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Initially written for the already too long previous post, I decided to separate the two as wanted to write more about my week-end trip to Koyasan. Right after the Summer Cooling Evening on Friday, I decided I will go the origins of the Shingon Buddhist school, namely Koyasan. Located at about 1000m above the sea level, the place is surrounded by 8 mountain, as it should be to reflect the lotus flower, a symbol of Buddhism.
I left my place on Saturday morning as if I would go to work, except I aimed at a more peaceful and resting place south from Osaka, in the Wakayama prefecture.
The city was founded by Kōbō-Daishi (弘法大師) in 818 A.D., it is known as the headquarter of the Shingon (or True Word) school of Buddhism. The place features a lot of temples and pagodas but one of the main interest lies below the ground… in fact the cemetery next to Kōbō-Daishi’s mausoleum is gigantic! The reason is that many people are buried here in the wait of Kōbō-Daishi’s awakening, in the hope to reach the Nirvana. I am not quite sure of people are really buried here but at least, believers buried hair or bone to be somehow here for the awakening. Also, among the tombs many monuments were erected in memory of famous historical persons such as Oda Nobunaga, Uesugi Kenshin, Mitsuhide Akechi and so on. There are probably thousands and thousands of tombs and my kanji reading disability prevent me from knowing if I was taking a picture of Oda Nobunaga’s monument or a probably wealthy guy. Still, the cemetery is surrounded by a pine forest so once you entered it, you really feel like you are somewhere out of the real world, the nature is taking over the man’s buildings. During the day, you can still see the sunlight when dusk is here, there is an eerie atmosphere taking place and it would be perfectly normal to see ghosts or spirits wandering at night… I got bitten by mosquitoes pretty bad when walking through it at dusk but maybe it was just the inhabitants playing hide and seek with me…
Koyasan being 3 hours away from Osaka by train, I decided I would stay for the night here, I mean, not in the cemetery but at one of the many temples offering a place to sleep and 2 meals (not for free of course). As I did not visit everything around here, I thought it would be the best choice anyway. Speaking English does not help to book a room for the night so I had to do with my crappy Japanese and I apologize (as any Japanese would do) for being hard to understand, but we managed to do it.
Of course monks do not eat meat or fish, so the meal is essentially made of vegetables and tofu and it was truly delicious. I recommend to anyone who has the opportunity to stay in shukubo, to do it; monks are really kind and careful persons. Part of the experience is the Morning Prayer which you are expected to attend at 6 in the morning. Normally, you would have to sit in seiza position but it is acceptable if you take a more comfortable position if you are not used to it. Well, let’s try to do it the right way, I was telling myself. I could not feel my legs anymore after 30 minutes, so I had to switch to another position and hopefully I did because the prayer was still going for another 30 minutes. After a good breakfast, it is time to hit the road of temples again, it was a pleasant and replenishing stay though it is a bit commercialized as I ended up with a souvenir from the temple as I signed out.
I am using a slideshow again for a couple of pictures but you can also find all the the pictures for this pilgrimage on the following url
Il est venu le temps des festivals! La saison des pluies étant terminée (mon oeil… elle n’a jamais eu lieu ou plutôt elle continue mais sans trop être là), le beau temps est donc propice aux festivals et pourquoi pas pendant qu’on y est, prendre le temps de découvrir une autre ville que Osaka. Je vous propose donc de faire un tour à Kyoto.
Durant le début du mois de juillet, se déroule à Kyoto le Gion Matsuri.
Ce festival consiste en une gigantesque parade depuis le Yasaka Shrine jusqu’au palais impérial de chars, décorés de trésors familiaux, tirés à travers la ville par des hommes. La parade a lieu le 17 juillet et les trésors ne sont visibles au public qu’à partir du 16 juillet, data à laquelle les maisons familiales exposent les-dits trésors, que ce soit tapisserie, étoffe ou armure de guerrier d’antan. Avant la grande parade, il se déroule le tirage au sort de l’emplacement des chars dans la parade, ces chars ont un nom, yamaboko (hoko pour les grands et yama pour les petits).
Pour l’histoire (et ceux qui ne lisent pas les liens wikipedia), le Gion Matsuri prend place quelques 1100 ans plus tôt, alors que la peste se propage à travers le pays. Pour contrer l’épidémie, les habitants érigent 66 lances (représentant les provinces) et décident de faire une procession de chars, chacun d’entre eux, afin de célébrer et honorer les dieux. Ainsi lors du festival, autour de chaque yamaboko, il est possible d’acheter des chimaki, que l’on accrochera à sa porte pour s’attirer les bonnes faveurs et la protection du ciel.
