Costume Season
Well, here we are, another month down the road, and I still haven't caught up. As I figured, it's starting to warm up (despite having snowed several times in the last few weeks), the temptation to travel is getting hard to resist, so I've got a bigger backlog of pics again. So, once again, the guilt is overwhelming the slackness, and I'll have another go at clearing it out...
This is still from last October, which is the season when so many new costumes come out of the closet - and not just for Halloween. The scorching heat of summer is dead, and there's just a little chill in the air in the mornings and evenings, which prompts the beginning of my favourite season in Japan - boot season. Of course, short skirts are in fashion all year round, but as a concession to the dropping temperatures, they are matched with knee-high leather boots, which lead to neck cramps amongst the male population. Alas, I still don't have any good pics, since I just don't have my uncle's knack for wandering the streets taking pictures of random people...
So, anyway, I'll start off this round with the weekend of the Nagoya Matsuri. The year before, I was stuck working, and only caught occasional glimpses of the parade from the 18th floor, but this time, I was able to make a day of it, with a prime viewing location. Before I get to those, however, I have a couple of interesting sights from my neighbourhood on the way to the city.
This first, I thought was amusing when I first noticed it, but hadn't got around to taking a picture, since I was usually flying by on my bike. Not content with using strange English ("hair shop"? Can I buy some hair, please?), they proudly declare the quality of their service by use of a name universally recognised among European languages for what they should be sweeping off the sidewalk. Nice try at that foreign flavour, guys...
Next, is a place specifically designed to amuse. Yes, it's the "Amusement Hotel Sophia", complete with secret entrance and blacked-out windows. I wonder what goes on there...
Every year, the centrepiece of the Nagoya Matsuri is the parade, which features the three key figures of the pre-Edo Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1568-1600) of Japanese history who came from this area: Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu. It also allows lots of local people to dress up in medieval costume and run around waving spears for awhile (hmmm... this sounds familiar...). I took way too many pictures here, so I'll just give you the highlights.
First up are the Obachan celebrating the arrival of autumn, followed by Ashikaga Yoshiaki, the last of the Muromachi Period shoguns, who was ousted by Oda Nobunaga, who was the first of the three who tried to reunite Japan. I imagine that's why he's looking kind of glum.
Next up, preceded by much banner waving and beating of drums, is the man himself, Oda Nobunaga...
...and his wife, with her own retinue of spear-wielding geisha.
Next in succession is Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of Oda Nobunaga's generals who went on to finish what Nobunaga had started, and when that was done, decided to keep going and invade Korea.
And his wife who, not to be outdone, has her own retinue of naginata wielding geisha.
Then, in the lead up to the big man himself, Tokugawa Ieyasu, who consolidated the reunification, moved the capital to Tokyo and started making laws to control first the daimyo, then almost every aspect of daily life, is more drumming...
...Okinawan dancing girls...
...the occasional clown...
...and, of course, his wife, with her own retinue of geisha wielding poison-tipped parasols.
Taking a breather...
...some 15th century riflemen...
...and then the man of the hour.
Finally, the rearguard - a band of fearless warriors, ever vigilant against the likes of foreigners, obachans and little kids...
...occasionally falling to said little kids.
As part of the ongoing festivities, in addition to the sales, yatai and dancing in the street, they held a rather different sort of parade in Ousu, Nagoya's Akihabara. Only on this day, once a year, the geisha from Ousu's geisha house come out to be gawked at by the madding throngs. Some people camp out for hours to set up their cameras in a good spot. Me, I just waded through the crush of obachan to grab a few nice pics. Outside of Kyoto, you just don't see this sort of thing everyday, despite what the tourist brochures might lead you to believe.
And if you look closely, you can see the guy in the crowd who's painted himself silver for whatever reason...
All in all, one of the more spectacular matsuri I've been to, and I'm glad I had the chance to see it this time.
So, just to finish off the month of October, a couple of snaps from our school's Halloween party. One of my colleagues is a big fan of 300, and really went to town on his Spartan outfit...
...and as for me, I re-used the 100yen set of vampire teeth I bought for last year's party. I guess if I wanted to really go nuts, I'd ship over my chainmail, but... meh.
Alright, that's cleared out most of the backlog, so maybe soon I can get to some more recent stuff. Perhaps a few comments could help my motivation... or at least let me know that someone's still reading this... Cheers!
