So on New Years eve I decided to go to Takaosan which is a mountain nearby Tokyo that has a Temple. You can take a cable car which only takes maybe ten minutes or walk the nature path which requires about an hour. I talked to a older man as I was waiting for the cable car, and we walked together up to the main temple area. My plan was to rest on the mountain and then go to a different section but I was in the rest room when a family of two small kids, maybe 5 and 7, the husband and wife, and then probably the wife's father sat down in front of me. I started talking to them and like most people they seemed very surprised by my Japanese. The husband has some sort of trading business so he often takes trips to California. He has been to Long Beach once. I ate one of my mikan (mandarin orange) and offered the other two to the family. The kids didnt want them so the mom says well if you kids wont eat it then I will. At first the kids were very shy of me, one of them couldnt stop staring at me but wouldnt say a word. The mother said dont worry he's just like Bob, except his Japanese is much better than Bob's.
One of them bought some mini donuts and offered me one. As I got the donut, I was in the middle of writing in my notebook simply because I havent written Japanese in a while. I was actually surprised how good my characters looked this time because sometimes when I write fast, its really sloppy, but this time I was very pleased. I basically wrote about coming to the mountain by myself but no longer feeling alone, to protect my family, friends, and everyone, and then a request for world peace. I showed it to the husband and wife and they were very surprised by the kanji I could write. I think they made some comment about me knowing more characters than them.
They asked me if I wanted to join them in the temple where the monks would come and do some sort of ritual. It happened around midnight but we entered the room at about 11 20 pm because it was filling up so fast we needed to get a seat on the floor. Eventually a man started beating a taiko drum, and then the monks entered sounding conch horns. They gathered in the middle of the room and starting chanting. I couldnt really understand anything they said but the vibration of the sound was very powerful. They would also hit these weird bells that rang for a long time. Another monk started playing the taiko in the middle of the room and te conch horns started up again. There was also a fire in the middle of the room which one monk kepts going with a fan. I think there was some significance to the fire consuming your desires or past grief or something like that. To sit in the room and just close your eyes was an amazing expereience.
During this whole time the kids could not sit still, they were getting very restless and the mother was obviously doing her best to control them. Before the monks came in I was showing the grandfather, mother, and one of the kids some of the photos I've taken. The child was very interested. After the new years opening ritul some bells rang outside and everyone was cheering. Obviously it had become 2008. The older brother of the youngers asked me if I wanted to eat soba with them. Even though I wanted to see the sunrise I decided to go eat with them. So I also forfeited the nature walk down the mountain, but I can always go back to Takaosan again, it is fairly close after all.
On the way back to the cable car the father bought me a cup of sake, and it came in one of those wooden box cups. It had the taste of the wood, maybe its cedar. It still has a strong pinish smell, it must have been freshly made. So we got to the bottom of the moutain and sat down in the soba shop. They ordered tororo soba, I'm not sure exactly what made it different from other types of soba but like often there was a raw egg. Ive come to enjoy eating eggs recently, even raw eggs dont bother me. Especially in soba its pretty good. I asked the father what his wish for the new year was, and he said to raise his children well without them getting hurt. I told him my wish was to find a girlfriend in Japan. Despite the amazement of this night I failed to really take pictures. However I did take a picture of the family (which led this post), minus the husband because he hadnt sat down yet; I didnt even know of his existance.
On a side note, my two years of summer savings are dwindling, and won't get me to June. ... I have been looking at jobs a little bit and I think maybe english teaching would be the best thing for me. I need to update my work history. Another time, I will tell more about my travels to Echigo, Yuzawa, and Niigata, but for now I need to get something to eat... so hungry...
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