Ah, summer festivals!

So like us, the Japanese take time in the summer to party, celebrate, and generally have a good time. Although there are many festivals (or matsuri) around the year, there are apparently 3 major ones. At least, that is what everyone says. I actually only know what one of the major festivals is, Gion Matsuri. I don’t know what the other two are.

In any case, Gion Matsuri is a festival held in Gion, an area of Kyoto (this is also the part of town to spot Geishas, incidentally). It lasts for about a month basically culminating with a huge parade (there are a few things that happen after the parade, but they seem to be fairly minor). The 3 nights before the parade, the main area of Gion is completely shut down to traffic so that the whole city can come out to play (at least it seems that way). The floats for the parade are out so that you can see them up close (they are all lit up with numerous, lovely lanterns). There are tons of food stands selling Japanese fair food (yakitori, takoyaki, noodles, grilled squid, ect.) and games for the young ones (including two that I see in anime all the time which was interesting). People of all ages come out to just hang out, walk around, and have fun. Many Japanese dress up in yukatas (the lighter, summer version of a kimono) and it is awesome to see the variety of outfits. Plus some businesses and homes open up their doors to display family heirlooms which you wouldn’t get to see otherwise.

I had a wonderful time walking around with Amanda on the night before the parade (side note: one of the best things about this trip is that I got to meet up with several other Americans in the program, primarily Amanda who is in Kyoto and went to the parade with us, and Portia who traveled everywhere with me). Definitely one of my favorite things in Japan so far. Portia arrived the next morning and we went to the parade together. The parade was awesome (I felt so bad for the pullers of the big floats that apparently weight about 12 tons. It was sooo hot), but after a while, the floats started to run together a bit. I don’t know what they all represent so I couldn’t understand their individual importance. Oh well, still cool. Also, we tried to see how they turn the big floats (because it is a big involved process that takes at least 15 minutes), but it was a popular spot along the parade route, so we couldn’t see the important part (the wheels) and only saw the top turn.

If you want to see details as to where I went in Kyoto, you can check out my travel partner’s blog (http://portiainjapan.blogspot.com/) since she is so organized about putting stuff up. However, I can say that I appreciated the Zen temple Ryoanji more and the monkey park less than she did. I really liked the Zen temple, actually (well, once the big tour left). My favorite thing about it, I’m kinda ashamed to admit, was the floor. You take off your shoes for this temple. Most people had sandals or something on so they were barefoot on the floor (as I was). Which brought my attention to the satiny smoothness of the floor. It felt wonderful! Seriously, the best thing I think I’ve ever walked on. I even took a picture (albeit a bad one) of the floor so I would never forget it. I think years of many, many people walking on the floor has worn it down to that smoothness. How lovely. But the rock garden was quite nice once the tour left. Then you could sit there calmly, let the breeze cool you and just zone out. It was really nice.

The monkey park was fine, I enjoyed doing something different, but it was the kind of thing that you could do anywhere in the world. I’ve fed more interesting animals than monkeys, so while I enjoyed it, it certainly won’t have made my top 10 list of things I did in Japan. (I think part of the reason Portia was so impressed is that she is an engineer and never deals with animals).

She also fails to mention the lengths to which we went to get that picture of her with the geishas (though I think they may be geishas in training or maiko rather than full blown geishas, I don’t really understand how to tell the difference). But I’m not exactly proud of how we stalked them (though we were very polite about it and asked permission and everything, I still feel like we stalked them, which makes me feel icky). So unless you catch me in person and ask me to explain, I think we will leave it at that. Though Portia did at one point say “they’re so elusive. Just like cats” at one point, which I thought was really funny for some reason.

And unlike her, I have a much higher tolerance for temples and shrines. I haven’t been overloaded yet, each one I see something a bit different. Plus, I’m collecting all the stamps and corresponding calligraphy in my little book at each temple/shrine which makes me look forward to each visit. Some of the stamps are cool whereas others have nice calligraphy. Some are not as interesting (I’m thinking of the Inari shrine one in particular) but it is still cool to have a record of all the temples and shrines plus it’s really cool to watch them write the calligraphy (and it costs less than $3).

But overall, it was great to travel with someone. And Portia and I generally have similar tastes and travel styles so although our opinions of some of the sights may have differed, traveling with her was great. One thing I should mention is that the way I am traveling here is so different from what I am used to. Normally I have a strict budget and minimize some things (like for example, eating just one big meal a day and getting stuff from the market for other meals). But here, I have so much money that if I want to eat both lunch and dinner, it’s no problem. If I want to stay in a business hotel one night because I am super annoyed with the hostel, no problem. Even with all of that, and other small expenses, I still came $200 under my budget (mostly because my housing was much cheaper than I allotted for). But I am still bad about buying things that I like when I see them. I regret not buying a hairpin I saw in Kyoto. Oh well, hopefully I’ll be a bit better on other trips.

There were a lot of things that I thought I should mention in the blog about Japanese culture that I observed in Kyoto, but I think I will talk about them later.

Note to myself – I need to post about older Japanese women, puppet shows, female fashion, the takoyaki party, and onsens.