Backlogged pictures

I thought I'd already posted a picture of Miss Caterpillar but was mistaken. So for posterity and those who cannot easily imagine a 6-7 foot long colorful alphabet-branden insect, here is a picture:

...isn't she adorable?

...I also did take a few pictures of the Tendai Buddhist Setsubun ritual at Toyo's temple last weekend. I'm always a little hesitant to take pictures of deeply spiritual things for two reasons. One, I'm worried about offending someone, and two, pictures never do justice to the experience. A bunch of other people were fertively snapping away, though, and the experience was one that few people I know may ever have the chance to partake in... so, in an attempt to share more of what the experience was like, here is a picture of one of the head priests praying (during chanting with various musical instruments) and feeding the sacred fire with tablets people had bought and written their names on (for good health in the coming year).


After the indoor ritual was completed, everyone headed outside for the ritualized burning of the previous year's o-mamori, or protective amulets. I saw a bunch of special New Year's stuff in the pile as well as standard "bless this home" charms. When the fire was lit, the monks spread out in a circle around it and chanted, utilizing a few of the more portable instruments.

The monk in brown robes is shaking a mini metal replica of a monk's walking staff; it made a pleasant jangling sound.


The monk on the right in green robes has a small bell.

...they're all standing far back because the fire was huge and very hot. I took these pictures and then backed away some more; even from several meters away, my face was uncomfortably warm while turned towards the flames.

Small-Town Buddhist Ritual and the Joys of Second-Graders

Continuation of the epic winter break trip to resume sometime in the near future with the conclusion recounting more than a week of sightseeing in Kyoto.

In the meaning, we return to our regularly-scheduled real-time blog.

Last weekend I had the rare opportunity to participate in a small-town festival. About 3 kilometers away from Hitakatsu, the metropolis of northern Tsushima (sort of the Maine equivalent of Fort Kent if nothing south of Bangor existed), is a small hamlet called Izumi. It's home to a tiny Tendai Buddhist temple that put on an early Setsubun festival. I was told that the temple only has one monk, but other monks from all over Tsushima gathered for this ritual, about 6 of them all together.

Setsubun is celebrated on the day prior to the beginning of a new season, the biggest celebration happening in spring. It's usually February 3rd according to the Japanese calendar. In order to prepare for the new season, people and homes are ritually cleansed. In order to send oni, or demons, away, beans are usually thrown outside or at some festivals thrown at someone wearing an oni mask. (See wikipedia for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setsubun).

The Setsubun ritual I went to started with everyone crowding inside, maybe 100 people kneeling on tatami mats before the temple's raised platform and altar. Babies were cradled on laps, children sprawled everywhere. One monk chanted a short sutra, and then it morphed into a chant with the other monks joining in with musical instruments. There was a small sending-vibrations-into-your-soul drum and a monkish-travel-staff shaped mini rattle among other things. The room was pretty packed and I was in the back, so I couldn't see very much. Once the chanting got going, at periodic intervals the main chanting monk would add wooden sticks to a small, contained fire in the middle of the platform. People had written their names and perhaps other information on the wooden sticks prior to the ritual; I think it was supposed to be a cleansing activity. The fire got pretty high, and it was beautiful to see the fire and candlelight dance across the monks' faces. All the other lights had been put out. I'd never seen a Tendai ritual before, and it was very different from the minimalist Zen rituals I'm more accustomed to. At times it seemed so raw, almost shamanistic. Of course I had no idea what they were saying, but there was a very powerful feeling coming from all the energy they were raising. I felt it even from the back of the room... intense and amazing.

