Because When the Sakura Comes Out, The Inhibitions Leave

I have not updated in some time because life, fortunately enough, has kept me far too busy. The new school year has began, so I’ve been learning the routes, getting to know my schools, meeting my students, all while trying to find time for fun in between.

But as I get more used to life in Japan, I found that these past few weeks, thought the busiest, have been some of my favorite so far. After about two months here, and one and a half months of full time working, I am finally feeling settled. And now that I have really set down roots and let them begin to grow, I feel like I can really enjoy lots of the little things that are around me.

For whenever moving to a new place, everything inundates you all at once. Everything is bright and new, so you scramble to find places to go, various things that need to be set up, and items need to be found to make it feel more like a home. And now, as I slip into a daily routine, I find I actually sit back and appreciate the small things around me. In the last two weeks I have gotten my schedule for next year, set an actual date for internet installation (April 21st), and settled all bills and bank accounts in Japan. I am here, and now to stay.

But with that all done, I’m over the mass deluge of information and experiences that had been my first two months in Japan. Now I’m onto taking in things one at a time, and as the season changes to spring, oh boy have I had a few firsts. It’s the rebirth of the year, and I’ve had several first experiences that have left me equally amused and awed.

Spring, in history, has come to celebrate rebirth and fertility. And in a country like Japan, what better way to celebrate such a time than with a whole festival dedicated to fertility. It is another thing to add to my list of inconsistencies about Japan; the melding of old and new. Because can anyone else think of a modern industrialized nation that still has ancient Shinto fertility festivals? I sure as hell can’t. But in the town of Komaki, at the Tagata Jinja shrine, the Hounen Matsuri festival is alive and well.

As I mentioned, the festival technically celebrates fertility, but it is the way in which it is celebrated that drew our attention. It is the usual fare of too much food and drink, traditional music, and overpriced trinkets, but with the staggering addition of an 8 foot carved wooden phallus that is paraded down the street.

I think that should be repeated. An 8 foot male sex organ.

If it sounds unbelievable, they you only feel about a third of the shock I did upon seeing it. Hearing of such an event, I knew I had to attend what we gaijin affectionately call the Penis Festival.

We were warned before we left that there would be only two types of people there: old people celebrating the religion, and drunk foreigners there to see a huge wooden penis. And this prediction turned out to be true. But even though it was half foreigners, the penis festival was definitely one of the most surreal experiences I’ve had in my life. The Japanese are a very subdued, reserved people. They may have wild signs and clothing, but the people themselves are quiet and shy, and as compared to westerners, don’t try to stand out above the rest. And yet, at the same time, no western country could even fathom having something as insane as a celebration of penises.

Leaving Nagoya station with about 40 other people I work with, we set out trying to imagine what to expect, and ended up being completely bowled over by the reality of it. As I left the train station in Komaki and came upon the shrine, I was immediately inundated by penis lollipops, penis picture stands, penis souvenirs, and phallic shaped food items. Giant carved penises were set up around the fair grounds as children ran around with bright pink penis lollipops in their mouths. It left me half blushing and half awed, but entirely amused. Through an odd mix of uneasiness and pure amusement, the foreigners I was with couldn’t help but crack jokes the whole time. I spent a few happy hours on the shrine grounds, enjoying the festival food, annoying the Shinto priests, and buying inappropriate souvenirs, but by the time I was just getting tired of it, the main event began. And what an event it was.

A long procession of priests and local officials, all in ceremonial garb, paraded by with various religious items on wooden portable shrines as well as flags painted with uncomfortably realistic phalluses. And then the center of the festival itself arrived in all its glory. Upon its appearance, everyone I was with was felt the repressed Puritanical western tradition ingrained inside of us stir to life, and immediately degraded into giggling 6 year olds. Though we are all in our twenties, we felt like naughty children; doing something we knew was wrong, and both thrilled and frightened by the possibility that we’ll be caught in the act. But our own reactions, coupled with the Japanese’s complete lack of one, made the situation, as well as the entire day, absolutely surreal to me.

