Hey - I thought these pictures were so cool that they deserved their own page. This is Sunday afternoon (Oct. 26) at a Buddhist/Shinto firewalking ceremony. I forgot my camera, but at least I had my trusty cell phone! So yeah, we walked barefoot over fire. Pretty crazy. It wasn't hot coals, it was flaming logs! Every now and then, a burnt log would break under someone's foot and have to be replaced. I saw a poor guy break through the wood and fall down right on the fire. Not nice.
It was a really interesting ceremony. They lit a huge bonfire first and shot arrows into the crowd (not real ones of course, people were trying to catch them like they were catching balls at a baseball game). They had swords and were acting out some kind of mock battle in front of this pile of wood and greenery before they lit it on fire. I really wish I could understand what they were saying. There was quite a bit of chanting and drumming and shaking small bells in rhythm. But when we asked a nearby Japanese person what they chants meant, even she couldn't tell us. (I assume it was very old Japanese.)
The bonfire in front of the temple, surrounded by monks (male and female) chanting and feeding the fire.
___The Gaijin. ___ (foreign folks)
<---me, Molly, and Caroline / me, Molly, and Adam--->
Everyone had to wear this orange band across their forehead in order to walk.
They gave out free sake, served in long bamboo poles, into carved bamboo cups. The old guys serving it were quite "happy" and kept trying to get everyone to have more and more...
You put the palms of your hands together as if praying as you walk over. And yeah, it's not a walk in the park, so to speak. My heels were black with soot afterwards. But I think I taught the monks some new English. I was saying "ow!ouch!ouch!ow!ow!ow!" all the way across...
after the walk - a changed person (...maybe) These monks were extremely cool and very friendly -
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