Saga Matsuri in Arashiyama

Oo-san invited myself and Yifan to go to a festival in Arashiyama last minute the night before, but I had been wanting to visit Arashiyama anyways and decided that I didn't want to spend another weekend clubbing, so I decided to join. The two of them took a bus over, but since I live in a much different area I had to take the JR from Kyoto station after riding the subway first. We met up at a conbini and then started walking towards the location that was mentioned in the pamphlet that Oo-san had found online.

It was interesting experiencing this festival with zero background information. We arrived to the location to find a sea of men dressed in white outfits with headbands carrying very ornate and decorated structures upon large wooden beams. They started at the temple we arrived at, and slowly began parading these two structures through the streets of Arashiyama. Every so often they would pause, and a man would begin a chant of "hai-to hai-to" to which all of the men would chant back, and they would rock the structure back and forth.

The three of us followed along in the procession through the town, which was a little odd as most people watched from the side of the street, but there were a few people dressed like citizens walking as well so we figured it was probably okay that we joined in. We hit the outskirts of town before they turned around, and we followed them to a second temple where the men set down the structures to take a lunch break. It was interesting to note that there was a strong police force present at this event, mostly to help guide the crowd, keep people out of harms way, and make sure that the procession had enough space from traffic. We had been following along in the parade for about three hours, so we also decided to go find something to eat.

It was a hot day, so we searched on Google maps for a place to eat some cold noodles. We ended up going to an udon shop, where we chatted about our romantic lives for most of the lunch, which was quite entertaining. The food was great and a nice break from walking around in the heat.

After eating, we decided to go check out a temple. On the way, I realized I had lost one of the earrings I had bought in Uji! We checked the photos we had taken and realized that it must have fallen out after we had eaten lunch, so we retraced our steps walking back for about ten minutes trying to find it. We made it to the shop and it wasn't there, and just when I had given up, Yifan somehow spotted it on the sidewalk! I was glad that we found it, but she also told me that in China, losing something can be seen as getting rid of bad luck.

I didn't take too many pictures of these events, but we checked out the temple, a bamboo forest, and a small shrine. We also found the parade once again in a very touristy spot of town, where it crossed a large bridge over the river. From there we split up and headed home. Later I found after doing some research online, that this festival day was the second part of the overall festival. Each year on the third Sunday of May, the deities of two shrines are placed into the ornate structures called "mikoshi" and loaded onto the wooden beams. The fourth Sunday of each may, the parade is held and visits several shrines where rituals are performed, before returning the deities to their resting shrines.

That night at the river near my dorm, the international students threw a little firework party! We all brought some fireworks, snacks, and drinks, and had a fun time after the sunset. We enjoyed some music and danced, and a Japanese guy even showed up with an acoustic guitar to play some Ed Sheeran which I was not expecting. To say the least, it was a great day.