shrine – Inklings

This weekend, Tokyo gave me the best surprise: a matsuri (Shinto festival; 祭り) right outside my doorstep. Quite literally. As in I didn’t even know it was going on until I started heard flutes and drums coming from downstairs. As in when I got there and realized I’d forgotten my SD card, it took about 5 minutes to walk back. Pretty much any Japan-traveler/photography enthusiast’s wet* dream.

*Accidental pun: to cope with the heat, the tradition for this event is to throw water on all the participants.

The festival was hosted by Sumiyoshi Shrine (住吉神社), the biggest shrine on Tsukishima that was actually featured in my last post. This happened to be their hon-matsuri (本祭り), a once-every-three-years celebration that lasts four days, though I only got to see one day of it. The main event of the day was the parade of the gods, symbolized by the omikoshi (お神輿, vehicles for Shinto deities), around the neighborhood.

Yakitori (焼き鳥; lit. “grilled chicken,” kind of funny because if read in Mandarin it would be “burnt bird”) featuring a very willing hand model.

This post may also be known as The Great Comeback of Photos of Cute Children (hi Shawn).

^A man hosing down the worshippers from afar.

パシャンパシャン

Please note that there are larger versions of the omikoshi for adults and miniatures for the kids.

August 6, 2015August 6, 2015 by linking Categories: Travel & FoodTags: Asia, festival, Japan, matsuri, shrine, tokyo, travel, tsukishima Leave a comment

Apparently I’ve become an extremely lazy blogger full of false promises. Getting used to the new job has been a tad stressful, as has been living in an actual apartment (rather than a dorm) by myself. Also, it’s really, really hot. Excuses aside, here’s an extra-long post to make up for it. These are shots of my “neighborhood,” or at least the area within a 20-minute walk radius. This doesn’t look like much, but it’s actually the rearview of the very famous Tsukiji Fish Market (築地市場). If you know anything about Japan, you’d know that they’re very serious about their fish, so this place is pretty much holy ground. All the guide books recommend going to Tsukiji at 5 a.m. to watch the fish auctions and eat the freshest sushi imaginable, but I actually get pretty squeamish around large quantities of dead animals so I’ve yet to do that. On that happy note, let’s continue. ^ The commercial streets of the market have a ton of great food stalls, though most are closed for dinner. Another hallmark of Tsukiji is the Tsukiji Hongan-ji (築地本願寺), a Buddhist temple notable for its massive presence smack in the middle of apartment and office buildings as well as its decidedly un-Japanese appearance. The original temple, built in 1617, was actually located in Asakusa (where the famous Senso-ji of this earlier insta can be found) and burned down in a fire in the 1600s. The temple was then relocated to its current location in Tsukiji, where it stood until the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. The current temple, with strong influences from Southeast Asian Buddhist architecture, was designed in the 1930s. Moving closer to my apartment, we meet the Sumida River (隅田川), a cultural symbol of Tokyo and also the site of popular annual fireworks, which I went to see last week (iPhone pictures from that event were really underwhelming though). This is my favorite part of my walk home from work, also the place where I jog (by which I mean like, once a week, lol). Just look at it! Here’s shot from the fire escape of my apartment, which happens to be right next to a popular fishing spot: Now for the place where I actually live: Tsukishima (月島, lit. “Moon Island”), a half-urbanized, half-traditional place with skyscrapers as well as some lovely architecture left from the Edo period.

Semi-real life, semi-Miyazaki. Love it. The random wooden posts and columns left from centuries ago are probably my favorite: Tsukishima is currently most famous for its monja, a type of food that I don’t really know how to explain. This will most likely come in a separate post with visuals, if I stop being such a liar about blog posts. Until next time (which will be soon yes it will)!