Iris – Page 128 – goinggaijin.com

Lights

As I have mentioned on Monday, from August 14th through 16th the Festival of the Dead, or Obon, is celebrated in the Kansai region of Japan. The idea is that the ancestors of each family come back from the realm of the Dead to visit their offspring, are worshipped and treated to some goodies, and then are sent off again.

How this is celebrated depends on the region, but very often it has something to do with fire and light to guard the spirits. For example, I have seen in a comparatively small town in Nagano province, where many people own a house with garden, that during Obon small fires are lit at the entrance of each house so the spirits can find their way home easily. Here in Kyoto, at the Higashi Otani Cemetery for example, lamps with real candles are lit at the huge graveyard, and people can come and worship their ancestors during the early evening, bringing flowers and little offerings – I have even seen a cup of sake here and there.

The important part of Obon however, is to make sure that the ghosts don’t linger for too long. They are sent off – once more with fire and lights – on August 16th. Again, the ceremony depends on the region. Where there is a prominent river or lake or maybe even the sea, little paper lanterns are inscribed with the name of the dead person and then set afloat on the water, so the spirit goes, accompanied by the light of the candle, home to the ocean.

One of the most spectacular ways of sending off the spirits is happening in Kyoto (where else). It is called the Gosan-no-Okuribi (literally the Five Mountains Send Off Fire) or more simply the Daimonji. Kyoto has mountains on three of its sides, and on the flanks of the northern ones (counterclockwise from east to west) five huge bonfires are lit at 8 pm on August 16th. Each bonfire has a specific shape: The first one (the daimonji) is the kanji for “big”, the second one (myo and ho) the kanji for the Buddhist concept of “dharma”. The third one (funagata) has the shape of a boat the souls can ride in, the fourth one is another “big” kanji (called the left one to distinguish it from the first), and the last one is in the shape of a shrine gate or “torii”. The fires are lit at intervals of 5 to 10 minutes and only last for about 20 minutes, to keep it sweet and short.

The worshipping of the ancestors at the cemetery, including light and fire rituals of one sort or the other, is done all over Japan, and of course it is necessary to travel home for that. Hence, although Obon is not a national holiday, many small and family run businesses close and allow their employees a few days to go home. This makes travelling during Obon very stressful, as there are so many people abroad, but interestingly, it is relatively easy to find a hotel (unless you insist on something small and family-owned) – clearly everybody stays with family.

I will write a bit more about Obon in my post tomorrow.

Electric Sento

Near Ebisus’s there is a small sento or public bath. A sento follows the same principle as an onsen – another type of public bath – but there are small differences: The biggest one is that a sento does not draw its water from its own well. Sento use normal tap water which does not have any minerals in it. Also, traditionally, a sento consists of an entrance/changing room and then the bathroom with at least one large tub. The facilities for men and women are next to each other, mirrored along a separating wall – which does not reach to the ceiling! So, you can hear what’s going on on the other side. Modern sento are almost sterile and boring affairs with white tiling all over, but I have seen old ones with beautiful paintings on the walls – and a considerably lower separating wall…

Image of a sento — Image of a traditional sento - the women's side - from an old book

The other day I went, one of my housemates in tow, to said sento nearby Ebisu’s. It had four adjacent tubs, all with the same water temperature (onsen usually have several, differently tempered tubs). One tub was scented with lemon (the smell of the week), there was a large and deep normal tub and one Jacuzzi style, also relatively common.

However, I have never before encountered a tub with electrified water. It was a very small one only, meant for one person, and, at the left and right walls, about 20 cm under the water level, there were some type of pads, maybe 12 x 60 cm in size. Between them, a current was flowing. The feeling when passing through was … strange, scary almost.

At first, there was only a small tingly sensation on the skin. Standing right in the middle of the pads though, the current forces the muscles to contract. It is nearly impossible to voluntarily counteract this contraction, and I am not sure this is entirely owed to a lack of strength on my part. It’s not really painful, or not meant to be, but it is an odd feeling if your body is doing something you cannot influence one way or the other.

Personally I found the experience interesting, but I will not repeat it again very soon. Unfortunately I have had some problems with my hip for quite some time now, which has certainly been aggravated by sitting on the floor and running around for days on end… When I passed through the current, my hip muscles contracted involuntarily, there was a sharp pain – and now walking around is more painful than before and I will need to take even more frequent breaks on my trips through town… Well, good to know that this kind of electric shock therapy is not doing me any good.

Return

I’m back!

I had a great time in Korea visiting friends last week. I even managed to do some other things on my list: Getting cash (ATMs in Korea are working), buying some clothing and getting other pieces changed, and: stocking up on food (Nutella costs still twice as much as in Europe, but at least the jars are of normal and not homeopathic size).

I also ate a lot of Korean food, but there are still things on my “to eat” list for next time. My friend’s husband made his infamous kimchi pizza on Saturday evening. I do love kimchi, but unfortunately my body does not share my enthousiasm for it and usually, unless I only have a few pieces, tries to get rid of it as quickly as possible – which is all fine and good every now and then, but not while travelling… By the time I came home in the early evening I was totally exhausted and had to go to bed immediately.

