It is June 30th today, the day of the Nagoshi No Harae summer purification. With two of my Japanese friends I went to Kifune, a tiny little village north of Kyoto, to watch the ceremony.I have written about the ceremony before; it was a bit different this time around, I guess every shrine has their own peculiarities. I went through the chinowa wreath myself the prescribed three times – twice, actually – and bought a tiny little chinowa wreath to take home.
Kifune village is gorgeously sitated in the middle of the mountains with not much space next to the river and the road. The trees are enormous and cover most of the sky above the road the further you travel up the river. Kifune is famous for its many exquisite and expensive restaurants on the river – and I mean ON the river: platforms are built over the most shallow parts where people can sit and enjoy their meal with natural air condition. We did not spend that much money though, we only had coffee and cake before we left. I will share some pictures of Kifune and its wonderful trees in my post on the weekend.