Oh, My Poor Tory's!!!

I got caught in the rain today. And I was wearing my Tory Burch flats. Screw me getting wet, I was more concerned with my shoes getting wet!!!

Allow me to backtrack.

Today was the Takasegawa Fune Matsuri, or, the Takase River (well, it's more like a canal) Boat Festival. The Takase Canal is really old and one particular part of it near Nijo-Dori served as a major hub for transport in flat-bottomed boats, and was crucial to the economy, yada yada...

...but at this matsuri, there were maiko. Two of them. Serving tea and sweets.

And I got a picture with one of them. Not just OF them, but WITH them.

At first I wasn't really sure if I could because there was in fact a sign that said, "Satsue Kinshi" ("Photography forbidden"). In that sense, I internally played the "gaijin who can speak Japanese, but not read it card" and started snapping as discreetly as possible. Spurred on by the fact that the Japanese were taking photos with their noisy keitai (read: cell phone) and big fancy SLR's, I started to edge up a bit closer to the maiko.

Snap, snap. They serve tea. I stick around a bit more. Snap, snap. I think something up is with my camera (too many buttons and I do not know all of them - it's really Mel's camera) but I think I fixed it. Snap, snap.

At one point, the tea ceremony-ish part was over, and the maiko were actually serving tea to those who were present. I didn't get served tea myself, but I did ask one of the maiko if I could get a photo of her, and got both of them together. There was one foreign lady sitting near me and I asked her, as the maiko were milling about, if she can take a photo of me with one of the maiko if I asked them.

Let's just say, my hands were actually shaking a bit. To see a maiko walking in Gion is one thing. To take pictures of them at the Miyako Odori is quite another. But to take a picture with one? I totally acted tourist, but all I have to say is this - I asked her politely in Japanese, and I said "thank you" in the Kyoto dialect ("Okii-ni" as opposed to "Arigatou").

(Apologies for the frizzy bangs - it was very humid. Best to go over to my Flickr because you DEFINITELY want to see the rest of the pictures.)

Afterwards, I checked out the Shimadzu Museum (which will be a field trip actually for my course so more on that in the future) and then decided to check out this underground shopping center near City Hall. It looked cloudy. However it was still hot - so hot, that I could feel the sweat dripping down my neck. I want fall to come. NOW.

There was a flea market in the courtyard in front of city hall, and I walked around, in spite of the fact that they were packing up. Look what I found!!!

A vintage Chloe bag. I am pretty sure it is real if only for one reason: Japanese will not bat an eyelash at forking over hundreds, or even thousands of dollars for a designer bag. Quite 50's/60's-ish, don'tcha think? And it's in pretty good condition - I paid 300yen for it. It was originally 800, then down to 400, then because I was hesitating, the lady suddenly said "300yen." I was sold. Very classic.

Then the rain started. Very very hard. I contemplated riding home (because I had my bike and I do know how to ride my bike whilst holding an umbrella for all it's illegality) but instead I ducked into a store that I have been eyeing, called Florame. It's French and sells organic aromatherapy stuff. The lady in the shop gave me some cold tea and I picked up a a mini-soap in Verbena and a 3-pack of Lavender, Almond Milk and Vetiver. Much like L'Occitane - and in fact, there is one on Shijo. But I don't bother because I can get that stuff back home, but Florame isn't in NYC. I have recently been getting into scented stuff - I picked up scented tealights and a plug-in in from Yankee Candle Co. and brought them here with me. Now my apartment smells really nice.

But oh, my poor Tory's. They felt a bit squishy when I finally got off my bike and scampered up the stairs.

Got Demons? Use Mame.

This past weekend was Setsubun. According to Wikipedia, Setsubun is described as follows:

"In Japan, Setsubun (節分) is the day before the beginning of each season. The name literally means "seasonal division", but usually the term refers to the Spring Setsubun, properly called Risshun (立春), celebrated yearly on February 3. In its association with the Lunar New Year, Spring Setsubun can be thought of (and indeed was previously thought of) as a sort of New Year's Eve, and so was accompanied by a special ritual to cleanse away all the evil of the former year and drive away disease-bringing evil spirits for the year to come. "

You can't get any more succinct than that.

Setsubun on a popular level is also a chance for really really big street festivals. Since I live near Yoshida Jinja, I got to see all the hoopla up close and not have to worry about rushing to find a bathroom. ;-) According to my teachers, Yoshida is the most famous shrine for Setsubun, and has special omikuji (fortune papers) inside little daruma dolls that are only at Yoshida. I got myself one and it said "Daikichi" - which is the best of luck! I also got a normal paper omikuji which said "kichi" (average) so I guess it all balances out and looks like I will have a decent year.

But the street fairs were a ton of fun. I ate myself silly! I had okonomiyaki, yakisoba, choco-banana, choco-ichigo, kobe-beef-on-a-stick, takoyaki, 2 crepes and a doughy fish with bacon and egg. Yum yum! Stall food is soo good but rather expensive.

On the first day of Setsubun, Colleen and I were at Yoshida in the evening for Tsuinashiki, a special procession done by people dressed in Oni (demon) costumes and Shinto priests - there is one big Oni and a bunch of smaller ones, and then the big Oni drives out the smaller Oni. This was more of a prelude to what was going to happen the next day which was the real Setsubun. Everyone that I knew was at the Friday night events - it was so crowded that at one point I ended up in front of a group of kindergarteners. One took a look at me and said pretty loudly: "Ah! Gaijin da!" (Ah! It's a forienger!) There were not alot of foreign faces - I practically knew most of them since they were all students at Kyodai - but I thought it was kind of intersting how my sheer presence can make a little kid exclaim rather loudly (it was quite noisy at Yoshida).

