Thursday, March 22, 2012
A day behind
Man, mom has done a great job packing our schedule full of fun stuff so I've been too busy to blog and have fallen a day behind. We traveled today to the hot springs in Izu at a beautiful 4.5 star hotel on the water. Got some great photos of the views and the feast the hotel prepared for us. I thought my dinner two nights ago couldn't be topped but this dinner was a cornucopia of raw seafood that I may never experience again. Check back tomorrow for photos. I'm heading to the hot springs with Brandon for a quick late night dip before bed.
Day 6 continued - SUMO!
Sumo
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| Bento Box in our box seats at Osaka Gymnasium |
One of the very few memories I have about Japan (I was only
2 or 3 years old) is sumo. My dad
used to joke around and lift his leg up high and do the stomp and I’d copy him. I followed sumo from time to time when
it used to come on in Seattle in summer visits to my grandparent’s house. But it’s pretty tough to follow in the
US. Before the trip, I briefly
thought it would be cool to see a match but my mom had a packed agenda so I
thought it might be rude to ask to add anything else to the gameplan.
So when we saw the sumo wrestlers walking by two days ago,
it was actually my mom’s idea to go. Tickets for the second level were around 130 dollars a seat,
pretty pricey. I was pretty amp’d
all day for the chance to see sumo live.
This is the major leagues of sumo with all the of the top wrestlers in
the sport competing.
I’ll pause to give a lesson on the sport. If you really just think it is fat guys
pushing each other around and aren’t interested, you can skip ahead. However, Sumo is one of the most unique
sports in the world. Sumo is the
national sport of Japan and when you dive deep into it’s deep and ancient
history, it is fascinating. What
makes sumo so interesting is that unlike any other worldwide televised sport,
it still has a large number of ritual aspects and traditions. So much so that the lay person would
watch sumo and say “why the hell are they doing that???” I’ll try to answer some of those
questions J
The Ceremonial parade – A tournament group (there were two
groups fighting when I went) starts off with a ceremonial parade. The fighters come out wearing a
traditional lower garment that’s kind of hard to describe but here is a photo:
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| The fighters on display just before they begin to wrestle. |
Yokozona – Sumo players are ranked based on several factors
including more than just their record.
The honor and spirit in which they fight are major factors, as
well. A governing body makes the
decision on when a fighter raises to the higher ranks. Only about a small percentage of
fighters advance to the two top levels of Ozeki and Yokozuna. And there is no requirement to have
anyone actually be a Yokuzuna. If
no one is worthy, they can go years without someone in that title. It is a huge honor to be given the
title of Yokozuna as only 69 have been named since record keeping of the sport
began in 1789.
Yokozuna dance – Those who achieve the rank of Yokozuna do a
traditional dance to start of the tournament. If there is no one at that rank, there is no dance and if
there are 3 yokozuna’s, they all do it.
The crowd loves a well-done dance and will cheer for their favorite
parts. The part that seems to always get the crowd going is this little shuffle move they do while moving forward. Winning the crowd over can be very lucrative for sponsorships.
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| Yokozuna Hakuho doing the ceremonial dance. |
Costumes – The Fighter Kimono’s are apparently hundreds of
thousands of dollars. They all
wear their hair in a traditional manner which includes putting it up. Everyone has long hair almost as if it
is a requirement to grow it out and then put it up. And then there is the famous “thong” that all fighters
wear. It has a thick waistband
which the fighters use for grabbing.
In addition to their “thong”, they wear an ornamental waistband of long
spikes. This appears to have zero
functional purpose and is purely a spiritual element of their costume. They remove it immediately at the end
of each fight.
Referee – Unlike most sports where the referee is someone
who everyone prefers to blend into the environment and you hope to never hear
from him all match, the sumo referee is the complete opposite. Their costumes are outlandishly
extravagant kimonos, their gestures are dramatic and they shout at the fighters
the entire match. It’s such a
contrast to other sports that it’s distracting to the first-time watcher.
