Gion Matsuri and Ninjas

On crowds, heat and Asian tug o'war
On the seventeenth it was finally time for Gion Matsuri and the festive parade which marks the peak of the ritual cleansing of the city. It's a popular parade, everybody told us so, and for good reasons, given the time and effort put into every one of the many, many floats being pulled through the city's streets by rows and rows of men towing heavy ropes between them.

It is a very beautiful thing and, despite the popularity, a very local thing as well; it's something the city has been anticipating since the start of the month and we all revelled in the completion.
I don't know much about the details surrounding the people in the floats, but I know that a rich family paid to have their five-year old son ride in the front-float, dressed up in finery and enacting the part of 'blessed child'.

The poor kid must have been swelteringly hot in all that silk and make-up, but he had people fan him while he sat in the float among them. There must have been at least twenty people visible on the big floats - and there were more inside!

It's a fact that we were all sweaty and fanning ourselves madly as we pressed together in one big moving mass, trying to get the best angle to look from or take pictures from.
It was a very intense experience and one that had me thinking of the traditional ideas of Asian mysticism for the first time in this otherwise urban landscape, rituals like those you expect to find on Bali or in rural China.

It was a calm parade, with only the eerie sound of drumbeats and shrill flutes to accompany it, but standing in that mass of people under the beating sun, with humans who cheered when they saw the 'blessed child' and drew in a collective gasp as the first float was tugged forward, it did feel like something ritualistic and esoteric in nature.

After that we found shade and, for my part iced coffee, for a bit and then went shopping in the narrow streets nearby. I found myself a cheap kiseru, probably not real or usable, but looking the part and I lamented the fact that I saw so many katanas, but can't bring any of them home with me:(


On ninjas, train-rails and natural beauty
On the 20th we went to Iga, or more precisely Ueno Castle, an area which is famous for its former ninja-population and a castle of magnificent beauty.
The ride there was long, two hours by various different trains, but it was endlessly fascinating, especially since the trains got more and more outrageous the further out we got, until on our last stretch, we travelled in a green wagon with teddy-bears on the side, painted with cute expressions, frozen in eternal glee.
The floors inside were covered in a film resembling cobbled stone, so it would seem like you stepped unto a cobbled pathway as you got out.

It was hot as all hell once we got to Ueno, but the stretch to the castle-park was short and soon we were distracted by regretfully touristy shops and museums.
I was a bit sad to see how dull it all looked, but interested in the fact that it all felt so provincial and cosy, despite their best efforts to make it appealing to tourists interested solely in ninjas.
Their, the ninjas, history is interesting though and the museums had notes on their diet and training, what they wore and their weapons, which was interesting enough.

this thing in particular intrigued me, a tree illustrating the different modes of stealth and protection in Japanese warfare. The name Abe (no) Seimei on there made me particularly happy to see, since he is a legendary onmyoji and of interest to me because of that. 

 

 

The castle was, in my opinion, just as interesting though.
Before we got to it however, we saw this house, oddly shaped and mushroom-like, we agreed that it belongs in Super Mario more than anywhere elseXD

Ueno castle on the inside is not terribly impressive, but from the outside, perched on a high hill-top, surrounded by a deep moot, it makes an incredible picture, almost reminding me of sceneries from old Disney-movies.

It was a beautiful trip, but it was long and we were all exhausted when we came back home that day.

Today has been lazy and rainy, but Ida and I went to a flea-market at Toji, bought CDs and foodstuffs and then went back home to relax again:) 

For the next couple of days we will relax and then perhaps it is time to see the imperial palace and Abe no Seimei's shrine<3

~A~

Toji, Thunder and Nijo Castle

On Toji, the temple of Turtles
Remember I mentioned that Ida and I live close to a temple? On Thursday we went to visit it. First of all I was impressed by the size of it; the grounds had looked big from the outside, but getting inside, the twisting pathways and peaceful sakura-alleys seemed simply endless.
The sakura might not be blooming at the moment, but it is still a beautiful area even without the pink overhanging.

