Asuke Matsuri

This weekend was incredibly busy!
First, on Saturday we went to go see Wicked!  But before that Alisha and I had some delicious ramen. 

Then we got to the theater where they were showing Wicked!  I quickly bought some souvenirs, including the Japanese soundtrack.

It was a really interesting experience to see it in Japanese.  I understand a lot more than I thought I would, mostly because I'd seen it before in English.  But it was a little disappointing.  There was definitely one point where the actress playing Elphaba didn't hit her note that I noticed, and I usually can't notice these things at all.  Unfortunately that means everyone else who does notice these things was complaining about it, which just makes the whole thing feel negative to me, especially since I spent so much money on the CD before I actually sat down and saw it.  Oh well, it's still a cool souvenir and it's interesting to compare the translations (right?! I'm trying not to get buyer's remorse here).  I would assume that for the recording they'd make sure that everything sounded all right, but I have absolutely no ear for these things so I can't tell.
Anyway it was a bit of a bummer because I'd been really excited about it.
But it was still fun to see the show again, and I still love the costumes and everything.  Glinda still stole the show for me, even in Japanese.

After that we went to Moss Burger, a Japanese fast food chain.  It was only like 4 in the afternoon and I was going to have dinner at 7, so I didn't get a full burger, but I did get a small strawberry milkshake and OniPote.  (oh-knee-poh-tay from onion-potato) It's the perfect solution for indecisive people who can't decide whether they want fries or onion rings! It gives you a little bit of each for the same price as getting either fries or onion rings! THIS IS SO BRILLIANT AND YET WE DON'T HAVE IT IN AMERICA.  What's up with this?!

Then I went home, did homework, and crashed.  That was Saturday.

Sunday was another matsuri trip!  This one was to the Asuke Matsuri!  It's in Asuke, a town a little more than an hour from Nagoya (driving, when the traffic's good).  Apparently it's known for its fall leaves, and it's a popular date spot for that reason.  But apparently once the leaves change it just gets PACKED with sightseers.  I can imagine why.  There's a lovely river running through town and the mountains are gorgeous and just covered in trees.  I saw some postcards in a souvenir shop with pictures and it's incredible.

Anyway this was another men's festival, this time for Hachiman, a Shinto god of war.

 This festival was a required class trip for research methods, as opposed to the other two which had been optional.  So the entire class was there, and we did some more preparation beforehand.

Here’s the basics of what’s going on.

There are four dashi, these wheeled, tiered things.  These dashi come from 4 parts of Asuke: Shinmachi, Nishimachi, Honmachi, and Tamachi.  The dashi have three different levels.  Inside on one level there are people playing musical instruments: a drum, a flute, and I think something else.  The musical instruments are all the same, but the musicians from each village play a slightly different tune.

On the front of the dashi are the youngest men, who are all, apparently, around the age of their yakudoshi, or unlucky year, so around 25.  They dance on the front of the dashi and apparently are just filled with sake throughout the day.  Like, they get completely completely drunk.  I’m amazed they don’t fall off the dashi.

(In fact, I asked one of the guys if people ever fell off.  I didn’t understand everything he told me, but he said they definitely could fall off, that he was a safe guy, he never had fallen off, and that they try to make sure people don’t fall off, like holding onto them from inside the dashi and stuff.)

Anyway so this whole thing, this dashi, is pulled and pushed by a bunch of men, using ropes and the big wooden poles on the front of the dashi.

We got there a little before everything got started and were immediately approached by a guy from Honmachi saying that we were more than welcome to take pictures of their dashi and ask them questions and stuff.

After that the dashi were all pulled forward, one by one, so that they were directly in front of the Hachimangu, the shrine.  They each set up a little altar and played a song for the kami, the god, while a priest (kannushi) blessed the dashi.  From there the dashi moved onward and the festival started for the day.

 Here's a video of the dashi moving out and the dancing and music starting.

