (Red bean stuffed into a fish shaped pastry). He must have been bored because he wanted to talk to me for ages. I have to admit that I have spoken the most JAPANESE while being here by myself, and it was good because there was no English that I could fall back on.



So, he just wanted to know all about me. Let me lead with, he thought that I was JAPANESE, just like every other person that I have met outside of the University. I had to tell him to please speak a little slower, and if possible with a TOKYO accent. That is when he knew that I was a foreigner.


He thought that I was from CHINA, which I can’t really argue with. Both, my parents being half CHINESE, made me half CHINESE. I told him that I was from San Francisco, California, in the U.S. I then explained to him that I’m an exchange student at OKAYAMA University. I told him all the easy things that I knew from doing over and over at school. How long I would be here, what my major/faculty is, when I got here, how long my flight was, where I landed, etc. The questions go on. He told me to have a fun time after about 30 minutes of talking. Hindsight tells me that I really enjoyed talking to him whilst eating a fresh TAIYAKI.


From the stall I made my way back to the temple. I was looking at all sorts of things on the way back. I was waiting for something really to happen. Then there was this troop of elderly dancers. It was really entertaining to watch. They were doing this really traditional folk dance, and it was interesting to see how well they followed one another. After the folk dance was done, I moved on back to the end of the street where the festival ended. I turned around and made my way back towards the temple to see if anything was going on there.



There was something going on! The performances that were at the temple had started. It was suppose to be done in three segments, and this was the first. It was about 1100 HRS when the first of the performances started. After about an hour or so of watching the dancers and band members, I got hungry and made my way back out towards the stalls in the town.


Since it was time for lunch, so I went and bought YAKISOBA and a KUREPU CHOCO-BANANA. I brought it back to find that I had food waiting for me. I quickly ate the YAKISOBA, but left the crepe aside for dessert.


Now lunch I did take a picture of because this was a treat. It was SUSHI! They pronounced it as ZUSHI though. Again this was a make your own meal type lunch. This included: seaweed, regular rice, omelet pieces, cucumber pieces, slices of ham, tiny bits of fried chicken, fish eggs, and the best part MAGURO.


I put it together, exactly in the order that it was listed. It was a fabulous lunch, but to add to it, I also had ODEN. I was quite full from lunch. Because of that I drank a lot of tea to help settle the stomach. Not knowing what to do next I just waited and drank more tea. Then I heard the beginning of the show that was at my friend’s temple.



I grabbed my gear and ran out to get a seat. It was tough too, because it was quite crowded. I took a ton of photos of the performers. There was dancing and live music. It was very traditional. I was told by my friend, that some of the items were very controversial. Asking why, she told me that some of the dances were of the SHINTO belief and not BUDDHIST.


I didn’t understand the meaning. In THAILAND the BUDDHIST religion is all accepting, but my friend explained to me that there was actually a war a long time ago between the two in JAPAN and that is why there is tension between the groups. It is actually a very interesting history between the two and one that may need more investigation.


Apparently, at the beginning the BUDDHIST and SHINTO were at conflict with each other. After many years, the two factions actually find a truce and became pretty close to one religion. The peace wasn’t too long though, and there was a break off again. Because of this though, some of the dances/performances are a mixture of the two religions. For example: the gentlemen in with the white masks on, should have a red dot on the forehead, but because they are SHINTO and not BUDDHIST. I wish that I could tell you more, but that is all I really know, and that is thanks to the family!



After the performances finished I went back out into the street to see the parade that was going to happen. 12 of the 14 YATAI’s were going to come by. It was amazing to see the great detail in the woodwork that they did. I was very moved when the floats came by with the people pulling in front and the people riding and yelling. Everyone was having a good time. All the different floats had people that were dressed in different colors to show where they were from.


When the parade ended, I went to the middle shrine again to take a look at what happened there. It looked great at night all lit up with lanterns, but looked just as good during the day. It was an amazing place, and felt very calm. It was also right by the river and you can hear the current of the river break over rocks that formed a mini waterfall.


From the shrine I went back to see the next stage of performances at the temple. It was even harder this time to get seats and I ended up standing there watching until dinner. Dinner was simple, but the mere fact that I got to meet a little five-year-old boy named “Real” made it worth it. I have known Real, prior to him being born. Let’s just say he was due in February, and I left mid-January. That was 5 years ago.



He was an exciting little kid, who was very upbeat and friendly. He was running all around and playing with his dad and grandfather. A funny story is, he just recently learned what a mouthpiece was, and was folding up a napkin to pretend it was a mouthpiece. Then he would challenge people to arm wrestle. We all ate dinner together; it was fried-rice and some ODEN. I didn’t eat that much that night for the fact is that I wanted to try all the stalls.


So, I have already had TAIYAKI and crepes. What I had yet to try was: TAKOYAKI, CHOCO-BANANA, candied apple, a Popsicle, and tapioca pearl drink. So I went to the first TAKOYAKI stand after I finished dinner and bought one box of eight octopus pastries. I sat at a corner where the floats would come by and ate the pastries as I watched them go by.


Once finished, I went and bought a Popsicle. I figured since it was getting dark, that it would get cold. I ate the Popsicle that was packaged in a plastic container that was like a soda bottle. You had to cut away the pieces of plastic to get to the next section. It was really good, I got RAMUNE flavor. Next, came the candied apple. I was actually getting full at this point and decided between the large apple and the smaller one, that I would eat the smaller one.





It was very sweet. I want to say it was like crystallized sugar coating an apple. Can’t complain, all I left of the apple was the stem and the seeds. I think I ate a seed as well. Oh, well it was good. From there I made my way back towards the mosh-pit scene. Along the way I past a CHOCO-BANANA stall. It was PACKED! There were so many people buying them that I had to try one. I got one that was green tea and chocolate flavored. The chocolate was very light, and the banana flavored came through very strongly. Fruit is actually VERY expensive in JAPAN, so I was actually happy that all I spent was 250 円 for it.


After completing the sweet, I continued towards the moshpit. I tried to take more photos, but made an amateur mistake. The batteries ran out in the camera, although they said that they were full. I was upset with myself for such the blunder. There were actually girls in this moshpit too! ARGH! The previous night it was only guys! Sigh…. I enjoyed a little bit more of the festival, but it was about 2130 HRS, and it was going to be coming to a close.


When I returned I took a shower in the adjacent house, and then made my way back to my room where grandmother helped me with making the bed. I decided to upload the photos, and charge the batteries for my camera then went to sleep.



Nov 8, 2009


Again was woken up at 0600 HRS to the sound of fireworks. Slept uninterrupted until 0900 HRS today. After waking, I was in no rush. I had to get back on a train to get back to OKAYAMA in order to get to another party appointment that I had made a few weeks back. It was somewhat upsetting though, because I didn’t get to see one of the final items of the festival. What I mean by “ final items”, is that there is a final event where they take a specially chosen girl around the age of seven to a specified shrine.


All the YATAIs gathered at a specified point, and then the girl is lifted by her father and carried to the float. She is then put in the YATAI and wheeled to her specific shrine/place. Once at the designated area, the father and mother are then waiting there. Now, at the beginning of the girl is a special offering to the gods. The end of the festival, she is returned to her parents. The people who are carrying/rolling the YATAI lift up the girl and carry her to her parents. After watching some video of the scene it is quite touching.
Unfortunately, I was not able to see this. The trip home was uneventful. Other than running into a few friends in the train station on my bike ride home, there was nothing else that really happened. Please email any questions about the event to me.


Because of trouble posting, the photos are in no particular order. The days are even off. I apologize for any confusion that this may cause, but I am open to questions and comments.


For more photos click HERE!