The chanting lasted quite some time, maybe 45 minutes altogether without a break. In the middle, the main monk left the platform and ritualistically took out what looked like a sutra. It was an accordion-bound book that he skillfully fanned down, almost like a slinky, and neatly caught. Using this holy item, he purified/blessed a number of men sitting on cushions in front of the altar by tapping the book on different parts of their bodies while chanting. I got the feeling that they were important people and had paid a lot for this service. At the end of purifying them, the monk hit them on the back twice, very hard. I could hear the thumps. After all the men sitting on cushions were purified, the chanting resumed. When it finally stopped, I thought the ritual was complete, but then all the monks came down from the platform armed with accordion-bound sutra books and started purifying everyone. I was a little bewildered and not sure quite what to do-- I could've made a run for it or pretended that I'd already been blessed-- but then thought, what the heck. This could be my only chance to have a monk hit me with a sutra-book. If I get blessed in the process, why not? ...and thus I, too, got hit by a sutra-wielding monk last weekend. The last two thumps surprised me by their strength, and I felt like they really did something.

After everyone got whacked with a sutra-book (even the children and babies, although I think their last two whacks were a little less intense than mine), everyone went outside for the bean-throwing portion of the ritual. It had been raining in the beginning but thankfully stopped by the time everyone had been blessed. Instead of us throwing beans at someone dressed up like a monster, which was more along the lines of what I had been expecting, the monks threw packets of beans at us. It was like running for 4th-of-July candy thrown from parade floats; hands scrabbling everywhere and everyone trying to fill their little plastic baggie regardless of how many beans they actually wanted. Midway through the madness, I plucked a bag from where it had landed on an obaachan's back (she'd been hunched over going after the ones on the ground), felt a little guilty, and tried to hand it to her. "No, no," she said, hardly standing up from where she was still grabbing bean-bags off the ground, "that one's yours."

Eventually all of the bean-bags thrown and had been snatched out of the air or picked up from the ground, and it was time for another fire event: burning old mamori, charms of luck and happiness, wealth and fortune. I was surprised at how many had been collected; everything together made a bonfire the size of a small car. Watching the charms burn, everyone had a little tea and miso soup, chatted a bit (perhaps the Japanese version of post-church snacks and socialization?), and left. All in all, a fully-satisfying spiritual experience and one I won't soon forget.

In other news, this morning I went to one of my favorite schools, Hitakatsu Elementary. Just going into the school is fun; I bring along Miss Caterpillar, an insanely long stuffed animal with the alphabet printed over her different segments. Coming in from the parking lot, the kids see Miss Caterpillar from their classroom windows and wave to us. It's so amazing seeing their excitement before I'm even in the building. Going to the teacher's room, I can hear the kids talking to each other in the hallway-- "Kimberly-sensei! Kimberly-sensei's here!"

I ate lunch with the second-graders, which was a blast. I entered the classroom to applause. During lunch, all I had to do was look at them a little funny and they'd burst out laughing. One boy challenged me to try using chopsticks with my left hand, which provided more amusement. Although my taiko sensei/sempais say that doing things left-handed like using chopsticks will fine-tune my left arm muscles and make me a better taiko player, the 2nd-grader I was sitting across from agreed that it was impossible. Towards the end of lunch, as the stragglers munched on their little bits of apple, a crowd gathered around me to marvel at the color of my eyes. The majority of Japanese people have dark brown eyes-- although they insist on calling them black-- so any lighter color like blue, green, or hazel is rare. It's not the first time I've had staring contests with my elementary kids, but it was particularly fun to do with a few girls who almost got nose-to-nose with me.

Departing from the classroom was an event all in itself. There was the all-class "Thank you! See you!" which included mad two-handed waves, and then a few brave souls came over to give me high-fives. Making my way towards the door (still surrounded by the swarm), everyone else decided they wanted high-fives, too, and some repeatedly. Heading back to the teacher's room, I ran into a bunch of 3-4th graders who were cleaning up dirty trays, and they all wanted high-fives. The braver of the bunch, including a few of my kendo kids, jumped on my back for rides about, and then wanted to see how flat I could smoosh my nose. I'm not quite sure why. Maybe it was a contest... they could really get their noses pretty flat. I think my nose cartilege is fairly well-defined at this point and in no mood to go about taking on different shapes. But I did try.

