Gamagori Festival/Onsen/Dinner w/ Saori's Parents-what a day!!!

I'm not really sure how to start this blog. There is sooo much I want to say but I don't think my written words can describe my weekend. I think the pictures will do much more justice therefore I will have LOTS of pictures-don't worry I took 205 of them. In a nutshell, on Sunday we went to this amazing festival, went to my first onsen, had dinner at Saori's parents house, played musical instruments and sang with her parents and watched the very end of the festival. This will all be explained-keep reading...

Ok, where do I start... I went to a festival in Gamagori with Saori one of the Japanese teachers, Lizzie and her friend Matthew. Gamagori is about an hour northeast of Nagakute, it is this picturesque coastal town up in the mountains of Japan. Saori picked us up in her car at 8:45 on Sunday morning (not cool-especially since Lizzie and I didn't get home from Fujigaoka where we talked about American politics with 3 other Americans till 3am-major buzz killer, yikes). The day started with a bang-right off Saori took a wrong turn on the freeway and we ended up back in Nagoya-ohh and did I mention we were going to Saori's hometown (I think she fell asleep during Lizzie's story about the size of our Chu-hi's form the night before). Anyways, we made it Gamagori an hour later after taking the scenic route and arrived just in time to watch the floats go into the water.
Saori
I need to explain the festival a little bit so you can understand the pictures. This festival was absolutely AMAZING and I wish everyone was there to witness it. We were lucky enough to talk to some locals who were apart of the festival and knew the history of the festival (with the help from Saori :) This festival has been going on for 300 years. The story behind it: the land owner had a dream one night that a road must be built between the east shrine and the west shrine so they can be connected, so the gods could meet and talk. Before the road was built the only way to get to the shrines was by water. So this is a festival celebrating the road being built between the east and west shrine. Once the gods meet they throw a big party and there is lots and lots of music, traditional dancing and celebration.

We found the perfect spot to watch the floats. There were four floats that went into the water(there were 5 total the 5th was to small to go into the water)-each float represented a specific section of Gamagori. These floats were absolutely amazing-they were enormous and covered in gold. There were children sitting inside the floats and grown men dragged the floats through the water. In the back ground you could hear the drumming and wooden flutes playing traditional music. It was very mysterious, magical, and wonderful. Once all four floats went into the water and paraded down the streets the dancing began.

This part of the festival was just as amazing, the music, costumes and traditional dances were incredible. There were many dances. They had the 7 gods of happiness (men with the large masks) the comedians (men with the large poles) and I didn't get the story behind the children dancing. During the entire festival you could hear the drums and flutes playing in the background given the entire festival this hauntingly beautiful atmosphere. It took you back in time, it was very ancient ritualistic soundtrack that filled the whole air and took over. It was very powerful. For the first time I realized I was in a very ancient land with this amazing culture and history. I felt very privileged to be apart of this festival.


ONSEN TIME!!!!
We left the festival around 2pm to go to the Gamagori Onsen. I was sooo excited to go to the onsen, my first one since I've been here. I know its a disgrace, I have been in Japan for 2 months and have not visited the hot springs. The Gamagori Onsen was incredible it is at a hotel-so it was especially nice. Going to the onsen is incredibly ritualistic. First the men and women separate to undress and wash our bodies. The Gamagori Onsen was separate sex so we did not bath with the men (which, for my first time I was very thankful :) Once your bodies are clean you go into the water and just sit there taking in all the minerals. NO SWIMMING!!! Saori was very strict about that-Lizzie asked. Gamagori onsen faced the ocean, so we were looking out onto the ocean while in the onsen. It was gorgeous!! Once you were finished soaking, you go back wash your body, face, hair, dress and then the your done. Afterwards my skin was sooo soft. Lizzie, Soari and I decided we are going to onsen once a week-there's one in Nagakute! Once dressed we met up with Matt and went down stairs and drank a complimentary soft drink. We just sat there exhausted, glowing, smelling really good and reminiscing about the festival and onsen. The day would have been more perfect if it had stopped there but it didn't.

Saori's parents invited us over for dinner. I've heard that its a priviledge to be invited over to someone's house because their houses are so small in Japan so most people would rather entertain in a restaurant. So we felt very honored and lucky to go to Saori's house. Once again dinner was absolutely amazing (I know I keep using that word, but that word describes the whole day). We arrived at her house, and it is absolutely adorable it's very homey and warm. We right off started helping Saori's mom with dinner, Lizzie cooked potatoes, I picked nuts out of salt and Matt made rice balls. Dinner was DELICIOUS. There was soo much food, we had rice balls, fried potatoes, and shabu shabu-a special stew Sumo Wrestlers eat it's basically veggies, tofu (yes, Dea I did eat tofu-aren't you proud of me :) and meat are thrown into a communal bowl in the middle of the table and is cooked right in front of you.

After dinner we all moved into the living room and talked about the day. Saori came down stairs with some festival clothes for us to try on and wooden flutes to play. It was fun to try on the clothes and try playing the flute. I couldn't get a note out of the thing but Lizzie became a pro by the end of the night. At this point Saori's father came home and we wanted to hear him play the flute. So we sat in the living room while he played the flute for a good 15 minutes. He said he just made the song up on the spot. It was absolutely surreal. I really felt like I was in another world at that moment. We then cracked open the piano and forced Lizzie to play a little for us, then the guitar came out. We sang lots and lots of songs including DoReMi, House of the Rising Sun and edelweiss (reminded me of Kansas and Grandma :) all together. It was really one of those "what a small world" moments. We are in Japan sitting in a Japanese living room with 3 Japanese, 2 Aussies and 1 American from different generations all singing the same songs. We all got a little quiet when Lizzie pointed that out. It was really an incredible experience. Saori and her parents are such gorgeous people and I will never forget them and their wonderful hospitality.

The night didn't end there. To top off this incredible day the festival was about to conclude so we rushed out the house with umbrellas and made it just in time to watch the closing ceremonies of the festival. We watched the five floats (with their rain coats on, as Saori pointed out) go home. The flutes and drums were playing as people crowded around to say goodbye till next year to the festival and floats. And just as the last float made its exit it started to pour down rain. Seeing the end of the festival was the icing on the cake-it just ended the day perfectly.

I know this is a LONG blog but Sunday was one of those surreal days that I can't believe really happened (but I do have 200 pictures to prove it did happen). It was just so perfectly planned and I was able to see some incredible cultural events, have my first onsen experience and the evening at Saori's house. Another incredible day I will never forget.


SIDE NOTES:
***I have my costume for Halloween but I'm not telling you what it is-you will have to wait for the pictures woahahaha
**I woke up this morning and my voice was gone-I'm not sure where it went but I am sitting her drinking tea (yes mom I am drinking tea) and not talking so I can hopefully find it and start yelling at my kids tomorrow :) hehe