Heian-Jingu dance party!

Last weekend it was my goal to: make it to Nijo-jo before closing time, shop at Uniqlo and eat some sushi! I managed to get all of these things done and photograph the student festival at Heian-jingu as well. Victo and I biked down to the shrine, met up with some friends and checked out the festivities.

The festival was made up of students ranging in age from Primary school to College. They carried in floats representing their schools and performed dance routines, some traditional and others more modern.

These students were decked out in Halloweenish colors. Midway through the dance they pulled down the top parts of their outfits to reveal orange shirts underneath. This stripping reveal seemed to be a popular move with a lot of the other teams as well. Many of the traditional dances were performed with these wooden blocks. The blocks remind me Spanish dancers with castanets.

A large number of the dances were also narrative or had specific characters. These girls were cat dancers. They prowled around with catlike movement and wore these funny masks.

The dance teams were made up of both men and women. For the most part everyone wore the same outfit. I was very impressed to see so many Japanese guys in floral prints or pink, but I guess that's just something that I find surprising as a westerner.

Everyone also had special dancing shoes. I really like these tabi style ones, don't they look like ninja turtle feet? Most of the costumes were so inventive and interesting with strong traditional influences.


These outfits seem really anime influenced to me. This dance had a narrative too, some sort of love story with a man giving a woman a flower. This team only had a few boys though so I think some of the girls on the team also danced the boy part.

These were some of my favorite outfits and dance group... but hey I'm a sucker for green and sparkly gold bows.

I just thought these outfits were really clever with the types of movements they were performing. I love seeing the bit of the red pants when they leap or kick their legs up. These costumes didn't impede their movements and created beautiful silhouettes.

Right? And you can see the Heian Shrine in the background too!

This group was an all girl group, they were loud and reminded me a lot of cheerleaders. They started out with white tops and these horrible pink/blue sheer sleeves. About half way through they performed the strip move to reveal these bizarre black bean shaped breast plates... I don't really get it, but I enjoyed watching them dance.

We watched some more dancing by some of the younger students and took a break to find a snack.

I split a cup of these with Victo. They served these little balls in a cup and you got your choice of strawberry or chocolate. (shyocolato) on top. The batter was a pretty basic batter, not too sweet and I liked watching them cook these. We also got some takoyaki or balls like this but with octopus on the inside. Those were also delicious, but I ate them before I could get a photo... yum!


We walked through the games area of the festival and I couldn't help but photograph this group. I love the outfits!

I saw a group playing duck,duck, goose! Did you know that duck, duck, goose is only played in the US? One night I was comparing childhood games/songs with some of the Europeans and as it turns out they had never played duck, duck, goose. The other American and I made everyone get in a big circle in the middle of the park late at night and play. Many of the Europeans deemed the game unfair... haha. It was a lot of fun. Also, you can just barely see the very large torii behind the park, this designates the entrance to the shrine.

Stuffed koala moonbounce. Something about this really disturbs me, can you guess what it is?

We left the festival to check out the shrine before closing. There were still lots of dancers milling around in their fabulous costumes.

They were nice enough to humor us by posing in front of the shrine.

This is the entrance of the shrine and is called a shimenawa. These large ropes and zigzag paper strips marks the boundaries of a sacred space. The other way to tell you are at a Shinto Shrine is the large torii that is usually painted bright orange at the entrance to the shrine. You can barely make it out behind the kids playing duck, duck, goose.

Inside the shrine is the main offering hall. People come here and make offerings of money and pray. People visit shrines for lots of different reasons. Shrines are a popular place to visit at the start of the New Year, for festivals, weddings and when babies are born.

At first I didn't realize that this tree had paper tied to its branches. These are fortunes or omikuji, they are bought at the shrine and have various fortunes in them from very good; daikichi to very bad; daikyo. You unfold one and see what your fortune is, then you tie it to this tree. If its a good fortune it will come true and if its bad it will be averted.

