The Festival (Blog 3)

To begin let me first let me start by saying that there will be some gushing over how pretty and varied the architecture of Japanese shrines are. Also, there will be some talk about how good the food is as well, but unfortunately, I ate the said food before I had the sense to take a picture or two of it.

Anyways this past week was a full of anticipation for this past weekend (the weekend of the 20^thof September). A local Jinja (shrine) was holding its fall matsuri (festival) and our university was kind enough to allow us the chance of actually carrying the shrine! This is a huge honor – especially due to the fact that my school group consists entirely of foreigners. Beforehand we were also allowed to participate in the pulling of a float that alerted nearby residents that the festival was beginning. 

To give a little more background information, the shrine – Nezu shrine – is a Shinto shrine that is located in the Bunkyo ward in Tokyo, and my goodness is it a gorgeous place! It is a marvel how the shrine seems to fit so seamlessly into the natural surrounding it (and later the city) and the style of architecture is intriguing as well. From my previous knowledge I was somewhat aware that many Japanese shrines are often replaced and rebuilt due to being made of wood, and as such they use no metal nails – which is insane! There are smaller tori (the red gate that is so iconic) on a path that you can walk through and it leads to a smaller shrine that honors the kami ( a kind of nature spirit or deity) Inari, the patron of match makers and nature’s bounty.

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Onto the festival and the events that surrounded it. The festival itself actually lasted for about 2 days (and often went into the nights) and within the shrine grounds many street vendors had set up fun games and food that you could purchase and enjoy. Want to win a ps4, a plushy? Or perhaps you want to enjoy freshly made donuts or sample some homemade yakisoba. The festival had it all, complete with music that was constantly performed by entertainers near the shrine gates. I did my best to go to the festival as often as could, and I found it hard to hold myself back from eating all the food – and as a result my wallet suffered. 

Upon the day before the festival we were recruited into helping the children pulling the float around town to alert residents that the festival was beginning. The float itself was huge, and a person remained upon it and beat the drum to alert folks. All the other participants took ahold of two large ropes and began to pull. This pulling lasted for over an hour and a half as we went through narrow back streets and even out into traffic. Afterwards our duty for that day was finished and we returned to roam the street vendors.

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The next day was a day of toil as we soon found out. The portable shrine itself was huge and took over 30 people to carry it. It was a long haul. We began while it was still light out and by the time we had finished was well into the night and everyone got some much deserved wine and food. To sum up what we did or what our journey was we first be began first near the Nezu shrine and brought the portable shrine to be blessed. Afterwards we began the slow trek around the Bunkyo ward, in which we often doubled back and then moved forward once more. 

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It was tough work, but the experience of being a part of the festival was worth it!

To end this blog entry, I will say something off topic. I had been surprised that I haven’t seen any cats around our campus (or around the area I was staying in), so I wasn’t sure if I was just unlucky or all the cats were running away at my approach. Anyways I finally saw my first cat! My next goal is to go to an animal café and pet one ( I will defiantly also settle for a dog, otter, other animal, etc. – it is amazing how many different cafes there are in Japan!)