Festivals!!!

When I first arrived in Odate, I was shocked at how many festivals take place in and around this smallish city. August and February happen to be the busiest festival months (they are 6 months apart) and we came to Japan just as the festivals were getting good. There were many, many festivals that I was not able to go to because they either happened earlier in the summer or while we were at Tokyo Orientation which was a bummer. However, I have only been in Japan for 5 weeks and I have already gone to multiple festivals with more still to come, and if I stay for another year then I can go to the festivals that I missed this year! If possible, I am even more excited for the February festivals than the August festivals because there is a candy festival in Odate (how can you go wrong?), in south Akita there is a festival where people beat each other with massive bamboo poles) and in Oga (on the west coast of Akita) there is a Namahage festival where men dress up as the Namahage (see the friendly guy in the picture below) and terrorize children. Yay Japan!

Kazuno Festival:

This was my very first festival in Japan and it was a great preview of what was to come. For the first time I got to see the giant floats that are at every festival and I got to see the fan dancing that I so desperately want to learn. We ate festival food: yakitori (chicken on a stick) and chocolate covered bananas along with other things), walked around, and watched the performances. However, we copped out and left early (somewhere between 10 and 11) instead of sticking it out and staying all the way through the night as this festival never ended! This festival was a ton of fun and was a great introduction to Japanese festivals.

Omagari no Hanabi:

The next festival that we went to (a week or two later) was the Omagari no Hanabi or the Omagari fireworks festival. This festival might be the biggest fireworks competition in Japan, but even if it is not, it's definitely one of the biggest. The festival was about three hours away (we drove for two hours and took a train for one) but it was worth it. It took place in a small town, but for that weekend the town was filled with about 500,000 people. We sat with other ALTs, relaxed on a blanket, ate and drank, and enjoyed the fourish hour long show. It was, hands down, the longest and best fireworks show that I have ever seen (although it made me miss the fireworks in Fayetteville a lot). They started with daytime fireworks with a lot of smoke so that they were visible and then when it got dark, the real show began. It was a fireworks competition so each firework group got about 10 minutes to show their stuff. By the end of the night, I had no idea who won, but I had fun regardless. The fireworks were amazing; whoever won will get to do the fireworks in Tokyo for New Years, so you know that they had to be good. Even though it was a long trek and I was exhausted (to be honest, I'm always exhausted here), it was worth it.

Shin Meisha:

This was Odate's very own festival-the majority of the action took place about a 25-30 minute walk from my apartment which was splendid. The major downfall of this festival was that it took place on a Monday and Tuesday which meant that I was exhausted for the next two days of school. During the festival I got to: pull a float, run up a hill with said float, drink sake with old Japanese men, shout “washoi” until I went hoarse, throw water on scantily dressed men (and I had water thrown on me as well), almost develop pneumonia again because of the rain, and so much more. It was a great two nights and it was better than the other festivals because, not only was it in Odate, but I got to participate. As they kept telling us at orientation, the JET Program is not just about teaching, but it also about a culture exchange. While we (the 10ish foreigners who were there) did not come even close to fitting in with the multitudes of Japanese people at the festival, we still had fun together and I at least felt the most connected with Japan than I have since I have been here. So enough of that sappy nonsense, let me tell you about the festival itself.

On Monday, we were able to leave the office early to get changed and ready to meet the float. We met back at the office, walked over together and got some sake and had a chance to pray at a shrine along the way. Then we met up with the float, got to change into our happis (festival outfits), ate some food, and got ready to go. On the front of the float there were two long ropes that we grabbed onto and pulled (there were around 20-30ish of us) with an assist from people pushing the float itself. We then dragged the float for about an hour to the train station while being serenaded by the musicians and dancers on the float itself (which made it heavier, but also more entertaining).

 For almost that entire hour it rained, so I was busy worrying about my cell phone and complaining about how wet I was to actually notice how heavy the float itself was. Of course I became more and more tired as the night went on, but for the most part I just had fun dancing and shouting and dancing and waving to my excited students, and shouting some more and then (big surprise) more shouting! The night was very repetitive, but it was still fun (and completely exhausting). The most tiring part of the night was toward the end when we were taking the floats back to the starting point and came to a massive hill. One at a time, the people pulling the floats run up the hill (with the float obviously) which was horrible. We started off strong, but the float was so heavy that after a minute or two we slowed down significantly. It probably wasn't even a minute or two, but it felt so long. But we persevered and made it to the top and now I don't have to do that for at least a year! Then we took the float back the rest of the way and I headed back to my place for some much needed sleep.

