You know, the nice thing about living in Japan is that I don’t have to do anything in order to have an interesting life. It just happens. Sometimes, it even comes right to me. I can be totally lazy, and still fulfill my duty to you, my loving audience. Amazing.
Yesterday, I was sitting in my apartment, pondering how much I did not want to be packing all my stuff and trying to think of a good reason to procrastinate, when I heard drumming in the street. There have been flags up all over the neighborhood, advertising the upcoming festival for Atago Jinja, the shrine on the hill behind my house, and the temple at the other end of the street is all fixed up, too, so I went to the window to see what was going on. As it turned out, it was the procession carrying the Atago Jinja portable shrine. First was a very slow-moving truck carrying the taiko drum, with a man walking behind it to beat it. Then there were three priests, two banner carriers, and the little shrine, with about 20 men supporting it, and a crowd of relief carriers or otherwise hangers-on. I was the only person who came out on the street to see it, so the procession spent about as much time looking at me, the strange gaijin girl, as I did looking at them. I had my camera, though, so I think I win the gawking contest.
When I say it was a portable shrine, I really do mean a perfect tiny replica of a very ornate shrine building. Little steps with railings, lots of gold scrollwork, dangly bits hanging from the ends of the rafters, and a big metal phoenix at the apex of the roof. All Shinto shrines have one. The end of July and beginning of August is matsuri season, or festival season, when it seems like all shrines and temples have events.
In the afternoon, I went downtown to do some final shopping on Ichi-ban-cho, and this was conclusively demonstrated by a much larger procession of not one, but three, larger and ever more ornate shrines from the area around downtown. The first one had a tiny woman up on the front of the shrine-carrying base, holding onto the corner post and waving a fan back and forth in time to chanting bearers. Luckily, I had my camera there, too, so hopefully my pictures will come out well when I get back to the US. It is too bad that I’m going to miss Tanabata this year, though.
