Bound and Essentially Gagged

So I’ve had quite a few interesting experiences of late, which is probably why I haven’t written here in a while. However, I will now share two brief tidbits of… well… strangeness.

October is apparently the time for festivals in Japan. Each area has its own local festival, and these festivals are typically quite small. Small, but really nice. Think of your local church festival, or the fair for a local fire hall. That’s the type of thing they have. Only, at these, you may find something a little bit different from your average little games and really good food. Take the Terada Matsuri (matsuri being the word for festival, and terada being the area of Joyo I live). In the middle of the festival there was a wooden platform, where, if you paid a thousand yen, some people on the stage would beat drums and this woman in a traditional dress would dance around with a sword and then bless you. I likened it to a religious strip club.

On Sunday, I was supposed to head down to Tonosho matsuri, one station down from me. I was really excited about going, because a teacher I met at Kita plays taiko (and if you don’t know what that is, or my love for it, you probably don’t know me). Anyway, said teacher was going to perform with her troupe on that day, so I was going to go watch her play (and at some point in the future, maybe join her group).

Well, on this particular day, it was raining, so apparently the festival got cancelled. I found this out after walking aimlessly around in unknown territory looking for some sign of life, probably for about an hour or two. While walking around, I came upon a small building with the door open. Inside I noticed one of the portable shrines for these sorts of festivals, so figured I would ask them what’s going on. As we all know, I don’t speak Japanese. As I’ve learned, the average Japanese doesn’t speak English. This is what I was able to communicate, I think:

I am looking for a festival
I like taiko drums.
In this area, there is a park.

They in turn communicated:
No festival right now.
What taiko?
Come inside.

A bunch more was said, but I’ll be damned if I know what it was.

Anyway, I came inside to the very small building, which was packed with festival… stuff, people running around doing things, and a bunch of probably late elementary/early junior high girls dressed in a traditional festival outfit. Then, the lady that invited me in, comes up to me. Without saying a word, she removes my bag then takes my umbrella. Then, she opens my bag and takes out my camera. I was starting to feel nervous when suddenly the tall guy that I had first tried to talk to me grabs me by the shoulders from behind. All I could think of at this point was “this is it. I’ve truly offended the Japanese, and now they’re going to violate me as a punishment.” The woman goes into a back room, while I am being held, and returns with this little blue coat, much like the ones the young girls were wearing. Still without saying anything to me, her and the tall man try to forcibly put me into this coat. Let me just say, it was made for young Japanese girls… not a walrus.

After getting it close to being on me, I then realized that I couldn’t move. The coat completely restricted any and all movements. Now, I was definitely screwed (and not in a pleasant way). She leads me over to the portable shrine, and now my thoughts are “Oh, good, no anal violation, just cutting off my head as tribute to… something.” Thankfully, all my fears were unfounded. The woman began posing me, and it seemed like photographers suddenly came out of the woodwork. Flashes were going off like crazy, and they just kept posing me, giving me different things to hold, putting different people next to me… It was an experience.

Today was my second day at yet another new school (dear god, I’m getting tired of changing so often). During cleaning time, every school plays music. I’ve mostly been exposed to odd classical stuff, but today, at Joyo JHS, they played Barry Manilow’s Copacabana, sans Barry’s voice. Upon hearing this music, I did the only thing I could think of… I began dancing through the halls singing along. I don’t know what compelled me to do this. It was rather… uncharacteristic of me. But, the students enjoyed it, I won’t deny it was fun, and it was just a compulsion.

Oh, and I have a date with one of the teachers.