5 judges – If there is some discrepancy over who wins, the 5
judges will come up into the arena and have a conference. They are old so they really take their
good old time walking up J Here is a photo of the judges discussing a
decision. Sometimes they will
overrule a referee decision or they will issue a tie which means the fighters
will fight again.
Pre-fight – Before each match, each wrestler takes time to
first perform the ritual dance and various other traditional things. All of this stuff takes much longer
than the actual bout which lasts a few seconds to as long as 30 seconds on
average. This is the stuff that I'm surprised has not been done away with. However, without it, Sumo has very little drama. It helps to build up the fights and get the crowd on the edge of their seat.
1)
The significance of the Arm-Point and Leg-Stomp are to show
you are clean with no hidden weapons and to stomp out evil spirits. It seems kind of silly but the are both
something that every fighter does multiple times before the bout. Another thing they do that seems odd is
slap themselves repeatedly all over.
2)
In their corner, the fighters have a pile of salt. Before they return to the center of the
ring, they grab a pile of salt and throw it into the ring. I forget what the spiritual reason is
for this but it always is done. They will also scrub their face with a washcloth which has a spiritual meaning of some kind.
3)
Before the fighters officially lock-up in combat, they will
asian-squat down and stare at each other.
Then they will even place both fists down as if they are ready to launch
themselves but then will stand up again.
4)
All of this can go on for a while. In years past, there was no time limit for the posturing and
stare-downs. They eventually put a
10 minute time limit on it all and then switched to 7, 5 and ultimately 4
minutes as it is now. Lower levels
have even less time.
Winning fighter gives a drink of water to the next fighter – Not sure why they do this but the winning fighter stays and holds a wooden spoon/bowl or water for the next fighter in his corner.
Winner receives cash after the fight – Upon winning the bout, the winning fighter may receive a wad of cash served to him on a wooden paddle from the referee. He does a three-motion gesture to the money and then takes it. Mom says the money is based on how many sponsors he has and if he has crossed the 8 win threshold yet. This is probably the equivalent of the American Giant Check that we used to do a lot.
The 8th win – The 8th win is a major
milestone for a fighter. Besides
holding significance because it guarantees you a winning record (tourneys are
15 bouts), it also holds sponsorship significance for some reason as well as
serves as a minimum requirement for receiving any post-tournament awards. Most
importantly, you need 8 wins to move up the ladder in sumo. Because of all of this, you can
understand why that 8th win is very important. In fact, a book called Freakonomics
exposed how far the Sumo world was willing to take that 8th win and
exposed a series of a corruption related to it. If you haven’t read the book, I highly recommend it.
The rules are pretty simple. Knock/Push your opponent out of the circle or force his knee
or hand to touch the ground and you win.
They impart the use of some judo, open-palm strikes and wrestling to
impose their will. Some
spectacular finishes are possible when major throws happen on the edge of the
ring and one or both fighters get tossed out of the ring into the crowd. It’s crazy to me that this happens as
much as it does and the ring isn’t buffered more from the fans and fighters
sitting there waiting on deck. I’m
pretty sure I don’t want a 500 pound sumo wrestler being thrown on me but the
fans get landed on every event!
The tournament was really cool. The entrance into the ring is extremely un-American. The fighters roll up in cars and walk
into the gym in the same entrance as the regular spectators. In fact, when I walked in, I walked in
with numerous other sumo wrestlers that happened to arrive at the same time I did. I was even walking down the roped off
path with their entourage! Very
weird, indeed. No back entrance
for these guys. And along the same lines, I had to literally squeeze by some wrestlers that were warming up for their match since our seats were in their entrance area. My mom was literally terrified of the size of these guys as they are smacking their ass and legs in front of her :)
The upper deck seating is standard chair seating, however, for the lower levels, it’s again a very bizarre
situation. You buy seats in blocks
of four. Each block is a piece of
floor that has a piece of metal pipe separating each section. In your section are four Japanese style
seat cushions to sit on. Four
average size Americans would be super cramped because of the small space as
well as the fact that you need to sit Indian style for 4 hours J Mom and I survived because the other two
in our box never showed up so we could stretch out every so often.
