So we met bright and early at fukae hanshin station and of course Pak was late. We are guided to the changing rooms in the building on the temple's grounds. We each have a bag with our names on it and inside is the traditional costume for this festival. After getting some help from some people we all got dressed.
Here is what me and Pak looked like
For the legs it actually was a skirt kind of thing but was pretty comfortable. I was at first nervous about showing off my chest like that but I then decided just to have some fun with it and a few people just came up and touched it and some people took pictures of me because of it. It was fun though.
We started by pushing the danjiri from its storage shed to the temple which was like a block away. For those that don't know, which is probably everyone, a danjiri is kind of a traditional Japanese float. However float makes one think that it is light, that is not the case at all. They actually weigh around 4 tons! It has stone wheels that leave a trail on the street where ever it goes. To turn this thing the people in the back have to sit down on it while the people in the front lift so that it is only on two wheels then they can push it in the direction they want.
Here is a picture of the one I pushed and a picture of one that looks exactly like ours did (even the clothes were the same so I have to wonder if I found the right one by chance).
There was also a smaller one that was pushed by only women. As it turns out I was really lucky to do this year because they do the men's one every 2 years and the women's one every 3 years so the year they do both is only once in 6 years. In side of both types is someone playing the taiko drums and they NEVER stop. As these things go through town there are also tons of other people keeping track of traffic and which direction it is going and stopping it from going off track.
So we bring the danjiri to the temple, line up then walk in a parade up to another temple. We keep a four row formation and keep up a chant, I'm not sure what we were saying but I just tried to mimic the sounds. When we got to the temple a bunch of people went into a shed and dragged out the mikoshi. A mikoshi is a portable shrine covered in bells and gold everything. It weighs over 1 ton and costs over a million dollars. Here is what mine looked like.
They placed it down and we all sat around it while some of the older guys in yukatas and wearing a special hat sang a shinto prayer song while holding a folding fan over their mouth. We then all stood up, said a chant while we clapped then lifted it up and ran around the area for a bit, brought it back to the center, put it down and then they sang again. We did this three times and then we took the shrine down the stairs and out of the temple. There is probably 20 people lifting the mikoshi at one time so you think its not that bad right? No way it was crazy heavy. We had to constantly trade out people because it was just so much work to move this thing. Here is a picture I found on the web of people carrying a similar one so it was a lot like what I was doing.
As you can see there are beams that are lower and some that are higher. Because I am just a little taller then the average Japanese person I had a really hard time using the lower beam so I would usually be in the center. Even still it was really hard to use your shoulders because for me there isn't too much muscle on the top of my shoulder so it hurt pretty badly. I tried to push it up with my hands, which hurt a lot right now. In a nut shell it was very awkward to move this thing. We were carrying this thing all through the neighborhoods and sometimes we would stop infront of some place and lift it above our heads twice then throw it in the air a little. That was really scarry. Sometimes we would shake it a lot so the bells would go all crazy. A lot of times we stopped, put it down then did the shinto prayer song again. I would carry it as much as I could but I made sure to take breaks too. We went all over the neighborhood then came back to the first temple for lunch.
lunch was pretty good there were those platters with all sorts of stuff on them and some yakisoba and what not. I had to ask the ladies helping with the food for some water because the only thing to drink was tea and beer. After lunch we continued carrying the mikoshi all around the neighborhood and sometimes meeting up with the girl's danjiri. Every hour or so, didn't have a watch so don't know, we stopped for a break. They had a car with lots of drinks and cups and also signs that said smoking area. Like they just made it a smoking area by putting up their own sign. During the breaks I had a lot of fun talking to all of the people there. I have often talked about the soto/uchi thing in Japan and today I felt part of the uchi. People would just come up to us and start talking and they were all so energetic and fun. It was a real nice feeling. Sometimes we got to use this sort of supporting cart for the danjiri and it became much easier because you just had to pull it now. I'm not quite sure why we would use it some times but not others.
The day continued with going around the neighborhood (which there were surprisingly few people out and about) and such until it was time to put the mikoshi away. We made our way back up to the temple where we got it from and there were a bunch of people cheering us on. We placed the mikoshi down in front of the shrine, they said a special song, everyone else said a different chant, we picked it up again and then the real challenge started. We ran a marathon around the shrine. I don't know how many times we did it but it was at least ten times. As we ran around the back people would tag out so people could get rests but I was in the middle and didn't think I could get out while everyone was marching like that. I just ran and ran and went into robot mode, just turned off thinking and did it. Martin somehow got in and tagged me so I ran out. I took a little break but then had to jump back in but this time I was on the edge again. I eventually got back into the inner parts and we made it to the end. We shook it like we had never done before then finally put it away.
We got in rows and marched down to a park where the danjiri was. I guess some people must have broken off from our group and moved it. After another break we got ready to push again. They had us be in the front and it was really fun. We switched at the train crossing and then stopped on the other side. Looking down the street were crowds of people cheering us on from the sidewalk. The taiko drum's beat got faster and faster until we heard the whistle and we all took off running. This 4 ton danjiri was flying down the street at a crazy speed. The lanterns attached flew off and some of us not pushing it picked them up as we ran. They did this a total of 5 times and twice I got to push it. It was really scarry pushing it because I couldn't normally keep up with that running speed, I had to put some weight on the danjiri and my feet barely touched the ground. It was a really cool feeling to be a part of it and to see the crowds of people cheering you on. It was really something else.
We then started the long process of putting the danjiri away. We put all of our weight on the back and turned it around probably 10 times then pushed it towards the storage shed. The crowd followed us and kept up the cheering and clapping. We pulled it into the garage and then ran back out and pulled it back it and then ran it back out several times. Then we all got inside and they shut the garage door. Behind the garage door they had a paper curtain cover it so when they opened the garage door they could show the lights from color flash lights. But what really surprised me was that some of the older guys came and stood on the front of the danjiri dressed as anpan man and other characters. With the garage door open they burst threw the paper one and everyone was dancing and clapping and streamers and confetti flew everywhere. I could not believe the amount of energy these people had after such a long day. The costume guys got down and then some of the leaders got on the little stage and jumped into the crowd and we threw them up in the air.
I was blown away by it all and had never seen anything like it in my life. After this we walked back to the temple, bowed before the shrine, ate some sushi for dinner, changed clothes and then went home. This was an experience that I will never forget and I can't believe that I was lucky enough to be able to experience it.
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