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Hot in Japan cont...

So after a 4-year hiatus due to the Pandemic, we are finally back in Japan. Katsu is 99% sushi and the other 1% mochi at this stage, I am fully 100% karamiso ramen.

Making up for lost time alright.

A four-year gap is a long time when your parents and your community is aging, it has been abundantly clear to us this time around that we missed a lot. A few faces are missing around our table now. Bittersweet and good to be back all at the same time.

As we come into the beginning of August, the KuroJishi matsuri practices are starting every evening in the local Gosaisho shrine.

Every year, the community comes together to teach the next generation of fue and taiko players and the young bucks who will form the body of the Shishi will get trained in how to move under the cloth of the Shishi and jump over the fires. 

I just love the sound of the taiko, flutes and voices of an evening. It really makes it feel like summer, with the semi crying and the other beasties buzzing and chirping.

Koji Aoki from the Gosaisho team told us of how the Shishi is not a lion or a dragon, but a snake. The team are trained to move like a snake, winding in and around.

Shogo Yoshii, when he was visiting us in Derry in May, told us of  how a coiled up snake looked like a mountain. The snake coiled itself up and hid in the  mountain during the year and was called out during the festival to ward off bad weather, insects or anything that would affect the harvests.

The festival will take place on August 14th and 15th, it’s a Shinto festival but it was moved years ago to coincide with Obon as that is when so many people will be home and not working.  

Expect many more pics and videos lol, I pure love this festival!

Fiona