Then it was time to head over to the Board of Education to pick up my paycheck, pay bills, and do other assorted tasks, so I gathered my stuff together, flung the oversized English-alphabet Miss Caterpillar (also known as "Kimberly-sensei's friend") around my neck, and attempted to leave the building. Of course then I ran into a bunch of 1-2nd graders who absolutely love Miss Caterpillar and spent long moments trying to remember her name. Miss Caterpillar waved back, got settled in the backseat (her head sticking out the window a la drooly dog), and off we went, the mad excitement of children waving good-bye from the playground receeding in the rear window.

Some days I really love my job.

Winter Break Trip: Christmas

Christmas, Rose and I decided, should be kept busy. We didn`t want lots of down-time during which to think about how we could be at home with our families, surrounded by delicious food and loads of presents.

I did start off the morning with a quick call home; everyone was in the midst of Aunt Beth`s Christmas Eve bash, which sounded much more lively than in recent years past. The phone got passed around, and then I was off to catch a train to an indigo dying museum and factory just outside of town.

I love the dark blue of indigo. It`s the color of Tokushima`s mountains at sunset or just afterwards (and Tsushima`s, too). It`s also very calming and rejuvenates my spirit.

The indigo museum had many indigo-dyed artifacts, including old kimono. My favorite display was this hanging artwork, though, of variously-dyed shades of indigo. The translucent fabric seemed so light and airy, and it hung over the main room of the first floor (I`m on the second floor in the picture).





After wandering through various exhibitions on the process of dying indigo-- from planting indigo seeds to harvesting the leaves and mixing them with lye and other natural chemicals to reach a certain state of decomposition-- it was time to try it myself.

I dyed a bunch of handkerchiefs for omiyage (gifts for people who I`m indebted to). In order to create a few tie-die like designs, I tied a new handkerchief with knots in specific places. Then it was time to dunk them in the vat-o-indigo dye.





... for some reason, I really liked the smell of the dye. It wasn`t altogether a pleasant smell... properly speaking, it could only be described as the smell of decaying indigo leaves. So think along the lines of compost. It was rich, though, and very earthy. Later on, some of the dye would seep into one of my plastic gloves, so I got to carry the scent around with me for awhile.


After dunking the handkerchief for 1 minute, it was time to haul it out, squeeze out all the excess liquid, and expose it to the air, which was magical. At first the handkerchief would look dark green, but on exposure to the air it slowly turned blue. I had to open the handkerchief as much as possible (except for the knots I tied earlier) to maximize exposure to the air. After 1 minute of being out of the tub, the handkerchief went back in for 1 minute. Since I was going for the really dark indigo (see earlier picture with hanging fabric to compare different shades), my handkerchiefs got dunked a total of 5 times. Fewer times would create a lighter color.




...after dunking five times and rinsing the excess dye off, I ironed the handkerchiefs dry.



..the beautiful collection!...

There was also an old samurai-style house on the grounds of the indigo-dying factory. What most impressed me where the really steep and numerous staircases: no less then 3. I thought it would`ve been a really cool house to play hide-and-go-seek tag in. Unlike old American houses, there weren`t any squeaky boards-- thank you tatami mats-- so it was hard to tell where someone else was in the house. While the house wasn`t very big, I lost Rose a few times in our wanderings and had a hard time finding her. Because the 3 staircases are in close proximity to each other (but leading into different upstairs and downstairs passages), sounds echoed in strange ways and it was difficult to tell where a voice was actually coming from. Here`s one of the staircases with beautiful patterned windows.

Outside of the gift shop were these three strange characters. Dressed up in indigo-dyed cloth, I thought they were adorable.

We rushed through the gift shop-- some lovely items, including a woven picture of mountains in various indigo shades that I bought as a Christmas present to myself-- and headed back to the city for the Awa Odori kaikan, a building with a museum and live performances of the Awa Odori (dance) performed in Tokushima city during Obon in August.

There weren't many other people about-- it was pretty cold and windy in addition to being Christmas and a normal working day-- but the special Awa Odori troupe associated with the touristy building still put on a grand performance. In the picture below, the woman are standing in front with the long roof-like woven grass hats, and the men are in the back.

.. after a few demonstrations, it was audience-participation time! Hatless, I gave it my best shot. First, work on the feet. Basically two mini-steps with one foot, then two on the other. The first step angles in and the second angles out.

