Only in Japan…

Cherry Blossoms

I went to Ueno park on Saturday and it was beautiful.  The sun was shining, the cherry blossoms were blooming and everyone was out enjoying the day.  If you watch Heroes, you might remember Hiro and Yaeko sharing a romantic moment standing under the cherry trees.  If you’re ever going to visit Japan with a significant other, April is the time to do it.  The weather (when it’s not raining) is awesome; sunny (again, when it’s not raining) and in the mid-teens to low 20s.  Unfortunately, I was being shown around by one of the male English teachers, who’s in his late-40s, early-50s.  Not only that, for some reason Japanese people see cherry blossoms as some sort of party symbol.  In Ueno park, blue tarps are put down under the trees and they can be rented by the public for a day.  So all day, people were eating and drinking (drinking alcohol mostly) and some were even dancing.  It was kind of gross to see so many people just beet-red and drunk at like 2pm.  The English teacher said he strolled around at 10am and people were even drunk at that time.   The next time I come back to Japan it will be in April and with a girl.  Friends, spread the word.

Kanamara Matsuri

I also like to refer to this as PenisFest08.  A crazy, must-see festival, just because you have to see it with your own eyes to believe it exists.  I was made aware of this through a Facebook event and this was in the description:

The Kanamara Matsuri is centered around a local penis-venerating shrine, once popular among prostitutes who wished to pray for protection against sexually transmitted diseases. It is said that there are divine protections also in business prosperity and the clan’s prosperity, easy delivery, marriage, and married couple harmony, etc. Today, the festival is used to raise money for HIV research. There’s also a legend of a demon that hid inside a young girl and castrated two young men on their wedding nights before a blacksmith fashioned an iron phallus that was used to break the demon’s teeth, leading to the enshrinement of the item.

Anyway, it was quite a surreal day.  First, while waiting for others outside the station, there was this one foreign guy, who looked to be South American, (I refer to him as Funny guy in my Facebook pictures) who ran over to the man at the ticket booth and started shouting, “PENIS WA DOKO DESU KA!” which means “Where is the penis?!”  Or in my mind, I translated the meaning to be, “Where da penis at!?”  The ticket man seemed confused by his question, so the foreigner repeated the question, and started drawing the shape in the air with his arms.  The ticket guy understood and gave him directions, and Funny guy bolted out of the station yelling, “PENIS PENIS PENIS!” with his arms frantically waiving in the air.  Everyone around the station laughed in confusion.  Kim said she’d never have thought a guy would be so excited about penis.  He was a strange fellow.  Anyway, we got our small group together and headed in the direction Funny guy ran off and we were met with the parade of traveling shrines.  The first shrine passed us by and who did I notice helping to carry it?  FUNNY GUY!  It’s hard to describe just how funny I found it to be.  Well good for him.  A dream come true.  The rest of the day was alright.  The actual shrine was in a small enclosed area so it was really crowded.  The crowd seemed to be about 50% foreigners, which was really strange to see and reminded me of the multiculturalism of home.  There were booths selling penis shaped candy (I was also told they were selling vagina shaped ones too, although technically that’s not the right anatomical term.  Unless they were actually shaped correctly, but I highly doubt that) and music being played, and it was just a big penis party.  Only in Japan my friends, only in Japan.