But special events such as fertility festivals aside, I have been working so steadily that most of my firsts have been smaller things done on my infrequent days off. I traveled to Inuyama to see the oldest castle in Japan. Going with absolutely no plan, we wandered till we found the castle, which was beautiful in its austerity. And though it was absolutely frightening climbing to the top with the steepest, ricketiest stairs known to man, it was completely worth it for two reasons. One, the fact that they made me take my shoes off before I went inside (which is the equivalent in America of going into a museum with no shoes on), and two, I got a gorgeous view of the mountains that Japan is famous for.

I also took my first trip to a famous rotary sushi place, Kappa Sushi, where you sit at a table while various sushi and sashimi whiz by you as everyone does their best to eat as much as possible. And speaking of food, I have discovered an unknown passion for Japanese food. Takoyaki and okonomiyaki may be some of the best things I’ve ever put into my mouth, and the cheap eats at Izukaya, especially the Tabasaki Nagoya is known for, is always worth the price. Even on my birthday, I got a birthday cake from two Japanese friends that may be one of the best bought cakes I‘ve ever encountered. There is a subtle sweetness to cakes and other desserts here that I find I prefer to the over sugared concoctions that many places in America have.

And though the night before my birthday was spent with friends out and about in Nagoya, then till the wee hours at my apartment, my actual birthday was spent more relaxed. It was a vary warm and sunny afternoon, so I woke up late, strolled downtown to meet up with some friends, and on a whim headed out to Gifu to take in the mountains and nature there. Though we attempted to make it to a hot springs, keeping with the theme of relaxation, we never quite made it. Instead we ended up going to Gifu Park, which is a huge cluster of mountains at the edge of the city with a castle on top. The park itself is beautiful, but we took the ropeway all the way to the top to get the Panoramic View of Gifu and the encircling mountain ranges. It was near twilight, so the orange sun lit up the uneven rooftops of the surrounding city and winding river in a subtle color display. With that shining in our eyes, the mountains then stretched out nearly endless around us, their edges growing hazy and ill defined in the mist the further out they went. The beauty of it left me so breathless that we sat quietly at the top of the mountain, gently soaking it in as the sakura fell around us.

But sakura brings me to my now favorite part of Spring: hanami. Hanami is the name of the traditional cherry blossom viewing party, which consists of lanterns, fireworks, picnic spreads, music, dancing, and that staple of every Japanese celebration: alcohol. But despite the Japanese’s deep desire to try to make everything cutesy and neon, the cherry blossoms is the one thing they could not really taint with such trappings. I went out to Okazaki where a woman I work with lives, about 30 minutes from Nagoya. The town has a beautiful old castle set on a hillside, large stone bridges, and cherry blossoms that spread out and line the Yahagi River. And regardless of the Japanese’s grandest effort to saccharine-soak the Okazaki Festival into tackiness, the austerity and simple beauty of Okazaki and the Cherry Blossoms themselves thwarted their best efforts.

Setting up just on the edge of the castle grounds, we laid our blanket out next to a large arching bridge strung with softly lit red lanterns. Underneath a particularly beautiful tree with Okazaki castle rising just before us, we enjoyed an early dinner of festival food and convenience store snacks. And as the sun set and the sky grew dark, lights strung through the trees came to life. Strands of traditional music floating down from the castle, the melding lights of the lanterns, trees, and colored booths around us, with food and drink warming us from the inside, it was one of those moments that could only be described as perfect. Maybe its because it was my first hanami, maybe its because traditional Japanese things still charm me, or maybe it is because hanami is the simple and artless Japan that reveals itself with such rarity, but it really was everything that I expected it to be and more.

So though this is beginning to sound like a love note to Japan, I do now understand why everyone says spring is the best season here. And even if its because of the natural beauty of the new season, or the excitement of a new chapter in my life, I have found enjoyment out of every new endeavor I’ve been fortunate to come upon.

And what more could a girl ask for.