Pictures (part one): Shimogamo Shrine, my neighborhood, and my host family

Hello, people.

So I finally managed to get the pictures from my camera onto my computer. It only took FOREVER. (There is a long and exciting story concerning My Quest to Find a Computer Which Can Actually Talk to My Camera, but I will spare you.) So now I'm going to be posting some random pictures of things from my trip. WHOO.

I'm going to be doing a bunch of short-er-ish posts, because you really don't want to look at a couple hundred pictures all at once. Really. Also, I'm obviously not going to post ALL my pictures, 'cause a bunch of them are of Boring Things That No One But Me Would Find Remotely Interesting. This means that even though I took forty thousand pictures of tiny shrines, I will only show a few of them. And I will attempt not to fangirl over them too much.

Also, standard warning: I'm not a photographer, and it's a miracle that I can even get my camera to point in the general direction of the pictures I want to take, most days. Also, my camera is not the greatest. It does not understand the concept of focusing sometimes. So if my pictures cause those of you who have forty thousand times more camera skills than I do pain, um...sorry about that. I'll just grovel at your feet for forgiveness.

Also, it took me four tries to spell "forty" (and I just misspelled it twice more trying to type it there). Today is a bad day for English, apparently.

So, yeah.

So here, have part one of random pictures of things.

My host family! 3/4 of them anyway.

Best host family in the universe, yes/yes?

Me with my host family.

Yes, that is a picture of Moomin on the wall.

The last 1/4 of my host family (and Michael Jackson). He (my host brother, not Michael Jackson) was unconscious on the kitchen floor while we took the first picture (ASLEEP, not knocked out, so don't give me that look), so this was the next day.

Also, my little host brother and host father put that poster of Michael Jackson up when my host mom wasn't looking. She wasn't too thrilled with having it right in the middle of the living room, but it was too late.

A random street in the area of my host family's house.

The "shop village" (literal translation of the word), which was actually a street that was right next to my host family's house.

Also, the back of my little host brother's head.

The Kamogawa (the river right by my host family's house)! You have no idea how much I love this river. This was when it was pretty low, 'cause I took this picture my first day there, before the rainy season started.

Okay, now for some random pictures of Shimogamo Shrine. This was the shrine closest to my host family's house, and the place where the boy scouts went every other Sunday.

The first of the many (many) torii leading to the shrine. There was actually quite a long street between this torii and the next one (which led onto the actual shrine grounds).

Sacred tree!

Then there was a loooooong walk from here (right inside the second torii) to the actual shrine. The way was dotted with smaller shrines as well.

Here's one of the smaller shrines along the way.

And here's an even smaller one!

A sacred rock, which apparently sang the national anthem. OH YEAH.

The front gate to the main shrine. Right through the gate you can see the stage which important ceremonies are performed on, and beyond that is the actual honden.

This was a little tiny basin for purification right inside the shrine.

The pieces of paper tied to the tree are actual fortune telling papers. Depending on where you go, you tie good/bad fortunes to nearby trees so that they will/won't come true.

Okay, I just thought this was amusing.

The rope with the hanging bits of paper denotes a sacred place/object. (You'll always see those hanging around shrines, usually from the torii when you first enter.)

[/amusement]

Boy scout shrine adventure story

Okay, so, first off, my boy scout shrine adventure story.

So yesterday (Sunday) I went with my host mom and my host brothers to the local shrine (Shimogamo) because both my host brothers are boy scouts, and the boy scout troop apparently meets at the shrine every other Sunday. Anyway, my host mom asked me if I wanted to come along, and I said sure, ‘cause I am always up for going to shrines. So we had a nice walk over (and my little host brother taught me the names of a bunch of bugs) and then we got to shrine where the other boy scouts were slowly assembling. Or should I say “boy” scouts. ‘cause about half of them were female. Several of the troop leaders were also female. Anyway, my host mom introduced me to a bunch of the adults who were involved in the group (including an eighty-five-year-old guy who was delighted that I understood Japanese and even more delighted that I was interested in Shinto and proceeded to tell me all about the shrine). Anyway, once everyone was assembled, we all lined up and marched into the actual shrine (we were waiting outside the gate before). And then everyone lined up in front of the area where you're supposed to pray and did the traditional two bows, two claps, one bow. But then they started chanting this thing that I could only understand about 15% of. After that they did the two bows, two claps, one bow again and then marched right out of the shrine...after which all the boy scouts went and got booklets stamped by the local shrine maiden.

This is not the sort of experience I would ever expect to have with a boy scout troop in the US.

Anyway, afterward I asked my host mom to explain it to me:

Me: That thing you were saying in front of the shrine...what did it mean? It was really hard for me to understand.

Host Mom: I don't know.

Me: You...don't know?

HM: Yes.

Me: You mean you don't know what it means?

HM: Yes. Well, it's supposed to be a prayer to the deity of the shrine, but I can't tell you what the words mean. Maybe you should ask the boy scout troop leader. He might know.

Me: Then how did you learn it?

HM: Well, when you say it enough times, you just remember how it's supposed to sound.

Me: Is it the same for every shrine? Or do you have to learn a different one for each one?

HM: I think it's the same. The other shrines I've been to have had the same one.

So then she asked my older host brother if he had the paper with the chant written on it, and sure enough, he did. And no wonder I couldn't understand what it was saying, 'cause it was written in classical Japanese, from back when を was used for things other than marking the object of the sentence! CRAZY. So I could understand about 10% of it, and the rest of it was completely incomprehensible.

So then I asked about the booklet stamping.

Me: At the end, after they were done praying...the shrine maiden stamped the boy scouts books. Is that for a badge?

HM: No. They just do it for fun. It doesn't have any meaning.

AND THIS IS WHY I STUDY SHINTO.

(Actually, there are more complicated reasons why I study Shinto, but they'll have to be saved for tomorrow when I'm actually writing my paper about Shinto.)

Anyway, that was yesterday. Today I had class in the morning and then lunch and then had to give a presentation in the afternoon comparing electronic books and paper books. We were supposed to rehearse beforehand with our other classmates, and I completely bombed the rehearsal. I have no idea what was going on, but I could not form coherent thoughts. Finally I just stopped and told the other members of my group, "I'm sorry, but I can't practice." And they didn't understand that I was saying that I COULDN'T practice and thought that I was just really nervous, and I couldn't think of a better way to explain it (seriously, I cannot practice presentations, even in English; it just doesn't work) so finally they gave up. And when the time came for me to give my presentation, they were all wincing and prepared for me to bomb it, and I didn't, so yay for that. My only comments from the teacher were that I said "um" (or the Japanese equivalent) too much, and that I needed to use the more polite form of "but." And then afterwards one of the girls in my group came up to me and said, "Okay, I get it now. You can only perform without rehearsing, right?" And I said, "YES, THAT WAS THE WORD I WAS LOOKING FOR."

So then I went and bought toothpaste and found out that fluoride has been banned in toothpaste in Japan for 50 years (or so says my residential director), and then I went home and studied like a maniac and had dinner which was delicious and awesome. And now I am writing this blog post, but it's getting really late, so I think I'm going to stop here and go to bed.

Oh, wait, completely random closing note! My little host brother likes Michael Jackson. A LOT. And 'cause he can't exactly sing the songs (since they're in English and he can't figure out the lyrics), he decided to teach himself the dances instead. And it turns out that he's actually a pretty good dancer for an eight year old.

Okay, sleeping time! I have a debate tomorrow afternoon and then I have to write a 3 page paper. HRRRG.