Move your ass gozaimas!

Today after work me and shiv,kim,dom,alex and sheila got on some trains and headed to Nara. We were going to see the ouizomisudera festival. It has something to do with the new year and the coming of spring. It happens at a gorgeous huge wood temple in the city of Nara and the monks of the temple run clockwise around the balcony of the temple holding huge fire torches. Yes i repeat: monks run around a huge wood building carry huge fire torches. It is anyones guess how the temples hasn't burned down by now!.

The got to Nara pretty early to ensure our selves a good veiwing location for the fire show. But japan has alot of people, and im pretty sure every one had the same idea going on too. So when we got to the temple we had to wait in a blockaded area until the festivities began. There was a small TV at the front of the crowd that showed live video of another large group of people. We hoped that the video feed was really our selves being video taped and not another huge mass of people who happened to be closer to the temple. As time wore on ( and it did like nearly 2hrs), we figured out that the video was of people in another area of the temple complex who were closer to the temple (poo...)

so, 730pm rolls around, and the festival is meant to start at 730. Sort of pissed off and paniced that we are going to miss it, we look at the TV and there on the TV are monks running with fire. THIS IS CRAP! we have to watch the festival from a small 20 inch TV with 1000 people sqished into an alley??!!??

And then a weird thing happened, people started clapping and laughing and getting all happy to watch the festival on tv. i thought i was in an alternate universe. Is this how festivals are done in japan? watching the event on TV with 100o strangers freezing in a park??

i was so pissed of. But then the police lifted the baricades and let us walk closer to the festival. It was like the running of the bulls. YEAH!!! we were going to see the festival! then it stopped. They put the barricade back down, we had moved about 10ft, and i was 10ft closer to the TV. I could not believe this. Did they just move every one up so the people in the back could get a better veiw of the TV screen?!?!
madness.

But after a while the cops lifted the barricade for real and every one went charging up the stairs in the direction of the temple. It was crazy, all of us got a little bit separated in the stampede and squished too. Japanese people are known for being super quiet and polite, but when it comes to festivals and fire they become crazy. I nearly got run over by a older japanes lady who was creaming "move move". The japanese may act all coy and sweet, but they know enought english to get you to move out of their way!. It was crazy mad crazy. Even the cops were getting every one to speed up, take less pictures and move along. The festival was nearly ending and they needed every one out of the park.

The festival It self was really neat to see because the minks had these huge torches full of dry wood that dropped flaming embers onto the ground (and people) below. It is said that if you get hit by an ember, its good luck. Some think good luck i think, good lawsuit, any ways...

a fun and interesting night had by all. We walked back through the town past many cool temples and shrines, i think shiv got the best pics of this event by far!! www.pbase.com/shivdesilva.
photo1) every one looking at the TV (jan so mad..) 2) Every one charging towards the temple 3) little girl cooking taco yaki 4) my picture of the gates of todaiji temple