Local Temple Ceremony and Nagahama Momiji
One of Amy's coworkers lives in a temple, which in itself, is really cool! She invited Amy to a special ceremony held at the temple and somehow Amy worked some magic and got me an invite too.
It started at 10am and while we got there on time, it took us some time to find the way in since we were worried about arriving through the wrong entrance and ending up in the shrine part of the temple by accident!
There was already some chanting going on whilst we deliberated and luckily, an old lady arrived whilst we were discussing where to get in. She came to our rescue and helped us enter with what we hoped would be a covert, low-key fashion but ended up being a big event! As soon as one person had seen the foreigners, a ripple of discussion was sent through the congregation who all craned their necks to have a look. There was a big kerfuffle to get us some chairs and with much muttering, we were settled in. Within a few seconds, books arrived in our hands which were a kind of prayer book.
What followed was a lot of chanting, in various pitches and styles which appeared to be dictated by squiggles in the book next to the lyrics. I was able to keep track of where they were in the book so I mostly listened and focused on what page we were on. It was an interesting din of noise, some people were very vocal and some were very harmonious but it culminated in one powerful chant.
During the ceremony, sweets and tea were passed around the congregation to enjoy during the proceedings and afterwards, a monk gave a lecture. He'd come from Kyoto especially, but as with the ceremony, I had no idea what was being said. It all seemed interesting enough, although I could only understand the occasional word! After the talk, there was a dinner.
The temple room was transformed, all the chairs were removed and flat cushions were brought in and laid out in a large circle for everyone to eat together. We met some rather interesting characters at dinner who only got more and more interesting as the sake was brought out!
I learnt that temples are usually owned by families and so are very private, only the family members tend to attend any events at the temples - but this one was community owned. So many people from different walks of life attended and it's very rare that anyone outside of the family or community would attend. There aren't many temples like this one, owned by the community and in fact, this community temple only eats together after a ceremony once a year!
I enjoyed the atmosphere and the food too, it was very interesting talking to the various people since they were all from different walks of life. Amy and I met a woman from another temple and she invited us to come for dinner in exchange for speaking English with her son who finds English quite hard at High School.
The festivities finished at around 1pm, so we had a clear afternoon. Since we were already in Nagahama, it seemed like a good opportunity to go and see some Momiji - Nam hadn't seen any this year yet and I'm always happy to explore new places!
On the way we stopped off to investigate an interesting looking building. There wasn't anything exciting there but I did make Amy and Nam take a picture.
It was a nice drive there, through the countryside but it took about 20-30 minutes in the queue for parking! We walked out, following the crowd, to a temple set in expansive countryside with a walk around and through the trees. There were stalls set up beside the walkways at points, but once we got into the thick of the trees, it was just the beauty of the leaves keeping us company. I notice that Japan puts great emphasis on nature and people appreciate it more here - lots of families and couples were wandering around, enjoying nature in their free time.
I took a lot of photo's since everything was so picturesque. Here are a few of my favourites.
It started at 10am and while we got there on time, it took us some time to find the way in since we were worried about arriving through the wrong entrance and ending up in the shrine part of the temple by accident!
There was already some chanting going on whilst we deliberated and luckily, an old lady arrived whilst we were discussing where to get in. She came to our rescue and helped us enter with what we hoped would be a covert, low-key fashion but ended up being a big event! As soon as one person had seen the foreigners, a ripple of discussion was sent through the congregation who all craned their necks to have a look. There was a big kerfuffle to get us some chairs and with much muttering, we were settled in. Within a few seconds, books arrived in our hands which were a kind of prayer book.
What followed was a lot of chanting, in various pitches and styles which appeared to be dictated by squiggles in the book next to the lyrics. I was able to keep track of where they were in the book so I mostly listened and focused on what page we were on. It was an interesting din of noise, some people were very vocal and some were very harmonious but it culminated in one powerful chant.
During the ceremony, sweets and tea were passed around the congregation to enjoy during the proceedings and afterwards, a monk gave a lecture. He'd come from Kyoto especially, but as with the ceremony, I had no idea what was being said. It all seemed interesting enough, although I could only understand the occasional word! After the talk, there was a dinner.
The temple room was transformed, all the chairs were removed and flat cushions were brought in and laid out in a large circle for everyone to eat together. We met some rather interesting characters at dinner who only got more and more interesting as the sake was brought out!
I learnt that temples are usually owned by families and so are very private, only the family members tend to attend any events at the temples - but this one was community owned. So many people from different walks of life attended and it's very rare that anyone outside of the family or community would attend. There aren't many temples like this one, owned by the community and in fact, this community temple only eats together after a ceremony once a year!
I enjoyed the atmosphere and the food too, it was very interesting talking to the various people since they were all from different walks of life. Amy and I met a woman from another temple and she invited us to come for dinner in exchange for speaking English with her son who finds English quite hard at High School.
The festivities finished at around 1pm, so we had a clear afternoon. Since we were already in Nagahama, it seemed like a good opportunity to go and see some Momiji - Nam hadn't seen any this year yet and I'm always happy to explore new places!
On the way we stopped off to investigate an interesting looking building. There wasn't anything exciting there but I did make Amy and Nam take a picture.
It was a nice drive there, through the countryside but it took about 20-30 minutes in the queue for parking! We walked out, following the crowd, to a temple set in expansive countryside with a walk around and through the trees. There were stalls set up beside the walkways at points, but once we got into the thick of the trees, it was just the beauty of the leaves keeping us company. I notice that Japan puts great emphasis on nature and people appreciate it more here - lots of families and couples were wandering around, enjoying nature in their free time.
I took a lot of photo's since everything was so picturesque. Here are a few of my favourites.
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