matsuri madness

summer, especially the month of august, is when many of japan’s famous festivals [matsuri] are held. every place has its own event showcasing the locales' specialties so there are tons of festivals in every village, town and city around the country. i technically live in joetsu city which is comprised of 2 sides of town that used to be separate entities - naoetsu, near the sea, and takada, the entertainment/shopping part of town where my apartment is located. each neighborhood held its own festival. unfortunately i was busy around that time with teacher parties and fuji rock so i wasn’t able to hit all the festivities. one night we did make it to takada for a parade, some street food, dancing and drinking.

it was bizarre – the events are all held on honcho odori, literally the road outside my apartment building which was in a way convenient but also a little annoying as i tried to make my way home on bike.
these men are carrying mikoshi, a portable shrine, that’s a bit cattywampus, possibly as a result of the insane amounts of beer and nihon shu [what we call sake] consumed at these events.

a couple weeks later was the arai matsuri held in a neighboring town about 20 minutes away where carrie lives. we had plenty of time that day and decided to take a couple of the local japanese women up on their offer to dress us for the occasion.

the appropriate attire is a yukata, the cooler [but still stifling], summer version of the traditional kimono.
the ladies came with all the trimmings we’d need. here you can see the white cotton under-dress you start with.

that’s followed by robe itself. then there are a few strings cinched around the waist to keep all that in place. cinched is putting it lightly…more like yanked and ratcheted so tightly you feel as if your stomach organ might implode. if you were claustrophobic this would be enough to put you over the edge. next comes the ornate belt, or obi, wrapped several times in the same constricting fashion and then beautifully tied into a bow in the rear.

as they finished with me and i began to shuffle out of the room my mind was flooded with thoughts of the ridiculous things we do to achieve accepted forms of beauty…oh, and also the whole binding women’s feet phenomenon.
the japanese ladies suggested i put my hair up as this was the custom. i obliged even though i was having a good hair day already. we donned our cute purses they provided but i had to politely decline the wooden slippers they offered as i couldn’t wear them around the house without pain, no way i was hitting the town in those suckers. you should have seen us trying to squeeze ourselves into carrie's car…bending at the knees was really tough, then we had these bows on our backs that made us twice as thick as usual, and there were sticks in our hair that kept getting caught on the door frames. when we arrived, we wound our way through the streets following carrie’s students’ floats.

liz and carrie both teach in arai at high school and junior high school respectively.
with carrie’s girl’s basketball team and carrie’s friend jan in town from america.

these men are carrying a huge rope made of rice, the largest in japan. i can’t even estimate how heavy it was but it must have spanned the length of a city block and required hundreds of people to carry it.

they would rambunctiously snake the rope down the street, the momentum causing the rope to jerk and toss people over as they attempted to keep up with the movement. a couple times we were on the sidewalk when the huge rope came barreling towards us and we were forced to step in entry ways or between structures to avoid being squashed. wild and tiring. they stopped every ten minutes or so to rest and a huge nihon shu [sake] keg on wheels and coolers full of beer would make their way down the line to fuel the revelers. afterwards we were invited to dance with the mayor’s office group in a parade that wound through the city.

so as to never be caught without alcohol, each group had a push-trailer of sorts that lead their procession stocked with cold beers and chu hi [sho chu liquor and fruit juice girlie drinks] which we breaked to enjoy regularly. plenty of festival food…some cute little old lady kept approaching us with an outstretched grocery bag full of chicken on a stick which we devoured. we met these guys and headed to a local restaurant for some beers and chatting. they work for a chemical engineering company that pays for them to take English classes.

although neither of them had ever spoken with a foreigner before, their language skills were fabulous.
we had a great time in the little ole’ town. it’s refreshing to see everyone with their party faces on, ready to have a good time. unfortunately, when there’s no special event, arai is pretty sleepy and most of the young people either permanently depart for more vibrant places or at least migrate on the weekends toward the nightlife in joetsu.