The fights were really cool to watch in person. The Japanese crowd really loves their
sumo. They watch intensely and
murmur in awe when a fighter does even the smallest thing out of the
ordinary. Since sumo is so deeply
rooted in its traditions, it is rare for a fighter to show any emotion at
all. I wonder if this will ever
change since the crowd obviously loves fighters that show fighting spirit.
Everything culminates in the last fight of the evening with
the only living Yokozuna, Hakuho.
This guy has an aura of invincibility around him. You can sense that the opposing
fighters in the gym all know that he’s simply better than he is just by the way
they carry themselves. And getting
dominated in sumo can definitely lead to injury or in the Japanese culture,
worse…. Embarrassment at his hands.
He came out and battled briefly with his opponent before getting ahold
of his mawashi (belt) and muscling him out of the ring. The crowd love this guy and goes crazy at
anything he does. He is treated with rock star status in Japan.
Here is the video of the final match. I left all of the pre-fight drama in there, as well so you can see how it all builds up for the action.
I had a great time at the event. I joked with my mom that if there was a big upset and people
started throwing their seat cushions, I was going to join in. This scared her because Japanese are
not known for public displays like this, however, in the rare case of an
extraordinary match that involves a yokozuna loss, the fans will throw their
seat cushions all over the arena just like the Redskins fans did that one game
at RFK back in the day. The
Sumo association has actually banned throwing your cushion! My dream of throwing my seat cushion at
a sumo tournament didn’t come true on this day but my dream of seeing a sumo
tournament finally did!
Video of seat cushions flying!
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Day 6 AM - Kyoto
Mom said it would be quite a shame if we didn't see Kyoto as it is pretty close to Osaka. So we train/subway/cabbed to Kyoto to check out the world famous gold-plated buddhist temple.
Please do not hold me to this history lesson but I believe the city of Kyoto was the previous capital of Japan many years ago. This buddhist temple and land was owned by the shogun at the time. At his death, he willed the temple and land to the state so it could be used as a public park. It is truly covered in actual gold leaf, not just gold colored paint, at great expense.
Here are some photos:
Please do not hold me to this history lesson but I believe the city of Kyoto was the previous capital of Japan many years ago. This buddhist temple and land was owned by the shogun at the time. At his death, he willed the temple and land to the state so it could be used as a public park. It is truly covered in actual gold leaf, not just gold colored paint, at great expense.
Here are some photos:
Day 5 - Back to Osaka
We woke up in the morning in Tokushima and ate a quick buffet breakfast in the hotel before jumping on the trains on the way back to Osaka (Namba). Our train ride back consisted of three trains and a subway. Mom wanted to take the long way back so we could see a stretch of several bridges that crossed over the islands. It's super cool riding in the bullet trains. I took a video so you can kind of get an idea of the pure speed.
Once we got back to the hotel, we decided to go to the department store for lunch. My mom has been saying we need to do this since we got here. Now while it may seem bizarre to get excited to go to a Macy's or a Sears for lunch back home, however, we ain't in Kansas any more. There is a huge department store across from our hotel called Takashimaya. When I say huge, I mean HUGE. It's 10 full stories tall. Three of the stories have enormous slews of full-service restaurants. Perhaps 15 restaurants per floor. But where the real magic happens is in the basement.
As we entered the basement area, I can't quite describe the feeling of joy that I experienced. Everywhere you turn, there are mini-restaurants. They are more stations than restaurants with glass counters and display cases wrapped around enclosed kitchens. There were more than I could count but I personally inspected about 40 stations myself. If anyone has been to Reading Terminal Station in Philly, imagine that feel but quadruple the size. Oh, and that's just entree food. There is another section completely devoted to desserts!!!
We picked out some sushi rolls, a squid/shrimp salad (Brandon likes squid), some macaroni/ham/egg casserole, some crab meat sushi, something that looked and tasted like a guacamole potato salad (quite tasty) but the champion of it all, Fried pork with curry sauce. Mmmmmm that pork was tender, crispy and delicious and the curry sauce was downright tasty. No one else really supported my decision to get it but even the kids were saying Mmmmm after eating it. Gonna get some more of that stuff on this trip as it appears to be everywhere.
