I very recently participated in the Shimoda Onsen Matsuri in the Women’s Portable Shrine Carrying event. This event was last Sunday, and was a rare, interesting, off-putting, yet all-around valuable experience for those of us involved as foreigners.

The day began earlier than usual, with us meeting up at 6:30 am to get to the venue at 7:30 am to get our hair prepared and get into our loaned costumes. There was a bit of confusion initially because the name of the meeting place building changed and the flyer wasn’t updated to show the new name.

When we arrived, we stepped into our strange diaper wrap pants, our nurse’s scrub tops, and our taiko aprons and we were looking pretty interesting if I say so myself. The pants were definitely odd; they gave us all a strange breezy feeling, which is appreciated in summer but not so much for the built-in holes in the crotch and bum areas. It results in a rather constant paranoia that your private areas are being revealed. But for events like this, this is pretty traditional wear, so I was happy to put it on and look as Japanese as is possible for someone who already stands out like a sore thumb.

After getting into costume, we all received some interesting hair-do’s; mine resembling a small fluffy animal pinned on the back of my head at an odd angle, with 2 cornrow like twists on the left upper side of my head, a braided row on the bottom right side. We thought the hairstyle was going to be an elaborate affair, or at least I did, so I was pretty surprised to see the results.

Once this stage was complete, we had quite a lot of time to spare with our early arrival, so we went to roam around the main festival street. Festival food is pretty nostalgic for me, so I always pick up something, and that day I grabbed an iced coffee and a crepe. It was a pretty good start to the morning. We then talked at length with another ALT’s studentss, some of whom were veterans of the Onna Mikoshi event, and advised us to go acquire our pink towels to put on our shoulders due to the weight of the mikoshi. It was pretty helpful and worth it, because as we all realized later, that mikoshi is heavier than it looks! On quite another point though, a reality I’ve found from being foreign here: I will say that although I know it’s daunting to be a foreigner here at times, I still think people should ask before taking photos of us walking around. Photos while we are doing the event are great, by all means, but while we’re just walking about trying to live life it’s rather exhausting. Just because people can see that we’re different doesn’t mean they have the right to ask personal questions like where we live or take pictures of us willy nilly. [Soapbox over.]

The first leg of the carry involved a very steep learning curve: with the height differential it’s tough to carry for tall people. Plus there was a lot of stepping on other people’s feet and everyone received many steppings-on. So it was lucky that the water wasn’t being thrown for the first half of our effort. After we took a break and got going for the second leg though, the hot onsen water-throwing commenced. It was quite warm at first, and a nice sensation, but as we walked on it inevitably cooled and felt less sensational. It occurred to me that only in Japan would you give a group of people a heavy item to carry, then throw hot water on them to make the situation more precarious and dangerous. And no liability waiver was required! ^__^

Considering all the ups and downs, it was a valuable experience and I really enjoyed myself. I think it’s pretty rare that women get to carry the mikoshi, so to be involved and experience it, though challenging, was well worth the time invested.

Please check out the Asahi Shimbun article if you have a moment! It’s all in Japanese, but they have a better quality photo of us as we participated in the event. Most of us have our eyes closed because tons of water was coming our way and hitting us in the eyes and mouth and ears. It was still a really fun experience though. :)