Here's a shot of some school children hanging out by the inner part of the shrine. All of the school kids wear uniforms here. I guess its also normal for them to go hang out in large groups at shrines. I can't imagine kinds hanging out at churches casually in the states, but maybe that's me.

These wooden plates you can purchase at the shrine are called ema. Visitors write their hopes on the plates and leave them to come true. People often wish for success in business, good health, passing entrance exams, wealth or love.

The sun was setting and the light made everything look beautiful within the walls of the shrine.

So naturally Victo and I kept taking candid and posed photos of each other and the boys too. We were both wearing new stuff we bought in Japan. I was wearing my new Uniqlo skirt and some leopard print leggings. Now I look so Japanese! But doesnt Victo look cute? I don't think she realized I was taking a photo.

Then we made the guys line up and do a model shot.... classic

We had to leave because they were having the closing ceremonies here and we didn't have tickets. But, we did check out this band warming up. I don't even know what to say about this outfit. Haight-Ashbury meets Japan?

Then we biked a little farther south to Shijo for the much anticipated sushi dinner. The river is still crowded at sunset because it's only just starting to feel like Fall. But hey, I'm not complaining!

All along the river were couples sitting together almost perfectly spaced. It really made me miss Robin : (

Of course I felt much better once we got our delicious chirashi bowls! A bunch of us got the same one cause it was a great selection just for 980 yen and a free miso soup with our student ID's! Yumm what a great day!

Apaato!

I've officially been living in Japan for a month. The language barrier still sucks and I haven't gone out for sushi... boooo. But I have gotten a few things ticked off my checklist:

-signed up for classes
-bicycle
-cellphone
-My very own flat or in Japanese: apaato!

I moved into my new apaato last Thursday. It's about 15-20 mins by bike from campus and less than 5 from Takagaraike Park and Pond. The park is nice to cut through on my way to classes and I can go running around the lake in the mornings.

Most Japanese apartments require utilities, a deposit and key money in addition to rent. Key money is essentially a gift given to the landlord for a couple months rent that they dictate. Some places I looked at had a low rent but when adding on the key money it was double the rent! The apartment building I'm staying at is geared for foreigners, its furnished and there was no key money. (sweet!) The rent with utilities is about the equivalent of what I'm paying in Providence for rent and utilities. Not as cheap as the dorms (photo above) but at least I get my own kitchen!

So here's my place! It's on a busy street that heads into town and under a motorway but the traffic isn't that loud. I'm also really close to a couple of grocery stores, stationary shop, bakeries and a hyaku-en store!

I bought all of these things at the hyaku-en store or (100 yen store) for 1,995 yen!

Although my apartment is furnished it was missing some basic cooking utensils and I was desperately in need of some hangers. I've spent less than $50 though and made some big improvements.

Here's the entrance way where you leave your shoes and switch into house slippers.

Here's my kitchen table/desk/work space in the apartment and my tv/bookshelf!

My bed and kitchen area: the mattress is a traditional futon but its on top of a frame. It's pretty thin but at least they gave me a real pillow. In the dorms they had these other pillows that drive me crazy. The pillows are really small, like half the size of a normal pillow and they are filled with tiny plastic pellets. I suppose they offer lots of support to your neck if you sleep on your back. However, I sleep on my side or stomach so sleeping with one of those pillows is like having your face stuffed into a bag of legos.

Kitchen area complete with one burner and virtually no counter space. Making dinner involves a lot of musical chairs with various pots, pans and ingredients.

Here's my bathroom! On one side you have the potty and on the other the shower. There is a drain in the floor that allows this all to work properly. Even today bathrooms in Japanese homes have drains in the floor like this and usually a vanity where you can sit and scrub with soap. Then, you can rinse yourself off with the hose before getting into the already filled bath tub. One family will keep the bathtub filled and everyone will use the same water before it is changed, which is why you scrub and rinse yourself off before getting in the tub.

Shower heads here are usually a hose and the wall has places at various heights for it to fit. There is also a lower down faucet, this makes sitting down and washing much easier. Or if you prefer you can put the hose in the highest knobby thing and stand up and shower.

