(The shrine we went to)
So, this week marks the REAL start to the Japanese Holiday (or holidays) called Golden Week. It consists of a week because of several holidays that are right after the other one. It actually starts with Showanohi "Hirohito's Birthday" celebrated on April 29th. But, on Saturday it is the true start of the holiday.
We (all the exchange students we hang out with except for Kyu) went to Usui-san's house in Ashikaga. After everyone arrived, we ate dishes that were prepared by some of Kyoko-san's (Usui's wife) English learning students. It's impressive how much of a hold they have on English in a little less than 1 to 3 years.
After that we went to a Tea Ceremony. We entered a traditional style courtyard for houses that specialized in Tea Ceremony and were led to building to have the Tea Ceremony in. Apparently, this was just for the formalities and not the full part of the ceremony. I remember reading from somewhere that you actually get part of the tea leaves and you have to wisk them by yourself. The entire ceremony could last nearly an hour. However, we were handed the tea already pre-made and ready to consume. We weren't there nearly as long.
The steps go something like this (from yesterday):
-Handed a piece of sweet candy or some other sweet food to consume because the green tea will be bitter.
-Handed the bowl and bow to thank the person that brought it
-You place the bowl to the left of yourself and say "I'm going to [drink] before you." (this is a ritualistic polite phrase when spoken in Japanese and does not express well enough in English)
-You place your left palm underneath the bowl, and with your right hand on the right side of the bowl, you turn your bowl in your hand left (towards you) twice.
-You are ready to consume!
- Once you're finished, turn the bowl right (away from you) twice and (tea ceremony rooms use a certain tatami mat style) place the bowl in front your line on your mat to symbolize the fact that you're done with the bowl.
-Bow again to thank the person that will receive the bowl.
-Bow to thank the guests and the hosts.
It's a pretty formalized process.
After that, we went to a shrine. This was my first time going to an actual shrine in Japan. Shrines and Temples are of different religions or beliefs. In Japanese, Jinja (shrines) are associated with Japan's native religion Shinto. Shinto is animistic in the sense that practitioners believe that everything has a soul or spirit (plants, people, animals, natural features like mountains and waterfalls). According to shinto, when you die, you have the ability to eventually become a god. Temples (otera in Japanese) are associated with Buddhism. Buddhism deals with what happens after death, and Shinto deals with things that happen during life, but either one can also deal with the other one. It started raining, so we didn't get to actually go into the central shrine hall, but were able to go up to the offering box and pray. We also got a shrine fortune from a box on the side. Everyone except for Rin got some form kichi (luck) from the fortune. I'll translate what my fortune said for a later time.
We went to a temple after the shrine. Here, you get to announce to the spirits that you're going to make an offering by taking the hanging rope and ring it against the the bell. The temple was having a Matsuri for Golden Week, so lots of shops and stalls were all around. Keleih tried a fish capturing minigame, there were tons of good food, and a group of guys we saw earlier in the day were street dance performing 60's/50's rock songs were just some of the things at the temple that day.
(This was the group of street dancers dancing to 50's and 60's rock songs. They also all had matching slick 50's hair styles, just like Elvis).
We returned to Usui's house after that and snacked a bit until Keleih, Yoshiko, Brian, and Usui got back from taking Keleih to a pharmacy. Most of us tried this crazy Sake that smelled like rubbing alcohol. It was pretty strong. Yoshiko was a little drunk from just a few shots! xD She's just right about having smaller organs. Anyway, after that, we left Usui's house for the train back to Oyama. Tomorrow is "KEITAI GET!" day, so I won't be stuck out of the loop anymore with everyone else that already has one. Wish me luck!
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