In addition to the dashi, there are other villages that are a part of Asuke that aren't part of the main four, so they don't have their own dashi.  These are villages that were incorporated into the Asuke area more recently, or something like that.
These villages have their own Teppotai, or, I guess, musket squad.  These men get together and before the festival for weeks in preparation they hang out, drink beer, and make these straw things to decorate their guns.  The guns are old ones, from around the Edo period.

The decorations vary some from group to group.  Some had pinwheels, some had some autumn leaves, these ones had rainbow tassels.
The teppotai parade throughout the festival, and then at certain areas they circle up and fire their muskets.

You can see the whole process here.  The sound was incredibly loud.  You can see where my camera jumps a little! 

We split off into groups, which means I wandered around with my friend Jessica.  Our first priority was snacking/lunch.  Takoyaki, yakitori (grilled chicken), crepes, chocolate covered bananas, ikayaki (grilled squid), yakisoba (fried noodles), okonomiyaki (like a pancake, with pork, cabbage, egg, and sauce), I love me some festival food.  I only had enough stomach space for takoyaki and a crepe, though. 

We walked back by where the dashi had been moved to, again set up with their little altars.

We skulked around and asked questions awkwardly, like "what are those bottles for?" and "Do people ever fall of the dashi?"  and awkwardly got our pictures taken by old Japanese people!
Apparently foreigners are noteworthy out here.  But one lady I managed to strike up conversation with after she took me and Jessica's pictures, so that was nice.

After a bit more wandering we ran into a woman who was actually from Tokyo, but had lived here.  Her son had since moved back and this year was his first year being able to be a part of the teppotai group.  She said it was her first time seeing the festival but she seemed really excited.  She whipped out her iPhone and showed us pictures of him and we said we'd probably seen him when we were watching earlier.  That woman was really nice.  It's always exciting when I find I can have conversations with people, even only partially!

After we talked to that woman we reconvened as a class, and since the sound of the teppotai's guns going off every few minutes was getting a little unbearable, we went for a hike!

There were tons of people out fishing, and climbing on the rocks.

We walked up to a Buddhist temple, where an incredibly nice Buddhist monk told us about the temple, who built it, what it was for, and about his beliefs.  He talked about the strong wood the temple is made out of, so that even in an earthquake it's fine, and about how tons of bugs come out in the summer, but they're living things too, so you can't harm them.  I don't know, he was a really nice guy, letting us into the temple even when he was busy working, selling good luck charms and talismans and things.
It was a very calming experience after the noise and excitement of the festival.

THE SCARIEST OF BRIDGES
It was a cable suspension bridge and MY PROFESSOR and my classmates insisted on SHAKING IT
OH GOD STOP IT NO AAAHHH

After that we went out to dinner and Hoan ate cow and pig internal organs without knowing it! Yay!
I had chirashi sushi, a bowl of sliced sashimi (raw fish) and other sushi topics scattered over rice.  It was yummy! And other people had delicious food, too.  Hoan liked his innards fine, even after he found out what they were, so I guess that's okay.

It got dark after that, and the next stage of the festival started, the kind of closing festivities I guess.
The Teppotai (all very drunk) got back together in their groups and said goodbye to the dashi and the festival for the year, before heading back to their own villages.
The dashi moved back by the shrine.  After that the most exciting part of the festival started.
The bonden, these paper pompom looking things suspended on bamboo poles from the front of the dashi play an important role here.

The white things are the bonden.

At the end of the festival, a guy from the top level of the dashi (who is completely wasted at this point) takes both of the bonden and throws them into the crowd.  Whoever catches it brings good luck to their family for the rest of the year.

I was too far back and not near aggressive enough to see what actually happened, but my classmates who were closer told me that things got pretty intense.
Apparently last year two guys were fighting over it and then they finally settled it with janken (jankenpon is Japanese rock paper scissors)!  Oh Japan!

Anyway after that the dashi had to be pulled back to each of their home villages, where they are disassembled and put away again for the next year.

We headed on home, where it was back to school as usual. But the trip itself was really fun!
I love this class and this professor yay!