Entries this day: growth-via-mikoshi

growth via mikoshi

00:07 Monday 03 August 2015 JST

Today I saw some people carrying a mikoshi, so I stopped and broadcast them on Periscope for a bit

LIVE on #Periscope: Mikoshi https://t.co/cNZk91Vr0B

— Rob Nugen (@thunderrabbit) August 2, 2015

Then I talked to them as they were finishing before lunch. They invited me to join them when they started again at 1pm.

Before I left, a guy came up, "do you remember me?" and I kinda did, but not his name, Yuki; we had met at JB School Christmas party this past year, and apparently at a lesson after that, though I didn't remamber the lesson (but may have a (false) memory of it now..)

Anyway, I joined them at 1pm, and received shoes (yellow crocs) from NM-san (whose wife Ihad spoken to briefly before lunch). He gave them to me, which made sense because they had to wash out the spiders and leaves and candy wrapper that had collected in the shoes during their tenure of abandonment until today.

I received a はっぴ which I put on over my スヌーピ shirt and off we went, carrying this fancy mikoshi around the neighborhood!

LIVE on #Periscope: Carry Mikoshi https://t.co/EMCVpH4Rd6

— Rob Nugen (@thunderrabbit) August 2, 2015

We took a few breaks, featuring tea, cucumbers, edamame (like easy-open green beans), watermelon, and some beer, sponsored by local shops, it seemed. Before 4pm several mikoshi queued up near the local police station, ready for a parade down the street!

We had a bit of downtime before then so Yuki's dad (who's kinda like the caretaker of our particular mikoshi) took the time to tighten the ropes holding the "raft" of logs together (only 4 logs, so hardly a raft). I "helped" by holding the wooden mallet he used to lever the ropes far tighter than possible by hand.

4pm arrived, and I joined the group carrying the mikoshi down the street. It seemed to go on forever, and I kept looking ahead to see how much farther; trust me I was ready to be done at any time! To add to the fun, they started doing a slow swaying, leaning, more difficult version of carrying it, and at that time, Yuki pulled me out of the scrum. yessssss.

I was in awe of how they could hold it up while leaning so far from side to side.

LIVE on #Periscope: Several Mikoshi https://t.co/xrxHBXz1IX

— Rob Nugen (@thunderrabbit) August 2, 2015

The above video is a lot of the same, so fast forward to the end and there's a brief interview with Yuki who answered the million dollar question of "why?"

"Because it's fun!"

The interview took place in the local shrine where all the mikoshi came to rest for a closing ceremony. A few guys talked briefly, and I could understand approximately 0.5%, but I guess the content was "Good job; thanks for joining; let's do it again next year"

Then, and this is the part I had never seen before (not even on video), there was a ceremony during which (my understanding:) the gods were thanked, and removed from their respective shrines, into which they had been ceremoniously placed at an opening ceremony the previous day. The crowd was also blessed and served ______ (I forgot the name), which is rice wine (日本酒) which had been specifically blessed for our benefit.

I was invited to eat so we walked back to the meeting point (gently carrying the mikoshi, which was taken to its home for the year) and then went to dinner. NM-san was there, so I double-thanked him for the shoes and he double-confirmed I should keep them. They were crocs so my feet were still dirty so I washed them at the entrance of the small dining hall where several low tables had been placed, and loaded with food.

Washing my feet before going in, I experienced a moment of inner (emotional/spiritual) growth. The best I can describe it was that in previous cases I washed my feet with a slight feeling of guilt, with nagging voice in my head, "well if you'd just wear shoes, you wouldn't inconvenience people by having to wash your feet." But this time it was more like, "the feet are dirty, so wash the feet." No ego, no guilt. Just simple logic.

Yuki pointed to a dry washcloth on the floor for me to dry my feet, so I stepped up onto it and dried them, and after I finished, someone took the cloth for me and everything proceeded as normal.

We all crammed in to the small hall.. it wasn't not as crowded as a Tokyo train, but my back was touching the back of the guy sitting at the table behind me. I happened to be seated next to Mika, who had spoken to me earlier at one of the breaks. Yuki sat to my left. We were all sitting in 正座　（せいざ (seiza)）, basically sitting on feet with knees pointing forward, so Yuki asked a couple of times if I was okay. He goes, "just let me know if you want to go." I was fine, so I stayed. Plus, free delicious food!

I asked who paid for it, and he said that basically people in the neighborhood chip in. "Oh! yeah we pay that fee; something like $10 per year."

"Yup; that's the one."

Whew; so I had already paid!! (but technically speaking, I had paid the fee in my neighborhood, not this neighborhood, fully 1 kilometer distant!)

Beer was poured, and I drank it for the opening カンパイ "kanpai" (cheers), instead of explaining how much I don't drink alcohol. The food was great: sashimi (raw sliced fish), deep batter-fried sliced onion+veggies, Japanese potato + chicken + gabon + baby-bamboo salad, warm somen (thin noodle) soup, batter-fried chicken, and onigiri (triangular rice balls).

Yuki's dad poured beer for me after I had nearly finished the first one (these were small small small glasses; basically beer shot glasses (maybe 100cc)), and it spilled over a bit so I took a sip to keep it from overflowing onto the food before we カンパイed (said cheers). Yuki explained it was a gesture of thanks/welcome.

I asked Yuki if the カンパイ should take precedence over sipping to stop a spill before the カンパイ. He said it was okay to sip first: he explained it was his dad's fault (for overpouring)!