What's bizarre is, once you get your food, you'd think you'd wander over to a huge eating area and dive in, right? Nope. Mom says this is a place where young wives come to pick up dinner and bring it home. Sure enough, besides a couple of small counters where people can eat at just a couple of the restaurants, they clearly are discouraging people from hanging around after they buy their food. No tables anywhere!
For dessert, we wandered around for a while but it is seriously overwhelming. It's now that I'll take a moment to say something..... Japan is the world leader in treats and desserts. There, I said it. Don't hate if you disagree, but it is true. Americans have no way of knowing though because no Japanese restaurants back east even serve anything besides mochi ice cream! But Takashimaya is the single greatest selection of delicious desserts I've ever witnessed. It is truly glorious. I'm pretty sure I heard angels singing when I entered the dessert area. We stumbled onto a glass case that had these beautiful combinations of strawberries, custards and flan all mixed up together. Even just the pure aesthetics of each one and how they boxed it up nicely and included mini-ice packs was enough to bring me to tears of joy. And the taste? We tried three different ones. They were approximately 400-450 yen a piece (about 4 or 5 dollars) but worth every penny. Each one ranked in my top ten all time desserts I've eaten.
Once we got back to the hotel, we decided to go to the department store for lunch. My mom has been saying we need to do this since we got here. Now while it may seem bizarre to get excited to go to a Macy's or a Sears for lunch back home, however, we ain't in Kansas any more. There is a huge department store across from our hotel called Takashimaya. When I say huge, I mean HUGE. It's 10 full stories tall. Three of the stories have enormous slews of full-service restaurants. Perhaps 15 restaurants per floor. But where the real magic happens is in the basement.
As we entered the basement area, I can't quite describe the feeling of joy that I experienced. Everywhere you turn, there are mini-restaurants. They are more stations than restaurants with glass counters and display cases wrapped around enclosed kitchens. There were more than I could count but I personally inspected about 40 stations myself. If anyone has been to Reading Terminal Station in Philly, imagine that feel but quadruple the size. Oh, and that's just entree food. There is another section completely devoted to desserts!!!
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| Imagine this glass case times 200 and that's what you are dealing with in Takashimaya. |
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| It's a madhouse of foodies and food vendors. |
We picked out some sushi rolls, a squid/shrimp salad (Brandon likes squid), some macaroni/ham/egg casserole, some crab meat sushi, something that looked and tasted like a guacamole potato salad (quite tasty) but the champion of it all, Fried pork with curry sauce. Mmmmmm that pork was tender, crispy and delicious and the curry sauce was downright tasty. No one else really supported my decision to get it but even the kids were saying Mmmmm after eating it. Gonna get some more of that stuff on this trip as it appears to be everywhere.
What's bizarre is, once you get your food, you'd think you'd wander over to a huge eating area and dive in, right? Nope. Mom says this is a place where young wives come to pick up dinner and bring it home. Sure enough, besides a couple of small counters where people can eat at just a couple of the restaurants, they clearly are discouraging people from hanging around after they buy their food. No tables anywhere!
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| The curry fried pork cutlets were really good..... |
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| The kids waiting for our desserts to get wrapped. |
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| This place didn't win our business this ime but check out how gorgeous those desserts are. |
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| I thought the one with the flan on top of custard and creme would win, but the Japanese traditional dessert on the right with mochi, almond jellies and much more was the big winner. |
Monday, March 19, 2012
Day 4 - Hanoura
As yesterday was our day to visit my Grandfather's side of the family, today is our day to visit my grandmother's side. My Grandmother's family is the Goto family and the Nakata family. I've grown up knowing the Nakata side very well because they all live in the US (mostly in the Pacific NW). However, the Goto side I don't know at all. We hopped on an early train and headed out to Hanoura, which conveniently is where both extended families live.
