My Saturday (talking about 9/16/2006)

Let me assure you I didn't pansy out in any respect on this Saturday. I was committed, I had drive and ambition and I got shit done. It was very very good. In order to be such a driven individual I decided I would have to start early. Real early, infact. I got up at the crack of 8:30AM. Yep, I know you're all gasping in horror at the audacity of it, but it's a Saturday, I'm in college in a foreign country. 8:30 is early on a Saturday. Please also factor in that I sleep on THE FLOOR, on mats I'm convinced are trying to make said floor harder than it actually is. More on that at a further date.

The best part of getting up early was the look on my Okaasan's face. She was still in her jammies drinking coffee when I was fully dressed and heading for the door. She knew where I was going, but I think she was impressed I got up and ready. I got up and out by 9AM to catch a train from Gotenyama(the station next to my house) to Osaka (Yodabashi Station), which is an hour or so away depending on which train you get. Then I had to take the subway from Yodabashi Station to Namba Station and find the Namba train station, not the subway, to get on another line that would let me off at Kishiwada. Kishiwada is a small town to the south of Osaka in the Kansai Region and what posessed me to go there on a specific day was the Danjuri Festival. It's a day when they parade huge unpainted wooden floats called Danjuri through the city to temples. It started over 300 years ago and it's in order to thank the harvest god named Inari. Inari is also the god that uses the foxes called Kitsune as messangers, there are little shrines all around Japan and I love taking pictures of the fox statues and bright red temples, so I know you've all seen that at least.

That was the textbook answer as to what, "Danjuri Festival" means, it's what brought me on this mission, but as always when you actually hit the ground things can be completely more crazy than you expected. Quite frankly that's what I was hoping for and Japan delivers. The whole "parading" the danjuri through the city is an understatement, they RACE them through the city streets, being pulled by kids, women, men, everybody. Also they aren't on wheels, they're on steamroller rollers, so it's like a HUGE verison of the Flinstone cars. And the huge part is really what makes this, they're gorgeous and beautifully decorated and they have local officials standing on the front and people who have to climb inside them playing insturments on the upper interior and on top they have one or two guys waving fans and doing stunts. What really got me was the atmosphere of the whole thing. Everyone had on these black pants and a black over kimono with a big symbol on the back referencing which team they cheered for or were working for. I tried to buy one while I was there, but everyone was sold out, which leads me to believe that most folks do this every year and have these things for years and years. I loved how it felt like a Nantucket holiday, honestly anyone from home will understand what I'm going to say, heck I'll illustrate it: It's like you took the daffodil parade, the mid 1990's stroll, and the fourth of July and had it on a single day. It was as if Jer souped up the beachcart so it was HUGE, we had three board members riding on the front, Jeff's kids playing instruments on the inside, Marshall around in a black kimono (I have pictures of dogs dressed up), and Olivia on top doing backflips. Oh, and we challenged the fire department with their HUGE hose-cart and the NHA with their whaleboat and we walked up Main Street only to get to Centre Street and take a sharp 90 turn and WE RAN with this thing down the street taking sharp turns on Quince, India, Fair, Gay Street, hell you name any TINY street until we got to one of the churches. Then there would be much cheering we'd stop to have tourist fawn over the cart only to start it up again 20 minutes later.

It felt wonderful to be there. Everyone was so nice, several Japanese people helped me out off and on all day. As soon as I got off the train I saw a danjuri go screaming by and I was afraid that I'd missed it. I had no clue they did it all day. Anyway I walked maybe 20 feet down the main road when an older guy sitting in a chair by a doorway stops me and asks me if I'm a foreigner and when I answer in the affirmative he insists that I go inside this building and get a map. I'm operating on a map I got out of a magazine, so I'm game. Only to find out that this is the tourist center and they couldn't be happier to see me. They have me sign this guest book and then take me over to this wall where they put on one of the black kimono, a red and white handband and give me a huge fan and take a few pictures. They took some with my camera too, so here I am in all my tourist glory:



They gave me the head band and the huge fan, I had them all day, although I took off the headband because I felt really silly. The maps were great and it was a wonderful start to this day. Now, another factor in this getting up "early" was that no one else wanted to join me in my little adventure. Later Nadia asked me who went with me and I explained why no one else wanted to go and she felt bad for me, which I guess was nice, but it was a great thing to do even on my own. I know the train system at this point and I could go and do what I wanted, it was an adventure and I'm glad I took this oppertunity to go out of Osaka and see something super cool. It just felt good to know I can do this sort of thing on my own and survive. This was a festival and that would make you think that you'd run across mostly foreign tourists taking in the sights, but aside from the tourist center I only saw a handful of other foreigners. This really seemed to be a holiday for the town and they seemed psyced to have us along. The first time I was able to see the floats go by I was standing next to a middle aged woman who asked me in English, "Is this your first time?" I told her it was and we had a little conversation, she kept smiling and offered to help me out if I need directions. I got a few things cleared up, but she was just very happy that I liked it so much. I owe a few people for just grabbing me or letting me squeeze myself in next to them to get out of the streets. These streets can be really narrow and these floats aren't on a set time so as I was trying to get back to one of the main streets I got cornered and had a float coming down the way, don't worry there's a huge string of people pulling and they check before they go really fast, but it made it so I had to stop and find a place to stand off to the side quick. I was looking around trying to find a doorway to hop into when a crowd of people gestured for me to stand by them. They pulled me in so I was safe and we all had a good time getting pictures of the floats and cheering for them. It was with these folks that one float actually crashed into an airconditioning unit across the street and they had to have some people from the parade stop and move it back. After that happened I noticed more and more the padding people put on their stores and balconies. There were a few other "crash sites" I noticed later on too. Also in this spot another float had their people pulling the float have to run to the side to help make the turn and ended up body checking a bunch of us. We were fine, it was just sudden and crazy to have happen, it made the event much more fun.

My path through the city is pretty easy to follow, I went down the street in front of the train station down to the mall area (most stores were closed or had tourist items in the regardless of the fact that the tour is normally a real estate office or men's clothing store), outside there I got to see some danjuri stopped and I got a bunch of pictures. I loved the people that had their little dogs dressed up in the little kimonos and all the guys who pull this thing just hanging out. One of the other highlights of the day were all the kids. They were climbing all over the danjuri and a few of them were playing the instruments inside. There was this one kid that was playing the Taiko drum (I have a video game version at home), his friends were in with something like a cowbell and another drum. They were just jamming and even though they were all of 7 or 8 years old they were GOOD. I got a bunch of pictures of them and they played for me to make a quick movie I have saved on my camera too.

From there I backtracked to see the danjuri I saw stopped in motion and I got some lunch, which was some onigiri (rice balls) that had pickled plum and some seaweed in them. They weren't that good, but a downed a green tea and got to see the parade. After that I went to the Kishiki Shrine and the Kishiwada castle. Sadly this isn't where the original castle was and the inside is a museum (it was gutted, like Osaka Castle), but it was beautiful to look at and gave you a sense of the layout of the town from the Heian Period (700 AD) until the 1800's. Most of the town was made up of gates and moats, which make walking through the streets way cooler. I'm a nerd and I was psyced I could read enough Japanese to make sense of this stuff. I realized a suit of Samurai armor was made for a 6 year old son of the local lord. I know it's little, but it's a trimph for me.

After the castle I went by this huge pond with beautiful lotus flowers and cute turtles. I ended up back at the parade and found my way to one of the other temple. This is the other example of Japanese kindness. I knew a cart was coming, but then they realized it was stopping at a building I was right next to, so they moved a bunch of people so they could turn. I had my camera out and was kind of near the back of the crowd when this guy waves at me and then helps me up onto this ledge where a bunch of other offical looking photographers are. He and his wife were just up there watching and decided to let me in on their spot. I got some great pictures and when they were finished I realized the man and woman were halfway across the street in the crowd I yelled, "Arigato" as loud as I could and the woman turned around and smiled. They were very nice to help me out like that and I'm so glad atleast she heard me. I said in that spot for alittle longer and got to pet this old man's dog who was also up there with me. He and his wife were also very nice and I had a little chat with them too.