Here's the potty. There are some crazy high tech toilets in Japan, but mine is not one of them. However, it seems pretty standard here to have a toilet with two flush options chiisai or ooki (small or large) and before the new water refills in the toilet it runs through a sink at the top of the tank that allows you to rinse your hands.

One of my favorite features of my room is this light pull. It's a little guy in a peach. You can close him up in the peach and make the string short or pull him far away from the top and make it longer and easier to reach from bed. He also glows in the dark! That's it for this week, we've been getting a lot of rain from the typhoons and I haven't been able to go out as much. Keep your fingers crossed!

Day trip to Nara- Part 2 (Mochi, Temples and Buddha oh my!)

This is part two of my day trip. After leaving behind the deer we got to the heart and soul of Nara: Todaiji. This temple was originally constructed in the Nara period (710-794) and was rebuilt and fixed after quite a few destructive fires. The temple survives to this day but at 2/3 of its original size. Despite that Todaiji is still the world's largest wooden structure.

We arrived at the entrance to the southern gate, inside this gate are beautiful wooden sculptures but its hard to get a good photograph of them because they are behind some heavy duty chicken wire. Here's a close up of a giant foot!

We continued past the gate and arrived at the main building. We washed our hands and faces in the fresh water as is traditional before entering the temple.

Here I am posing far away from the temple! Last time I was here with Robin it was so quiet and empty. Not today!

This guy sits outside the temple covered in red clothing. It is said if you have pain somewhere you should touch him on that spot and then yourself and you will heal. I couldn't reach his shoulders or his back or anywhere else that I'm actually sore. I got his knee so hopefully it will help keep my knee healthy.

Little demon guy

A beautiful lantern with very intricate detailing outside the entrance.

Inside the temple is the Daibutsu; Japan's largest and very golden Buddha. The Buddha is made of copper and bronze, he weighs 250 tons and stands 30 meters tall. The photo doesn't do him justice. His hair is all individually made balls and the eyes were hand painted on at the Buddha's dedication ceremony in 752.

Another close up of featuring the golden guys floating around Buddha


There are other large, golden statues in the temple but I'm not sure of their significance.

Maybe this gives you a sense of scale?

This is one of the guard statues also in the temple

At the back of the temple is a hole in one of the pillars. It is said that those who can wiggle through it will be blessed with enlightenment. There's a line of children who are waiting to go through and their parents waiting to take photos of their kids looking through the pillar. This hole is also the size of Buddha's nostril on the statue. This totally cracks me up! I like the idea of small Japanese children crawling through Buddha's nostril to reach enlightenment.

Here's the other side of the statue with another golden figure that is also really exquisite. We left the temple and headed back through the parks of Nara. It was slowly getting dark and the temples were closing as they usually do around 5. As we walked through the streets in the city of Nara we came upon an impressive street scene. . .

The men in the mochi shop was pounding bright, green mochi and yelling loudly. The mochi is pounded in a traditional mortar called a usu with giant wooden mallets called a kine. A crowd was gathered around the shop to watch the men pound the mochi.

Next, the pounded dough was put into a machine that filled the mochi with red bean paste, the small green discs of mochi were then quickly dusted with a powder and sold to members of the crowd. After watching the excitement for a minute Victo and I decided we wanted some fresh mochi to snack on. The mochi guys kept a steady rhythm as one would pound the dough and yells ichi (one). On ichi's upswing the other yells ni (tw0) and he hits the dough. This seems to prevent them from hitting each other and seems very useful when someone needs to put a hand in to turn the dough they are able to do so.

The sun started setting as we made our way back to the train station. It was a pretty fabulous day; I enjoyed the ramen I had for lunch, the vintage postcards I picked up at a little bookshop and all the photos I got of the temple and the deer. It was a long way home ; we still had to catch a train and then bike back to the dorms but we made it back around 11 after enjoying a delicious dinner in a drinking place with lots of tasty food.

Coming up: A sneak peak at some sketches.