School is finally over

Today I finished my last class and left Nagasaki Gaidai for the last time. It's crazy to think that my time here is almost over, I have just under 7 days left as I write this. Between packing and spending time with friends I doubt I will update my blog much before returning home, but I will get to putting up the few adventures I had this semester. Some people seem to be under the impression that I'm way behind, but in truth I didn't do much this semester outside of improving my Japanese and socialize more with Japanese students. Most of the updates (outside of the recap from my Spring Break escapades) will be of the nature: Went out to a festival this weekend and watched fireworks, here's a video. It's not that I've become bored with Japan, it's simply that I've acclimated to Japan's culture, I don't find things strange anymore. So in many ways I've just lost my sensitivity to how different Japan is, I imagine when I come home I will be astounded at how American act and do things for a few weeks before I readjust. Sorry for being behind, but I didn't come here on vacation, I came here to go to school and develop myself to be able to live in Japan. I promise though that I will get caught up and it'll still be great. Thanks for your patience.

The Site of the 26 Martyrs

The story of the 26 Martyrs is one that is tied up in the rise of the Tokogawa Shogunate around the 1600s and the predecessor to Tokogawa, Toyatomi Hideyoshi. Christianity had been introduced to Japan via Portuguese trade about fifty years before and had a rocky history to say the least, as an excerpt from a paper I wrote last semester here is the short story of the 26 Martyrs (26 Holy Men in Japanese):

As Hideyoshi continued to learn more about the West and the colonization of the Philippians, by the Spanish after their conversion to Christianity, distrust continued to grow even more toward the West and the Jesuits. In late January of 1597 Hideyoshi intensified his persecution of Christians and captured 24 of them, including two boys, in the capitol city of Kyoto. After having their left ears’ cut off and being paraded around the city and through the country to be ridiculed, they were marched to Nagasaki where on February 5th 1597 Hideyoshi had them, along with two Jesuits who had come to defend them, crucified. It is possible that this incident was spurred on by Hideyoshi’s own insecurities and need to assert his authority after the failed invasion of Korea, in which his demands were rejected and he was referred to as a subordinate of China. Hideyoshi died roughly a year later leaving his son in the care of 5 reagents, one of whom was Tokugawa Ieyasu, which delayed the expulsion of the Priests. At this time there were estimated to be around 300,000 Christians in Japan.

Beyond that there is not much to tell, so here is the site:

 The shorter man here is a young adult, but is not a child

 This is a Cathedral behind the site

 And this is the public bathroom at the site

If you ever come to Nagasaki you will often find fun maps like these around for tourists, I don't think there is anything shown on this map that I haven't been to see, or seen by matter of course during my time here. The site of the 26 Martyrs was the last site that I had intended to see in Nagasaki, and when I realized where it was I kicked myself for not seeing it sooner as it was near a common hang out of mine. While I still have bigger events from days gone by to write about this was my last real adventure in Nagasaki. Next weekend I will be going to a Baseball game in Fukuoka, that will be interesting to say the least, America might have invented Baseball, but I think the Japanese surpass us in their love of the game. Hopefully, I get more time to fill you in on some of my past adventure soon.

Short Tail Cats

Somewhat unique to Nagasaki are these strange "short tailed" cats. Their tails have not been cut or otherwise altered after birth, but are simply shorter than most cats and often curled into a ball on the end. Here are two that I was able to photograph while I was out one afternoon:

This guy is the most passive cat I've ever seen, he just rolled over when I reached down to pet him without even opening his eyes, unbelievable!

 That is the full length of his tail, his though is not curled like most are

 This guy has the curl, but was also more wary of me

 

Anyway, there's a brief look at a phenomenon that is almost exclusive to Nagasaki. I noticed it early on, but since I was busy with other site seeing I forgot about it until about winter, and by then the cats had all gone into hiding during those cold days. They've only begun reemerging in the last month or so.

Tall Ship Festival

So, I'm obviously behind on my updates, but school is keeping me busy and I can't really fail my blog, plus the rainy season is overdue to start so I've been going out and enjoying myself while I still can. Back on the last weekend of April however there was a Tall Ship Festival. This was several days of being able to go down to the docks and look at sailing ships from various parts of the world, complete with all the usual festival foods and the obligatory fireworks.

 This ship is from Russia

 This is the water front at dusk, very beautiful

The night view was great

Here you can get a brief idea of the atmosphere. This was no where near as big as Kunchi back in the Fall or New Year's, but it was still fun to come out and relax and just have fun. If you're wondering what was going on on stage it was belly dancing. I tried to watch, but it honestly was not very interesting to me.