Bien, Kyoto étant renommé pour le design de ses kimono et autres yukata, ni une ni deux, il faut absolument porter un yukata (le kimono étant hors de prix) pour le Gion Matsuri. Non pas que celà soit obligatoire, mais le yukata étant un habit léger et “pratique”, il est souvent porté l’été durant les festivals. On ajoutera les geta (sandales en bois) pour ajouter au folklore. Une question traverse l’esprit, mais où mettre argent, appareil photo et autres? Il faut avouer que se trimballer avec un sac ferait perdre tout son charme et à la peine qu’on se donne (car oui, marcher avec des geta n’est pas aisé). Dans les manches pardi! Les manches servent donc d’immenses poches et si on est dubitatif au premier abord, c’est très fonctionnel (on est juste anxieux de savoir si tout est toujours dans les manches vu le nombre incroyable de personne lors du festival ou si un petit malin n’a pas pensé à vous couper les manches pour vous faire les poches…).
Une fois équipé, il ne reste plus qu’à faire la visite des yamaboko, admirer les trésors et se laisser porter par la joie et la bonne humeur (malgré la pluie). De jour ou de nuit, l’atmosphère est bien différente, ainsi à la tombée de la nuit, de nombreux étals et stands se mettent en place et l’animation ne se porte plus sur le festival en lui-même mais plus sur la découverte des plaisirs du palais et autres petits jeux pour les plus jeunes. (NB: je pense que ça fait partie du paysage japonais maintenant mais si j’étais un enfant de 3 ans et que le marchand de bonbons avait des piercings, les cheveux décolorés et limite un maquillage à faire peur, je ne suis pas sûr que je lui achéterai des bonbons…) Kimonos ou yukata, les filles sont plus colorées et les motifs plus divers et variés, l’essentiel étant de mettre de la couluer pour apporter de la vie au festival!
Le port du yukata est une expérience à vivre lors d’un festival, je retenterai bien l’expérience la semaine prochaine pour le Tenjin Matsuri à Osaka mais je partirai du bureau et je ne pense que travailler en yukata soit apprécié… je note aussi que les geta ont quelques avantages pour contrebalancer leur inconfortabilité (essentiellement due à mes grands pieds je l’avoue), du fait de leur hauteur, on évite de se mouiller (s’il pleut) et avoir les pattes à l’air c’est aussi agréable quand il fait chaud!
Les photos du Gion Matsuri sont sur cette galerie.
Prochainement:
- Le musée international du manga à Kyoto
- Nijojo, Heian jingu et Jishu jinja shrines à Kyoto
- Tenjin Matsuri à Osaka
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It is a fact that Japan is culturally different from the places I have been to before. So after 3 months here I finally decided to introduce myself to other people in the proper way, meaning presenting a business card or meishi to my interlocutor. The reason you do that usually is obviously to know the other person’s name but also to know what position he has in the company and to some extent how polite you talk to him. Also, anyone that has gone to the process to learn kanji, knows how tricky it can become with their readings and meanings…I thought it would be fun to have a business card with kanji for my name so I took on Sunday afternoon to look up my name and to find the right kanji. As close to the original meaning but also as close as possible to the pronounciation as vietnamese is partly derived from chinese and that Japanese borrowed the chinese characters (kanji). Did you get the picture? Before I show you the results of my search, there are 2 main issues with my choice:
- some chinese characters do not exist in japanese and vice-versa, so one of the character is an old writing that do not exist in japanese. (but this is the fun part where you can explain the reading and meaning of your name to your interlocutor as he is probably puzzled)
- japanese would probably not be able to pronounce my name correctly. Even vietnamese and chinese differ, so including a third language can be quite off the original pronouciation, but anyway intercultural exchanges have to be fun.
Here we go: 黄 寶 麟
- 黄 : pronounced “huang” in chinese and it is probably one of the most common name for Chinese also. It refers to an emperor and the meaning is “yellow”
- 寶 麟: pronounced “bao lin”, it literally means precious unicorn. In fact 寶 does not exist in japanese and 麟, pronounced rin in japanese is well-known thanks to kirin, the unicorn of one the most famous japanese brew.
By the way, if I make meishi why don’t I make an inkan or hanko with my name to sign papers like they do here in Japan. Well, it is done also as I do not have to look up the kanji again. Normally I would have to go to the city hall then to register my inkan so it would be my official signature. The fact is that I do not have many official papers to sign and it is just for fun whenever I received parcels or letter and so on. Not to say that I would probably not know how to register it at the city hall anyway.I will post the pictures soon but for now you can have a look at how I look in traditional man kimono (though it has another name I cannot remember).
The busy life of a kaishain is not only made of meetings and reports, in fact there is also a little time for harvest. For those of you who missed the first episode of tamanegi crop, they can catch up with the potatoes crop. Right, we as researchers like to dig deep subjects that matter and sometimes output weird ideas. So like last time, we went to the small field next to the research center and joyfully dig to take out potatoes from the earth. It is sure a lot of fun, especially when everyone is there to get their potatoes, even the big boss.
The big discussion after the crops is “what are we going to do with them?” The most common answer is obviously curry rice (pronounced kare raisu), after 2 months in Japan, it is probably one of the most common and appreciated dish here. And of course my answer is the same as my Japanese colleagues but just mentioning I will do it in the betonamu style.
