Still quite crazy here in Japan

Not long ago I had commented on how, in Japan, one gets involved in all sorts of strange activities. Now please note, I'm really not the adventurous type. But here in countryside Japan, it would seem, there are third parties who will decide on one's interest, and willingness to participate, in just about anything. Yes indeed, and so one gets 'volunteered' into strange activities that teeter precariously between fun, on the one hand, and pure unadulterated insanity, on the other.

Ok, now I accept that I'm

'the only gaijin in the village'. 

People are bound to think about me, and wish to involve me, in whatever is happening locally. Even if my mind is elsewhere, pondering topics quite unworldly, like blogging, or particle physics, but not, definitely not, what had just transpired.

This time? Well, I became a thespian! Or maybe in keeping with my 'Little England' theme, might that be 'a Thesbian'?

Once again it's that old chestnut 'community', rearing its Gorgon like head! Community, to which I have previously conferred great benefits, and maybe now even more so, potential personal suffering. You will recall my close shave with Kendo!

Well this thesbian conversion began quite unbeknownst to me. Invited to a very local community group. One almost within spitting, but luckily just out of cursing, distance. I was told I MUST get involved in a play that my neighbours were planning. Play! Moi? But with no initial hints as to where it would all lead. Hey, I didn't speak Japanese after all, what could really be expected of me? It's just a little harmless fun I thought, with my neighbours, drinking beer, and sake, and bonding. Right?

Well the practice meetings started a month or so ago. Initially as boozy gatherings, where I wondered what was going on, due to the aforementioned Japanese and lack thereof, but it all did seem like quite harmless fun. Sure.

Then my lines grew in number. Props started appearing. Practices became more regular. But it wasn't until the last week beforehand, that I came to understand that the whole community would attend. Yes, a school theatre / sports complex full of them! Then wifey says, in final days before, 'oh, you're a, if not the, most crucial character'. "WHAAAAAT!".

So, if you wish to force feed some Japanese vocabulary and grammar into your noggin, then the fear of looking like a complete plonker in front of a whole community, it's one approach to acquiring that language!

I had some English lines which, really, could have been anything. No one would have known if I'd talked about my running buck naked through the paddy fields. But no, I said enough to please foreign ears, if do very little for their minds.

My Japanese lines I record here for posterity. A Japanese speaking part when one does not yet speak Japanese, is quite difficult if not nigh on impossible. Somehow, I got through. Apparently the audience understood me. The Japanese part at least.

ぼくわ にほんの いなかが すきです。

しぜんが たくさん あり、

ふるくて　れきし　の　ある
すばらしい　ばしょう　が　いっぱい　あります。

にほんの　よい　ところ　が　いっぱい　まなべます。

ぶろぐで　くにさきお　しょうかい　しています。

I hate to admit it, but it was fun. I even received an ovation for simply saying "Good morning" to the audience, as I worked my English lines! The Japanese lines, well I won't translate, I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader, so you can only guess at how difficult this all was. For the poor old mute, and all but illiterate, cycling guyjin of Kunisaki.

[TODAY Sat Mar 3 2012 8:30pm : OMG I'm on cable TV! Yes, even a camera crew were out that night. Oh, when will it all end ;-)  ]

Joubutsu temple for Shujou-onie festival

Saturday nights in the Japanese countryside probably could do with a little spicing up. Not that a Saturday night would be any more, or less, exciting than any other night. But if one threw in a little chanting, might that not do? That perhaps, and some flames! Oh yes, lots of flames!

To that end, last Saturday night, 28th Jan 2012 to be quite precise (if not somewhat anally retentive, but I'll do it anyway to assist with recording this event), we went out to another Japanese religious festival. Another? Well there are a darn lot of them you see. At least from my irreligious, gaijin and somewhat uninformed vantage point.

Quick point of reflection. Am I not now an insider, reporting on the secrets of Japanese culture? This is five months into life in Nihon. Obviously I have now a surprising wealth of knowledge and insight! "Oh hell no!". Maybe just enough to write these virtual 'postcards', so plenty enough I'd say to embarass myself and entertain you, but please, caveat lector.

