Japan Living Blog: Some stuff I've been up to lately, part 1

Hi all! I realize it's been a while since my last post, but I told myself at the start of this trip that I wasn't going to apologize for lack of much content. Updating my blog feels a bit less urgent since I'm only going to be here for a couple of months, and time is more at a premium than it was when I was here for a year. Therefore, here's stom stufff, but I make no promises on the delivery date of the next stuff. Cope. ^_^ That said, I'll try this week to make a few mini-posts rather than combine into one post, because honestly Blogger's photo uploading UI is a POS, and a PITA. Uploading more than 5 or so photos in one post quickly becomes like pulling teeth.

So. Mini-update number one. Meiji Jingu shrine, a week or so ago. Yes, I've blogged about it already this trip, but this time there was a festival going on, kind of a shichi-go-san type deal. Shichi-go-san means 7-5-3, and the deal is that you take young girls of the ages of three and seven, and young boys of age 5, and dress them up nice in kimono and take them to the shrine to pray for their future. Lots of pe0ple were there, it was a nice family event. I went with one of my neighbors in my apartment complex, Andrew. Here he is in front of the main Torii gate at the entrance to the temple complex:

If you're having trouble spotting him, he's the goofy Gaijin wearing jeans with his arms in the air like he just don't care. ^_^

I felt bad photo-sniping children in their kimonos, and there's just something weird about stopping a whole family just to take a photo of their kid... anyway, I didn't get many pics of kimono-clad children. Here's one I got, though, and it's pretty typical. They looked cute!

Interesting to note that the elderly Japanese woman nearby on the right is not all THAT much bigger than a seven-year-old.

In front of the main temple. Those trees bordering the temple are amazing, and it must be a job and a half keeping them looking like that, and also keeping the square swept clean of tree debris.

Rows of O-mikuji (I think?) under one of the trees - little wooden placards that you write your wishes down on, and every so often the priests take them down and burn them, so their ashes can ascend to heaven. We both did one, and it was also kind of fun reading what other people wrote.