September 17. 2004 18:54

The Dragon Festival

Okay, I've got my new Harry Potter now, so I'm trying to make this one short ^_^

Today I went to that Seiryu-e festival I missed yesterday. As there was no time set for the festival in Kyoto Visitor's Guide, I decided to leave as early as I could to make sure I wouldn't miss it. Some of the festivals I've been to have started at 7 in the morning, so there was no way to tell what time this would be, even though the legend tells about the dragon coming to drink from the river at night. My alarm clock went off at seven in the morning and by eight I had eaten my tamagoyaki breakfast (which I almost burned, again, because the gas makes the frying pan too hot) and was ready to go. I was downtown before nine and though I would buy that Harry Potter book while I was there, in case I had to wait until night for the festival. It had never crossed my mind that there wouldn't be a single bookstore that opens before 10. I like the way the Japanese stores are open late, but they sure take their time in the morning.

I didn't want to wait until ten when nothing was open, so I took the bus to Kiyomizu temple thinking I could walk back during the time in between if I was bored. The temple was really wonderful, as I've said of most of the temples here. But they are. I found out that the festival starts at 14, so I thought I could wait for 4 hours as there were so many souvenir shops I could go through. The small street to the temple was indeed full of souvenir shops, most of them selling the same things over and over again. I found lots of thing I wanted to buy again, like mobile phone hangers and insence holders and jewelry and wind chimes. I'll have to come again and buy all that later. (No problem, really I'll gladly go there again.)

I didn't plan to visit the temple itself because that cost a few hundred yen and I really am short of money. Tomorrow I'll ask Heidi to help me get some with my card. But as I wandered around the temple grounds for the 45 minutes before the festival would start, I ended up walking in from the back. Wasn't really what I meant, but I thought best to enjoy the view while I was there. The temple is a magnificent building, standing on a hill with half of it built upon humongous trunks of wood. (My English is failing me now.) I took many photos, which probably do no justice to the experience. Inside there were more charms, and I thought about buying some of them as well the next time I was there. Then there were these "love stones"; if you could walk from one to the other with your eyes closed, your love wish would be granted soon. Didn't try, though ^_^ (And it said it would work better if you had a friend to guide you.)

Soon the clock was already two and I had to run through the temple to get back to the front yard for a good view. During the last minutes I searched frantically for a bathroom, found one, and returned up so I was in front of the temple. Actually, down at the yard would've been a better place to look at it, as the parade went down the temple's main stairs and I was just behind the corner. Nevertheless, I took so much videos with my camera that for the first time I ran out of both power and space on the memory card. it shut down just as I would've had a good shot at the dragon.

Well, the festival party consisted of the head monk and about 12 other monks in grey clothes, a few soldier-monks who were blowing seashell horns, four women in orange clothing purifying the rest of the party, and a dragon, carried by about ten men. Mari would've loved it. The monks went down the stairs, forming an alley for the dragon to come through. It raised its head high and shook it's tail while it went. There was a brief performance in the yard and then the party continued down along the streets. On the way, the dragon twirled like a snake, shook its head and rushed into the boutiques. We went all the way to the end of the shops but then turned back again. Soon the dragon turned to a side-alley and the festival ended as the men carrying it went to drink.

Well, as I had loads of time (Even now it's not even seven! How nice it is to wake up early ^_^), I decided to walk through Gion instead of getting a bus to downtown. The walk was a good decision, I saw a lot more little shops, went exploring into the small streets, and caught a glimpse of a giant buddhist statue at what I think was Ryozen Kannon. I found lots of other temples and shrines as well and ended my walk at Yasaka shrine next to Maruyama park. That, too, was bigger than I remembered. It seems all the famous temples and shrines are huge here... (And why wouldn't they be? Isn't that part of why they're famous?)

Then there were the few blocks until the subway station, and finally I'm feeling at ease here. Finally I'm not panicking about the new environment but can enjoy the feeling of being in Japan. A big part of relaxing comes from the fact that I'm not totally lost whenever I go outside anymore. And reading a book really made me feel like this dorm was a home. There's nothing more homey than a good book. So there's something good about my Potter addiction, too ^_^