The last two videos show case parts of the fireworks show (which lasted for about 15 minutes). This is normal for regular festivals, but these were sad compared to the fireworks we saw back in the winter (which I did not make a video of because I was too busy being mesmerized). Still it was pretty nice to have the ship's silhouette in the foreground.



House Tour

Today is a short entry, but many people have asked about where I live, so here is a short video tour of the house I am staying at while I am in Japan. Hope you enjoy it.

Warning: The follow video contains brief footage of my boxers, viewer discretion is advised.

Kousa

So, some people have pointed out that it has been well over a month since I've updated my blog, and that was about a month ago, so I realize I am long over due for a post. March was quiet because I was out having all kinds of crazy adventures that I plan to post about in the next two weeks since Friday kicks of Golden Week, which is several holidays grouped so close together that we almost get the entire week off.
In April the new semester started, and what with testing in Japanese 4 (thereby skipping Japanese 3), and taking two classes taught ENTIRELY in Japanese, I've had my hands a little full getting a leg up on all my new responsibilities. The upside is that my Japanese is improving by leaps and bounds on a daily basis.
Today though I wish to talk briefly about a seasonal annoyance that we get here in Nagasaki, Kousa. Literally translated it is yellow sand, but it is actually not yellow in color. Today there is a white haze that hangs in the air that almost looks like fog, but it's not, it is very find sand that the wind has carried over here from China.

This is roughly what it looks like, and it is actually a little dark outside, but not like when it is cloudy. If any of you have been around a forest fire or anything like that where a tremendous amount of smoke is passing overhead, it's more like that. The light actually ends up being a little yellow despite the sand appearing white. It is mildly irritating to the eyes as well and so I have kept my sunglasses on most of the day when I've been outside just to keep it out of my eyes. The good news is this can't last for more than a month and a half, because once the rainy season gets here it will be too wet for the dust to fly around, I'm not really sure that's going to be a fun trade off. Also once the rainy season starts that will likely be the end of my adventures as I won't be going out in it to see sights. That leaves me about 5 weeks to go see the handful of things I still want to see in Nagasaki and then prepare for the warmest and wettest summer I've ever had to endure.

Setsubun

Setsubun is a Shinto festival celebrated on February 3rd to usher in Spring. Before I go into the details of Setsubun I want to take sometime to give a general overview of Shinto as I did not understand this religion myself before coming to Japan.
Shinto was born out of the need to explain death and fertility, to organize livelihood and plan group activities. It is a religion born of observing the "signs of the times", and of course for all those unexplained events we have a pantheon of deities that arise from nature and deceased clan members. One unique characteristic of Shinto is no idols, "gods" are not something the human mind can perceive and so to try to make an image of one is just foolish, they do have Koma-Inu though, guardian dogs, if you've seen pictures from the shrines you may have noticed one always has it's mouth open, the "ah" sound of the beginning of the Japanese syllabary, and one with it's mouth closed, the "n" sound of the end of the Japanese syllabary, this represents the beginning and the end. When you go to a Shinto Shrine, which is a weekly ritual for devote believers, though many only go on the big holidays, you first bow when entering the gate to show respect and then proceed to the water basin where you scoop water out and wash your hands and drink some, from your hand not the ladle, to purify your hands and mouth; the "purifiers" in Shinto are salt, water, and paper. After purifying yourself you walk up the steps to the front of the shrine where you bow, clap, bow, clap twice, and bow again, some shrines also have a bell that you can ring, this is done after the bowing and clapping. All this is done to get the attention of the Shinto deity who resides at a given shrine. All shrines have at least one deity present, Suwa shrine in Nagasaki has 3, one clan, Suwa clan, two nature, fire, ocean/sea. You then offer your prayer/petition silently. You can also buy special paper and write it down and tie it to this rack that is off to the side. Money can be thrown in the box at the front and is even set at the feet of the Koma-Inu, usually big request garner more money, but there is no hard rule here, it's just this idea that if you really want something you want the god(s) to look favorably on you. Then you leave, you can buy charms that help provide good this and that and for a small fee the priests will bless anything you want them to for protection. These charms wear out after a year or so too, so there's always a high volume of sales during big holidays, usually on New Year's, it's like Christmas or Easter in a Christian Church for a Shinto Shrine in terms of attendance. At it's most basic level Shinto is about purification and good fortune.
That said Setsubun is a festival to start Spring by pushing out bad luck and bringing in good luck. This was once the New Year's Eve when Japan worked on a Lunar calendar before the rise of western influence. This is cultivation of luck is achieved at Setsubun by Mamemaki, or bean throwing. Dried soy beans are tossed either out the door or at a family member wearing an Oni mask (Oni are like ogres, while sometimes translated as "demon", they are not "spirit beings" like western demons, but rather monsters), while chanting Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi, "oni out, good luck in". This is rarely practiced in homes anymore but is done at the shrines as you can see in this video:

This was a smaller shrine that I attended because they had more traditional events than Suwa Shrine. One of which was serving Zenzai, a sweet bean soup. It actually tastes a lot like hot cocoa. I was also able to witness some entertainment, fan dances and singing.

