Hey everybody,
Ooh, good day yesterday. Very good day yesterday. Started out with a nice but unambitious plan of going to visit my favorite curry place (and believe you me, that will get its own post very soon), maybe take the long way home, nothing fancy. But as I got to the neighborhood, checking out a nice senbei shop, I hear from around the corner rhymthic clapping and chanting. Could it be??
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| It could, and it is! |
Sure enough, I just happened to come to one of my favorite little neighborhoods in Tokyo right in time for their annual matsuri (festival)!!!
Allow me to explain. See that golden shrine up there? Well, that is the house of the local temple's resident kami (god, more or less). Usually it hangs out in the back of the temple, being approached by supplicants and suchlike. But once a year, kami-sama gets to come out of the temple, gets paraded around the neighborhood, and gets treated to sweets and sake. Because really, as cool as it would be to have people swinging by your house every day, every once in a while you'd like to get out, see some sunshine, and have a drink and a bite to eat. Like I said in the the title, Japanese people know how to treat their gods
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| Also, she has it pretty good too. No, I don't know what you have to do to get that seat. Super jealous |
Bearers step in and step out, the procession moves forward and backwards, and the whole thing is accompanied by chanting and celebration. No one is in a hurry. Guest appearances are even welcome--if I'd had a travelling companion to act as my photographer you'd see a picture of me taking a turn on the poles!
Last year, Alix and I had the absolute pleasure of being able to visit during Sanja Matsuri, the biggest and most important temple in Tokyo's version of this festival. And that was amazing, don't get me wrong. But that was filled to the brim with people from all around Tokyo and all around the world. This one? Just a neighborhood festival, with an absolutely wonderful feeling. It was a warm, sunny Saturday, everyone was taking god for a walk around the streets, and everyone was ready to have a lot of fun
Of course, it just wouldn't be a festival without food. And oh yes, Japanese do fair food right. Not only is the food awesome, but guess where they set it up? Right in the middle of temple grounds. Because it is a matsuri, and like I said Japanese do this whole thing right
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| Meat+skewer+fire. An amazing recipe around the world |
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| Not to mention grilled squid |
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| Desserts too. Yes, that is a banana on a stick dipped in chocolate with a funny hat. Matsuri!!! |
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| Giant flattop of yakisoba? Giant flattop of yakisoba |
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| Gorgeous temple, hundreds of years old. I sat on the steps and ate gyoza |
I feel so amazingly lucky to have stumbled upon this. Matsuri like this perfectly encapsulate one of the most wonderful, uniquely Japanese things I've ever experienced: Three hundred sixty-four days out of the year, this temple is a place of reverence and respect, a place of hushed voices and thoughtful contemplation; on the three hundred and sixth-fifth, we flip it around into an expression of noise and color and celebration. And that's not a contradiction at all, just two expressions of the exact same respect for their god--and I say that with the understanding that, as my mother the priest will tell you, "god" is just a code word for community and tradition and all of the intangible things that tie us together. What a great thing to be a part of
The delicious, delicious food doesn't hurt either :D
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| The building in the background houses the temple's sacred spring, at which you purify yourself before making offerings to the temple god. One day out of the year, you can also come here to get a chocolate-dipped banana |
Noah out
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