The first stop is a 3 hour train ride to Tokushima where we checked our bags into the hotel and then we hopped on a 20 minute subway trip to Hanoura. The day is very much a blur, however, we spent time with both sets of families. Some of the highlights!
1) The Nakata family owns and operates an excellent Udon noodle restaurant. The kids and I got to learn how to make the noodles! Before we got our Udon lesson, we feasted on Udon. By far the best noodle soup broth I've ever had. The noodles were obviously fresh and made by hand on-site. We met a few of the family at the restaurant including two cute kids that are distant relatives. The boy wants to be Ichiro and play baseball and the girl is a rhythm gymnast. Both are close to Brandon's age.
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| Murayama and Ayano. Ayano was really adorable. |
If you are curious about the Udon adventure, I'll be posting something later on my Food blog:
2) After lunch, we drove a short ways outside of town and visited a sacred area on a hill overlooking the city. The entire mountainside seemed to be covered with Shinto and Buddhist shrines. Each shrine seemed to have a different purpose. Health, luck, money, etc... It certainly seems like a lot to keep track of! Some photos of the shrines and the countryside.
3) After our hike, we headed to the Goto's restaurant to relax. The Goto's used to run the most prestigious restaurant/hotel in Hanoura. I kept hearing how the restaurant is always busy and how they are well-known in the area for their sushi. After watching some sumo on tv while we relaxed, guests started to trickle in. I believe 14 or 15 people joined us in total and we sat down to an absolute sushi feast like no other. I hope the photos do it justice. I'll post a more detailed review in my food blog but here are a couple of pictures of the spread. Brandon ate like a champ and downed just about everything I put in front of him including a lot of raw fish items, bbq'd eggplant, clams, abalone, shrimp and much more. Mattie had just woken up from a nap and he can be a real pain when he's pulled out of REM. He didn't warm back up again until after the dinner and wasn't feeling at all experimental. On top of that, he has had a couple of food allergy breakouts in the past and my mom and I are trying to keep him away from the raw stuff and any shellfish. I'm kind of excited about posting these photos because my sister is gonna see them and be super jealous and I'm a little evil about that because I really wanted her to come.
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| Various tuna's, something that looked like red snapper and abalone sashimi |
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| I'm still full from eating this and looking at it again is making my mouth water. The sashimi was the freshest I've had. The red snapper appears whole but was already cut-up into bite-sized sashimi. |
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| I've never seen so many different things on one plate. I doubt any of my non-asian friends could even guess what half of these things are! The clams were ridiculously fresh and good. |
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| Add caption |
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| Brandon eating a clam |
4) After the meal, we talked for a while. I'm not sure if the Japanese dislike talking politics at the table but the conversation was mostly family stuff and a brief conversation about the boy who just graduated high school potentially doing a summer internship in the US when he's in college. I wanted to see what the thought of Obama but they didn't bite :) The grandmother who sat in front of me was pretty funny. Even though we didn't understand each other at all, we were able to make each other laugh the entire meal. I could tell whenever her 12 year old granddaughter would speak, she would rip into her playfully. My mom translated a couple of the wisecracks afterwards. We did manage to snap one family photo minus Michael who was taking the photo.
All in all, another great day of visiting family I have never seen before and some great food. I'm still blown away by the hospitality of the Japanese people. This experience is continuing to change me and my views on the world.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Day 3 Kishiwada - Final Chapter
Three things left to talk about. The first and second are quick stories and the third is a summary of a fascinating part of our day where we learned about "Danjiri"
First....
Lunchtime dialogue as guests at sushi lunch in the home of My grandfather's best friend and his family.
Brian points to a piece of sushi and inquires to mom what it is.
Mom - "Oh, that's really good, try it"
Brian - "yes, but what is it?"
Mom - "Ohhh, that's Japanese weiner. It's really good"
Brian stifles a laugh like a teenager
Brian looks at Michael to see if he's laughing yet. He's not. Guess I'll have to let it go...