Back to work, each of us carrying 1,2 or more kilos of potatoes, you get a strange feeling entering our open space as you see many bags of potatoes next to each researcher but hey ! that how it is, the fruits of our hard work. Speaking of hard work, it was not really that yesterday. Everybody was excited for sure but because we were going to watch the fireflies after work (you bet we or they left the office at least 3 hours earlier than they usually do). We all met at the station to get to Nara and except that they were no one around Todaiji, we really looked like a school excursion… taking pictures of the deers and playing with them.
Once we got to the little water and forest place, perfect setting to see fireflies, we waited for a couple of minute, gazing in the dark to be sure we do not miss the first one. Unfortunately we did not see many of them or were I expecting too much, I don’t know. What’s the point in watching fireflies? Well, it is part of Japanese culture, it is relaxing outside the city and you remember your mother telling you that story of fireflies close to a small river and a forest just like that one. Or maybe because it is the boss’ idea and that we are going for drinks after that…
You said drinking, but are we not eating first? Well there will be some food… Like the welcome party one month ago, we went to a Japanese style “restaurant” or izakaya. Food is of course delicious but so are the drinks! And you cannot read the drinks name, you let your colleague choose for you and hopefully till the end of the night, you will have taste enough of them to remember some names for next time…
Anyway, those social parties are really made to make abstract of the hierarchical relationship you have during the day, more or less, and freely chat and joke on any matter. This is during those nights that you discover how fun are your colleagues but don’t get me wrong, tomorrow, you will be at work and forget about what I said tonight.
People think that Japanese cannot stand alcohol very well, the thing is that alcoholic drinks tend to be cheaper or slightly more expensive that the dishes they served in izakaya, so let’s drink! The corollary is that you may get drunk easily then. An interesting point is that those izakaya usually take the last order at 10pm so customers can recover, just enough if needed, to catch the last train. Social analysis of the last train population is something to experience.
Le titre original de ce film de Masayuki Suo est “Shall we dance ?” prononcé à la japonaise. Je ne parlerai pas de DDR dans cet article, ni même de valse ou de break-dance mais de pêche au harengs et de “Obaasan no power”, si vous me passez l’expression. Comment peut-on à ce point dériver ? Je sais bien que je suis à la dérive du continent mais voici une explication…
Si les jours de semaine se suivent et se ressemblent, je n’ai pas le loisir de m’ennuyer ou de me sentir seul, par contre quand arrive le week-end, la question du “Qu’est-ce que je vais faire ?” se pose et la réponse est bien évidemment “Je sors me promener et me perdre dans Osaka !”. Pourtant jusqu’à maintenant, je ne me suis perdu que dans des rues archibondées et super fashion… mais Osaka est une ville portuaire non ? Ah oui c’est d’ailleurs grâce à son activité portuaire que la ville s’est développée ! Bon alors aujourd’hui direction la baie de Osaka, ne sachant pas sur quoi je pouvais tomber je décide de me rendre dans le quartier de Cosmosquare, qui est le terminus de ma ligne de métro…
Bon, c’est comme qui dirait un peu désert… la station précédente où tout le monde est descendu doit surement avoir plus d’activité qu’ici, pourtant Cosmosquare, je m’attendais à de l’activité… Il y a donc dans les environs, le Musée maritime (que je ferai une fois…), l’usine d’incinération au design “original”, une salle de concert, un centre pour les mariages en église, un building de 250m et une structure colorée du nom de ATC (pour Asian & Pacific Trade Center). Attardons-nous un peu au ATC… parce qu’en fait c’est un énorme centre commercial, après 2 semaines, j’ai eu assez des centres commerciaux et je me laisse guider par une musique…
Juste à l’extérieur du bâtiment se déroule une sorte de festival de succession de chorégraphie sur des thèmes que je ne connais pas. Je n’ai rien d’autre à faire alors je me pose et là, je reconnais la chanson et la chorégraphie !!! Il s’agit du sôran bushi, j’avais pû en voir une démonstration lors du Shin Nen Kai par les étudiants de Kumon. L’atmosphère étant joyeuse je décide de rester , prendre quelques clichés et vidéos, que vous pourrez voir bien évidemment ! Sôran bushi, donc une danse des pêcheurs de harengs, remis au goût du jour avec une teinte de rock. Du rock justement parlons brièvement et surtout d’une prestation (dont je n’ai pas d’image), le “Obaasan no rocku”, car si certaines performances sont faites par des écoliers, lycéens ou adultes, il y a aussi les personnes âgées ! La force de ces personnes est remarquable et leur dynamisme est appréciable ici au Japon.
Ainsi, petits et grands, jeunes et moins jeunes font de ces danses “rituelles”, une démonstration de bonne humeur et de volonté (car il faisait chaud aujourd’hui) communicatif, de quoi rendre de sunny Sunday agréable !
A la semaine prochaine pour de nouvelles aventures, probablement une visite de Nara…
La galerie :
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et 2 vidéos :
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