It was interesting to see people gathered around a modest bonfire at the shrine. They seemed to be throwing things from New Year's into the fire, my guess would be charms that were temporary like the Kadomatsu. For dinner that night I was served an uncut sushi roll and was told I should face the "lucky" direction for this year when eating it, I think it was north-north-west this year? Anyway, my host mother photographed it for me.

Other than that it was a normal night. Many festivals are small events that may no even be celebrated at the homes, but the shrines and temples keep most of these alive and are actually a source of income for those wishing to see or participate in parts of Japan's cultural history.
I'll leave you with a few other photos I took while at the small shrine that night.

 These two photos are from a very small shrine I found looking for the one I went to

 The stand there was selling lucky food like "Big Luck Strawberry Mochi"

 The first here was smaller, but people were gathered around it throwing things in and trying to stay warm since it was near freezing outside that night.

Like all Shinto Festivals it is often a time to go before the gods and offer up prayers

Lantern Festival

So, for the first two weeks of the Chinese New Year Nagasaki has a Lantern Festival that is more a cultural heritage celebration of Chinese influence than a coincidence with Chinese New Year. It also has nothing to do with the Lantern Festival for Chinese New Year. The festival is completely unique to Nagasaki and apparently generates a lot of tourism. It was funny explaining to visiting people that I live here and was not just visiting for the festival. Like most things in this part of the world it stems from tradition of removing bad things and ushering in good things, but as I said it is just a really beautiful time to visit (especially at night) and see all the lanterns. So this update will be largely photos with some videos.

 Lanterns are all over town!

 And of course the epicenter of it all is China Town

This is the park next to China Town where the events took place. Do you want to see inside?

 This is the main area where performances take place

 It's the year of the Dragon, you are going to be seeing a lot of these

 You could sit on this, I didn't, but you were permitted to

Here's a short video so you can see this think a little better

 

 This was some kind of Buddhist altar with pig heads, I'm not sure why as Buddhists are not permitted to eat meat in most sects.

Like I said before though, the real treat was at night:

Of course it wouldn't be a festival if there were not many performances to entertain. Here are a few of the more culturally relevant ones, including a few variants of the Lion dance which, in Japan, is unique to Nagasaki and this festival.

Here is the Dragon Dance performed by children:

Taiko drum performance:

A lion dance, not the true one:

Children's Lion Dance:

Lion Dance:

This was the only streamer explosion there was during the performance and I just happened to be taking a picture at the exact moment it burst, timing couldn't have been better.

We also watched the Emperor's Parade, mostly because one of your classmates (Lucy) was in it, she's the non-Japanese girl holding the lantern at the beginning of of the videos (in the first video she's all you see of the parade), I've included a picture so she's easier to pick out.

Short Video with Lucy:

Long Video of the Performance at Meganebashi:

Since it was raining the last day many people have on coats, here are some pictures from the day before of the Parade and some of the things that did not come to the bridge performance.

The other thing that was at the Lantern Festival were large 24 meter lanterns for the 12 Chinese Zodiac... except the snake, which I discovered after looking for it for nearly two hours.

Year of the Snake? This is all you get.

 This is the Ox, this is the first one I saw.

 Dragon

 Ram or Sheep

 Rabbit

 Pig

 Rat

 Tiger

 Rooster

 Monkey

 Dog

Horse

When I come back to Nagasaki for this festival in years to come I plan to go out more at night, maybe I'll even be able to complete my Zodiac lantern collection (if they ever build a big snake lantern). I'll close this entry with some random lanterns that I really liked during the festival.

 These on the water looked so much better at night, if it wasn't pouring rain I would have gone back out to get photos of these two displays after dark.

These fish were running all along the river display near Meganebashi (see earlier blog entry).

Well I hope you enjoyed the small taste, pictures don't really do it justice though, if you really want to see something great plan a trip out to Nagasaki at the end of next January.