So, I haven't posted anything up-to-date recently, but I just wanted to share that I got an arubaito! (part-time job) I teach English about three times a week for the month of March as a private tutor. PT jobs are a lot better here in Japan, especially as an English-tutor, because native are so mezurashii (rare). I'll be busy for March, so sorry in advance.
So before I leave, I have to tell you about the Konomiya Hadakamatsuri I went to on Friday. This is a Festival, otherwise known as the Naked Man Festival. At this fest, men of all ages get to run around drunk out of their minds and basically naked. In actuality only one man is naked, but I'll get to that in a second. The men wear loincloths and head bands (which I think represented which town/village they came from.I was surprised by the amount of loincloth they had surrounding their waist, but I'm glad they had a bit of extra covering, because not much was left to the imagination. Some men had tattoos! If you didn't know, in Japan, tattoos are extremely rare and are associated with the Yakuza (Japanese mob). I saw two guys w/ full body tats. Who knows?!?!!?
The rowdy men went through the (rainy, this year) streets of town toward the shrine carrying large bundles of bamboo. My friends and I who were getting soaked in spite of our umbrellas, were narrowly missed by a swinging bundle as we had wriggled our way to the front of the crowd at the shrine. These guys were carrying around boxes of sake (rice wine), soooo yea, they were drunk. I'm pretty sure a few of them had fallen down on the way there as they had unexplained grass all over or, as one man was, bleeding from the legs. It was also raining really hard and was kinda cold so I felt bad for them, though, most of them seemed very happy and boisterous. The men all came in groups very happy to arrive at the shrine. With every group, the bamboo pack got bigger. The men who had already arrived cheered each other on, with a phrase that I think is "Washo". I'm still not sure. But it meant, "cheer up" "fight on" etc.
They sure were genki (energetic).
So they get to the shrine and are waiting for the one naked guy, who has been consecrated for the ceremony. This guy hasn't eaten in 2-3 days and has been specially picked this year. I'm sure the prep is longer than that, but I do know 2-3 days is enough for me to want to tear my way through a bunch of naked men to get a sandwich....well maybe not. So, in Japanese culture, there are unlucky ages. A lot of the participants in this festival are at these points in their lives. The consecrated man has been chosen and consecrated in order to bring luck to these folks. In order to get some of that luck, you have to touch the lucky man.... This is what I like to call CHAOS! Poor dude is completely naked, starving, protected by a small group of dudes, and being chased, pushed, jammed and beaten, but a bunch of drunk, semi-naked, unlucky men. Under normal circumstances, probably not his cup o' tea. But luckily, it's a great honor to be this festival's holy man, so I think he'll get over it after some sleepless nights.
Of course the body guards offer some protection and the men are being constantly splashed with cold water in order to deter them from their goal, but I think the alcohol helps their resolve. So this guy makes it through what would be a 3-4 minute walk in a couple of hours and is pulled into the shrine, hopefully, alive. This year's guy was still genki and standing when he recovered a bit afterwards. Yatta! (yay!)
So I got some omiyage (souvenirs) from this trip. The men have many brightly colored headbands and they rip off strips to give to the onlookers. It's considered good luck. I got like 5 strips. Reasons I got these strips: A) I'm a foreigner, that looks reallllly foreign. B) I asked ppl and surprised by my Japanese, they gave it to me.
For the A reasons, I got 2 strips w/o even asking. That was nice.
My friends and I couldn't stay too long, so we didn't see the holy dude, but we did make a friend and eat at an outside shop w/ him. That was fun.
I'll post some pics later. It's 12:39am here! and I have 2 kanji (Chinese characters) tests tomorrow, so I'm going to hit the futon (futon = where I sleep)(aka. the hay).
Night!
~Ama
No comments:
Post a Comment