Mom - not in on the joke as usual - "No, try it. I love Japanese weiner"
Brian - tries to stifle the laugh but it's out now and it's not gonna be held back - "Hahaha"
Brian thinks to himself how rude it would be if his hosts understand enough english to know what he's laughing at. Brian looks at Michael with the hope that he's giving him a dirty look instead of laughing but now he's definitely cracking a smile which makes Brian laugh even harder!
Mom - "Ohhh, yes, I have always loved Japanese weiners!"
Brian - "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Mom, stop!"
Michael is laughing at this point but we both really don't want to laugh. It's just not possible to stop laughing at this point.
The Japanese hosts - NOT laughing at all. Please let them have no idea what I'm laughing about!!!
Second...
After lunch, we had a visitor came over to say hello to us. It was freaking adorable. This woman is a neighbor and also Matsutane-san's 93 year old cousin!!! Those are some good genes! But how she greeted my mom is what was so adorable. She comes into the house and right in front of my mom, she gets down on both knees and bows so deeply to her that her chin was scraping the floor. I just love the Japanese hospitality and how hard they try to impress guests. She continues to bow several more times and say how nice it was to see mom (mom translated loosely later). Can you imagine an American neighbor coming over and getting onto the floor and bowing to a guest of another person's house like this?
This may help to explain the need for really clean floors in Japanese households.
Third...
Danjiri!
On my facebook wall last week, I expressed disgust about parades. I am hereby retracting my statement and I am hereby correcting it. Not all parades suck. AMERICAN parades suck. Japanese parades are AWESOME. I'd pay to see a parade like the Danjiri Harvest Festival that takes place in Japan every year. Watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOs-WYeUBew
What is Danjiri? At the heart of it all, Danjiri is a harvest festival for Kishiwada that allegedly started over 300 years ago by the lord of the Kishiwada castle. It is a spiritual event and involves towing mobile shrines through the streets of the city with the hopes of influencing a plentiful harvest. One can imagine how the event evolved from a basic spiritual parade to the athletic and dangerous even that it is today. Perhaps one bountiful harvest came after spectators noticed that the shrines moved through the city more quickly that year? I'm not really sure. I just heard about this awesome event for the first time today. However, what this event is now, is an entire village of people literally racing around these mobile shrines up to 50 kilometers through crowded streets risking life and limb.
Let me stop you there. As I sat down to watch the video that Hiroshi wanted us to see about Danjiri, I at first thought oh, this is going to be some cultural video that I hope is at least mildly interesting. Then I saw how wide the screen was and thought "hmmm, someone put some effort into making this video". Then the Surround Sound kicked in and I realized "I'm in Japan. They don't do things halfass which now includes putting together a museum and doing floats in parades!" They even had a 3D video later in the exhibit!!! All for a cultural event most of the world has never heard of. Anyway, back to the story.
As explained to me by Hiroshi, my host and tourguide, a Danjiri shrine is extremely expensive. It costs over 100 million yen (over a million dollars). Approximately 10 wood carving masters work three years to build it. When I say wood carvings, what I mean to say is that each one is essentially a national treasure work of art with the finest wood carving detail you've ever seen. The closer you get to it, the tiniest carvings jump out at you. The are simply incredible to study up close. In the front, there are brake rods under the wheels that protrude out of the front side. I think these are used more for steering than braking, you be the judge. The rear has a long Wooden tail which is obviously used for steering.
Both the front and rear have long Golden Ropes attached. When I say Golden Ropes, I literally mean ropes woven with 18 karat gold. You can't make this shit up, people. This is apparently an art in itself and techniques vary by artisan.
Musical instruments (drums), Lanterns, and huge village signs are also attached to this tank. So all that's left for this work of art is to race it as fast as humanly possible through 90 degree angle turns, right?
