Last night we went back to Takefu for what will probably be one of the last summer festivals we go to this year. This was pretty much unlike other festivals I’ve been to, because it was so local and folksy. Granted, it was basically the same kind of stuff you see at all Japanese festivals — food stalls, game stalls, and people — but what made this one special was that it was so remote. Most of the time, the festivals I go to are fairly big and fairly close to the train station, so there are plenty of out-of-towners and folks from all the neighborhoods. This was purely a 1-neighborhood deal though, located within a large temple’s grounds. It was completely off the beaten track, in a neighborhood with no traffic lights, heck not even any street lights. Hitomi had gone there since she was a kid, because it’s her home neighborhood, so she knew the area well enough to find this place. But to get there, we basically walked through the pitch black, narrow alleys, with only the distant sound of folk songs guiding us.

Your basic Japanese festival

Inside the temple grounds

When we finally got there, it was like the party scene from Karate Kid 2 — nighttime, colored lamps everywhere, and super crowded. This was a costumed festival too, so everyone was wearing strange clothing, kind of like a Japanese Halloween.

Crowds watching the dancers

The dancing circle with singers (kind of like a Japanese hoe-down?)

Insane Clown Posse anyone?

The main point of this even was a dance competition. It was a lot like the Bon dance we’ve done every year at the Takefu summer festival, but instead of doing it in lines down the street, everyone made a big circle around a scaffolding from which the singers were chanting out really ancient-sounding folk songs. Lots of people wore festival kimonos and hats, some folks carried lanterns, and there was even an old man dressed as a fool who was playing some kind of noise sticks off of his head, the ground, and other people. There were so many colors, even in the pitch black of night, and the singing was completely not what one would associate with a festival, so the whole evening took on an otherworldly feel.

A view from the temple

The awesome crazy old man banging his noise sticks against everyone and everything

After watching the dance for a while, we joined in, right next to a completely plastered old man wearing lady’s clothing and dancing like it was the last night of his life. On our other side was another drunk old man who looked like he was plucked from a country club gold course, and who danced like a sugar plum fairy. It was completely nuts. The dancing was tough to just jump in and learn and do, but eventually some older ladies helped us out by showing us the steps and keeping our rhythm.

The summer haze made the lights' colors so much more beautiful

This guy's moves put Michael Jackson to shame

The decorated Buddhist temple

At the end of the night, prizes were awarded to the best dancers. We weren’t anywhere near decent, but — as always happens — being the only foreigner, I was given a prize anyway. We won a marbled cooking pot. Yay!

The happy couple and their prize!

Just for the sights and sounds and atmosphere of the night, this was easily the coolest festival I have ever been to in Japan.

Last weekend I went to the ruins of Ichijodani, the seat of Echizen province during the Sengoku period, for a summer festival called Echizen Candle Night. During its heyday, with over 10,000 citizens in this tiny valley, Ichijodani was the 3rd largest population center in Japan, after the biggest neighborhoods Kyoto and Osaka. Now, it’s a ruin and archeological dig site, with a partially reconstructed village from the Sengoku period. The history is pretty interesting if you’re a nerd like me, so I suggest you take a look at Wikipedia if you want to know more.

Ichijodani Castle Gate

Anyway, it’s a small festival, but it was really beautiful. There were candles everywhere, and as night fell the whole ground was lit up. And since it’s a archeological site, there’s not really much light pollution, so the stars and planets were clearly visible.

Hitomi's candle cup

My candle cup

We were lucky, because the group we went with had a tour guide who took us through the ruins, explaining their history and what used to be where. As it turns out, Ichijodani castle was a pretty luxurious place, and pretty famous during its time (ironic, as now almost nobody knows anything about tiny, rural Fukui — including its own residents). The foundations of the buildings have been uncovered, as well as a number of gardens located in the mountain. Even today they are incredibly beautiful, and it was great to imagine what this place once looked like.

Entering the castle ruins

The gate from inside

The castle grounds from halfway up the mountain

One of the gardens up in the mountain

The candles are lit

The gate at twilight

Unfortunately my iPhone’s camera didn’t capture the dark very well, so these photos don’t look like the real thing. With the clear sky and the candles, I really wanted to paint the area. Some day I will come back and paint the ruined gate. And even more, I want to explore the reconstructed town at some point. I’m looking forward to going back.

