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諏訪神社
Shrines in Japan are typically closed. Sure you can visit them, walk around the grounds, and make an offering at any hour of any day. However, the walls come down during a festival for performances and the like. Such is the case at the Suwa Jinja Matsuri in Shinjuku each August when visitors can get a rare glimpse at the simple and elegant stage behind the wooden walls.
Today is Setsubun (節分) in Japan. Even if you aren’t in Japan, if you happen to run into a Japanese person, today is a good day to say “oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi” (out with the devils, in with the luck) to them.
Today’s photo is from the Setsubun bean-throwing festivities at Rinnoji in Nikko. They threw treats and prizes instead of beans. We were handed handfuls of beans as we headed out after though.
There were several famous actors who tossed the prizes. In this photo, for instance, you can see Nakayama Jin (中山 仁) and Otonashi Mikiko (音無 美紀子), whose names are displayed beneath them.
金泉湯 ads on lanterns at Japanese festival
Japanese characters (kanji) on lanterns all look pretty cool to foreign eyes. When you can actual read the characters, though, the ones advertising places like 金泉湯 (Golden Spring Baths–a Japanese Sento or public bath) seem much cooler–and much more Japanese–than those advertising a local doctor’s office or McDonald’s.
Sadly, I never visited 金泉湯 (Kinsento), even though I walked past it a million times. I guess this is yet another reason why I need to go back to Tokyo one of these days. While the onsen (hot springs) establishments in Japan will never disappear, the number of sento are continually decreasing, and they could go extinct. I hope 金泉湯 is still around for my next visit.
A month or two before ever sampling Ippudo Ramen, there is this image of me standing in front of it, getting a bit excited apparently as the carriers of the shrine were soon going to be changing.
I don’t know if this is the norm or not, but in the case of the Tenso Jinja Matsuri different groups or organizations took turns carrying the omikoshi around town. I was part of the Nishi-Waseda group (in the blue happi coats).
Back to Ippudo Ramen… I need to get some photos of it up one of these days. With so many food choices in Tokyo, and near Waseda University in particular, I rarely ate at a place more than once or twice. Ippudo was probably the only place I enjoyed a meal more than 10 times.
Tenso Jinja Matsuri
I’ve mentioned before how difficult it can be to capture any images in Tokyo without loads of wires and power lines messing things up. In today’s photo of the parading around town of the Tenso Jinja gods, the wires almost provide an interesting contrast, along with the buildings, to the less-than-modern attire of the participants.
Japanese float @ 麻布十番商店街祭り
The wonderful thing about wandering the streets of Tokyo in the summer is you never know what you will run into. One day I stumbled upon a festival featuring this festival float (舞車) which looked like it could have been from a much earlier era (were it not motorized). The Japanese kids playing the instruments on the float could have looked a bit happier, but I suppose after a hot day of playing the same thing for hours on end they had lost much of the gusto I imagine they had earlier in the day.