Yuki's dad's older brother spoke for a bit, "thanks for coming; let's do it again next year." (it was quite short and I understood 85 to 90 percent.)

We ate, and Mika assured me I can use chopsticks well, but I didn't mind. I considered telling her I had used chopsticks as a kid in the US, but I didn't even do that.

At one point, I looked up as someone was holding a jar of yellow water with something in the bottom... oh! a snake!

I offered my glass up, thinking that doing so would either be a funny joke for the crowd, or hell yeah for my first chance to drink snake-flavored alcohol! Yuki assured me it was real and I got 3/4 beer-shot-glass full. I waited for one other guy to get his, and I tried to カンパイ him, but either he didn't hear or whatever, so I カ ンパイed the group at large, 蛇カンパイ！ (snake cheers!!) and downed about 3/4s of it. I was like, "whoo!" at the end, and everyone cheered and it was great: partially great because it didn't taste like snake, but mostly great because it was another growth moment. Not the drinking itself, but the requesting and shouting [snake cheers] to a crowd of people I don't know.

I didn't worry about the correct protocol for anything; I just went with it: tried to カンパイ the other partaker, カンパイed the group, (he カンパイed me a bit later), downed the snake-whisky and realized something I can't really articulate.

Basically I didn't need to be shy nor (worry that I might not) do the right thing; just go with the flow and it's all good.

It wasn't cause I was drunk and losing inhibitions; it seems I was just losing inhibitions. And after writing this whole story out, I can't help but notice I had just been present at a ceremonial blessing.

Dinner ended wayyy sooner than I expected for the number of people and the amount of food we had! But there was a schedule: karaoke was going on at the shrine! BUT, Yuki said he and several of his peeps were going to a Japanese bathhouse first, so I said I would join them there. As everyone was getting up, Yuki introduced me to his mom as well. I explained how I had met Yuki originally and earlier this day.

Yuki's dad sat me down for another quick drink as the tables were being cleared, and I spoke with him a bit, about where I was from and was it hotter in Tokyo or Houston. I noticed the clock on the opposite wall featured Snoopy on it, which matched my t-shirt! (same character, not same design. (that would be like God pushing the point a bit more than necessary.)) I was like, "wow! snoopy! same as my shirt!" which I might normally have just made a mental note and not told everyone about it. *what if they don't care? what if they don't undertand me? what if I say it wrong?* But today I said it, and maybe no one cared or everyone cared, but it didn't matter. Snoopy!

As we left, I thanked NM-san a third time, and he assured me I should wear the shoes instead of carry them (as I was doing at the time). The group concurred (as I would need to take them off at the bath house (and there was no hose outside the door to wash my feet). I made a big show out of how painful it was to put on the shoes, and they laughed and we headed toward Yuki's house where they got clean clothes to wear after the bath.

I waited outside, noting how I had recently changed; that I had been more chatty and less worried about crap. I spoke to Yuki's dad when he came up, and asked him about the thing he said he made outside. He told me where I could buy one cheaply, and then Yuki et al came out and we walked to the bath house by way of the convenience store, where two of us bought towels. Then Yuki was like, "oh I brought you a towel" so I was like, "oops haha I didn't know" and that was it; I didn't worry about it (though I did thank him again later)

In the bath house, we washed up then got into the baths; they had four different types in close vicinity: hot water at 43 C, cold water at 19 C,a nd a medium temperature bath (maybe 35 C (I didn't check)) which was contoured for relaxation and had arm rails to keep people from drowning if they fell asleep. We joked about 沈沈 shrinkage from the cold water, and I happily jumped from hot to cold to hot to cold, but most happily is that I was just happy, splashing around with the group, talking about how cold or hot the water was, and how it was my first time to try an amazing new thing: electric pulsed water!

One side of the 43 C tub had pictures of scorpions (not electric eels) (I think; I wasn't wearing my glasses) and if we sat (or even just touched) the water in that area, it would provide AC current coursing through our bodies! I loved it! I winced with pain and joked "if I die; tell my wife" as I sat with my back near the wall and could feel my stomach just knotted up and my chest like tight; it was so crazy and so fun and so weird. I made a point on the second time from cold water to hot water to specifically get in to the hot water in the electric end of it, partially to show off, but partially just for the challenged, and mostly just because it was fun!

There were limits to my newfound ability to chat: when I stepped into a separate room featuring three men talking in a tub loaded with calcium, I didn't interrupt them or talk about what was in the tub; I just enjoyed it for a second, and then got out when I realized I could more easily chat with the others. But even that was a new thing; I might have previously second-guessed how long I "should" stay in the tub; I had just gotten in; I couldn't just get out; they'll think I'm a wimp! (no they won't; they won't think anything at all.)

Rinsed off; headed out; got dressed; headed out, and found the group outside and Yuki's dad had purchased a drink for me: bottled milk! Wow so nice! (why did they serve milk at the sento?) and we カンパイed and Yuki said I should drink it like his dad who had stood up and drank the milk with his hand on his hip. I don't know if that was a thing, or if Yuki was teasing his dad, but I just went with it, and downed most of the bottle and exahaled a big satisfied AAahhhhh afterward.

From that point, we headed to karaoke at the shrine and listened to enka while eating shaved ice and flavored syrup. I stayed until the end with Yuki's parents and several of the older peeps and thanked them at the end for honestly the most memorable day I've had in a long time.

2:32am

finished writing in just over 2 hours, and about to post on FB cause it was that good hahaa.