Toji Temple (East Temple) is apparently a very important temple, it was erected in the Heian era (around 700) just when Kyoto had become the new capital in Japan and it acted as one of two spiritual wards erected alongside a gate so as to protect the city. Toji is the only one of the two temple-wards to remain though.
At Toji is a five-story pagoda, which happens to be the tallest wooden structure in Japan. It burned down four times because it was struck by lightening, but the latest version was built in the 1600ds, so it is still rather old and it is very impressive.

Toji has national treasures, gold-statues of the Buddha and the bodhisattvas and it has sculptures as well, commemorating a famous monk who lived there, but what is most noticable is the fact that the place is covered in turtles! The first one we saw was this fellow:

Turtles symbolize longevity, good luck, and support  in Japanese culture, but this guy doesn't look like a good-luck charm so much as he looks like a sneaky trickster.

This guy, on the other hand, deserved to be taken home and cuddled, we all agreed. He wasn't at all the only turtle there, but the rest of them were lying on rocks in the water, sunbathing and looking like a bunch of lazy kappas. This one actually wanted to say hello. Aki was steadfast in wanting to name him 'Dude' - I don't think that's very considerate of her, what if it is a lady-turtle?XD

On Amewarashi overstaying her visit
in other news, the goddess of rain has not been kind to Japan. She's been hanging around here for a bit too long, creating floods, but Kyoto, thankfully, has only had the occasional showers and, yesterday night, a couple of hours of pelting rain and noisy thunder. It's impressive how much lightening and thunder happens around here and how quickly it disappears again; she is a fickle spirit that amewarashi.
Then again, Kyoto is known for having weather that changes quickly.

On Nijo Castle and 'nightingale'-floors
On Saturday we all went to visit Nijo Castle. It was started in 1601 and was intended as the Kyoto residence of the Tokugawa Shoguns. It's an impressive place for sure, with loads of immaculately cut greenery and fascinating exhibitions about fashions during that era, but admittedly I don't find the buildings as impressive as I do shrines and temples, because they are not as decorated. They are quite big on the inside though and one could definitely get  lost inside.
Nijo has an abundance of shoji-screens as well as silk-tapestries depicting cranes and trees in golds and greens. It's all very calming.

Another interesting detail are the 'nightingale-floors' inside, so called because they were designed to squeak specifically so that the shogun and his guards would be warned of any assassination-attempts. Only very skilled ninjas could hope to pass along those floors unheard.

 

 Here, have some samurai-fashion behind stupidly reflective glass.

Some ending remarks, I love vending-machines on every corner when it's swelteringly hot outside, a fan is a must in Japan in summer and I had my first proper ramen-noodles today<3

Also, our French house-mate, Geraldine, practices kendo and so I have inadvertently gotten to examine a kendo-uniform in detail, while she went on and on about the details of a match - I love kendo so that was utterly epic.

Gion Matsuri is in a couple of days and so you can already see people walking around in yukatas and kimonos on the street. It's going to be so pretty on the actual parade-night. I hope for pictures!

That's it for now!
 ~A~

Torii, lucky cats and golden dragon-fish

On trains and temples
Today Aki, Ida and I went on a day-trip to a big, popular temple around here; or at least not that far by train. I'm surprised how reasonable the maps are at the subway and train-stations, but I'm seriously getting annoyed by handling tickets of the tiny variety that you are still supposed to keep safe, so you can actually get out again.
Anyway, the temple, Tofukuji-temple, was a very big area with various smaller buildings strewn around the big ones and cemetaries inbetween as well. I remember thinking, 'well that map looks like it is illustrating an amusement-park' when we were studying it to determine where we were supposed to go, it was just that big.

We went on our way though and as we walked among beautiful white buildings with elegantly curving roofs, impressive gates and well-kept geenery out front, I felt a strange reverence, the same I feel when I'm visiting churches. I get spell-bound by the beauty of devotion and the structures humans create to communicate their faith and apparently it doesn't matter what kind of holy place it is.

