Fire Crossing ceremony

Sunday morning we enjoyed a very leisurely breakfast out in our yard and one of our neighbors even stopped by and joined us for coffee.  

Though the back of our house looks pretty messy in this photo, the view of the garden and the mountain and fields is wonderful and we actually get a lot of neighbors who drop by when they see Tetsu out in his garden working or even napping.  

We took off again for the day to do some last minute shopping without getting much accomplished until...

Tetsu mentioned that he'd seen in the newspaper that there was a local ceremony being held at a temple not too far from us and did we want to check it out.  We did and though it was getting on 5:00 we crossed the fields and hills til we came to a temple that I hadn't even known about.  What an experience!!!

I actually missed the first part of the event because I stayed in the car with a sleeping Luka (and sketched of course) while Tetsu and Leiya and Tony checked out what was going on.  

Even from the car I could hear the bangs and chanting going on from the temple on a distant hill.

The ceremony was called Hi watari with the characters hi meaning "fire" and watari, meaning "crossing".  A fire crossing ceremony.  

All these "trainees" came from the temple wearing traditional monk's garb and blowing these huge conch shells.

Tetsu said that about an hour was spent purifying the area chosen for the ceremony.

An altar was set up with offerings and more chanting.

About the time the fire was set Luka woke up and we followed the plume of smoke to the ceremonial grounds.

"What is everyone doing?"

Luka got a bird's eye view of the proceedings.

And these guys really did run through the flames as part of their ritual!

There was water on hand in case of need but no one caught on fire.

The fire was then raked to the sides of the fire path and there was an announcement that the fire crossing rite would now be open to anyone who wished to participate.  Tony had no hesitation about taking off his shoes and socks and joining the line of up to that time, onlookers. 

When it was each person's turn, one of the priest's "put the spirit" into each participant and they walked across the cooling embers.  

Tony said it wasn't particularly hot and I guess since people were leading their children (sometimes holding them and one person was carrying his dog!) it must not have been too scary.  Luka declined the invitation to walk through the flames however...

My rendition...

What was special about this ceremony for me was that it wasn't geared for tourists and there weren't hordes of people milling about in a festival atmosphere, it was just a very local, very traditional ceremony that is held once a year and we just happened to hear about it.  None of my neighbors or friends even knew that such a ritual was held so nearby.  Tony said he could imagine the same ceremony being held from hundreds of years ago.

Ready to head home.

As were the monks.

Shrines and Temples

We went down the mountain to the temples and shrines of Nikko which is a must visit area for people in our prefecture and even people coming from Tokyo.  

The shrines and temples butt up against each other and it is hard to tell one from the other (well, the architecture gives them away) and it is the home of the famous See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil monkey carvings.

I wasn't up for all the walking so we let Tony and Leiya and Luka explore on their own while Tetsu and I enjoyed a coffee shop.

Toshogu is the shrine...

Rinnouji is the temple.

And there is a beautiful bridge that we always photograph when we go past.

And in this case, which I sketched.

Of course, the scenery that greets us at home is almost as beautiful as the Nikko trip to the mountains and lakes and river!

The rice fields have been planted.

The skies were calling!

Heading to Lake Chuzenji

As the weather had turned nice for us, we took a walk around the onsen area before we started off to other places in Nikko.

Our hotel was on the left of this bridge.

And isn't this an interesting staircase?  

The town is called Kinugawa and the character for kinu means "angry ogre" and gawa means "river".  Thus there are many murals and figures of ogres throughout the town.

The river is so cool and scenic and all the onsen take advantage of the view from outdoor baths.

There was also a nice map of Japan showing where we actually are.

From Kinugawa we headed up the mountain to Lake Chuzenji and since Luka fell asleep in the car Tony and Leiya had a mini date by themselves going up to a lookout point in a ropeway car.  Tetsu took photos and I stayed in the car with Luka and sketched.

From the lookout you can see Lake Chuzenji and the Kegon Waterfall in the distance.

It looks like they had fun with just the two of them!

As an aside to this photo.  Tetsu and Tony did a FANTASTIC job communicating with each other this trip.  They would go to the onsens together and of course, in the course of a day would end up in the same room with one or the other trying to get an idea across.  One morning I think Leiya was putting on make-up or something on one side of the house, and I was in the kitchen, when I heard Tetsu explaining something to Tony IN ENGLISH!!!  He was putting words together and making basic sentences and Tony didn't have any trouble understanding!  I was so amazed I stuck my head around the corner just when Leiya came into the room open mouthed herself.

"Tetsu's speaking English!!!"

"All these years he's said he can't speak English!"

"I've been with him 45 years and I've never heard him speak English!!  It makes me tear up!"

Tetsu was very embarassed but anyway, Leiya and I were very impressed!

At the lake Luka of course wanted to ride in the paddle boat and so we sent them off in a blue duck boat.

I was actually pretty horrified to realize that paddle boaters weren't given life jackets... (for some reason row boaters were.)

They got back safely and I was sure glad when they were back on land.

The day wasn't finished!  More places to go back down from the mountain!

Another day of Tony's visit!

After our pleasant encounter with the kimono lady and lunch at a ramen shop we made a brief stop home and then headed out for an overnight stay at a hotel/onsen.  

We live near an onsen town that has many hotels that border the Kinugawa River and that have onsens (and on up into the mountains there are even more onsen).  We had been to this onsen years ago and the attraction was that there was an outdoor bath, we could all dress up in yukata (cotton kimono) and sleep on futon laid out on tatami mats, and there was a huge buffet for both dinner and breakfast.  

The scenery out our windows was wonderful.

It was a bit of a job to get a yukata set large enough for Tony but the hotel came through!

I'm not sure any of us look authentic but we did have fun.

Once in yukata, the men headed off to their bath and Leiya and Luka and I headed off to the women's side.   

SORRY!  

...but since there was no one else in the bath when we went in, Leiya got a picture or two and she said this picture didn't need to be censored...  You get an idea of the partially covered outdoor bath.

Having dinner in the main dining room...

And Luka asleep on the futon on the tatami mats.

The next morning, both Tetsu and Tony enjoyed the view of the mountains from their respective rooms.

We told Luka that these were baby clouds being born in the mountains.

Off to a morning bath with Jiji.

Choosing food and drink at the morning buffet.

And finally checking out.  

On to more adventures!