Here are some pictures I took of Danjiri in the museum:
All in all over 200 people are powering and maneuvering this small freight train. It appears to be divided up into three separate groups. Those in the rear, racing to keep up, controlling the speed and holding the tail in place when whipping through turns. There is some incredible footage on youtube of these rear guys getting whipped into building as they hold on for dear life. The front section is doing the major pulling. If one of these guys goes down, he can easily be trampled by his buddies or much worse, by the Danjiri Shrine itself. Those on the shrine are either dignitaries of some kind that have the honor of just riding along, musicians who maintain the unique rhythm and music that is distinct to that Danjiri and the surfers. The surfers appear to have a role of conductor of some kind while also attempting to be flamboyant and entertaining, as well. They leap back and forth across the spine of the shrine and shout and wave their fans wildly in the air. I'm not sure how much responsibility they have towards the balancing of the shrine but they are a lot of fun to watch up there.
At the end of the day, you cannot help but compare the madness to the running of the bulls in Pamplona. I can imagine though that the week leading up to this event and the event itself is some serious partying and fun. According to my mother, the event was a big deal in the past because it was the one time of year that they warlord's opened the castle doors up to the commoners. The speed and entertainment factors may have grown due to the singular opportunity to impress local royalty. It's fascinating stuff but regardless of how the traditions started, the event still is run today.
Danjiri can be very dangerous. When you factor in the weight of the shrine with the speed it moves, turning corners can be treacherous. If you fall, you could get trampled or slide under the moving shrine If the shrine loses control, you could get smashed in between the shrine and a wall and it would be disastrous. And shrines can easily tip over and crush someone underneath. I was told by Hiroshi that over the past 100 years, 40 people have died. Just out of comparison, in the past 100 years, 16 people have died as a result of running with the bulls. This may actually be one of the most deadly activities in the world as there are only a couple of events every year.
Some near-misses:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1FnCpQs6yg
One actually falls over in this one. Pretty scar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uihvpi7qFG8
First....
Lunchtime dialogue as guests at sushi lunch in the home of My grandfather's best friend and his family.
Brian points to a piece of sushi and inquires to mom what it is.
Mom - "Oh, that's really good, try it"
Brian - "yes, but what is it?"
Mom - "Ohhh, that's Japanese weiner. It's really good"
Brian stifles a laugh like a teenager
Brian looks at Michael to see if he's laughing yet. He's not. Guess I'll have to let it go...
Mom - not in on the joke as usual - "No, try it. I love Japanese weiner"
Brian - tries to stifle the laugh but it's out now and it's not gonna be held back - "Hahaha"
Brian thinks to himself how rude it would be if his hosts understand enough english to know what he's laughing at. Brian looks at Michael with the hope that he's giving him a dirty look instead of laughing but now he's definitely cracking a smile which makes Brian laugh even harder!
Mom - "Ohhh, yes, I have always loved Japanese weiners!"
Brian - "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Mom, stop!"
Michael is laughing at this point but we both really don't want to laugh. It's just not possible to stop laughing at this point.
The Japanese hosts - NOT laughing at all. Please let them have no idea what I'm laughing about!!!
Second...
After lunch, we had a visitor came over to say hello to us. It was freaking adorable. This woman is a neighbor and also Matsutane-san's 93 year old cousin!!! Those are some good genes! But how she greeted my mom is what was so adorable. She comes into the house and right in front of my mom, she gets down on both knees and bows so deeply to her that her chin was scraping the floor. I just love the Japanese hospitality and how hard they try to impress guests. She continues to bow several more times and say how nice it was to see mom (mom translated loosely later). Can you imagine an American neighbor coming over and getting onto the floor and bowing to a guest of another person's house like this?
This may help to explain the need for really clean floors in Japanese households.
Third...
Danjiri!
On my facebook wall last week, I expressed disgust about parades. I am hereby retracting my statement and I am hereby correcting it. Not all parades suck. AMERICAN parades suck. Japanese parades are AWESOME. I'd pay to see a parade like the Danjiri Harvest Festival that takes place in Japan every year. Watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOs-WYeUBew
What is Danjiri? At the heart of it all, Danjiri is a harvest festival for Kishiwada that allegedly started over 300 years ago by the lord of the Kishiwada castle. It is a spiritual event and involves towing mobile shrines through the streets of the city with the hopes of influencing a plentiful harvest. One can imagine how the event evolved from a basic spiritual parade to the athletic and dangerous even that it is today. Perhaps one bountiful harvest came after spectators noticed that the shrines moved through the city more quickly that year? I'm not really sure. I just heard about this awesome event for the first time today. However, what this event is now, is an entire village of people literally racing around these mobile shrines up to 50 kilometers through crowded streets risking life and limb.
