#2.11.18

[lostinthememory13]

OMGGGG IT'S BEEN A YEAR SINCE THIS HAPPENED 💗💗💗. THAT'S CRAZYY 😮😮😮. MY FIRST EVER RAIN SHOW AND IT WAS AMAZING. WE DANCED, SCREAMED AND SANG THE NIGHT AWAY. 🥰🥰🥰

[joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

It's her birthday today

[notsofine]

I know I should have every right to go take a walk to stretch my legs or have my lunch break, regardless of if I have therapy today or not because the hours off have already been requested and accounted for

But

I am still afraid to go

[whats-in-tyzias-mug]

what's in her mug?

the blood and tears of every god tier analyst tumblr, aka the backbone of this country

[japenpal]

星まつり

京都に行きましょう！！

hazel & i were up bright and early on a sunday morning to head down to hirakatashi station. hazel’s home-visit family, the otsukas invited the two of us to join them for the 星まつり [hoshi festival]! they met up with us at the station and led the way to kyōto so that we could make it to the temple in time for the beginning of the festivities.

unfortunately the daughter of the family who goes to kansai gaidai and had lunch with us the other week was sick and couldn’t join us and since the father was volunteering at the festival, it was just the two of us 外人, the mother (yukiko) and her younger daughter, hitomi. they were both eager to help teach us about japanese culture and how to politely attend a festival, as well as have an opportunity for all of us to practice speaking each other’s languages together.

initially, i was a little worried it might feel sort of awkward or stiff, since we were communicating 50/50 english/japanese and because i hadn’t met either of them before, but i realized pretty quickly that i had nothing to fear. otsukaさん was very easy to talk to and had a ton of questions about canada and my experience studying japanese, so we had a very lively chat the whole way to the festival that never felt even a little awkward. hitomiちゃん was an absolute gem. she was shy at first, but once she got more comfortable her true crazy-kid colours started to shine through. she was determined keep the mood energetic and goofy - even after we were all tired and wheezing from having to trek halfway up the side of a small mountain to reach the temple.

the festival itself was probably one of the neatest things i’ve seen so far here.

i was only able to understand about 1/3 of the prayers, stories, and chants, that comprised the actual ceremony - a lot of the vocabulary seemed somewhat flowerly and formal and there was so much going on it was difficult to focus solely on the speaking - but from what i was able to catch and the details in the information pamphlet i picked up, i had a pretty good idea of what was going on.

the festival is a celebration of good fortune for the future. so after the opening prayers and ceremony, two massive fires are lit as a way to realize the good fortune everyone is prayer for. (videos to be posted of the lighting)

we were each given two small lengths of wood and wrote our wishes for the future on them before sending them down to the fires to be thrown in and burnt.

it was really neat to be able to take part in the festival and chat with the different people also attending. hazel and i were the only visible foreigners i saw while we were there, so we got a lot of double-takes, but it also meant people were pretty chatty with us.

we trekked back down the mountain after a few hours at the festival and took the bus back into town.

we made a quick pit stop at a mr. donut for coffee and treats before taking a walk through a mall near the train station.

i got a stamp with the kanji for my first name on it engraved at the mall - i’ve become a little stamp-happy & have been stamping my name on everything since then~

then it was back on the train and home to hirakata.

all four of us were super pooped by the time our train rolled back into hirakatashi station, but it was well worth it for the activity packed, culture filled day!

[2.11.18.京都]

[missinvisibleandco]

"Death, Life, and Mr. & Mrs. Clause"

Rainy, foggy days warrant a cemetery visit. (2.11.18)

[mrrrrow]

[lightningfilledsaber]

A N X I E T Y