After the footwork is down, it's time to put your hands up in the air....

...and wave 'em around like you just don't care! I should really try this at an enkai (work-related drinking party) sometime. At some point, the woman in front of me started moving and we ended up mambo-line-like grooving Tokushima-Festival-of-the-Dead style. Pretty amazing thing to do on Christmas, I think.

...whilst all of this was going on (and I was trying to master the more intricate hand-movements... there was a proper way of doing it, with the right hand moving at the same time as the right foot, which made me feel off-balance), the main male leader of the troup, who had earlier expounded upon the dance's evolution through history, swung a lei around my neck. I knew this wasn't a good sign... but at least I wasn't the only lasso-ed participant.

I was worried that we'd been chosen as the "Worst Dancers" -- such a thing was mentioned in my guidebook as something that happens during the actual festival-- but the lei was actually a compliment to mark the good dancers. After we were hauled aside, the rest of the participants were allowed to sit down. The "Best Dancer" (i.e. not me) introduced herself, joked with the male leader, and then ceremoniously received a fancy purple flag.

...and then, moment of horror, it was my turn at the microphone. I've had plenty of practice introducing myself but usually have some warning and a speech to fall back upon. It was scary and kind of exciting to be completely unprepared. Thankfully I understood most of what I was asked and could answer mainly in monosyllables.

...and then I received a certificate of participation and a cool Awa Odori headband thing. Cute old man.

The last part of the Awa Odori Kaikan experience was going from the roof up a cable car to an outlook of the city. Unfortunately it was starting to rain, so Rose and I didn't spend much time up there. We did get a few quick scenic shots, though.

...this is a little fuzzy but catches some of the 'beautiful Tokushima mountains' I was writing about earlier. The fading sunlight was just gorgeous; I love shades of grey, and with the clouds and various receeding mountains and pink of sunset... just beautiful.

The city meets the mountains but does not take them over.

Our last Christmas event before getting some Kansai-style okonomiyaki (none of the Tsushima restaurants in my area have it, and I'd been craving some) for dinner.... was slightly unexpected. It was the infamous "Santas on a Boat" that I'd been hoping to see. I saw them-- a giant boat full of 8-10 santas speeding down the river, rock music blaring, swerving from riverbank to riverbank and chucking bundles of presents to the hoards of children, parents, and marauding teens who were sprinting along the sides of the river trying to keep up with the boat. It's a fantastic sight sure to get your blood pumping and your feet moving; you can't watch the hoard run past and not want to follow the epic Santas-on-a-Boat. And so, of course, I ran.

Here they are. Fairly innoculous at first glance...

...but then they dance...

...and toss presents. This picture isn't the greatest, but night shots are difficult. There is a giant crowd of people over there fighting over the presents.

And thus ended my second Christmas spent in Tokushima, Japan.

Winter Break Trip: The Beginning

It`s been awhile since I wrote, partly due to an exciting 2-week winter holiday escape-from-the-island travel extravaganza ^^

The intinerary broke down something like this:

December 20-- wake up early, pick up Rose in the south, make our escape via airplane to Osaka.

December 21-23 Osaka

December 23-26 Tokushima (Shikoku)

December 26-January 3 Kyoto

...travels started off well and I arrived in Osaka only slightly travel-weary and in desperate need of a bath. Traveling about in airplanes, especially if I have to transfer, makes me feel very disgusting. Thankfully, Osaka has the perfect cure, a multi-floor complex called SpaWorld, which is the first place we hit up after dropping our bags at the hotel. There are two floors of baths, an Asian-themed floor and European-themed floor, each with many specialized baths. The floors are single-sex only and switch sexes each month. When I studied abroad, I had the opportunity to check out the European-themed floor, replete with Roman pillars, Grecian urns filled with mud (for a do-it-yourself mud bath... it was kind of awesome to be scooping out mud from the urn next to a obaachans), herbal baths, a milk-and-honey bath in a low-lit recreation of a cave, and an aquarium-themed bath with a glass bottom and a tank with sharks underneath. In other words, completely wild. So of course I wanted to go back, either to have a dip in the same baths again or, hopefully, check out the Asian floor.

