Festival Day!

What a day! There are so many pictures to post that I decided to break today's post up into several smaller ones. I'm posting this one last, so you should be seeing it first. It doesn't really matter if you read them out of order, but if you want to read them in the order the events described occured, then start here.

Today was a festival day for Nishiokoppe. Kamiokoppe held a similar one on Wednesday (the middle school kids did not have classes on that day), but it was on a smaller scale. Kamiokoppe is much smaller than Nishiokoppe. The purpose of these festivals is still a little bit unclear to me, but they seem to be related to the time of year. I don't believe they are fall harvest festivals, but something along those lines.

So, our day began with breakfast and a little housework, as usual. I had been told that the procession would pass our house around 12:25. Since the procession was scheduled to begin at 10:00, I was curious to see why it would take so long to reach us. Around ten-ish, Ridge called me outside with an almost hysterical level of excitement. "The parade is coming, look, it's here!!!" he screamed. Looking down the street, I could see that, indeed, the processional was down there, but they had just come from the temple. Before reaching us the shrine would travel to most of the other neighborhoods in the village first. Ridge didn't really understand that this was not to be a parade like any he had seen before. In the picture of him, you can see that he dashed out with his stool and sat on the edge of the street as though waiting for a marching band and floats. He and Holt are waiting anxiously (well, Ridge is, Holt is just lounging) while munching on some graham crackers we ordered from Flying Pig (mail order CostCo, basically. It took a week for our order to arrive. It's not cheap, but we ordered our region free DVD player from them, so splurged on some treats. More about Flying Pig on another post). The women you see in the background are Ruya's grandmother and another grandma who lives in our neighborhood. They are standing next to the offering table. Finally, around 12:20, just as we had been told, the procession turns a corner and heads our way.

It seems most of the school age children (but not all) have some role to play. Many of the smaller ones are carrying flags, while middle school kids help with the shrine. The procession is led by Nishiokoppe's one police officer, and the whole group is accompanied by the sound of drums and flutes being played. The flags and costumes are a bright splash against the street as they slowly move our way.

The offering table is loaded with food, much of which was grown in a huge garden right behind our backyard. Watermelon is an extravagance here, often selling for as much as 1320 yen (about $12) for the size you see in the photo. The apple-like fruit are actually pears, another pricey item. Wrapped in special "gift-giving" paper (there are envelopes and packages of items traditionally given as gifts all marked with the markings you see here) are two bottles of saki. All this food will be taken by the truck following the portable shrine and placed at the village shrine as an offering to the village gods. As for the pile of dirt, well, we are still not exactly certain as to it's exact significance. I suspect it is a symbolic representation of our neighborhood. By the way, when I say neighborhood, our neighborhood consists of the (about) twelve houses around us. The marker in the dirt, with white lightening bold, signifies the presence of spirits. If you look back at the post with pictures of the village shrine, you will see similar symbols hanging from ropes.