This is still from last October, which is the season when so many new costumes come out of the closet - and not just for Halloween. The scorching heat of summer is dead, and there's just a little chill in the air in the mornings and evenings, which prompts the beginning of my favourite season in Japan - boot season. Of course, short skirts are in fashion all year round, but as a concession to the dropping temperatures, they are matched with knee-high leather boots, which lead to neck cramps amongst the male population. Alas, I still don't have any good pics, since I just don't have my uncle's knack for wandering the streets taking pictures of random people...
So, anyway, I'll start off this round with the weekend of the Nagoya Matsuri. The year before, I was stuck working, and only caught occasional glimpses of the parade from the 18th floor, but this time, I was able to make a day of it, with a prime viewing location. Before I get to those, however, I have a couple of interesting sights from my neighbourhood on the way to the city.
This first, I thought was amusing when I first noticed it, but hadn't got around to taking a picture, since I was usually flying by on my bike. Not content with using strange English ("hair shop"? Can I buy some hair, please?), they proudly declare the quality of their service by use of a name universally recognised among European languages for what they should be sweeping off the sidewalk. Nice try at that foreign flavour, guys...
Next, is a place specifically designed to amuse. Yes, it's the "Amusement Hotel Sophia", complete with secret entrance and blacked-out windows. I wonder what goes on there...
Every year, the centrepiece of the Nagoya Matsuri is the parade, which features the three key figures of the pre-Edo Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1568-1600) of Japanese history who came from this area: Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu. It also allows lots of local people to dress up in medieval costume and run around waving spears for awhile (hmmm... this sounds familiar...). I took way too many pictures here, so I'll just give you the highlights.
First up are the Obachan celebrating the arrival of autumn, followed by Ashikaga Yoshiaki, the last of the Muromachi Period shoguns, who was ousted by Oda Nobunaga, who was the first of the three who tried to reunite Japan. I imagine that's why he's looking kind of glum.
Next up, preceded by much banner waving and beating of drums, is the man himself, Oda Nobunaga...
...and his wife, with her own retinue of spear-wielding geisha.
Next in succession is Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of Oda Nobunaga's generals who went on to finish what Nobunaga had started, and when that was done, decided to keep going and invade Korea.
And his wife who, not to be outdone, has her own retinue of naginata wielding geisha.
Then, in the lead up to the big man himself, Tokugawa Ieyasu, who consolidated the reunification, moved the capital to Tokyo and started making laws to control first the daimyo, then almost every aspect of daily life, is more drumming...
...Okinawan dancing girls...
...the occasional clown...
...and, of course, his wife, with her own retinue of geisha wielding poison-tipped parasols.
Taking a breather...
...some 15th century riflemen...
...and then the man of the hour.
Finally, the rearguard - a band of fearless warriors, ever vigilant against the likes of foreigners, obachans and little kids...
...occasionally falling to said little kids.
As part of the ongoing festivities, in addition to the sales, yatai and dancing in the street, they held a rather different sort of parade in Ousu, Nagoya's Akihabara. Only on this day, once a year, the geisha from Ousu's geisha house come out to be gawked at by the madding throngs. Some people camp out for hours to set up their cameras in a good spot. Me, I just waded through the crush of obachan to grab a few nice pics. Outside of Kyoto, you just don't see this sort of thing everyday, despite what the tourist brochures might lead you to believe.
And if you look closely, you can see the guy in the crowd who's painted himself silver for whatever reason...
All in all, one of the more spectacular matsuri I've been to, and I'm glad I had the chance to see it this time.
So, just to finish off the month of October, a couple of snaps from our school's Halloween party. One of my colleagues is a big fan of 300, and really went to town on his Spartan outfit...
...and as for me, I re-used the 100yen set of vampire teeth I bought for last year's party. I guess if I wanted to really go nuts, I'd ship over my chainmail, but... meh.
Alright, that's cleared out most of the backlog, so maybe soon I can get to some more recent stuff. Perhaps a few comments could help my motivation... or at least let me know that someone's still reading this... Cheers!
posted by Ia Ftaghn at 6:20 pm
2 Comments:
I love your updates Dan, don't stop! It brings some interest into the boring live of those who are still stuck in 9-5 jobs in Sydney!
Bec (your friendly neighbourhood ex-flatmate)
Thanks Bec! Glad to hear someone's still reading this.
Actually, most of the time I'm stuck in a pretty boring 9-5 routine here, too, but there's just more interesting places to go on the weekends...
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