Another thing that impressed me about Tofukuji was the sheer size of the biggest, central buildings, the abbot's hall and the main-building - they are huge, absolutely huge and they take up so much space. We went into the abbot's hall and though I was bothered by the slippers we had to wear inthere, because my foot does not appreciate slippers, I was enormously impressed by the zen-gardens and the immaculately cut bushes in square and round patterns.

Around the temples we also saw bamboo, japanese marbles and we walked along hovering roof-covered wooden bridges in the sunlight, peering over the tops of the trees below. The koi in one of the ponds were curious and stuck their heads out of the water to gape at the western tourists pointing at them and marveling at their size and colours.

Other than that we saw an eerie, but beautiful cemetary, where a gentle wind blew across the flowers and the cups of tea offered for the dead and we observed the life of a dragonfly; first by seeing a young, beautiful blue one perched on a grave-stone, then seeing an older, yellow one with sagging wings and as we left we mourned the death of a big, shiny dragonfly we noticed by the side of the road.


On vibrant colours, Omamori and dragon-fish.
After the temple we went on to fushimi-inari taisha. This shrine, at the base of the mountain Inari, primarily houses the god of rice and is known for having a wealth of torii; the traditional red, japanese arch-ways. At Inari there are over a thousand of them!

It was a fascinating transition to see the brightly coloured buildings and archways in green, red, white and black, compared to the simplicity of the black and white zen-temples. The torii shone in the sunlight and you could hear the hollow sounds pf bells as people pulled on them, clapping their hands and bowing, making noise with the bell to draw the attention of the gods before making their requests by prayer.

When we arrived, we went to wash our hands, first the right and then the left, drinking and then rinsing our wrists as well. Then we were free to continue on further to the individual shrines, properly decked out with protective wards, made out of hemp-rope and paper-charms. Inari is a place where tourism is much more apparent than at Tofukuji, but still we only saw about a handful of westerners there. At the shrine you can buy charms for protection, called 'omamori, which basically means 'protection' and you can buy small prayers to tie to branches along the paths between torii-rows.

If you have a wish you want granted, you can tie a tousand tiny paper-cranes to a wall near one of the shrines or to one of the small, more private shrines further away. The torii themselves are so close together that you can barely look out between them when you pass through and the bright, red colour is only occasionally interrupted by an arch made of stone.

All the torii are donated, either by firms or the older ones are donated by city-rulers. The biggest one is donated by an ancient warlord and it is still there.

We passed through endless rows, while taking silly pictures and then finally reached a lake deep in the forest behind the main shrine, though not very high on the mountain. There we found more koi, white and orange, and a couple of turtles. One koi was a big, golden one and we all agreed that its face really resembled a chinese dragon, strangely serene and knowing as it swam around below us in the water.

We also met a couple of shy tabby cats, both white, orange and black, seeming to be utterly at home among the shrines and occasional grave-stones and matching the colours of the torii perfectly. I couldn't help but think of a maneki-neko seeing the two of them.

On mikos
At one shrine a woman in a traditional priestess-outfit, white shirt with red hakama-pants and her hair wound by a long piece of white cloth, was preparing bells for a ritual, slowly lining them up in a row in front of her. Unfortunately I never got to see what she was going to use them for, though I would have liked to know.

Finally done at Inari, tired and with aching feet, we took the train back home to Kyoto and finished the day with dinner.

All in all a highly satisfying day.

~A~

Shopping, Gion Matsuri and late dinner

Today Ida and I were to meet up with the others so we could go shopping in downtown Kyoto and we did. I bought CDs and some dramas I had basically forgotten, but which I was thrilled to see, as well as I lamented the fact that I stumpled upon a nyanko-sensei-plushie, but he had to be won. Damn your manekineko-shell Madara! In town we also ate pizza, saw pretty boys and an adorable boy crouched in front of a fluffy kitten, petting it as he munched on his onigiri.

