yaku doshi

so my host mom is turning 32 this year.
in japan, even among the non-religious, this age (along with many others)
is considered to be an age of bad luck for women, and a year when
that individual is most likely to experience calamities or hardship.

it is also common for individuals turning these unlucky ages
to visit a temple or a shrine to have the unlucky spirits cast out
to prevent a year of misfortune.

my host parents woke me up early sunday morning.
we ate a quick breakfast and drank tea,
then hopped in the car and drove about an hour and a half
north of Chiba to Ibaraki prefecture.

The site of the temple was beautiful;
we drove up under a huge toori gate,
made our way onto the grounds where there were
merchants set up outside the temple selling japanese artifacts
and pre-WWII paraphernalia. pretty boss.
old swords, rifles, cameras, paintings, wood works,
statues, vases, pipes, clothing, farming tools, etc etc.

i'd go into detail about the pre-ceremony process but i don't
know the names for any of the rituals so i'll skip it for now...
anyway, we took our shoes off and went inside the main shrine,
where priest dudes dressed in traditional shinto get-ups
began banging on taiko drums while the main monk chanted and waved
the anti-demon stick in the air.

this went on for about a half hour, during which we were
required to keep our heads bowed and remain completely silent.
it was totally boss.

the monks finally called the name of my host mother, waved the demon stick at her
and gave her a charm and scroll of good luck (i think)

anyway, pretty heavy stuff. something about eastern religious hits me much harder
than any christian church ceremony ever has, and that is definitely saying something.
glad i got to be a part of it deshou.

as always,
sugoi da ne.

tomoko (left) tomu (middle) katsuhiro (right)

dude with the sunglasses is my host father katsuhiro ^