Luckily, it was the ladies` turn at the Asian floor. Although not quite as unique as the European floor--many were Japanese-style baths, similar to onsen everywhere-- there were still many baths to sample. A few indoor Japanese-style baths made of different materials; countless outdoor baths (rotenburo) of varying temperatures, sizes, and materials; a few indoor mini-waterfalls perfect for standing underneath to pummel those tense neck and shoulder muscles; and many other baths, including one with a whirlpool.

Of course, this is public bathing Japan-style. You ditch your clothes in lockers and then run around with a mini-towel just big enough to drape over the unmentionables. But the water`s usually piping-hot and, in addition to coming out squeaky-clean (you completely scrub down before entering any of the baths), it`s great for working out muscle kinks and just relaxing.

Here`s some pictures of the SpaWorld baths (both European and Asian floors). ...for obvious reasons, cameras aren`t allowed inside, so I could only get a picture of an advertisements for the baths.

After getting clean, Rose and I were starving, so we went to have some real American food (okay, okay, I was after the sour cream that comes with the fajitas) at Osaka`s Hard Rock Cafe. Mmmm delicious.

The next day Rose and I got up relatively early to get to the Osaka`s aquarium. I`d never been before but had heard that it was one of the best aquariums anywhere. And, indeed, it was a huge complex with many different aquacultures, organized by region. Like Boston`s aquarium, there is one central gigantic tank which visitors spiral around... except Osaka`s giant tank is much, much larger than Boston`s and you begin the spiral from the top, working your way down. There are also so many more side-tanks, including ones with dolphins, seals, penguins, a coral reef system, Hokkaido`s deep sea (with crazy basketball-sized crabs, their legs at least a foot long when extended), and other Japan-specific marine ecosystems.

The beginning may be the best; a smaller aquarium tank wraps around the hallway covering all sides, except for the entrance and exit, and the ceiling. It`s like going inside an aquarium without getting wet, with fish swimming all around you. Very cool. I wasn`t able to get a satisfactory picture of that initial tank, but here are some others from later on.

...out of all sea life I`ve seen so far, sting rays are probably my favorite. They remind me of underwater birds... I`ve seen a few while scuba diving, and they so elegantly flutter the edges of their bodies to move along. Spotted stingrays have more of a flapping motion, but it`s very smooth.

...and the sea turtle was pretty cool, too. Bugger moved fast, though, so he was harder to photograph.

This is a little foreshadowing for later, but Christmas in Japan is crazy. I got a hint of that craziness coming around a corner and seeing scuba-diving Santa.

...he waved madly to everyone (which makes me think the glass is two-way and, indeed, makes me wonder what the fish think of us) and posed for shots. Only in Japan. (Please note that his tank is wrapped up like a sack of presents).

After spinning our way through the aquarium, we emerged to find it had started drizzling, so we made our way over to the IMAX theater. There was the traditional under-the-sea informational video as well as one on the pharoahs of Egypt; since we`d just spent much of the morning seeing fish, we opted for pyramids. The general audio was in Japanese, but we got special headsets set to English. Combined with the usual IMAX glasses... well, we looked pretty funky.

The next day was devoted primarily to shopping and a wonderful visit to see a Takarazuka show of The Brothers Karzmanov. Takarazuka is a group of all-female theater troupes that do Broadway-musical-meets-Los-Vegas-glitter-and-glam-line-dance shows. In a word, it`s spectacular.

Usually the shows are performed in Takarazuka, a small town outside of Osaka, or Tokyo. Because we were visiting in the off-season, though, there wasn`t much going on, and the few shows that were running were at small theaters in Osaka. The Snow Troupe`s `The Brothers Karzmanov` that we saw was a preview that will officially open soon in Tokyo. It was wonderful, though, and included a scene with priests spinning about madly and singing about love. There was also a troupe of peasants in brightly-colored clothing that would appear whenever something good happened (Russian tradgedy, so not that often) and gaily dance about.