Let me stop you there. As I sat down to watch the video that Hiroshi wanted us to see about Danjiri, I at first thought oh, this is going to be some cultural video that I hope is at least mildly interesting. Then I saw how wide the screen was and thought "hmmm, someone put some effort into making this video". Then the Surround Sound kicked in and I realized "I'm in Japan. They don't do things halfass which now includes putting together a museum and doing floats in parades!" They even had a 3D video later in the exhibit!!! All for a cultural event most of the world has never heard of. Anyway, back to the story.
As explained to me by Hiroshi, my host and tourguide, a Danjiri shrine is extremely expensive. It costs over 100 million yen (over a million dollars). Approximately 10 wood carving masters work three years to build it. When I say wood carvings, what I mean to say is that each one is essentially a national treasure work of art with the finest wood carving detail you've ever seen. The closer you get to it, the tiniest carvings jump out at you. The are simply incredible to study up close. In the front, there are brake rods under the wheels that protrude out of the front side. I think these are used more for steering than braking, you be the judge. The rear has a long Wooden tail which is obviously used for steering.
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| This is the banner for the village of my host, Hiroshi |
Musical instruments (drums), Lanterns, and huge village signs are also attached to this tank. So all that's left for this work of art is to race it as fast as humanly possible through 90 degree angle turns, right?
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| The kids, playing with the drums on top of an old Danjiri |
Here are some pictures I took of Danjiri in the museum:
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| Simply beautiful wood carving detail. |
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| The lanterns are the highlight of this one. |
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| A medium-detailed wood-carving. A replica carving like this can go for 10k American. |
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| It's hard to make out just how detailed this one is, but it is amazing to imagine. |
All in all over 200 people are powering and maneuvering this small freight train. It appears to be divided up into three separate groups. Those in the rear, racing to keep up, controlling the speed and holding the tail in place when whipping through turns. There is some incredible footage on youtube of these rear guys getting whipped into building as they hold on for dear life. The front section is doing the major pulling. If one of these guys goes down, he can easily be trampled by his buddies or much worse, by the Danjiri Shrine itself. Those on the shrine are either dignitaries of some kind that have the honor of just riding along, musicians who maintain the unique rhythm and music that is distinct to that Danjiri and the surfers. The surfers appear to have a role of conductor of some kind while also attempting to be flamboyant and entertaining, as well. They leap back and forth across the spine of the shrine and shout and wave their fans wildly in the air. I'm not sure how much responsibility they have towards the balancing of the shrine but they are a lot of fun to watch up there.
At the end of the day, you cannot help but compare the madness to the running of the bulls in Pamplona. I can imagine though that the week leading up to this event and the event itself is some serious partying and fun. According to my mother, the event was a big deal in the past because it was the one time of year that they warlord's opened the castle doors up to the commoners. The speed and entertainment factors may have grown due to the singular opportunity to impress local royalty. It's fascinating stuff but regardless of how the traditions started, the event still is run today.
Danjiri can be very dangerous. When you factor in the weight of the shrine with the speed it moves, turning corners can be treacherous. If you fall, you could get trampled or slide under the moving shrine If the shrine loses control, you could get smashed in between the shrine and a wall and it would be disastrous. And shrines can easily tip over and crush someone underneath. I was told by Hiroshi that over the past 100 years, 40 people have died. Just out of comparison, in the past 100 years, 16 people have died as a result of running with the bulls. This may actually be one of the most deadly activities in the world as there are only a couple of events every year.
Some near-misses:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1FnCpQs6yg
One actually falls over in this one. Pretty scar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uihvpi7qFG8
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