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Published: October 20th 2006
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yuge69
The elementary school's 6th grade amateur sumo competitors at the fall harvest festival. First: I tried posting a video here, so please click on the icon and see if it worked out.
Another weekend of fall harvest festivals is over. Last weekend's festival was just in my small neighborhood, but this weekend, two of the much bigger neighborhoods (if you can even say there is a big neighborhood) on Yuge had their festivals. So, of course the festivals were more extravagant, and of course there was more danjiri carrying and sake drinking!
The festivities started on Friday evening at the big shrine on the main beach on Yuge (Matsubara beach). After I was done with work at the junior high school at 5:00pm, I quickly rode my bike to the ferry port and took a ferry to a neighboring island. Last week I was walking around on this neighboring island (which is much bigger and has lots of shopping and restaurants) and suddenly spotted a huge American-style Halloween pumpkin sitting at the entrance to a sweets shop. This was unusual, because this type of big, orange pumpkin is rare in Japan, and many people have never seen them before. The more common type of pumpkin, and also very commonly eaten, is the
yuge70
My junior high school students dancing a traditional edo-period dance for the festival. Japanese kabocha. Kabocha are so delicious, but absolutely horrible for carving! I carved one a couple years ago when I was in Osaka, but it took me an hour just to finish the eyes because they are so tough. So, not being able to at least enjoy carving a pumpkin for Halloween, being my favorite holiday, is definitely cause for homesickness!
Avoiding homesickness is important, so I walked into the shop and asked the shop keeper where he got the pumpkin. He said he got it from a farmer that lives on the Honshu mainland, pretty far away. Thinking that it would be impossible for me to find a farmer from Honshu that grows American-style pumpkins and that this shop keeper couldn’t do anything for me, I said, “Oh, that’s too bad. Thanks anyway.” But before I knew it, he was on his phone calling up the farmer that sold him the pumpkin. He asked me how many I wanted, so I ordered four, one for all the English teachers on each island of Kamijima (Nick on Ikina, Luke on Iwagi, Ethan on Uoshima, and me). He said to come back on Friday by 5:00 pm to pick them
yuge71
I met this guy a week before and was surprised because he knew a little English. I had a long conversation with him then, but not till I ran into him again at the festival did I realize he was the big shinto priest in town. up.
So, getting back to Friday after work, I met the other English teachers at the port on the neighboring island, and we went to pick up our pumpkins. When we got to the shop, there were four gigantic orange pumpkins lined up at the entrance. I looked at them with disbelief and concern, for I had no clue how I would be able to transport one of these giants back to my apartment on Yuge. If you’ve ever seen one of those prize-winning giant pumpkins at a local fair, then you have a good idea of how big these pumpkins were. Ethan grabbed the biggest one (he has to impress the 280 people on his island) and I grabbed the smallest one. Even though I had the smallest one of the bunch, it was still the biggest hassle carrying back to my apartment. When I got back to Yuge island, I had to somehow strap it on my bike to haul it home. It took me forever, and everyone was starring at me wondering what the crazy foreigner was up to this time.
It was getting late at this point, and I had promised the female junior
yuge72
The dancers take a break... high school teachers that I would meet them at the festival that evening at 6:30 to compete with them in shirizumo (butt sumo). This is an interesting variation of sumo where two people stand back-to-back on a stoop and try to throw each other off using only their butts. At this festival there was only female shirizumo, and I was supposed to be on the junior high school female teacher’s’ team. But that giant of a pumpkin took so long to carry home that I didn’t make it to the festival until 8:30. I missed our competition, but made it in time to watch the end of shirizumo and the entire elementary school’s amateur sumo competition. It was really fun, and there was lots of good festival food to be eaten. It was a unique experience indeed, seeing the entire island community together watching people wrestle with their butts.
The next day started early with an 8:00am glass of beer before the danjiri was to be carried through the neighborhood’s narrow alleyways. At my own neighborhood’s festival last week, women were not allowed to carry the danjiri or mikoshi. In fact, traditionally in the Shinto religion, women were thought
yuge73
This picture was taken from the depths of the danjiri madness. I'm so lucky my camera didn't get trampled on. to be impure and dirty and often weren’t allowed to enter the Shinto shrine. Now those rule are much more relaxed, but even at a festival I attended two years ago in Osaka, women weren’t even allowed to get near to the danjiri or mikoshi. So, I went to the festival that morning thinking that I would just be watching the danjiri being carried through the neighborhood. I was wrong. Supposedly at this festival women are permitted to carry the danjiri, but by the end of the day, I almost wished I was still viewed as the filthy impure woman. I carried that danjiri all day and my shoulders still ache. Being a little taller than everyone, I think a heavier load was resting on my shoulders most of the time.
The most intense and climactic part of the day is when the danjiri arrives at its new home and the mikoshi and the danjiri engage in a big fight. This means that the people carrying the mikoshi run full force into the danjiri, often trampling over the people carrying it. This is really dangerous and I actually saw a few too many old men falling to the ground
yuge74
My JTE (person I teach with) at the junior high school. She's the person who got me into this mess. as the mikoshi towered over their heads. And believe it or not, there have been cases of people dying in these mikoshi-danjiri collisions. Two other female junior high school teachers and I were the only women carrying the danjiri at this point. We were at the back of the danjiri, so luckily for us and all the other people at the back, the mikoshi attacked the front side of the danjiri most of the time to avoid injuring “the ladies.” Still they charged in our direction a couple of times and I saw my life flash before me. I just ducked and hoped for the best.
The day ended with another head ache from the booze, and this time, an aching body to go with it. The fall harvest festivals have definitely been a lot of fun, but I am glad to seem them end. They drain your energy like nothing else, and I haven’t really been able to accomplish much of anything else these last few weeks. Anyway, check out the pictures and their captions for more details. Thanks!
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Ethan
Soooo you made it to the ass sumo after all... bummer. Sorry for slacking off that night. With my giant pumpkin and all i couldn't be asked to move around a lot. We are hitting up the china town karaoke bar tonight. Join us if you dareeeeeeeeeeee.