Hisashiburi nee

Man I'm super sorry internet! So much has been happening, that I haven't had time to write about it, and the more that happened, the more I had to write about that that I couldn't because it was happening! This is, I am pretty sure, a conundrum that explains why 87% of blogs are completely meaningless and insipid. This blog is of course therefore 13% of the internet. ANYWAY.

So! Since last post: Been to Kiyomizudera, Nishi Honganji, seen a matsuri, and gone on a long weekend getaway to Okayama out in the country! I also have since gone to handbell choir not once but twice! Lots of things to talk about.

Kiyomizudera is (was, they broke off in like 1965 but whatever) a branch temple of Kofukuji, one of the really old, powerful Nara temples. As such they (kofukuji) fought with Enryakuji (my temple) a lot over appointments to Imperial rites, seating arrangements, so on and so forth. Whenever Kofukuji pulled one over on Enryakuji, mah boyes would go burn Kiyomizu to the ground. Fun times! Anyway, it's been rebuilt (don't ask me when the last time was.. can't remember) and functions admirably as a hotspot for tourists of all shapes, sizes, and colors. I walked from a station a good 30 minutes away, so I got the full grandeur of the approach; the maps pointing to it with sightseeing suggestions for other nearby shrines/curiosities began about 20 minutes away (there are in fact some very important, big things in the vicinity, and I was walking through Gion, one of the most famous parts of the city anyhow, so Kiyomizu wasn't actually the main attraction on the maps that far away.. but whatever, Kyotoland). Walking there, I stumbled on a 5 story pagoda just hanging out.. I'm not sure if it's attached to Yasaka shrine or not, but I couldn't find a sign in english and I was in seek and destroy mode, so I blew on past. In hindsight, I wish I had taken a picture of the Japanese signage to figure it out after the fact, but whatcha gonna do. The approach soon became a shop-lined, narrow, steeply graded street, THRONGING with tourists. I heard several languages, though easily 80% of the tourists were Japanese. I apparently chose a day that a bunch of high schools did, and there were big tomfoolerin' gangs of them everywhere you went, too. Anyway there were shops for at least a quarter of a mile packed shoulder to shoulder, selling every kind of crap you would want; a lot of fans, some traditional clothes, a lot of katanas, cellphone charms, nicknacks of every kind.

So the temple itself! The first time through I walked right past the part that everyone pays to see. I can't explain why; it's the building with the giant sweet veranda with a view of the mountains (it's pointed entirely south (or north? my sense of direction might have been messed up at some point), meaning the city is only visible off of one corner of it, which in interesting). It was really pretty; I took the mandatory tourist photos both on it and of the veranda itself from the hill next to it, where there were a few other detached buildings. Within the temple buildings, there was a very very different feel from the other temples I've been at. Enryakuji (the West part anyway, East was almost empty) was bustling, but it was a silent, reverent bustle. There was barely any reverence at all in evidence here; the old people all had giant cameras that they used to the fullest extent, the high schoolers were high schoolers, and the gaijin were just like the old people except with smaller, more airplane-friendly photographic equipment. I fit right in, whereas at Enryakuji I permanently felt like an intruder. I did so well at being a tourist, I was even accosted by a group of middle schoolers whose assignment for the weekend was to find an American and ask them simple questions in English. I tried to help them cheat by answering in english first and then Japanese when I could, leading to common experience of them lying and saying my Japanese was very good, and me lying and saying their english was very good (This is not exactly true, there have been several Japanese people to whom I wasn't lying in this exchange). Fun times! So that was Kiyomizudera.

Technically chronologically next is my first trip to Handbell Choir! The music is much harder than what we played in the handbell choir back home (probably because I was only ever really in the Children's one) and they expect us all to do that sweet thing where you hold 2 bells in each hand, which I therefore had to learn on the spot which was.. fun. They are all suuper nice, though, and thankfully bore my pitiful attempts at their language with considerable aplomb. One guy talks really indistinctly so I have a lot of trouble, but I did about 60% ok I think.. They said I could come back, though! (at the end, packing up, I tried to use the stock formal phrase I had learned for asking if I could join, but TOTALLY forgot it halfway through and stammered for about 20 seconds before one guy was like 'uhhh so you want to come back next week?' (in Japanese, it wasn't so bad that they would need to whip out their english like they did a few times) and I was like 'YES SORRY!' and everyone was really happy in a way that made it seem like I was the one accepting THEM. It was very kind of them! They're a fun bunch and I think I'll have a nice time, they also do stuff outside of just practicing which they said they'd invite me along to. I'm in a weird spot because the traditional high point for handbells (and therefore their main concert) is Christmas, during our winter break when we are kicked out of our homestays and when we plan to wander the vast land of Japan with wild abandon. They didn't seem to mind terribly much, though! We'll see how it turns out, but the prognosis is optimistic. It does indeed go from 4:45 till 8 PM, though. On the bright side, one of the members lives at a stop 2 further than mine on the same line, so I have a buddy for the relatively late commute back! On the not as bright side, this doesn't change the fact that I get home at 9, not having really had time for homework that day, and I get up around 6 the next morning.. I feel like a Japanese high school student (for ONE DAY A WEEK POOR ME).

NEXT UP: Zuiki Matsuri! A matsuri, for those of you too lazy to click the link to wikipedia, is a Japanese festival that technically involves taking the god-body (the object they keep in the most sacred part shrine that represents whatever kami is hanging around there) out of the shrine, showing it around in a big parade, having a party/carnival (no rides, but lots of stalls/games/etc) for a few days, then parading the god-body back home. This one in particular is out of the Kitano Tenjin shrine, which is coincidentally the patron kami of studying, so it behooves me to suck up. They weren't involved in the initial procession we watched, but the high point of the return trip is they make these floats out of entirely vegetables, which is pretty sweet. Traditional Japanese things! Exciting!

So then we went into the country! This has gotten rather long and I have to go to sleep, so that will have to wait for another day, loyal readers. I know I can't put many pictures up in here, but they would help a lot.. I'll find a solution somehow sometime (it is called flickr, but I am soooo laaazyyy).