So we were ready to go, with kids tucked quite snugly in bed. Or they would have been if there were any. I like to think of our sleeping arrangements as 'snug as a bug in a rug' - which is much closer to reality. Like when you're wrapped inside a futon lying on a tatami floor. Anyway, snug and under the watchful eye of おばあさん (obāsan, yes grandma). Another mini adventure awaiting under the Kunisaki moon of course, and luckily just another short drive from home.

So, what was this one all about? I have been trying to piece that together for myself, as I'm a bit slow on the culture thing at best. But add a foreign language and Japanese tradition, and it can be just a tad confusing. But come along for the ride.

It's dark and just a little chilly as we park on this country road with a telltale increase in roadside vehicles. We're just short of the temple, and I'm quite unwillingly leaving a car that was a pleasantly warm body cocoon. Joubutsu is our destination's name. Chilly JOU-BUTSU!

We do need an aside. Now that name that I don't quite comprehend, would be

じようぶつ (ji-yo-u-bu-tsu)

in my childish, but hopefully correct rendition of the place name in hiragana. The first Japanese character set that my kids are learning in school. I can also write, by changing the Japanese input method to Katakana

ジヨウブツ

but wait

Is he a traffic cop? "Wait!"

as a temple name, I don't think a character set meant for writing 'foreign' words has actually bought me anything. No sir. JI-YO-U-BU-TSU!

Now http://translate.google.com/ converts my hiragana to English, kindly telling me

Animals do the same!

Really! Now isn't that just interesting. But so wrong. I hope. And getting us nowhere.

Looking at my snaps I find my first photo of the night, taken as I arrive, and cut out the first piece of evidence. Yes, inspector Clouseau, à votre service!

where are we?

You'll see, if you care to look a little more closely. "Yes, you there, pay attention. No? Then go stand in the corner". At this Kanji which will get us back on track (certainly off the translation track with those peculiar animals)

成仏

which seems to have a few meanings, but I think I'm getting it now

The second one, 仏, is the butsu part which I know means Buddha.

One piece of the name puzzle solved.

But 成? I think it means 'become'. Yes, I like that, and it makes sense. 

You know you've got it correct when you can find the Japanese wikipedia entry for the place using this combination  成仏じ　( じ　the hiragana for 'ji' or temple). And the web hit is

成仏寺 (国東市)

where we even get the final, partially obscured, Kanji character on our photo.

寺 

which of course is the Kanji for temple. In Clouseau French English: "the case is cleused".  

And end of aside.

From that link I get the idea that Joubutsu, apart from "Become a Buddha" also has another possible meaning that is "to enter nirvana", and so,
we did.

Within the walls it was time to chat, and wait for the Oni or daemons! Fire carrying ones. For this is to be a fire festival, where I'm completely guessing if Shujou has something to do with that. And we didn't have to wait long, as we arrived at 10:00pm, thanks to our friendly neighbourhood monk ぶんちょうさん (Buncho-san of Monjusen-ji).

Oni torches held high

So here I am standing in the grounds of a Tendai sect temple, with Onis' chanting something like "oni-wa yo!" with their torches held high. And when a turn arrives, it's time to crouch in the centre of the front yard with my fellow grovelers revelers, seeking a quick hit on the head with a big fiery stick! Well there were red onie's and black ones, and other happy characters I could not indentify. I've pasted together a large image that best conveys the story in happy snaps, so please click and look closer (it's a big image).

Click this collage for a visual treat.

No I don't actually get it of course, but it's surprisingly good fun nonetheless. I didn't catch on fire, and quite a few participants looked decidedly concerned that they might. Not that prior wisdom seemed to stop them.

So possibly I'm blessed, I certainly have a singe in my fleece top to prove it. But at least I didn't burst into flames, which I usually fear when I enter a Christian church, due to a life of missed communions. Little red and black devils, what next?