Respect for the Aged Day and Part Two of the Festival Weekend

Today is a national holiday in Japan, Respect for the Aged Day. This national holiday was established in 1966 as a day to respect the elderly and celebrate long life. Originally held on September 15, it was changed in 2003 to the third Monday of September in accordance with the Happy Monday System.

The second festival of the weekend was at a smaller shrine that we happened upon after the two English teachers and I left the big Autumn Shrine Festival.  This little festival was part farmers market, part flea market, part food booths, and part talent show.

 

This talent act was quite entertaining.  The woman in the middle who was older than the others was having a good time, even if she wasn’t doing the same things as the others.

 

This man was in charge of videotaping the talent.

 

As we were leaving, two men walking around with a tray of paper covered sandwiches tried to sell us their hand-made hamburgers for 100 yen. One of the men could speak some English, but my friends could speak better Japanese.

 

Come back tomorrow to read about the big rice cake (mochi) festival. What a lot to pack into a long weekend!

Queen Elizabeth I and Part One of the Festival Weekend

I don’t want you to think my needle is gathering dust.  The Sun Dragon is finished but there is already another stitching project to take his place.  Meet Queen Elizabeth I.

 

I’ll tell you more about her in a day or two.  I don’t expect to get much stitching done this weekend because there are three (yes, three) different festivals in my town: the Autumn Shrine Festival (Friday – Sunday), a smaller festival at a smaller shrine (Saturday), and the Rice Cake Festival (Saturday – Monday).

Today I’ll tell you about the Autumn Shrine Festival that I attended Friday afternoon with my neighbors and Saturday afternoon with two English teachers (from Canada and Idaho). Two long streets were closed off and lined with a variety of food, novelties, game booths, even booths selling fish and tiny turtles, leading away from the big shrine. By food, I mean the Japanese version of state fair food.

 

This is fried spaghetti noodles

 

Friday afternoon the festival streets were lined with students, some still in their school uniforms.  The other day I told you I thought I might be starting to blend in and not look so foreign….forget it.  I could barely take two steps without being asked (in English) How are you?  Are you from America?  I had to smile and answer their questions.  They were all so cute and so proud of their English.

 

My little neighbor was in awe of all that was going on.  I’m as tall or taller than most people here.  I can’t imagine what his view of the festival was.

 

Both days I visited the shrine and threw in the 5 yen coin and did the two clap, two bow, prayer thing. 

 

 There was a beautiful bonsai exhibit on the shrine grounds.

 

Tomorrow I’ll tell you about the second festival of the weekend.

The Dragon is Done

The Sun Dragon

with the DragonMaster, which was finished earlier this year

 

Seeing Sapporo with Miwako

I had a big adventure yesterday.  Miwako, the shibori artist, invited me to meet her in Sapporo to have lunch and see a famous shrine.

As I walked to the train station, I passed a group of school children and for the first time since I’ve been here, not one of them yelled “Hair-o” to me.  Maybe I’m starting to blend in and not look like a foreigner any more.  Well, maybe not.

We buy train tickets in a pack of 11 and they are good for three months.  I pulled out the three tickets we had left and found out the expiration on them was the eighth of September! I took them along, hoping I’d still be able to use them.  The ticket man here stamped the day’s date on it and let me go.  Coming back from Sapporo I wasn’t so lucky and had to buy a new ticket. 

I’m still working on this same small train stitching project.  I’m getting closer to finishing it, maybe a few more train trips.

 

Miwako met me at the train station and led me to the subway, knowing where to get on and where to change and where to get off. I was interested in this sign.  Certain cars are for women and children only during the morning rush hour.

We had a wonderful Japanese lunch with sushi, tempura, soba, salad, and a fish flavored egg custard dish. It was delicious and we were both full after eating it all!

 

We walked a few blocks to a beautiful wooded park, called Maruyama Koen.   There were several children’s groups in the park, each group with a different color hat.

 

There is a little bird in this tree.

 

Our destination was the shrine inside the park.  The shrine is one hundred years old, which doesn’t sound that old compared to the ones in Kyoto, but Japanese people haven’t lived in Hokkaido as long as in the rest of Japan.

 

 

As you approach the shrine area, there is a water area to wash your hands and mouth.  It is a tradition for children at ages three, five, and seven to be blessed at the shrine. (I'm not sure if blessed is the correct word).  I think those are the unlucky years for children.  We saw this little boy in the kimono who was one of those at that age.

 

When you get up to the building, there is a slotted trough.  Each person throws in a five yen coin, then bows twice, claps twice, and says a prayer.  Every person, even little children, know to do this.

 After leaving the shrine, we took the subway to the Odori Park area and Miwako showed me several shops she thought I would be interested in, and I was.  I didn’t take any store pictures because that always gets me in trouble.  We went to the Junkudo bookstore, which has books in English on the second floor.  We also went to two small-ish fabric/craft stores in the same block as the four story Kanariya that I visited recently. I was very surprised!  In the US, there are very few needlework stores and you always hear about ones that are closing.  There must be a lot of people sewing/stitching/crafting here to keep all these stores in business.

On our way back to the train station we saw this man with his two dogs on his bicycle.

 

At the station went our separate ways.  Thank you, Miwako, for a fun day!