Today we went to Kamiagamo jinja (shrine) to check out the Jyoba Matsuri, a kind of horse festival where these extremely talented riders rode their horses, shooting arrows at targets as they went. The sun was in a particularly good mood today, it felt so good sitting watching the performance, eating mochi and feeling the sun on my skin.
Before the event started we (me, Michael, his tutor Toshi and my tutor Nana) wandered into the shrine inself and bought some fortune slips. Having been quite lost recently, life-wise, I hardly dared pick out a fortune but decided to do so anyway. You would pay 200 yen, pick up this cylinder, shake it before turning it around and catching the first one to fall through a small hole on the bottom.
I collected my fortune and had Michael´s tutor translate it for me. Basically it kept repeating one of my favorite Japanese expression over and over again - gaman suru, which means to overbear things. So to speak, everything is really bad right now but I would just have to grit my teeth and get through it.
Feeling quite depressed about this outcome I quickly walked over to a nearby fence covered in papers neatly tied to the ropes and tied my prediction to it. This is commonly done in order for the Kami to either help you get rid of bad predictions or to make the good ones come true. After tying it tightly to the fence I turned around and walked up the steps to the shrine. The number five is considered lucky here so I threw in a five yen coin, bowed, clapped twice and said a prayer for a better fortune.
After the show was over I found a small stall where they were selling these small blue and red horses with fortunes in their mouths, usually bought during new years. I handed it again to Toshi, fingers crossed. This time though, he and another tutor who had joined us both gasped and shouted that this was the best one to get. Bright future, good circumstances, everything would work itself out.
Now, these are just pieces of words on a paper but they do give you the energy and optimism to take on the world, which it what I feel ready to do once again!
In other news, we went to Nijo castle yesterday, as the city of Kyoto invited us to an international student day located in the old castle´s garden. We met a lot of Japanese students as well as people from all over the world. Together we enjoyed various Japanese things such as calligraphy, origami, and got to participate in a tea ceremony.
They had also set up a stage where we witnessed some very interesting dancing performed by one of the most enthusiastic people I have seen, a sword dance, and a rather embarrassing rap routine. The thing I enjoyed the most though was when the Maiko too the stage and performed a dance, singing and playing the shamisen.
At twelve o´clock we rushed out of the castle grounds to get to karaoke with our tutors. We had a blast and it all cost the small amount of a thousand yen. I re-discovered my love for songs from Evita - Another suitcase in another hall.. million points to whomever recognizes that song! and I got goosebumps when I sang Suteki da ne with Andrea (from Italy). Ahh I really could live inside a karaoke booth! :P
That´s it for now, I have to go check if I have any homework for tomorrow. There is only one class though, there will be no religion class because next Saturday we´re going on a field trip to a monastery, which I am really looking forward to. More on that later!
Hope all of you are having a wonderful time and enjoying life wherever you are! <3
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