Japanorama

Matt, Keiko and Emi’s 2007 adventure.

At the end of January, after a relaxing period of preparation, Matt, Keiko and Emi set off on a tour of their ancestral sites. This is a stimulating account of their experience(s).

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   galleries you can view : | Hair | Rides (wet) | Rides (dry) |

777 MILLION FEVER

There are many amusement avenues a tour group such as ourselves may pursue at our leisure in Japan. This page explores, slightly, some of the options we have, heretofar, availed ourselves of.

As you can see from the photograph on the left, amusement is a serious business. It is divided into four main factions: rides, festivals, sumo and shopping.

RIDES

There are many amusement parks in Japan, but the only ones with any real cultural significance are located on top of department stores. They are given names such as "Sky Parlor", "Children's Heaven " and "Joy of Roof Delight".

Amusement rooftops are especially special in the rain. See this Rainy Rooftop Amusement Gallery or this instructional video (2 MB) for more.

Sometimes, and these times are obviously not ideal, it does not rain. Here is another Amusement Gallery showing such unprecipitous moments.

Rides can be found inside department sores too. Children regularly enter creatures such as the one here, and emerge some time later giddier and a little wiser.

Creatures are everywhere and so amusement. You can climb on them and in them. You can watch their adventures and dance to their songs. You can fight them, cherish them and eat them. Naturally, all of these relationships involve some financial outlay.

FESTIVALS

Japan is a country that is so full of festivals that it is a wonder that none of them spill out.

Over the centuries, gods, Emperors (and presses), shrines, temples and communities have been inspired to come up with a startling array of diverse festivals. They mark the seasons, pagan, spiritual, social and historical events and generally cheer people up. Cramming them all into just one year is a tricky task.

The result is that no moment will pass without a raft of festival options (some involving actual rafts).

You may have already seen the Giant Omochi festival. There are also fire festivals, blossom festivals, drum festivals, tofu festivals and doll fesivals. There are rice, lantern, snow, coming of age, heron dance, horse racing, archery, archery whilst horse racing and phallus festivals. There's probably a festival festival. Last week we went to a jazz festival.

We ourselves have been to hundreds this week alone. It's unfeasible to tell of them all so instead, let's examine what's so super about them - apart from the food and the beauty and the colour and the music and the amazingness.

If you are in a festival you get to drive around in trucks, carts and wagons with trees on them. You get the opportunity to give your all to your community, place yourself solidly in the centre of your cultural history and make the traditions of your ancestors your own.

Everyone can join in (even foreigners). You get to wear great costumes and sometimes show your buttocks.

Did you know that shrines get holidays too? Every shrine in Japan has its own festival each year and some of them get wheeled (like a float on a parade - but a few hundred years older) around on an annual tour.

One Kyoto festival involves hundreds or so people carrying and then wheeling large (and very heavy) shrines to and from the shrine holiday spots. But they don't just carry it, they lift it above their heads and give it a rockin' good time, much sweat is spilt in the process.

Here's another "portable" shrine which gets hauled around. There are twenty five women inside, singing and playing bells.

There's also a large pine tree on top.

Why don't you start a festival next week?

SUMO

In March we went to a Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka.

Sumo is great, lots of ritual, excitement and body fat. There's some dancing, glaring parading and a little bit of wrestling. A large stadium full of afficionados who know the history, rating, personality and inside leg measurement of most of the top wrestlers, if not all of the 68 competing that day.

The classy audiencees sit on mats, eating, drinking, talking and shouting. Young women move through the crowd selling ice cream at the top of their voices -regardless of what's going on in the ring.

We had too much fun and we would like to share some of it with you in the form of some movies.

Movie one: the suspense is killing me. (1.2MB)

Movie two: save time with our abridged sumo.

SHOPPING

Japanese people buy a lot of stuff and when you are visiting their country it is only polite to follow suit. Despite the stereotype, Japan doesn't have to be an expensive place to shop - as long as you don't buy melon.

So many shops to choose from. There are rice shops and tofu shops of course. There are rice cake shops and there are rice dumpling shops. There are shops that sell bamboo shoots - and only bamboo shoots. There are shops that sell pine branches. There are shops that sell shops made of pine branches.

Let's start with enormous shops - the electrical goods shops and the department stores. 5 floors of things you plug in and quickly replace. Departos which open their doors every morning with a parade of staff respectfully bowing and wishing their esteemed customers a heartfelt welcome, with pink bedecked lift ladies as a bonus - not to mention their aforementioned amusing rooftops. All jammed with shiny (and occasionally inexpensive) goods and lots of staff - low unemployment here is achieved by employing lots of people - clever isn't it?

But the best of all are the old (and in modern times), covered shopping streets and the markets.

In the shopping arcades you'll find the pickle shops, the fan shops, the doll shops and slipper shops, the sandal shops and socks shops. The fashionable and not at all fashionable rub shoulders with traditional (expensive) vegetable shops, discount sweet shops, busy shrines and busier pachinko parlours.

The markets, which are mostly in temple grounds, have all of the above (except pachinko), plus junk and antiques.

Shopping malls also do flea markets, with a side line of singing dancing and cutely chit chatting, idol-hopeful, girls in very short skirts. Their audience are, strangely, populated mostly by men with video cameras and keen interest in the stagework and costume details of the unfolding shows.

Although you don't have to, you will find it very easy to buy expensive stuff if you want to. Traditional items like kimomos, dolls and fans, top the bill for stunningly low bang for your buck - but many of these things are also stunningly beautiful.

The best thing is if you come over here and have a look for yourself.

Until then, have a look at a shopping gallery.

Coming soon : FOOD!