Towada jinja (shrine)

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A Torii gate leading to the temple grounds.

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So, I’m by no means an expert on Shinto customs, but it seems to me that this is part of the ritual of cleansing before you go to a shrine. I know the picture isn’t that great, but it’s a metal dragon with water coming out of its mouth. Sitting on the side is a metal cup on a stick that you first rinse off twice with the water coming out, and then on the thrid you take a drink. Also, you can see little glass containers on the back there, it’s a sake offering.

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The front of the main temple at Towada, I dunno what it’s called. The area has this nice quiet peaceful feel.

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A couple getting their fortunes. I’m not entirely sure on the ritual, but you go up the step, spread your arms to your side, bring them together and clap, do that twice, then bow with your hands together, then you put in your offering (there was a box with a sign on it for 100 yen), ring the bell twice, and then take a paper out of another box with your fortune on it. After you read it you tie it to a fence that they have in front of the temple.

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Little shrines next to the temple.

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A shrine in the middle of the town.

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A shrine on a little island in the lake.

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Yay, the ice festival. It was really nice. We got their about an hour before it started getting dark out, because it’s prettiest to see the ice sculptures all lit up, and they had paths lined with candles in little snow igloos. They had a path lit up all the way down to the lake, where they had these bronze statues of these neked maidens. We don’t know what they represented, because the plaque was only written in Japanese, but K and I agree that we’ll come back when we can read it and figure out what it was about.

Then we walked back to the main festival area, and they had booths set up with all kinds of food. They also had this deal, where you buy a 2007 Towada Ice and Snow Festival commemorative shot glass of mulled wine for 500 yen, and you get free refills for the rest of the day. Quite a good deal I’d say, only 5 bucks to get trashed, lol. They also had these huts made out of snow with benches and tables made out of snow that you could go in and sit down and have a drink. They also had these 10’ tall walls of snow with nooks cut out of them and lights in all the nooks. They had a big ice slide that you could ride down with a sled or on your bum.

They had a really fun show with these guys playing Japanese drums, and they had a guy on later that was playing a Japanese guitar like instrument (I don’t know what it was called). Then for the finally, they had a really nice fireworks display. It was a real nice trip, and I’d recommend it to anyone who was in the area during February. The drive up was a bit nerve racking though, because you have to drive through this gorge that gets tons of snow. They plow it, so it makes 10’ high walls of snow on the side of these very narrow 2 lane road that you have to share with busses and big trucks. I almost got hit coming around a sharp corner by a bus that was a bit over the line. It was really pretty in the gorge though, with a creek in the middle, and the trees all covered with snow.

Traditional festival singers

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Hirosaki Sakura Festival

Ok, so I haven’t posted here in a while >< Haven’t really gotten out to do much for the last month or so since I’ve been on 12 hour Mid shifts, everything is always closed when I’m awake. But I’m back on Day shift, and last weekend K and I went to visit Hirosaki castle during the Sakura viewing festival. Oh, it was soooo beautiful, almost all the trees were in bloom. Pretty white blooms, and the traditional pink ones, and these delicate looking weeping willow like trees with pink blooms. I was really fun too, it was the first day of Golden week, which is a national holiday in Japanese for the whole week. It’s not really the whole week is just one holiday, there are 3 holidays during the week, so instead of having off, then on, then off again, the Japanese government make it a week long holiday.

The Sakura viewing festival is when people go out to a park or place with sakura trees, spread a blanket on the ground, and have a picnic lunch and usually some sake or beer and chill with family and friends. All the grassy areas on Hirosaki’s grounds were covered with blankets and people chilling. And there were traditional bands set up around the area that would play for everyone. There was also a parade of a hundred or so people playing drums, flutes, and cymbals.
There were tons of vendors too, with all sorts of foods like takoyaki (fried octopus dough balls), yakisoba (noodles), ramen, and tons of desert foods. There were also tons of booths that sold toys, and yes, they had little kids toys like plastic katanas and noisemakers, and whatnot, but they also sold PSPs, Gameboys, PS2s, Wiis, etc… plus games for all of them. They even had goldfish scooping, and I got to watch a couple of kids trying that. They also sold little baby turtles at some booths, with little aquarium sets.

They had a haunted house that I went through, it was just like our cheesy carnival haunted houses, but they had Japanese monsters as well as some of our monsters. They even had one guy dressed up as the lantern monster with the tongue hanging out. It’s called a “surprise lantern” but I can’t remember how you’d say that in Japanese. I ran out of film before I could take a picture of the front of it.

There was a Shinto ceremony going on at one of the shrines there, but K and I didn’t want to go in and do something rude unknowingly.

K and I are going to see a Kabuki show on the second, and I can’t wait We won’t be able to understand any of it, but it looks like it’ll still be a lot of fun to watch.

Hirosaki castle through the trees.

A music tornament.

A Torii gate.

A Parade.

Vendor booths.

Goldfish scooping.

Baby Turtles.

I’ve entered this in the Sanrio Town’s Travel the World Event: http://blog.hellokitty.com/traveltheworld