Finally, Steve converted his photos of Omiwa Shrine so I can post some here (although most of you have probably seen them on his snapfish album, but oh well!)
First, let me tell you about the day we went to see the Harvest Moon-Veiwing Ceremony, because it was one crazy, up-and-down day!
Earlier that Friday, I had one good class and another class that was just *horrible*. The whole class had a bad vibe, but it was mostly a group of boys who decided that weren’t going to participate in any way- no way, no how. I tried and tried, but when it came their turn to get in front of the class to perform their little ‘Blues song’ (I mentioned this lesson in the earlier post, so check it if you don’t know what I mean), they just stood their. It wasn’t just that they were uncooperative, they had bad attitudes to boot and it really rattled me. Mean teenagers are scary! I shut the door after class and just broke down sobbing. It was terrible. I was overtired as well and it was all just too much.
Thankfully, that night at the shrine festival made up for it! All the JETs in Nara get a newsletter that lists all the fests and happenings in the prefecture and I thought this festival sounded great so I took the initiative and called the shrine myself to find out the time it started and how long it was, which I got through pretty well and left me feeling better about my language skills! (Of course, I got to plan ahead what I was going to say and that’s far easier than having to suddenly improvise in a situation.) Once I had the info I asked around and got a couple people to join Steve and me. It was outside of Sakurai, which is pretty close by, but then we had to head a bit north to Miwa, since the fest was at Omiwa Shrine.
The shrine is 1,800 years old and in the shadow of Miwa mountain.
When we arrived there it was already dark, but there was an awesome little street cat at the train station to greet us! Needless to say Miwa is very provincial. There wasn't even a machine or ticket-taker to take our tickets at the station- although Steve and I have our suspicions that the ticket-taker had actually turned into the cat and he was still manning his post!
We ended up befriending a college student named Maiyu- she had come to visit the shrine from Kyoto (2 hrs away!) and didn’t even know there was a festival! Turned out that she has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Omiwa shrine is known to help ease mental stress, etc.
The ceremony was sooo amazing! You could just feel this awesome energy all around. On the one hand, I felt like an outsider, a tourist crashing this beautiful ritual; and on the other hand I felt the wonderful energy from the shrine itself that enveloped me along with everyone else and it didn't matter whether or not I was a gaijin.
The music was very traditional, very odd and even off-key sounding.
There were two dances performed by the shrine maidens (miko), and both were amazing. The costumes were so detailed and ornate and the dances were very graceful and very specific.
Check out Steve's videos on Snapfish because I can't describe them well enough to do them justice.
They served sake and mochi (small, glutenous rice balls) afterwards. It finally felt like I was really in Japan and getting a glimpse of a side of the country I'd been longing for. I'm going to try and get to as many fests as I can, especially since so many temples and shrines seem to be closed during the regular weekdays. I also really want to return to Omiwa shrine in the daytime, because its set amidst the woods and streams and I want to be able to really get a better look at the scenery.
Its a great feeling walking under the huge torii (the wooden gate that mark all Shinto shrines and signify their sacred space) and going up the tall, winding stairs to get to the shrine, and I was sad to leave it.
But there's more places to see in the future! Hopefully Steve and I will get to Kyoto in Nov and also to a monestary down south for a few days. I still have to make the reservations, though and there's just never any time!
First, let me tell you about the day we went to see the Harvest Moon-Veiwing Ceremony, because it was one crazy, up-and-down day!
Earlier that Friday, I had one good class and another class that was just *horrible*. The whole class had a bad vibe, but it was mostly a group of boys who decided that weren’t going to participate in any way- no way, no how. I tried and tried, but when it came their turn to get in front of the class to perform their little ‘Blues song’ (I mentioned this lesson in the earlier post, so check it if you don’t know what I mean), they just stood their. It wasn’t just that they were uncooperative, they had bad attitudes to boot and it really rattled me. Mean teenagers are scary! I shut the door after class and just broke down sobbing. It was terrible. I was overtired as well and it was all just too much.
Thankfully, that night at the shrine festival made up for it! All the JETs in Nara get a newsletter that lists all the fests and happenings in the prefecture and I thought this festival sounded great so I took the initiative and called the shrine myself to find out the time it started and how long it was, which I got through pretty well and left me feeling better about my language skills! (Of course, I got to plan ahead what I was going to say and that’s far easier than having to suddenly improvise in a situation.) Once I had the info I asked around and got a couple people to join Steve and me. It was outside of Sakurai, which is pretty close by, but then we had to head a bit north to Miwa, since the fest was at Omiwa Shrine.
The shrine is 1,800 years old and in the shadow of Miwa mountain.
When we arrived there it was already dark, but there was an awesome little street cat at the train station to greet us! Needless to say Miwa is very provincial. There wasn't even a machine or ticket-taker to take our tickets at the station- although Steve and I have our suspicions that the ticket-taker had actually turned into the cat and he was still manning his post!
We ended up befriending a college student named Maiyu- she had come to visit the shrine from Kyoto (2 hrs away!) and didn’t even know there was a festival! Turned out that she has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Omiwa shrine is known to help ease mental stress, etc.
The ceremony was sooo amazing! You could just feel this awesome energy all around. On the one hand, I felt like an outsider, a tourist crashing this beautiful ritual; and on the other hand I felt the wonderful energy from the shrine itself that enveloped me along with everyone else and it didn't matter whether or not I was a gaijin.
The music was very traditional, very odd and even off-key sounding.
There were two dances performed by the shrine maidens (miko), and both were amazing. The costumes were so detailed and ornate and the dances were very graceful and very specific.
Check out Steve's videos on Snapfish because I can't describe them well enough to do them justice.
They served sake and mochi (small, glutenous rice balls) afterwards. It finally felt like I was really in Japan and getting a glimpse of a side of the country I'd been longing for. I'm going to try and get to as many fests as I can, especially since so many temples and shrines seem to be closed during the regular weekdays. I also really want to return to Omiwa shrine in the daytime, because its set amidst the woods and streams and I want to be able to really get a better look at the scenery.
Its a great feeling walking under the huge torii (the wooden gate that mark all Shinto shrines and signify their sacred space) and going up the tall, winding stairs to get to the shrine, and I was sad to leave it.
But there's more places to see in the future! Hopefully Steve and I will get to Kyoto in Nov and also to a monestary down south for a few days. I still have to make the reservations, though and there's just never any time!
posted by riverdaughter at
9:15 PM
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