-Friday I went to two festivals. The first, the Jidai Matsuri (Festival of the Eras), was a two hour parade of people dressed up in period clothing. They started with the Meiji period (18something) and worked their way back to the Heian period (800-1100ish). Initially, it was interesting. There were lots of beautiful clothes, excited performers, and unique decorations. But after awhile, it became a bit monotonous. You would think that in 1000yrs clothing style would change dramatically. This is not so. Sometime this week I will attempt to post the 50 or so pictures I took while watching the parade, and you can decide for yourself how much the fashions did or did not change. The most exciting thing about the parade, was not the actual procession itself, it was the people watching it. For instance, the two maiko-san (geisha-in-training) who were standing about three meters away. I felt sorry for the fact that everyone kept seeing them and going up to have their pictures taken, so I didn't. But I did take a discreet picture at a distance.
-Friday night was the Kurama Hi Matsuri (Kurama Fire Festival). I am not quite sure of all the traditions behind this one, but it involves leading the souls from hell down the mountain and to the shrine with large torches. Throughout the course of the evening the torches got larger and larger until four men were needed to carry each one. Then all the gathered torches were thrown into a huge bonfire that I was certain was going to burn down the whole town. All of this would have been much more fun if it wasn't for the fact that every foreign person and most of the Japanese residents of Kyoto all coverged on one small street to watch this. At no less than ten times I was physically unable to move, except by the pressure of the crowd which often threw me into the back, head, or shoulders of some poor Japanese person. I will say, though, that most of the pushing was done by little Japanese grandmas who have no problem shoving their way through. I guess they think that their age and tradition should afford them immunity from social disdain at rudeness. And unfortunately, it does. Picture of this event will come sometime in the near future, I hope.
-Saturday I bought I an electric carpet in preparation for winter. It hasn't been delivered yet, but I am very excited for it!!
-Sunday, I watched the Red Sox beat the Cardinals in Game 1 of the World Series. Go Sox!!!
-And today, I should be recieving my monthly stipend. It is nice to all of a sudden have large amounts of money bestowed upon your bank account.
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