Anyway, I’m much better now – and I came back just in time for O-bon, the Japanese Festival of the Dead, which, of course, is quite a big thing here in Kyoto… I shall report accordingly.

Time Off

I am taking a week’s vacation, visiting a friend in Korea.

In this time there will be no posts – nothing interesting can be happening in Kyoto without me anyway. 😉 My next post is planned for Monday, August 12th.

I wish you a nice summer too!

Shopping

I needed to buy a present for a friend (or better: her son), so I went shopping today, to the Yodobashi Camera near Kyoto station. They sell mainly electronics, cameras, and household appliances, but I have also seen bicycles, watches and jewelry, and some clothing.

It was an interesting experience to say the least. First of all, the store is huge and spreads over five floors altogether, one of them underground. Everywhere there was something bouncing on a screen, some voice coming from a device, some other announcement from the speakers, and I did not even go to the HiFi and TV departments… The choice in all departments was almost overwhelming: there were dozens of similar but not quite the same printers, cameras, fans, refrigerators… crammed into the tiniest space next to each other, with only rather narrow aisles between the displays. I would call this a constant sensory overload – I am glad they didn’t do anything with smells outside of the “beauty” department – and I am seriously wondering if the shop assistants, neatly clad in blue uniforms, actually still hear any of the noise.

In any case, I was quite surprised by the prices – but I have to admit that I haven’t bought any electronics in years, thanks to my frequent moving. Scanners, printers and faxes for 20000 YEN, one very small photo printer for only 8000 YEN (but I assume the ink and the photopaper will earn the company enough). Interestingly, the small pocket dictionaries many people carry around unless they have a smart phone were much more expensive than that, about 30000 YEN and more. And then there were the thinnest computer screens I have ever seen, tiny laptops that barely weigh anything, huge, A3 sized touchpads… I can understand why some people – men especially – drool over those things. Not me though. Not now. Not until I need a phone. And a new laptop. And general household stuff for my new apartment…

Sorry, no picture today – didn’t think of bringing my camera.. Next time though!

Biwa

Besides the large parades and processions that involve all the inner city and the Gion area in Kyoto, there are many small events taking place in July that are somehow connected to Gion matsuri. For example, last week there was a biwa recital at one of the stages of Yasaka shrine.

A biwa is a traditional Japanese instrument, a type of lute, originating in the 7th century. It is associated with Benten, the Shinto goddess of music, poetry, and education, and has seen a revival in recent years.The biwa is a lute with four strings which are struck with a large triangular plectrum, and it is held so that the neck is pointing upwards, with the body resting on the lap of the player, who has to sit in seiza, a kneeling position. So I went to the recital last week and found it very interesting. I had not expected it to be such a drawn out affair though; there were 11 players, each of them playing a song of about 15 – 20 minutes. Interestingly, the order of the artists was according to increasing proficiency (or years of training), with the two masters at the very end. Just as with the Noh, I did not have that amount of time or patience, so I left long before their performance, but next time I’ll know what to expect.

Also, I did not know that the players had to sing as well – I expected a purely instrumental afternoon and was quite surprised when the first song started. Once again, it was highly formalized, but I cannot say for sure whether the songs were traditional or modern Japanese – I did not understand much of them in any case. I found the recital very interesting, but it is not one of those things for every day, just like the Noh. Nevertheless I will try to catch another performance at some point in the future – knowing that I’ll have to arrive towards the end to hear the really good players.

Gion Matsuri, Part III

Last Wednesday the last main event of Gion matsuri took place – the Kanko Sai festival, where the three mikoshi were taken from their temporary display on the Otabisho, carried on different routes through the inner city, and then returned to Yasaka shrine.

The parade started at 5 pm at the Otabisho. All of the things that can be seen in the picture of Wednesday’s post were removed and the mikoshi stood there for easy removal. The first one to be removed was the centre one. First there was a blessing of both the mikoshi and its bearers in front of the shrine to the right of the Otabisho. The mikoshi was then fixed to two long wooden beams and, amid shouts and clapping, was carried through the narrow streets of the inner city.

blessing the mikoshi — Blessing the mikoshi - note the knots!

