Japan 2015: ７月１７日（金：祇園祭 Gion Matsuri)

Today, my 3 friends and I went to 祇園祭 (gion matsuri, Gion Festival) with Etsushi! Nick, Kitty and I used the internet to learn how to wear 浴衣 (yukata, light summer clothing with the appearance of a kimono) and got ready for the festival with Lane. As an unprepared foreigner, I found I was missing two strips of fabric I needed to tie my yukata in-place under the 帯 (obi, belt). So, the boys helped me improvise by giving me the free ear buds they had received on Hawaiian Airlines to use as replacements. I tied my yukata shut with ear bud chords, in a pinch. We all thought it was pretty funny.

yukata time!

It turns out women's obi are more complex to tie than men's. Women's obi end up looking like a bow, and after tying has to be shifted to the back. Men's obi are also complex but end in a somewhat ornate knot in the front, are thinner, and are worn lower on the waist than women's obi.

Also, Nick and Kitty beat me out on the full ensemble, because they also wore 下駄 (geta, wooden clogs) with their yukata. I was too cheap to buy geta and too lazy to wear them anyway, so the default was regular street shoes.

We met Etsushi at 三条駅 (sanjyou eki, Sanjo Station) and he was pretty surprised to see 3 of us had decided to wear yukata. He told us even though he's Japanese he has never worn a yukata before. The typhoon weather was really coming in so it was raining pretty consistently outside, but fortunately Lane gave me a two-person umbrella he had mistakenly bought and we all brought umbrellas with us.

this is Etsushi's photograph

left to right: Nick, Lane, me, Kitty

Here are some amazing pictures from Gion Matsuri! Fewer people than usual came because of the weather so we could see well, and many of the viewers were other foreign people.

there were signs before each float
they seem to each be from a different shrine
although perhaps I am wrong

float with heavily made up children

fan bearers

human dolls

bell ringers

everything ビニールでおおわれている (biniiru de oowareteiru, covered in plastic)

marchers with their umbrellas

more fan bearers, removing water from their fans

people pulling the floats

creepy 妖怪 (youkai, ghost/phantom) costumes

weird youkai performance

After watching most of the parade we went to 一蘭 (Ichiran), a Chinese-style ramen restaurant that generally appeals to foreigners. At this and many other restaurants, especially noodle places, you order using a machine to select what you would like to eat, and after paying at the machine, it gives you a meal ticket with your order on it to present to the staff.

this is a picture of another order machine

not the one at Ichiran

At Ichiran there was also an option sheet giving you the ability to chose the softness of your noodles, the oiliness of your broth, and various aspects of your ramen order. We were to give these to the staff with our meal tickets. The five us us waited some time for eating spaces next to each other. Basically, Ichiran is organized so that each person sits at the bar with folding walls on each side of the seating space. But even after 10 minutes waiting there were not 5 places next to each other open, so we split into a group of 2 (me and Kitty) and a group of 3 (Etsushi, Nick and Lane).

this light-up seating chart impressed us as we waited

At many restaurants in Japan there is an order button on the table. Always look for it carefully before you wait forever to order. Kitty tried to order a 替玉 (kaedama, second portion of noodles) but we did not notice the button, so we tried to call the staff through the curtain put between the bar and the servers' area. I took a picture after the staff informed us to its location.

ご注文 (gochuumon, order) button

Once we enjoyed delicious ramen, the boys, Etsushi and I headed to 伏見稲荷 (Fushimi Inari) on the train. Unfortunately, the rain closed the path up the mountain. So with soaked feet we went to Starbucks near Kamogawa and sat for some time to dry off.

Nick, Kitty, and Lane on the train

Love Lane's face

these are wish tablets where you write your wish

like ema

and the wishes are conveyed to the gods

The rain was so consistent we decided to stay inside longer and do a couple hours of karaoke to kill time. We all thought of plenty of songs to sing - both Japanese and English and often in groups - and had a really great time! Plus the place gave you all you can drink cocktails included, so we got to drink as well.

There was more parade fun going on when we got out of karaoke at night. It was still raining but lighter. Everything was still covered in plastic, and some of the poor men in light festival wear had skipped plastic raincoats and were drenched. We had to wait for some of the floats.