The other HUGE section of this town was made up into little tents for food and kid's games. I have a bunch of pictures on flickr of octopus stands and kid's games for catching goldfish. I got some little cakes shaped like pikachu for later and played a game that got me a black and white pig folder. Awesome. I wanted to stay for the lantern lighting that started at 7pm, but I'd been in this town since 11AM and by 3 or so I'd seen and done everything, so I headed back for the train station. I got an email from Erica right after I started back and she told me they were on their way to Osaka, which is where I had to go anyway to get back. So to kill some time while they got to the city I stayed in Kishiwada caught another temple and got some ice with some melon and strawberry flavoring in it.

Now this is how dumb I am. I was eatting this sno-cone trying to do so my lips didn't up blue or green and I was walking down this street until I hear a loud CRACK of plastic and have a LARGE sharp pain in my forehead. I walked INTO the side mirror of a parked truck, only to have Japanese passers by ask in English, "Oh my God are you okay?!" I laughed it off and explained that I was fine, just dumb (baka, idiot) and they went on their way. It HURT though, I honestly felt it in my teeth and it was sore all day. I swear I get less and less graceful daily. >__<

My mom was right, part of this blog is missing. Crap I have to retype it

As I was trying to figure out how to get to Yodabashi from Namba station when I got back to Osaka. I noticed another white guy standing next to me in a bright orange Texas longhorns t-shirt. I was about to ask him if he needed help, when he looked up from his map and ask, "Please tell me you speak English." I do, so I asked him what he need help with and apparently he was just trying to get to Umeda station, which is one past Yodabashi (the one I was going to to meet Erica and crew). So I helped him get his ticket, explained how the train worked and then offered to ride the train with him since we were both going on the same one anyway. We got to chatting and it turns out it was his first time in Japan and he was here working for the Madonna concert that was being held in Osaka that night and Sunday night. He was really nice and is originally from Texas (hence the shirt) and showed me pictures of some of the other shows they've done (in Denmark, etc.). He also threw in a picture of his dog, which was super cute. As we were talking he said he was very thankful that I stopped and gave him all this help and even went on the same train and he offered to walk me into the Madonna concert! I was totally excited and then he gave me his hotel he was staying at and the room number. Now this freaked me out.

Also my stop came up so I thanked him and said I might and then hopped off the train only to promptly forget the room number and his name. >__< I told the girls (Erica, Nadia and Maria) when I met up with them and they were totally excited and I realized later the whole room number thing was to CALL him, since he's only in the country for a week. So we decided to try and catch up with him since I did remember where he was going (the Ritz Carlton to look at some cars, off Umeda station) so off we went. What frustrated me was that we made this decision to go and so I was all gung-ho about let's do this or not. They stopped a few times to do shopping and when we did get there he was gone and they were bored with the idea. I keep kicking myself for getting flustered and forgetting the room number, but hey it's still a cool story either way.

We met up with Marika (she's Japanese, but new at Kansai) in Namba and eventually found food we could all eat (reminder: Erica is vegan) at a Mexican Restaurant. :3 There we found out our waiter, who since Erica is vegan we had to ask a million questions about the food, was Mexican so Maria spoke Spanish to him, then we realized he spoke fluent English and pretty good Japanese. Nadia, I think in an attempt to impress him or atleast make things easier tried to order her food in Spanish and ended up saying Tacos de mexicanos. To which he replied, "Nope we don't have that." We looked confused, while Maria was laughing her ass off and he explained, "That means tacos made from Mexicans and since I'm the only Mexican here, you can't have a taco made out of me." Nadia will NEVER live this down. We constantly tease her about her horrible Spanish pick-up line of "yeah I'd like a taco, made out of YOU. *growl*" Seriously though, the food was great and he was so nice that place will probably become a regular stop when we're in Osaka.

I got home around 11:30 to find that no one except Soji was home. Everyone else went to the public bath (I thought he said "Public BUS" and so we looked confused at one another for a few minutes) and they got back. Apparently my curfew doesn't really affect them, so atleast I know they trust me and I'm not making them mad by coming home a little later than 7pm. All in all, Saturday was busy, but Sunday was going to be busier since it was Maria's Birthday. More on that later.