Afterwards, a woman approached us and asked if we`d like to stay afterwards to see the actresses ceremoniously emerge from the dressing area after changing. Figuring we might not get the chance again, we were game, and about an hour later got to see my favorite actress (the main male-character lead in both `The Brothers Karzmanov` and an earlier Snow Troup production I`d seen, `Elizabeth`) in plain clothes.

So very suave. It was amazing to see her off the set and equally astounding to witness the official fan clubs. They set themselves up at strategic spots along the path that the actresses walk through when exiting the theater and kneel every time an actress emerges. Members of the fan club must swear to not do things like talk to the actresses or even take their picture. These rules are all meant to prevent scandals, which I heard have happened in the past.

...the morning after takarazuka, it was time to head off to Tokushima. Now, every Japanese person I told that I was going to Tokushima asked me why there. I can`t explain why, but the place resonates with me. Maybe because I had so many good experiences last time I went or because I discovered a new independence there... it`s hard to say. I just really love Tokushima. Outside of the eastern city (both the region, kind of like a U.S. state, and the main city are both called `Tokushima`), it`s mostly mountains.. but these mountains are not at all like Tsushima`s mountains. Tokushima`s mountains are huge and form ranges and have giant plains between the ranges were villages can form. You can admire the mountains from a distance (unlike Tsushima`s `rice ball` mountains which are small but so clustered together, so it`s difficult to escape from the middle of them to admire the bunch)... maybe Tokushima`s mountains are a little more vain. Tokushima also is famous for many handicrafts, including paper-making and indigo-dying, and the Awa Odori dance, which is performed every year during August and Obon, a holiday for honoring the dead.

One of the first things I noticed upon arrival was the different flora. I remembered palm trees (although it is cold and more nippy that one would expect of a palm-tree locale), but I was surprised to find the plants below, which are identical to an errant plant at home in Maine. There were whole clusters of them in bloom.

It took most of a day to travel to Tokushima and get settled, so Rose and I didn`t really get out to see much until the next day.

Which was Christmas Eve ^^. And what better way to spend Christmas Eve than trekking into Tokushima`s rural countryside to make paper? I`d been to the paper-making factory before and wanted to go again. This time, there was a special display upstairs of New Year postcards and calendars (entering into the year of the ox, so they were mostly decorated with oxen). There was also a very long sheaf of paper in a corner with descriptions of kendo gear and beautiful pictures.

The highlight of the factory, at least for me, was making my own paper. I think the process is so cool. There are vats of suitably broken-down tree-bark fibers emulsed in a water-and-glue mixture and wooden frames with mesh to catch the fibers.


First, you stir up a vat with a bamboo stick to mix the fibers evenly. Then you dip the frame in, shake gently (a 1-2 mini-earthquake on the Richter scale, not a 8-9) to get the fibers to settle evenly as the water drains through the mesh. Repeat a couple of times to achieve a proper thickness.

Then it`s time for decorating! ...there were small tubs of colored, emulsified tree bark for pouring into a cookie-cutter design or making splashes of color across your future-piece-of-paper, as well as different-colored bits of more substantial tree fibers for fine-tuned designs.

I made a Christmas card postcard for Rose (complete with colored bulb decorations on the Christmas tree and a star on top), a night-time fireworks scene, a recreation of a paper-artwork I`d seen in the museum with a sunset sky and two flying birds, and then had some fun with random splashes of color.

After decorating, the future-paper is removed from the mesh of the wooden frame, quickly vacuumed by a special machine, and then rolled onto a hot sheet of metal to dry. The water was a little cold to work with and everything done standing up, but I could`ve spent all day making paper and deciding how to decorate it.

...we had other plans for the day, though, and headed back to Tokushima city for karaoke-- including many Christmas-y songs and ending with a resounding `We Are the Champions`-- and a nice Italian Christmas-dinner-a-little early. Since Christmas in Japan is more of a romantic holiday for couples than a family event, fancy restaurants would most likely be booked on Christmas day. For some reason Kentucky Fried Chicken is also a popular romantic Christmas destination... go figure. In any case, we celebrated early. The lasagna was delicious ^^