They just seem to fly away from me, Wheeee! Off they go!

Over the weekend, Hiroshima, and indeed all of Japan, had their autumn festival. So, Saturday night I went to a yoru matsuri with my fam. BTW yoru matsuri is night festival. We drove a bit and walked a bit on these deserted streets and -pop-! There it was. Masses and masses of people crammed into this itty bitty street. THere were vendors in most every square foot of access space on the sides. Most pictures were impossible as people were just wall-to-wall. Would have been great pictures though. Lots of food, sweets and cakes. Japan has an evil penchant for making lovely little cake-thingies that taste marvelous and no doubt I shall have to be rolled off the plane upon my state-side return. There was actually a Pikachu-shaped cake. A 3-D Pikachu, the size of a large pingpong ball, made of cake. An edible Pikachu. Was amazed in spite of myself. Had scrummy crepe-thing. Have discovered I love crepes and now eat one whenever I can (all of twice, folks. I'm living it up).

-And now, a note on the Magic of the East-
In this festival, I got to see a bit of Japan firsthand the way some people never get to. We walked up a lanterned stair (oi t'was a big stairway...now I know where they got the inspiration for stairway to heaven) to a temple. The gate is carved of one block of stone, stands twenty feet high at least. All around is something that stirs ancient feelings: stone lanterns, guardian lions, grave markers. If you've ever walked in an old forest or seen something that had been there long before your time, you can remember a peaceful feeling. Amidst these are the crowds of people, some-like me- carrying cameras or cam-corders, their keitai's (cute, teeny little handphones) beeping in tune to John Lennon's Imagine. The bizarre mix of past and present is, to say the least, odd but not unsettling.
We walked into the temple, and people were lined before two priestly men, shaking tree branches tied with paper at them, a bit of an alien sight to me. These people were saying or thinking "shiawase, onegai shimasu," praying for happiness. I got in line and prayed with them, bowed my head twice, clapped my hands twice and bowed my head again. I beat on a big koto drum, maybe for luck, maybe because I looked pretty funny doing it. I can't really say. It was a good feeling. It felt like, amongst all these people, truly we were making happiness ourselves, through our actions, our prayers, through our being in that spot... whatever. It was a kind of magic.
But one of the things I found most striking was the Oni walking amongst the crowd. Oni are ogres, they are aesthetically lacking and generally unpleasant. They walked through the narrow people-crammed streets in their costumes and elaborately colored, tusked or fanged masks grunting and growling, their walking sticks driven out in front of them to try to trip people. They shouldered you roughly out of the way, and roared at tiny children. They left in their wake a trail of bawling tear-streaked kiddies and their smiling, comforting parents.

Therein lies the magic, people.

Can you imagine that in the states? Of course not. Someone would follow the poor oni, screaming at them for getting in their face, they'd be angry their baby or child was crying, they'd get all huffy about nearly tumbling over some be-costumed jerk's cane. But it was okay here. People smiled when they saw him coming, laughed good naturedly when they got shoved (not all that hard, mind you) out of the way, and everyone around the crying child smiled or laughed in a way that made me realize that when they were children, they had been frightened in that same way.
Imagine! In your childhood, when everything is better, more mysterious, you see an ogre lurking in the shadows, out at night to walk among the people. You go to a temple at the top of a mountain, surrounded by old trees and older stone, you pray for happiness. Now its not on the level of seeing loch ness or finding a unicorn or anything like that, but at a time when all is possible, seeing things like that can be really positive. I think if I'd experienced things like that as a child, I'd think my home was a mysterious and magical place too.
although I don't think I would say it out loud though.

-Lesson over-

It was at this very festival, where I was introduced to several people that knew the fam. One of which was a cousin, a little girl in middle school who was with her friend. They said their greetings. But when I was introduced, the little girl got a stricken look on her face and promptly ran away.

She actually ran away from me.

I felt it neccessary, at that point, to ask my host family if I was scarey. They said no, (can you imagine them saying yes really? I mean My family would have said yes but...). She was shy they said. What for? Why be embarrassed? I admit I get embarrassed sometimes, but life's a bit short to run around being shy and embarrassed all the time, don't you think..? Else I am still a bit in shock from having a child flee in terror from me.
The Oni wasn't scared of me. Hm...wait...that is not neccessarily good thing if ogre is not afraid.....oh crap.

----

Previous | Next
Email the Scarey One | Flee! Flee!