The same was done with the other mikoshi, first the “west” one, and finally the “east” one. One of them was carried through the narrow streets of Teramachi, and then through Nishiki food market, and I am still amazed how its bearers could manage to make the very narrow 90 degree turn between the two streets… Each mikoshi was accompanied by a person on a horse – the centre one by the chigo, by the way – and finally, around 9 pm, the individual parades turned towards Yasaka shrine, lead by a procession that carried all the things that were removed from the shrine to accompany the gods in the first place.

through teramachi street — mikoshi carried through teramachi

Once again, the bearers of the mikoshi showed off their strength by turning it around on its long wooden beams whenever possible, always accompanied by a rhythmic shouting of “hoi-tto”, “hoi-sso” or “ri-ssa”, and at Yasaka shrine itself each mikoshi was carried three times around the centre stage before it was placed in there again. The men carrying the mikoshi must have been exhausted at the end, but there was a certain excitement that went through them and the spectators, although I have seen a few with blood stains on their shoulders…

arrival at yasaka — Mikoshi arrives back at Yasaka shrine

All of this took a very long time, partly also because of the fastening and unfastening of the heavy ropes that were used to tie the mikoshi to several wooden beams. Finally, around 11:30, all mikoshi had been placed again on the stage at the centre of Yasaka shrine. Then, all the lights were turned off and only the moon lit the final, most important scene: the return of the gods to the main shrine. A path was made with sacred rope between the centre stage and the main shrine building. Accompanied by music and hidden from view by screens, two priests went from the main shrine to the centre stage and at each mikoshi in turn either perfomed a rite or actually removed something they then brought back to the main building to enshrine there again.

Except for the music, it was quiet, the hundreds of remaining spectators were completely still, many of them had folded their hands in prayer. A palpable relief went through the crowd when the gods were returned to their proper home and the lights were turned on again. Many people then went to the shrine and offered a quick prayer. The scene was strangely touching, even though I am not religious.

It was midnight by then and I had to walk home. About 5 minutes after the gods had returned home, it started to rain. Well, the main part of Gion matsuri was over anyway.

Beergarden

Japanese people enjoy going out to eat and drink. And summer time is a perfect excuse to go all exotic and try something new. So, they have invented the Japanese idea of beergardens, which are often – due to a certain lack of space on the ground – rooftop affairs on large tall buildings.

I just came home from an outing to the beergarden (biagaaden as they write it in Katakana) on top of the Takashimaya department store in Kyoto. It was a nomi-hodai (all you can drink) and tabe-hodai (all you can eat) event, where you pay a fixed price (women 3200 YEN, men 3500 YEN) and then you can, well, eat and drink as much as you like within the time frame: last orders were at 9:30 and the place closed down at 10 pm.

The ambience could have been better, there were long rows of plastic tables and chairs on a part of the roof without aircondition outlets. Unfortunately it was not possible to get close to any edge of the building to look over the city, but when we arrived there was a quite spectacular sunset, almost on eye-height. Afterwards, some blue fairy lights were lit, and the atmosphere became a little less drab, but still a far cry from the real setting.

There was a large food buffet in the centre with mostly meat – even barbequeued – but there were also Udon noodles, some potatoes and veggies and a little bit of fruit as desert. And then there was the beer, apparently even a type especially imported from Germany. I don’t drink beer, so I cannot say which one, or even discuss differences to Japanese beer, I’m afraid. I was happy about the fact that they had divided the drinks counter into “beer only” and “all the rest”, but the soft drinks became more popular later in the evening, so this was quickly crowded too.

I enjoyed the evening, but I have to admit that I overindulged in the food… There is always something new to try, something more to have. I have to get used to the fact that I am not on holidays, that there will be many more opportunities to try everything – and that that will take quite a while anyway.

Rain

Today is the last major event of Gion matsuri. The three mikoshi which have been transferred from Yasaka shrine to their temporary abode in the Otabisho in the city centre will be moved back to the shrine today. The ceremony starts with the procession of the mikoshi through the inner city at 17:00 and will end at Yasaka shrine around midnight. It was raining in the morning but hopefully it will clear up until the evening… I shall report on Saturday again.

Elections

Yesterday was election day in Japan, and Shinzo Abe and his right-wing nationalists have won the majority in the Japanese upper house. He has a long list of things he wants to do, and it seems that the world is watching him very closely.

The biggest thing he plans is a change to the post WW II constitution of Japan, away from the “peace” constitution where Japan is only allowed self-defence, towards one that allows a standing military. Of course, the constitution as it is right now has not hindered Japan to have a very strong military to begin with and to declare missions to Iraq for example as “peace missions”, but writing it down is a different animal altogether.

Other things on Abe’s list are designed to strenghten Japan’s economy and to lessen its National Debts, for example turning on the nuclear power plants again, raising sales tax, or lowering taxes for companies.How all of this will turn out, and if it turns out to begin with, is something only time will show.

Anyway, the elections have prompted me to get my own files ready. The elections for the Austrian National Council will take place on September 29th, and I must do extra paperwork as I will not return to Austria for that. Even if I did, I don’t have an official residence there anymore, so I need to fill in lots of forms anyway, and I have done so every time there were national elections in the last 10 years.

I once had a very hot and very short argument with a friend of mine who stated that in her opinion … people who live abroad shouldn’t be allowed to vote … I can see the point insofar as I don’t care for local politics and I’m not allowed to vote in the small ones without residence there anyway. However, Austrian national politics, especially the foreign one, affects me probably more than the random Austrian citizen as I am the one who has to defend the outcome – whether I like it or not – against my foreign acquaintances. So yes, vote I will, no matter where I live.