MooshiMooshi Part 6

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MooshiMooshi, and welcome to Part 6 of my tale.
Autumn is well under way in Shimane-ken. At night, the air is beginning to chill and I am left wondering what the winter will bring. Japan lacking central heating leads me to believe that it can’t be that cold. Luckily, Ishikura gave me a huge fluffy blue kimono which at first I thought was a duvet, but as I was laying it out I realized it had armholes and a collar. I suppose I will wear it as I am sleeping on it.
Although it has been two months now, I am still adjusting to the diet. Most of the dietary intake here is protein and carbs with very little in the way of fruits and vegetables. The variety of produce is seriously lacking, and what they do have is terribly expensive. A simple apple costs $2, one small tomato is $3. More 'exotic' fruits such as pineapples, cost around $8 each. Japan has such tiny landmass that any available farmland is used for rice and cows (they LOVE beef and milk here, although they haven’t figured out how to turn it into cheese) leaving all fruits and vegetables to take a second seat. I have often gotten comments from staff who see me eating a whole fruit by myself in the break room. They seem surprised that I was not slicing it up and sharing, as during our school lunch, an orange is meant to be divided between 4 people, or sometimes we are all allotted exactly 3 grapes. People often exchange fruit as presents, but not fruit baskets like in the states, simply giving someone one piece of fruit is seen as a big gesture. So between the diet and the cooling weather I have been feeling quite drained of energy lately. Now that I have gotten paid, I need to cut other expenses so I can eat better.
At school, students have been preparing for the year’s culture festival. Parents come to watch the students sing, dance, and preform skits, such as this year's drag contest. Some parts of the program involved traditional Japanese song and dance, but the bulk of it was sycronized dances to pop music.
This week, I attended tea ceremony, held in the schools solitary tatami matted room. Our teacher, dressed in full kimono and with an air of dignity, instructed us on what angle to lie your chopsticks and how to properly pick up the tea bowl. If I had to summarize, I would say that tea ceremony is a ritual using tea and cakes as a vehicle to display forms of refined etiquette and grace. Through slow, calculated movements one’s goal is to allow the mind to drift into deep contemplation and open channels toward enlightenment.
But, while honored as a beautiful art form, tea ceremony is ultimately boring, demanding much patience and discipline. I can see why it is thoroughly unappealing to the youth of today. There are currently only two students at the school studying tea ceremony, and I could tell they were both kind of the dorky kids. And it felt quite out of place to sit bowing before a scroll on tatami mats while kids were screaming and running down the halls and I could here the horrible tunings of the brass band across the courtyard. Not the ideal setting for serenity. Yet there was so much conviction in this graceful elderly woman, our teacher. She had invested much of her life into this ritual. And I felt deeply sorry for her, that what she taught us was no longer viable. It was just too far away from our present surroundings.
This month, Matsue City's biggest and most loved festival commenced; the Dogyoretsu (Do drum parade). Held every year on the third Sunday of October, the Dogyoretsu celebrates the arrival of autumn to the city of Matsue. October is also the month when all Shinto Gods arrive at the shores of the San-In coast to the Izumo Taisha Shrine for their holiday. Perhaps they are present at this festival, perched on nearby mountains with attentive ears and the drumming, a rumble like the sound of distant thunder, brings to mind these gods and all that this season holds. As powerfully as the leaves will soon be swept off of trees, booming percussion bounces off buildings and fills the heart with awe.
Starting in front of Matsue castle, a parade of 2-3 drums are carried on a wooden shrine and beaten to the accompaniment of flutes and bells. Modeled after a traditional taiko drum, the Do drum is a mobile instrument slightly larger in diameter than a man’s height. Each drum is played by between 2 and 6 people at a time, who coordinate the simple beats pounded out by their wooden sticks. Associations representing different parts of the city form drum teams and parade with their floats through the streets. Drummers practice every night for a month or more leading up to the event, and their dedication is evident in the calloused and bandaged hands of most of the team members. Before the drumming begins, the floats are purified with ceremonial alcohol. The drummers, in turn, take a swig of the sacred sake. After a speech by town elders, the eager crowd fills in under the tallest of shrines, one containing fresh mochi. When the signal is given, several young men toss balls of wrapped mochi off of the shrine and into the scrambling crowd. An elderly man laughs with glee reaching his hand in front of me, a child scurries under my feet to pluck the treasures from the pavement, and a mochi hits me right between the eyes. But the fun is increased by the promise of good luck to the reciepients of these tasty mochi.
And now the floats begin their slow parade. Many town residents, from children to the elderly, are involved in pulling the shrines, as there are over 100 people needed to move just one. Dressed in colorful happi coats, with some participants dancing and some migrating toward the special floats that carry barrels of sake, the whole town echoes with the sound of the drums until the sun casts its pink hue over the lake.
For the citizens of Matsue City, the traditions of the Dogyoretsu hold familiar sights and sounds that they have known since their childhoods. I felt blessed to be able to participate in such a warm tradition.
But traditions from my own country are not forsaken here, as yesterday was Halloween. And like the gaijins we are a Halloween party hit the streets of Matsue on Saturday. Having few resources available, I went dressed as a shadow. Halloween, and all Western holidays for that matter, are an anomaly here. For example, Christmas is a holiday which you spend with your boyfriend/girlfriend going to the movies and eating ‘christmas cake’. Halloween is the day all students go to Baskin Robins "31" flavors (very popular here) to get a scoop of icecream. The teacher asked me to explain Halloween to the students, and I prepared a history lesson, charting the holidays Irish origins. I didn’t want the kids to grow up blinded by all this consumerism. They wound up understanding, but it was quite funny when I explained what Trick or Treat meant; (If you don’t get a treat, you play a trick!) I went on to explain egging and toilet papering, and the kids were shocked. They just couldn’t imagine doing something so cruel to their neighbors! The meanest prank kids tend to play here is called, pingpong, known as, “dingdong ditch” to us hooligans back home.
Today, I rode my bicycle along the coastline and met a pretty lighthouse along the way. The area was goof for a bit of rock climbing, and offered many opportunities to lie on flat slabs jutting out into the breaking waves. I also rode my bike to a gorge 25km down the road to see the changing of the leaves. While the gorge itself wasn’t too impressive, I discovered a tiny villiage of stone people, all adorned with red bonnets. How old these were one could only guess. But beautiful and unexpected was the experience, heightened by yet another example of rural kindness. When I was riding my bike back on the one lane highway with no shoulder, I heard my map fall out of my back pocket. Knowing where I was going and not wanting to stop, I proceeded on down the road. A good ten minutes pass and I hear the sound of a car slowing to the side of me. I glance over to find a family of four, the wife in the backseat with the window rolled down, my map in hand. We preformed the exchange of map and Arigatos in motion, and again I felt dazed as they drove away.
*to view a more complete collection of my photos,
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