On August 14th marked the beginning of the OBON festival. During this time Japanese people are required to go to their hometowns to pay homeage to their ancestors. They do this by visiting the graves of the deceased and cleaning them. They sweep and scrub and put up flowers. Then they will put something on the grave. I asked one of my Japanese friends if I could go with him on that day. He seemed a little surprised at my request but he agreed. I met him at 6 am and off we went. We had to go to 3 cememtaries. At each one they put in flowers and then poured a glass of beer and put some snacks on a plate. THe snacks consisted of things like nuts ,chips, and fruit, anything that the person liked. At one of the graves they lit a cigarrette and stuck in the little tray that was there. By the way the graves are very small and don`t contain the entire body (Japan is too small for that), just one bone. The rest of the body is cremated. At one of the graves a Buddhist priest, a very cheery fellow, was paid to say a prayer. He did a great job. He had a little drum and he chanted and played the drum. I thought it was very musical. We didn`t finish until 9:30 am but that was because there was a lot of driving involved because one of the cemetaries was outside of the city. Its my understanding that after you pay homage to the ancestor, he or she (it?) will accompany you home and hang out with you for a few days. In addition to the specific one that you honored all the others are free to come home also. Although it sounds scary to me, the Japanese people feel sure that their ancestors will do them no harm. Hoewever other people`s ancestors might.

At the end of the 3rd day there is a special festival to send the spirits back. It works like this. Kyoto is a city that is surrounded by mountains. THere are 5 mountains that are chosen and many many bonfires in the shape of a chinese character is written on each mountain. These are then lit and a huge character appears on the side of the mountain. THe characters are hundreds of yards long and wide. ONe of them spells out the word "great (DAI)", one is a character for a boat, and there are three others. From my house we had a perfect view of the Dai, which is the most famous and important one. So people I knew insisted that there would be a party at my house. THis involved a barbaque and waiting for the mountain to be lit. It was spectacular when they lit them around 8 pm. As a special treat, the full moon appeared up over the mountain as the flames were dying down. The flames and smoke are suppossed to be a signal to the spirits that their time is up. Also it leads them back to where they came from (presumably in an upward direction). THe entire city was out for this evening. Stores and businesses were closed and in the evening the streets were packed and the spirits (sorry) were high. It was all over around 9:30 as the wood fires burned out.

In the morning we hiked up to the site of the fires and collected some of the charcoal that was left over. THere were hundreds of other people doing the same thing, because this charcoal is said to bring good health for the coming year.

I went to a neighborhood festival in one of my Japanese colleagues neighborhood. She was nice enough to take me and she may still regret that she ever offered. THis was held at a SHinto shrine (shinto is one of the 2 major religions in Japan, the other being Buddhism. HOwever most people practice both religions or at least enjoy the rituals and festivals of both.) THis one involved eating noodles from a bamboo trough that was angled down and supplied with a steady supply of water. SO it was like a river with noodles in it. You would stand next to this cut open piece of bamboo and try to pick up the noodles as they sped by. It actually wasn`t difficult. You pay some small amount of money and they give you a cup made of a bamboo section. THis is filled with a watery soy sauce and then you can put in onion and other condiments. THen there were people at the front who were putting the noodles in the trough. It was really fun. You just kind of hung out there talking and watching for noodles. THe noodles were cool and resfreshing as they were carried along in the fresh well water. After that there was a taiko drum performance. The rhythms are ancient and the players are like dancers in that they are very dramamtic in their movements. After that they had a dragon (shi shi) dance (mai). THe shi shi mai has a set procedure to it. First the dragon ascends the temple steps and pays homage to the gods. Then they come down and dance for the people . THen they come and dance in front of the children. THe children are encouraged to let the dragon approach them and then they put their head into the dragon`s mouth. SOme of the olders ones did this smiling. For some it was a real battle with fear and they did it. SOMe were scared to death and hid behind their mother`s legs. It is said that if a child will put his head in the dragon`s mouth it will bring wisdom to the child. However if I�@was a kid and I�@thought that the dragon was real, I�@dont know how wise this would make me. Brave maybe but wise no. It kind of reminds me of the Santa Claus ritual that we have in the US because some of the very young children really belived that the dragon was real.

After the dragon chomped on a few heads something got into me and suddenly I�@lost my shyness. I�@asked my colleague if I�@could put my head in the dragon. SHe said ok and there was great hilarity among the children , I`m not sure if it was because I�@was an adult , or because I�@was a foreigner , or because my head is so big. In any event the children laughed like crazy. I�@don`t really feel any wiser. THen I�@got it in my mind that I�@wanted to be be the person to drop the noodles into the trough. It wasn`t because the other noodle woman happened to be very cute, it was just that I�@wanted to try it. My host hestitated and said no I�@couldn`t do this. THen there was a conference and they said I�@could do it after all. SO�@I�@put on a the plastic noodle throwers glove and went at it. It was a nice job and some people came up and said i was skillful. I�@did that until the noodles ran out. It was fine except that of course I�@couldnt eat the noodles when I�@was doing that job. One must make choices in life. You can`t have your noodles and eat them too (or something like that).

But was I�@satisfied after that. I�@was not. THen I�@wanted to try being a dragon. Again a conference and again it was agreed that it was ok. So I�@put on the dragons costume and another taiko man was my lesser half. They showed how to be very dragonesque. It wasn`t easy at all. Bend the knees to 90 degrees and sway back and forth, slowly rising, pump up and down, snap the dragon head. All this in the 95 degree sun. I�@lasted about 2 minutes and then rolled over dead (the traditional way the dragon dance ends). They were very kind and offered to teach me how to be a good dragon and dance with them at a festival in October. From my hosts reaction this is a great honor. I�@feel honored (but not wise)�@and I�@will start exercising so that I�@can be a good dragon. I�@think my host was relieved when I�@didnt ask to try anymore things. That dragon business just did me in. I can`t wait for the next festival to begin.
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