You take seat by your friend and the sermon starts. It is your friend at one of the sermons at the school chapel. School has started, and a familiar bright red omamori, good luck charm, on a backpack catches your eye. On your way back, your friend explains that it was a bon-odori, a dance event held towards the end of the bon season for the dead spirits. After a few tries, you are comfortable dancing in the circle. The choreography is simple, a couple moves repeated endlessly. People are dancing in a circle around a raised stage, where a few people play Japanese drums and flute. The dance is held on the field of a nearby elementary school. This time, there is going to be a traditional dance event. Towards the end of the summer, your friend invites you again. You move your pillow to the other side and go to sleep. Apparently, it is a bad luck to sleep with the head towards the north, because that is how dead people are laid. As you spread the futon and place the pillow to one side, your friend mentions that that side is the north. The friend’s family has put out an extra set of futon mattresses for you. You enjoy the rest of the night eating street food and playing games.īack at your friend’s home, you prepare for sleep. Apparently, the whole matsuri itself is for some kind of god, but your friend does not seem to know or really care. You ask what god is on there, but your friend does not know. Your friend explains that it is called a mikoshi, and that they are carrying god inside. Through the crowd, a group of people carrying a large decorated box like object on their shoulders comes through. It is being held at a nearby shrine, and there are people everywhere. Your friend lends you a yukata, a traditional summer robe, and together you head to the matsuri. Again, you mimic your friend and pray towards the kamidana. Your friend notices this too, and explains that it is a kamidana (literally translated “god shelf”) a place for a Shinto god in the home. As you stand up, another thing catches your eye, there is a decorated shelf near the ceiling. You do as asked, following your friend step by step, peeking through the sides of your eyes while your friend puts together their hands and prays. Noticing this, your friend leads you closer, and explains it is a butsudan, a Buddhist altar, and asks if you would like to light a senko incense and pay your respects to the family’s ancestors. You look around the room, and a black box like object in the corner catches your eye. You are led into the living room, and your friend’s family greets you. For the first time in your life you enter a Japanese family’s home. Summer comes, and a friend invites you to a matsuri, a festival, near their home and also have a sleepover afterwards. As the first term goes by, you adjust to life in Japan, making friends that you are comfortable with. Students are required to take a class about Christianity in their first year, and also to go to sermons a couple of times a term. The school that you are going to is based on Christian beliefs. Imagine that you are an international student in Japan.
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