As I mentioned in my last post, it’s been a busy week. The reason being… OBON! The past two Obon weeks have been quite memorial — from one of my first experiences in Japan, to having a horrible fever and being hospitalized. This year was no exception — although being unemployed, it was obviously less of a relief from work.

Early in August was the Fukui Phoenix Festival, which I’ve now gone to three times. Fortunately I was able to enjoy it more this year, not having to be at work until 9 pm on the days of the festival. It was the same as always — yosakoi dancing, food vendors, the usual — but it was nice to be able to go through it leisurely. Plus, I got to see Hitomi’s students’ dance this year.

Yosakoi at the Phoenix Matsuri

I also went to Fukui’s gaming circle. I’ve been dying to find some kind of gaming scene in Japan, so I was thrilled to have a free weekend to see what was going on there. They only meet once a month, and it’s a tiny group, but I was able to see a couple very odd (but interesting) Japanese table RPG’s, as well as the Japanese version of Mage: The Ascension. Surprisingly, while the rules mechanics were the same as in the US, the game play style was quite different. For example, in Mage, Japanese and Americans seem to have vastly different preferences as to which kind of character they play. Actually I guess that’s not so surprising, but it was interesting to talk about. Unfortunately my Japanese wasn’t good enough to actually play the game — just good enough to chat and watch the game. Hitomi’s game vocabulary wasn’t good enough to translate for me, so I explained the concepts to her, since I’m familiar with gaming, and she explained the Japanese to me. It was fun, but sadly I’ll have to study for another year or so before my Japanese level is up to gamer snuff.

Besides that, we went to a free flamenco dance class that my friend Yumi’s cultural association was holding. Later in the week, Hitomi, her parents, and I drove to Norikura mountain in Gifu at night and climbed it to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t great, but at the top we were able to catch the sun breaking through the tops of the clouds (below us). The air was so thin it was hard to breathe, and it was COLD! But it was really awesome to be above the tree line in the clouds. It actually felt a lot like an alien world, so I imagined I was exploring Mars or somewhere.

Sunrise from Mt. Norikura Peak

2816 meters up

Morning on the mountain

On the way home from Norikura we decided to stop at some of the traditional villages in Gifu, since I’d been wanting to see them for a long time. Hitomi’s car navi has a sick sense of humor though, because after we climbed and descended a nearly 3000 meter mountain, it directed us not along the highway, but on a country road with no stops, no outlets, and only about 7 feet wide, which snaked all the way over another mountain range. It was seriously a feat of engineering to make this road, where a slight mistake would drop the car over the non-existent shoulder, 2,000 meters down into wild forest where possibly no human has ever set foot. Hitomi’s car was screaming and roaring trying to climb this mountain, and we had to turn off the AC just to ascend… luckily at the top it was close to freezing temperatures so it didn’t matter so much. But jiminy creepers, that was one sick road.

After we finally made it down the mountain (it took maybe 2 hours to wind along that death-trap road), we got to Shirakawago only to find it 100% full of tourists. We were so exhausted we drove through it, sweating and nearly falling asleep, and gave up on visiting it. I took some photos as we drove past though. After that we did manage to stop at Gokayama, which was better in every way than Shirakawago. We saw a traditional village and a gunpowder factory located in a tiny valley with only a river and highway tunnels to access it, completely cut off from the outside world by steep mountains. It was a total fantasy world. And then finally we got home, I ran my online D&D game, and then sleeeeppppttt!

Gokayama traditional houses

The rest of vacation is hard to piece together, because we did so much. I know we rented 20 DVD’s and have been burning through them like mad. I’ve been painting in all my free time. We also went back to Takefu for the Takefu summer festival again, and did the Bon dance in the rain. I was able to remember the steps this year, astonishingly, and it was really fun. We also went to Hitomi’s family’s ancestors’ graves to pray, saw an ancient painting of Hell in a temple, shot off fireworks, relaxed and spent a lot of time with Hitomi’s family members who were able to come back to Takefu for the holiday, and drank way too much beer. Last night we went to a barbecue at Hitomi’s friend’s family’s beach house and again drank way too much beer. And today we went to Shibamasa World, a small-ish amusement & water park. It was a good day, though now I’m extremely sunburned.

Shibamasa World

Tomorrow work starts again, but I think both of us feel even more exhausted than before vacation begun.