a most epic post

sunday was huge!!! the most epic day in all of my time here! its 8am on monday and ive been up all night editing these photos and making slammin’ party beats… so sorry if i seem kind of silly

sunday was huge! most productive day ive had in japan by far…

first i got a skype phone number, which means anyone can call me and it only costs the local rate for in-seattle calls… or irvine to seattle.. or whatevs… its not that expensive! if you have my number, call it!

so i got to talk to tons of people, friends and family! yay! hearing your voices stokes me out to the max!

then… after making all the aforementioned phone calls, i walk out of my dorm, on the way to the train station and theres a parade outside my door! a shinto holiday parade… an omikoshi parade! from my meager understanding (experience + wikipedia) a mikoshi is…

A mikoshi (神輿, mikoshi^?) is a portable Shinto shrine. Shinto followers believe that it serves as the vehicle of a divine spirit in Japan at the time of a parade of deities. Often, the mikoshi resembles a miniature building, with pillars, walls, a roof, a veranda and a railing. Typical shapes are rectangles, hexagons, and octagons. The body, which stands on two poles (for carrying), is usually lavishly decorated, and the roof might hold a carving of a Phoenix.

During a matsuri, people bear a mikoshi on their shoulders by means of the two poles. They bring the mikoshi from the shrine, carry it around the neighborhoods that worship at the shrine, and in many cases leave it in a designated area, resting on blocks, for a time before returning it to the shrine. Some shrines have the custom of dipping the mikoshi in the water of a nearby lake, river or ocean. At certain festivals, the people who bear the mikoshi wave it wildly from side to side, and from time to time, deaths occur when a mikoshi strikes a bystander or participant.

A mikoshi was believed to have been first used to transport Hachiman to Tōdai-ji temple from Usa Jingu in 749.

anyways… shit was rad!

these are way out of order, but here are my radical photos of the event:

everyone was so pumped!

this kid got a free ride the whole way!

so stoked to carry the shrine

seriously, judaism needs to incorporate a drum and flute truck this holiday season! (and bonus points for the pensive looking dude in the right hand corner!)

everyone was so stoked to be in on the shrine carrying

when we stopped, this guy got up and clicked his sticks… then kinda crowd surfed/trust fell into the crowd! awesome!

picking up the shrine and moving on….

i hope this peacock was made of solid gold, because that shrine was really heavy!

this dragon was epic!

super stoked

ridiculously intricate.. but i guess thats a shrine for you

this is my favorite photo of the day

stoked!

also another good photo

the shrine… all purdy like

this is ken, he was so stoked! everyone was stoked! he was the one who sort of half english/half gestured that he would hold my backpack, hold my camera and take my picture if i would help the ‘hood carry the shrine.. so naturally i obliged

its really hard to carry a shrine! its ridiculously heavy as well! and for some reason there are people at the end of all the poles, pushing downwards as hard as they can the whole time! needless to say my shoulder is sore! and also im taller than most japanese, so i kind of had to stoop down, which didnt make bearing the load any easier. notice andrew dying on the left. i think that its some kind of happiness through intense suffering kind of zen thing. it was painful, but everyone was so friendly and stoked to bear the weight of the shrine, you couldnt help but be happy to pitch in!

getting super zen

so pumped to carry the shrine! this guy getting other people pumped! everyone takes a turn! when you stop you get free beer! shinto is rad!

so i walk out of the dorm, go with this parade, help carry this ridiculously intricate and heavy shrine… get free iced tea (i hear if you went back to the temple you got unlimited beer, sake, sacred homebrew sake and tons of food…) but i had an awesome time with joa and those guys… and then walked for a couple hours taking terrible night photos, then i came home and got to play guitar, then ate food, then stayed up all night…

another weird/cool thing about japan is that they are very lax about sticking to one religion… i read in a cheesy tourbook (so this may not be very accurate) that japanese are born shinto, marry christian and die buddhist… they are just stoked to celebrate, so they will be shinto, christian and buddhist all the same time, or whatever fits on that day… (correct me if im wrong) its my understanding that christmas is a big deal, but its more of a shopping thing and not a baby jesus thing… i guess ill find out on christmas!

on another note, i found chabad in tokyo!? (totally by accident.. there is a chabad kosher deli across the street from school) how weird is that? im totally going to kol nidre on friday! i need an exuse to wear my dress clothes anyways. and the dude im working on tokyofixedgear.com for is a british, albeit secular, jew… weird! i cant escape jews anywhere i go… i guess thats a potentially good thing. im also friends with a south african jew at school, but hes one of those spoiled la jews that i just cant totally hang with… being a spoiled oc jew is one thing, but la jews are a cut above… and not in a good way. but i guess we relate to each other on that weird jew level. maybe its time to go shinto.

i think, against all better judgement… im going to go to mcdonalds and eat a egg mcmuffin and then go to bed… i’ll leave you with this…