Pictures (part five): Gion Matsuri and Kyoto tiny shrine adventure

Okay, guys, this post is going to be so long that you might have to take a bathroom break in the middle. There will also be gratuitous amounts of fangirling over tiny shrines, and by the end you will probably be staring blankly at your screen, wondering why the heck I'm so obsessed. Why AM I so obsessed anyway? Oh, wait, 'cause they're awesome.

Anyway, now that all those warnings are out of the way, here we go.

This post corresponds to this post, this post, and this post, just FYI.

This is Gion Matsuri on Friday, the street fair part of it. It was large. Very large. It shut down an entire district of Kyoto, that's how large it was.

You'll see this street again down below.

More streets...

The third stand from the end is selling fried squid, for the record.

Oh, look, a GIANT FLOAT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET!

(Please note how tall it is in relation to the buildings. Then realize that it has to be pushed along the parade route.)

Another float!

There are men who ride floats. And then there are men who play the flute. And then there are MEN WHO PLAY THE FLUTE WHILE RIDING ON FLOATS.

(Just in case it's too small for you to tell what they're doing.)

Shrine maidens selling charms in a stand right next to the float.

These things are FRIGGIN' TALL.

And another, smaller float.

Remember that street from before? This is the same one at night.

Can you spot the foreigners?

And here's the same street again.

That's a ramen burger. It kind of scares me. And by "kind of" I mean "really."

(The bun is made of ramen and the burger is made of egg.)

Okay, next day! Parade time!

This is the river that runs by my host family's house, except this is the section in Shijo. I was standing on the bridge while taking this picture.

HOLY SMOKES, THIS PLACE IS CROWDED. CAN'T. BREATHE.

Here's a float. Or what I could see of it.

Then I left.

Here's a Yakushi (a specific bodhisattva) temple I ran into while wandering around Kyoto.

The path along the river! (I wound up walking along this path all the way home at the end of the day.)

Just.

Okay.

This is awesome, you guys.

(Anyone know what kind of bird this is? I'm pretty rubbish at birds. There seemed to be a lot of them around the river, whatever they were.)

Pink Ginger Sparkling. It was tasty.

Here's a little temple I found while wandering around in Sanjo.

This was posted outside the temple.

The best translation I can come up with is "Learning is meeting your new self."

This is Heian Jingu, one of the big, important shrines in Kyoto.

A list of cursed years for men and women.

WHY AM I STILL CURSED!? I WAS CURSED LAST YEAR TOO! (Well, now I'm "after cursed" instead of "actually cursed." WHAT.)

For the record, the really bad cursed years for men and women (according to this sign; it varies from shrine to shrine) are:

Men: 25, 42, 61

Women: 19, 34, 38

Okay, here's the entrance.

And the main building of the shrine.

Some of the charms they were selling. In case you can't tell, THAT'S A LOT.

Looooooooooooooooots of fortunes.

There was a smaller hand-washing place inside of the shrine complex, even though there was a much bigger one outside the gates.

If you can't read Japanese, these are machines that apparently make commemorative medals for the shrine.

Does this seem like something we have in the U.S.?

OH YEAH.

More buildings inside the temple complex.

Ema! Lots of them!

Just in case you guys STILL haven't figured out how to use a toilet correctly, you're not supposed to sit backwards on a Western-style toilet.

Giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiant torii in the middle of the road.

This was the worst upkept set of stairs I saw in Japan. I was so shocked I had to take a picture.

I bet you are finding this extremely fascinating.

Here's a street I was walking along after I left Heian Jingu.

Tiny (tiny, tiny) shrine complex!

So here's a tiny shrine. A VERY tiny shrine.

Hey, do these torii remind you of something?

(If you answered Fushimi Inari, it means that you've been paying too much attention or talking to me too much.)

Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper tiny shrine!

This is part of a placard that was up, explaining who the god of the shrine is (apparently it is called Otatsu Inari--which would explain why it looks like an Inari shrine--and is a god of music) and what you could get from praying at the shrine (improvement in the arts, lack of injury, and prosperity in business).

Guys, this is CRAZY. The shrine has a webpage.

Oh, hey, look, a political poster right next to where the head priest is supposed to work.

And just in case you don't believe in the efficacy of the shrine, here are some newspaper articles to convince you.

This is a temple...in a shopping mall.

Here's another temple in a shopping mall.

Yes, that is a torii ON A ROOF.

Only in Japan, folks. Only in Japan.

The river! People wading in it!

(And then I slept. And then I had day two of tiny shrine adventures.)

So here's a shrine for success in sports.

Yes, those are soccer balls in the honden.

Tiny hand-washing place.

And another tiny shrine.

(Note the donation box to the left.)

The main shrine of the complex.

Is this starting to feel surreal yet?

I guess this let's-prove-our-efficacy-through-articles thing must be popular at tiny shrines.

(The ema is asking to please get through a year without the asker injuring him/herself. Asker? Prayer? Patron? I don't know what noun I should use here.)

LOOK AT THOSE EMA.

THEY'RE SPORTS EMA.

These were for sale.

Note the sports charms all the way to the right.

And by "right" I mean "left."

I'll be able to tell my left from my right someday, I swear.

Here you go, Opal. It's for the first movie, unfortunately. And it was the only one I saw. But I saw it and squee'd and did a little dance and then took a picture.

(P.S. JOHNNY.)

Here's a tiny shrine!

And here's where it was located!

Yes, it was a shrine in a park.

There was a tiny temple right next to it.

YOU GUYS, I AM FANGIRLING SO HARD RIGHT NOW. SO HARD.

In any case, I only have the last week of photos left, so expect those...at some point. I have to go write a one-page essay about my experiences doing the program now.

P.S. Have I mentioned that Ludo is my hero? Ludo is my hero. And they have a song about Japan. They mispronounce "sake," but they win points for pronouncing "karaoke" correctly.

Don't misquote me
I'm not disowning my country
We'll come back one day (USA!)