In Kyoto at this time there is a festival in progress called Gion Matsuri. It's noticible by the amount of paper-lanterns hanging by the road and along the pavement, as well as by the distant, resounding sound of bells and drums purifying the area and apeasing the shinto-spirits in preperation for the festival and parade on the 17th.
I personally love every bit of it.

After our trip into town by bus we went to Aki's to slouch, eat bento and delicious caramel custard and once the clock passed 00:00 we trodded on home along the darkened streets. My feet do not appreciate all this walking, but I still love this place.

Endless streets, Yakitori and Tsukimisake

More on temples and culture
Today we visited a temple properly. It wasn't Toji and the one we got into was under rennovation and it was about to close, but it was still an impressive sight. I keep being impressed by the size and extravagance of the holy places, because everything else here is so small and so obviously built in order to conserve and use space in the most efficient way possible. Even the roads are insanely narrow - and done up like long stretches of asfalt, crossed by equally narrow roads at about every ten meters. I thought it was simplified to appear that way in series like xXxHolic, but it's not, it's real.


While we walked today, along those narrow streets, we went past a traditional, japanese inn, (they are called 'ryokan') right there on the street in the middle of town as well as we took a quick tour through a small shop selling shrines, I think they are both for use in funerals, like in commemoration, and for use in praying to various deities. Those shrines are as pretty as the temples though they are tiny and I am so fascinated by the offerings inside them.

Then, feeling hungry after our long walk in the humid, wet air, the three of us went to a small Yakitori-place. The door was hidden behind a curtain of rope-strings and a japanese paper-lamp hung by the right side of the door. One of my friends, Aki, knew the type of place as traditionally japanese and we waited the last few minutes until six so we could go in.


Quickly I realized that it wasn't so much a restaurant as a sort of traditional bar, because what was mainly offered was yakitori and the like, which are different spiced snacks on thin sticks, served with beer or sake.
In the end we ordered cold sake and mountains of delicate, delicious snacks; anything from spicy chicken to rice-cakes, food that went very well with my first taste of proper sake. I like it. It's sort of sweet, with a bitter aftertaste, much like wine and a pleasant burn of alcohol. I also enjoyed the manners of the waiters - japanese politeness is something I cannot get tired of and I was amused by the rows of huge sake-bottles on the nearby counter, in front of the open kitchen.


On the subject of xxxHolic, I kept thinking of my dear Yuuko and her obsession with sake and delicious snacks of the yakitori-variant. I now believe I understand the appeal much more clearly. the only thing missing was having a cook as cute as Watanuki;).
Also, given that the moon has been full just now, I wish I could have sat outside and drunk the reflection in the transparent liquid, in true tsukimisake-fashion, although it is of course summer and not autumn<3.
 
Instead though, I sat inside a small, cosy bar, enjoying an enthusiastic 4-hour-conversation about jrockers with my friends and singing along when the jpop-music in the radio turned into a song we all love a lot.
At 22:00 we went home, back along the endless streets in the humid, wet dark and I was happy.
This is Japan and I love it.


Tomorrow we're going shopping~
Oyasuminasai!
~A~

First Impressions

On square doughnuts, flights and arriving in Kyoto
So, This trip has been a long time in the making, or at least I've thought about it for the last four months; whether I wanted to actually go and use as much money on it as I'm going to be using, but also whether I actually dared go half-way around the globe to a country that, while I certainly love it, also is significantly different from my own. I have had good friends staying here for a while now though so I figured, 'I might be a scardy-cat but it is Japan and I have people to help me out if I'm completely lost at some point'.


The first apparent obstacle though, was going to the airport and taking two planes across the world alone - I was frightened and worried and upset, but once I was on my way the worry pretty much disappeared and I was just curious about the trip, mostly enjoying my plane-rides - especially when my ticket was promoted to business class on the first half. I felt a bit like Jack from Titanic though, trying to not seem too out of place in a spacious chair inlayed with wood and getting three-course meals of exquisite quality, lush blankets and a good pillow. Not to mention being able to lie down!
I didn't quite succeed though and the 'third-class'-feel kind of lingered. Interesting.


