10/13
There was a group of middle schoolers from Matsuyama who visited Sacramento towards the end of July. I helped with their group, and they seemed to really like me. One of them, Wakana, invited me to stay with her family to visit the famous Saijo Harvest Festival in the countryside.
They picked me up at my dorm, gave me a present (without knowing it was my birthday), and took me about an hour through the countryside to the town of Saijo. Shikoku island is very pretty! Along the way I saw a sign for warthogs/boar, and I asked about it but said "pig" which was funny for the family. Warthog is not "buta" but "inoshishi."
We arrived after about an hour, and we picked up Wakana's grandma, who I called "Bacchan (grandma)." We went around exploring and looking for danjiri. We later drove to where they were having the "Nagemochi" (mochi-throwing) event. Danjiri were paraded around while people on top of a stand threw boxes of candy and snacks to children. It was very scary!
We returned home to relax for a bit before heading over to view the danjiri at night over on the hillside. It turned out that the famous singer Masafumi Akikawa was returning to his hometown for the event! I had no idea who he was at all, but Wakana's mother, Asuka, really wanted me to take a picture with him.
I met the kids of the Asuka's friend, who were very shy at first but later opened up when I started asking them about Doraemon and Pokemon. Aoi-chan and Yuzuki-kun are very lively kids!
We returned home to have dinner and surprise me with cake for my birthday! They tried to remember everything I said I liked over the course of the day, Japanese curry, oden, and coffee jelly, and had it ready for me after my bath. They are so nice!
Japanese baths are very different, you take a shower while sitting on a plastic stool before going into the bath to relax.
10/14
We had some leftovers for breakfast, curry and oden, as well as some leftover mochi in soup. Afterward we hopped in the tiny Suzuki Hustler or some kind of kei car and headed off to one of the local shrines. When we got there it was hot and chaotic. People were everywhere, danjiri were being rushed up stairs and paraded everywhere. One of the kids gave me a Coca-Cola and potato wedges as a snack, and then I was "encouraged" to carry the danjiri. It hurt my shoulders. We then carried it out of the shrine and through rice fields to the warehouse where it was stored. I stayed with Wakana's aunt (who she calls a yankee, which means like delinquent), and had gyuudon beef bowls with everybody. I played with some of the kids, and after a while Bacchan came to pick me up.
We went back to the house to change and then went to Ishizuchi Shrine, which is one of the many large shrines dedicated to Mt. Ishizuchi, the tallest mountain in west Japan.
It was incredible, and a little interesting. It's a Shinto Shrine, but there was also a gift shop. Many of the items were tengu themed as they are heavily associated with the mountain. Wakana and I helped Bacchan up the flights of stairs and just before reaching the top there was a smaller shrine with a fountain of water coming out of a rock. You could wash your hands with it and the sign above said "God's Water." We went up more of the stairs to the main shrine, and Bacchan bought me a horse charm based on my birth year, and gave Wakana and I money for omikuji (paper fortunes).
Wakana got bad luck and I got best luck! Then we went and tied them on a post.
We went back down the stairs and went home.
The clothes that I had been wearing represented the neighborhood, Kawaracho (River Beach Town). Full black with a purple scarf. I put it on and we went to the local supermarket to watch more of the event. We had to go back early though, so we could sleep and wake up at 1:00 AM the next day.
10/15
The previous night, I went to bed at about 10:00 PM, but woke up at 12:00 AM. It was hot and I wasn't quite comfortable. It was no problem as we had to be up by 1:00 AM so we could walk to the big shrine for the event. That's what we did.
When we were walking, I heard the city loudspeakers go off and asked what it was about. Bacchan told me that the city was telling everyone to gather for the festival. Imagine that! City loudspeakers going off at 1:00 AM to tell people to go to an event!
Before going up to the main shrine, Bacchan bought Wakana and I some Setoyaki, which I don't really remember but were small savory pancakes.
As we kept going you could see the lit danjiri in the distance, and it very much reminded me of the movie "Spirited Away." When we arrived to the shrine, to say it was crowded would be an understatement. We went up to the entrance just before the main building and stood there for hours. Danjiri would come by, the people would lift it up to their fingertips, shake it up and down, bring it back down, and go drop it off in their spot. There would be so many people that the fence between the path and the area (we're not supposed to be in but were anyways) was destroyed by people falling over it. Every now and then when people would bring down the danjiri, it would lean over people and they would back up, scared it would fall. Well, there were three times where the danjiri fell to the ground but it never fell onto people.
At about 5:00 AM we saw the mikoshi come by, and they were loud and scary. After each one there was like a group of girls shouting "haiya!" rythmically.
We went back to the house and got ready to go back to Matsuyama. I was so tired that I think I fell asleep in the car because I don't remember the drive. I got back, thanked them for taking me, they gave me a whole bunch of snacks, and then I got ready for the school day.