The next day (Tuesday) started very similarly; we ate dinner, drank, and pulled the float for a bit. However, Tuesday had much more dancing and shouting and much less float pulling which I was fine with. Tuesday was full of other things, like throwing water on groups of men, some more scantily dressed than others. I can't say that I really understood what was going on, but it was a lot of fun picking up buckets full of water and throwing them, then running back to get more. It might not have rained nearly as much that day, but I still got very wet. The other important thing to note was that I was exhausted and wanted to go home after a couple of hours, but I stuck it out til 11:20ish (then went home and passed out). I am glad that Odate has festivals that I can go to, and I'm looking forward to participating more through dancing or playing taiko (big drums).

Daimonji:

And now for the last of the big festivals for a while: Daimonji. To be honest, the festival itself wasn't that big, but we played a major role in it which is why I'm adding it to this blog (and it's really cool!). We actually almost missed this entire festival because it was supposed to take place while we were somewhere else (Akita Orientation maybe?), but it was canceled because of the rain and moved to September 16^th, a day when all of us were in town! Now this festival involved lighting the giant Dai (a kanji symbol) which is on a mountain that overlooks the town of Odate on fire! Yes...we got to light a mountain on fire...how cool is that? We needed to have a long sleeved shirt, boots, some sort of flashlight, and a hale body in order to climb the mountain, so the morning of I bought everything that I didn't have (unfortunately I couldn't buy a body that was really in shape so I had to make due with the one that I have) and mentally prepared myself for the challenge. 

With my newly purchased “Taxas”(Texas) shirt on (see above), I was ready to face the giant mountain, and so we proceeded to climb. And climb. And climb. I tell you this, if I ever climb Mt. Fuji I will make sure to get in shape beforehand because I was exhausted and it was only an hour hike to the top. I was sweaty and disgusting, and it was totally worth it because the view at the top was to die for. Actually, I kind of thought that I was going to die at the top because then once we got to the top, we had to climb down the steep face of the mountain with no guiderails to break our falls. I discovered that while I'm not normally afraid of heights, I am when I'm on the face of a mountain...yay! I used the “scoot on my butt” method to make it down the mountain, so I looked ridiculous but hey, I'm alive. Finally we got to the individual stacks of wood that we were in charge of lighting (we each had one) and then just got to sit and eat and wait. We got to the mountain with 3ish hours to spare because we wanted to make it up before it got dark which was definitely a good idea seeing how treacherous it was in the day time, and actually it was really nice to watch the view, sing some songs, and just take a while to breathe. 

Before we knew it, it was 7:45, time to douse our stacks of wood with kerosene and get ready to light the dai! At 8 there was a countdown and then we lit the stacks on fire! Or we were supposed to...my lighter chose not to work, so Aftan lit mine, but then I lit my stack of wood and everything was peachy! 

And by peachy I mean ridiculously hot! We took about ten minutes to just stare at the fire and at the fireworks that were going on below us in town and it was really cool knowing that I was a part of something so big-well, relatively big in our small city. The below picture is what the dai looked like on the mountain after we lit it.

Then my stack fell over, so we decided that it was time to go before something bad happened. We made our way back down the mountain, which was much easier than going up, and then crawled back to our apartment to shower and change out of our disgusting clothes. It was totally worth it, no matter how many times I might have died (falling down the mountains, getting mauled by bears, getting stung by a poisonous snake or hornet, etc.). I mean how many times do you get to light a mountain on fire legally? Not very many that's for sure! However, the one thing that I am not happy about as an aftermath of that night are the 100+ mosquito bites that are covering my back and my knee (and the rest of me, but mostly those two places). 

None of us thought to bring bug spray (I will never make that mistake ever again), and apparently my sweaty body made a savory treat for those little (insert expletive here). Other than that, like I said, totally worth it! However, I am glad that I didn't tell mom about the excursion beforehand...don't worry mom, I'm alive!!!