Pack it up, Pack it in

Well in less than two days I’ll be on a flight bound to England. I can't wait I’ll not lie. No working horrendous hours. No crummy cafeteria. No more talking slowly. Sandwiches and all the other things I’ve been missing these past crazy nine months. So what did I do with my first full weekend in ages? Prepare my stuff? Clean the apartment? Hell no.

Actually Saturday was spent rather practically. I went into Himeji with a couple of friends to do some Christmas shopping. I hate shopping but I love hanging out so it went all right. Basically I just bought a lot of random weird Japanese stuff well thought out gifts for people. I also managed to check out a lovely little restaurant called Boabab that I’d heard about from a few people.

It’s a great little place, tucked away in one of Himeji’s side streets that does a wide variety of Asian food, though mainly focusing on Malaysian and Thai. This of course means spicy which makes for a happy Marcus. It was also an opportunity to meet some new people, friends of friends, and discover that apparently I ‘Just look a bit French’. Still not entirely sure what that means but I won’t take it to heart.

The next day I had an early start, as I needed to get to a nearby city called Ako for 8:30am. Naturally I stayed up all night watching the lunar eclipse from my balcony with a cup of hot chocolate so getting the 6:30 bus was a slight struggle. My sleeping pattern is never great after beamtime it’s hard to adjust back to being able to sleep more than a few hours a night.

 

Although I was thinking why am I up at this ungodly hour on that clear but cold day I kept reminding myself it was going to be worth it. I had the opportunity to take part in a small festival commemorating the story of the 47 ronin in which I would be dressed as one of the aforementioned 47.

What am I talking about? For the uninitiated I’ll give you a quick back-story. The tale of the 47 ronin is possibly one of the most famous, and hotly debated, tales of honor, loyalty, revenge and the Bushido code. The tale begins in the early 17^th century when the Daimyo Asano Naganori, after being goaded, assaulted the Shogunate official Kira Yoshinaka and was forced to commit ritual suicide (seppuku) as punishment.

 

47 of Asano’s samurai, now ronin, outraged at this turn of events began to plot revenge upon Kira to uphold their masters honor. So began two years of planning and careful consideration before they finally deemed the time right to act. They led an assault on Kira’s household eventually killing him before finally handing themselves in to the authorities, whom forced them to commit seppuku for the crime of murder.

It’s a really fantastic tale and I can’t do it justice here but then this blog is not about Japanese history. The event had been organized by Ako cities tourism board with the aim of having 47 overseas residents dressed up as samurai. The morning was spent getting kitted out in our samurai garb. It was pretty complicated and at first

I was worried that I’d be freezing due to the cold weather but it turned out to be pretty snug. There was of course a horde of old ladies on hand ready to tell us where everything went, as these outfits were quite complicated. My only real complaint was that the woven sandals hurt like hell. At the end we were given our sword although, disappointingly, we were asked not to draw them.

All dressed up we started the event by taking to the streets to meet with the locals. We were handed a large stack of flyers each to hand out as we wandered through central Ako. Everyone was really friendly and seemed like to have been informed beforehand of what was going on. In fact it turned out the reason everyone was so eager to get a flier was that it gave them a ticket for a raffle later in the day.

After finishing fliering we met up with a lovely old fella who was our designated tour guide for the day. He spoke decent English and was very knowledgeable about the sites of Ako showing us, amongst other things, the old sewage works, a well from the Edo period, a pretty impressive clock tower (complete with inset TV screen) and some of the most expensive pieces of woven art I’ve ever seen.

He finished off the tour by showing us around Kagaku temple where Asano’s remains are buried. There are some interesting artifacts in there including a display of all 47 ronin, a stone inscribed with a Haiku written by one of the 47, one of the oldest Buddha statues in Japan (from around 500AD and amazingly preserved) and a statue that looked something like a dragon-turtle inscribed with (I think) opposing Kanji though I’m not sure entirely of the significance as I didn’t fully understand the explanation.

We were then given some amezake, a kind of hot drink made from partially fermented rice mixed with ginger that's great on cold days, and some food from the nearby street stalls, before settling down to watch some performances by the locals. This included a performance from some local school children and some mock battles and martial art displays.

We then began the parade proper. First going back into the temple to say a blessing at Asano’s grave before proceeding to the castle. It’s all a bit of a blur from then on as we were whisked from location to location and having our photo’s taken and videos recorded. Definitely a mental experience but one I’m glad I’ve had.

Along the way I got chatting with a few other people, I do love to gab and meet new people. From the conversation I learned what the thing I was really missing about being home was. It’s not big and it’s not clever but actually I just miss being able to swear properly. Yeah that's right being able to chuck in a well-placed curse word and have people actually know what I’m saying will b kind of refreshing.

We finished up the day by visiting Ooishi shrine for another dedication and then coming face to face with ourselves, at least in statue form anyway. Finally we moved into the main site of the festival where were greeted by more locals and pulled up on stage to say our “ありがとう’s)　

After such a great and long day you’d think I’d have gone home right? Wrong. I continued my adventuring for the day by meeting some people in Kobe. There is a light festival here every year, know as the Kobe Luminarie, to commemorate the great Hanshin earthquake of 1995. There were only 2 days left to see it and as I had work on Monday this was my last chance for the year.

It was unsurprisingly full of people but what an amazing spectacle. Hundreds of thousands of lights were arranged into amazing patterns forming great arches down the central street of Motomachi and culminating in a large arena at the earthquake memorial park. The lights themselves were donated by the Italian government and each one is hand painted.

It was quite something to see and the music playing in the background gave the event an extra sense of grandeur, despite its somber nature. Thoroughly exhausted now we bundled back onto a train to head back to Himeji and bed. A packed but amazing weekend, now I’d better gets some real packing done.

Mata ne.