Reached Kawasaki Daishi Station (川崎大師駅) before 10.30am.. already many people were there.. although there were both local and foreigners, it seemed that the foreigners (here I meant Caucasians or Westerners, not other Asians) were awfully excited.. The shrine was just two blocks away from the station..
Outside the shrine..
The main shrine was small.. I had expected a much bigger one...
And as you can see from the photo, the place were already packed full of people.. There were many stalls selling food and also other "interesting" souvenirs.. like key-chains, candles, candies, etc... People were just crowding around the stalls taking photos.. many were walking around the place sucking on penis-shaped candies, not just the girls but guys too.. it was plain weird...
There were people making carvings of penis using radish under a tree!!
Seriously, the whole place were packed with people.. I think more than half of them are tourists and/or foreigners.. Everyone had a camera with them, big or small, some with tripod, zoom lens and all...
People were crowding in front of the shrine.. it seemed that there was a blessing ceremony taking place... There were 2 mikoshi (portable Shinto shrine) and a big pink penis... :x
Then the priestess came back to the shrine and a dance was to be performed by a group of 5 young girls.. I was lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time, so the dancers were actually dancing right in front of me!! :)
It would be a while after the dance before the actual parade, so I went around checking out the shrine.. again, I was reminded as to why I don't go to any matsuri (festival) during my last 2 years in Japan.. the size of the crowd is just plain insane!! Luckily for my build and size, I would most probably be the one who squash and shove people and not the other way round.. :p
There is a small shed at the side of the main shrine, where people would write down their wishes, most of them were asking for babies, in a wooden tablet called Ema (絵馬) and hung them on the wall of the shed.. A metal penis is found in the middle of the shed.. word has it that whomever who leap over it would be blessed with a child.. of course, it is for the ladies only.. ;)
Then the parade started.. First to lead the way is the main mikoshi, that has a big black penis placed on a boat-shaped base - a dick on the deck!! :p then followed by the big pink penis, and lastly the smaller mikoshi.. One interesting thing is that the pink dick was carried by a bunch of guys dressed up as women... check out the photo below..
Many went with the parade, while many more stayed behind at the shrine.. so the place was still as crowded as before.. Went to have lunch at one of the nearby shop and went home after that.. The End...
Observations:
Freud once said that women are "phallus"-envy.. well, I must say he was right, half right actually.. This being a Japanese festival, yet it seemed that the foreigners, or more precisely the non-Asian foreigners, who were more penis-crazy (not envy), acting so "insatiable"... The way those westerners, especially the ladies, kept shouting "dick", "cock" and "penis" was really quite distasteful.. Although I am all for calling a dick a dick, one doesn't have to shout it all out for the whole world to hear.. not especially while making remarks such as "You have to see that COCK!!", "There is another big COCK over there!", "You gotta take a picture of me and the COCK!", "Come over here NOW as if your life depends on that COCK!"... :x :x :x Rather repulsive, don't you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment