Long time no blog. I had tests last week and this week; before I knew it, nearly 2 weeks had passed since last post. Anyways, here are the promised Okazaki weekend pictures from 2 weekends ago.
These pictures were taken at the Okazaki city-folk (市民) festival. These older people are making shimenawa. After reading that article, I understand why the trees in my November 2nd post were bound by straw.
Gourds in great light.
Choices, choices.
We have bouncy thingies at our carnivals, but we don't have ninja castles. Notice how even the children in this country wear leggings, btw.
Upside-down car. To teach about safety, I think.
Fishing for goldfish are one of those things you see at every festival in Japan-- the children love it. The light here was great.
I had a cup of this 50 Yen amazake to wash down my yaki-imo.
Tacky as they are, the children love the mighty Eco Commandos. And so does the environment.
Gohei mochi (五平餅 - Japanese wiki link, none in English). You're not going to believe this, but I didn't have enough money to try them!!! I had only brought my change pouch with me since I originally was going to the library to do homework when I got sidetracked by the festival on the way, and these were 350 Yen a pop. And they were from some 500 year old shop in a neighboring town!! NOOOOOOOOOOOO...
I moved on from all the temptation and rode past various street musicians. I was making very little towards the library. This sign reads "Okazaki Jyazu Sutori-to" [jazz street]. Guess that explains everything.
Japan should be commended for preserving or rebuilding so many shrines. Still, this picture makes me cringe. Now it can make you cringe, too.
This band was good.
I decided to ditch studying at that point, and moved on to go explore more local shrines. A lot of them have these red flags, but I'm not sure if that's Buddhist or Shinto only.
Very new looking shrine by my Aikido dojo. Beautiful old trees and very peaceful. I met a Japanese couple pushing their 11 month old, and the woman spoke very good English, since she had studied abroad years ago. She fed me a manjū (饅頭). It was salt-flavored, and very good since the saltiness went well with the red bean filling. Anyways (side-tracked by food again!), she said the temple had been built in the 1600s and it mentioned no renovation or rebuilding. Still, I think it's been renovated.
Purification station.
Bell.
Health walk, probably to purify and detox. Just what I needed!
Auto-timer! Like the new kicks? 1300 Yen baby.
This one is a shinto shrine, what with the shimegawa.
I call this one, "At the Gate of Adulthood, Late Afternoon." I'm so artsy.
Purity, yes please.
I like the water marks at these quick-purity-stops.
My classmate's mini soy sauce dispenser, popped into his bentou by his loving Japanese girlfriend, who prepares his lunch every day. These are awesome looking lunches by the way.
I'm out of photos, but more are in the works, including some nice autumn leaf photos. They're really all about the sakura (桜, cherry blossoms) in the spring, and the red leaves (紅葉 - kouyou or momiji) in the fall. Y'know, ephemeral beauty, life is transient, yada yada yada. Apparently Okazaki castle is lit up at night this time of year for evening pleasure walks. I'll try to check it out.
In other news, I've got some teaching gigs lined up. Hope the students don't hate my guts!
Till next time.
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