When I arrived in Dubai I was surprised by the extravagance of the terminal; it was marple floors and tainted glass-pattern windows, but more than that I was fascinated by the fact that if you are a woman and the detector beeps, you get taken aside by a woman (the male guard impatiently waved her over towards me and she looked like she was there just for that), taken into a small, closed cubicle and searched, even though you are not required to undress or anything. Another interesting thing in the Dubai-airport was the door marked 'prayer and rest-room', which was to be found right beside the regular bathrooms and at first glance looked exactly like it - it was even marked with a drawing of a female. 

In that airport I sat down to get a cup of coffee, my internal clock already confused and my mind getting amused by the square doughnuts that were to be found in the otherwise very odinary Starbucks. Then I went to my designated gate and as more and more japanese people arrived my stomach started doing flip-flops of excitement.

the last part of the trip was more uncomfortable because I was tired and wanted to sleep, but had the misfortune of sitting betweeen two people and being unable to lower my seat even a little. I did get to watch 'wrath of the titans' (Liam Neeson<33) and Hugo (awesome and interesting) on the way though - and eat my first proper Japanese meal:D (which was Teriyaki and Soba-noodles).

On the awesomeness that is SID

Fast forward to the next day's afternoon where I went with my friends by train from Kyoto to Nara to watch the japanese band SID play at a big concert-hall. it wasn't enormous, but it was definitely bigger than what the japanese bands get in Europe.
And...oh my god. I mean, I have friends who obsess over this band much, much more than I do, but my goodness, they are just amazing.
They don't really qualify as a Visual Kei band (Visual kei is this), not anymore at least, but they are wonderful.
The singer, Mao, is my absolute favorite; he is gloriously musical in all things, his voice is angelic and he moves like a dancer, offering himself to the audience in body and voice. He has a strange genderless innocence about him and at the same time an allure that is entirely mature and entrancing, though in a way as androgynic as the innocence.
He was for once not wearing a long shirt either, so I could actually see his hips and his long legs which was a definite pleasure;).

The rest of the band is great as well, the bassist Aki is sex on legs as many of my friends are wont to say and he has the cutest pout in the world. They were just all so good to see, even though I was terribly tired even before the concert started. There is just something about being in Japan and watching the bands on their native soil that makes a difference.
  
Other than that I keep being amused by the vending-machines on every corner, the clean streets, though no wastebins are to be found anywhere and the elaborate plastic-food in the windows of restaurants.
on that subject I ate my first plate of 'japanese Curry' today and just absolutely loved it to bits. I love japanese food so, so much<3.

On being a neighbour of the gods
Right beside the place where my friend Ida and I are staying while here in Kyoto, which is called Toji House, resides the Toji-temple; a large compound surrounded by a tall, white wall over which you can only just spot the curved roof-tops of several ajoining buildings, connected to the main temple which is a tall, slim wooden tower, devided by more curving roofs.
It is a sort of dark, looming structure, but elegant in its detailed carvings. the gate out front is huge and as I passed it today I longed to get inside and explore it in detail.
It's a buddhist temple btw, so not a shinto-shrine, which is constructed differently - there is a small shrine beside the road close by the temple though, rather remeniscient of the prayer-stations devoted to saints in mideavel Europe. 
on the shrine by Toji that we passed today, I saw offerings of food, flowers and bottles, probably containing alcohol.

On a mild summer-evening by full-moon the temple is like something out of old tales and I probably wouldn't have been surprised to see a Hyakki Yagyo strolling along beside it with lighted lanterns.
On the subject of Yokai, we once heard something that sounded like a human scream, but obviously wasn't because it had no emotion in it whatsover. When I asked my friend what it was, she asumed it was a bird.
I'll just say this: I understand the legends of yokai better already:)


Every building is tiny here, as are the streets, except the main ones, which is cute, but inconvenient for a big viking-woman such as myself, but our room is spacious enough and now that i have a proper converter for my laptop, all should be comfy here:)


I might write more on SID later, because atm, I just can't think of anything but the fact that they are awesome:D


~A~