So the next day (Saturday) Colleen and I trekked on our bikes to Heian Jingu for the mame-throwing. Traditionally, you are supposed to throw mame whilst yelling "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" (Demons out! Blessing in!). I found out on the net that this was going to happen at Heian Jingu at 3:00pm. Even though I did research on Heian Jingu and saw some photos, I was totally unprepared for the sheer ostentatiousness of the place. The torii was huge - and I think even though its on a smaller scale than the Daidairi, it sure as hell sticks out alot more than your typical Shinto shrine.


Colleen and I are walking around, trying to figure out what was going to happen and why the people were just standing on two sides of the courtyard. We soon got our answer: Heian Jingu did its own version of driving out the demons. After the demons were driven out of the compound, the barricades holding the crowd back were let away and total chaos ensued. For all the reputation of Japanese being orderly, they sure as hell went nuts for a bunch of soybeans in packets! Colleen and I then went closer to the crowd (after they ran to the main stage) to just take pictures of the chaos. Turns out, a packet of mame bounced off an obaa-san's head and dropped at my feet. In a split-second, I shot down and grabbed it! total impulse but I figured hey why not, I am in the midst of the corwd and being shoved I might as well get some mame. I shared the packet with Colleen, even though that for good luck I am supposed to eat one mame bean for each year that I am, plus one for good luck - 23.

Some of the people that were throwing out the mame packets were boring old officials and old ladies with poorly died hair in kimono. However, three of them were real maiko. Turns out, at the larger shrines across Japan, celebrities and famous sumo wrestlers and other personalities go to the shrines and toss mame packets to the crowd. So in kyoto, the local celebreties are the maiko and geiko.

After the crazy Japanese run, Colleen and I then went to Mibu-Dera to see a play about Setsubun and met up with her friend Charlie. Even though it was Kyogen, the play was rather boring. After, I rode my bike back to my apartment and met up with Mayuko who was back in Japan. We are going to meet up in Osaka at the Apple store this Thursday to get my iPod shuffle (in orange! My iPod died twice on me yesterday). Ate some more, walked around Yoshida some more and then went back home because my body was so tired from the long bike ride.

Before I left, I had my palm read by computer - it was in English. In addition to the printout that I got, a man read my palm and Mayuko translated for me. He said:

1) That I will live till 93 and be healthy;
2) I have "so much good luck" because my maternal grandmother (who is alive still) is protecting me;
3) And that I had better marry the guy that I am with since he is a very good match with me.

Matsuri! Matsuri! Matsuri!

Japanese Lesson #4:

1) Matsuri: Festival
2) Kurama Hi no Matsuri: Kurama Fire Festival
3) Onsen: Hot Springs
4) Jidai Matsuri: Festival of Ages
5) Daimyo: head samurai of the provinces during the medieval period
5) Sankin Kotai: Alternate residence rule during the Edo (Tokugawa Period), where the daimyo lived in Tokyo every other year, and their wives and children were kept as "hostages" in Tokyo.

Today began the start of many matsuri-going-to's for me.

During the day, it was the Jidai Matsuri. I felt that I really, really, had to go because I did research on this parade.

"A procession of people, dressed in clothing from various periods of Kyoto's history as the imperial capital."

That is exactly what it was. A long, long, long line of people. To be quite honest it got a bit boring - but I know that there are ceremonies before and after the festival so next year I plan to go all out on the Jidai Matsuri-ness.

I met up with Colleen and Ingram for the Jidai Matsuri. We all sort of agreed that it was a bit dull. Very quiet, rather. I was trying to figure out the order of the periods in the parade, and asked a lady. It pretty much goes backwards: Meiji, Edo (Tokugawa), Sengoku, the ones between Sengoku and Heian, Heian, and then the founding of hte city in 794. Ingram was asking me question about why people were carrying stuff that looked like luggage in the Edo Period section and I began to explain to him the concept of sankin kotai. Aforementioned Japanese lady heard the words "sankin kotai" come out of my mouth and began to nod her head earnestly - I pretty much got the gist of it right then.

The Jidai Matsuri in essence is a big history lesson, and a pretty potent reminder of what Kyoto is. Tt's also a good example of coercion and political intent. I took a look at a map of the parade route, which is from the Imperial Palace to the Heian Shrine. The route circumvents the city; however, one can draw a pretty straight line fro mthe Imperial Palace to the shrine. When they were creating this festival back in the day (1895), a lot of the Shinto shrines in the area lost government money after a fiasco involving the solidification of Shinto doctrine. So, one other reason why the festival and the parade (and the shrine) was created was so that the Shinto shrines (which are incidentally along the parade route) could show the national government in Tokyo at the time that they can do something properly and not screw it up. That's the basic info that I have now. More later to come when I am in grad school.

Ok so the history lesson is over.

Although the parade was not over, the three of us decided to head on up to Kurama for the Hi no Matsuri. I read on the net that over 10,000 people go to this so it was a good idea. And I was right - SO CROWDED! Even the train (which was only two cars at a time) was crowded. Ridiculously crowded. Add fire to the mix and you have a very delicate situation. No photos for now (I am lazy), but when I get enough for a new photo album expect to see the pictures.

Let's just say there is alot of history for the Kurama festival. Too much in fact. Go google "Kurama Fire Festival" for more information.

Kurama is still in Kyoto, and the last stop on the Eizan-Dentetsu Line. It is actually in Sakyo-Ku, which is the ward that I live in as well, but I am on the southern end of Sakyo-Ku. Ever wonder where the mountains that surround Kyoto on three sides (N, W and E) start? On the eastern end, they start at Kurama. Kurama was my introduction to the inaka. Funny thing is, we were still in the city proper, which goes to show you how much Kyoto just sprawls out. the cool thing is, there is a natural onsen in Kurama, so if I get the guts to go to one I will try the one in Kurama.