Nagoya

Goju-no-to
Originally uploaded by stonetako920.

Haven't updated this blog forever.. I guess that's what happens when you have multiple blog accounts that you need to maintain.. you eventually grow weary of having to updating all of them and just focus on one where you receive the most amount of feedback and ditch others..

In any case, I was in my hometown Nagoya last week. I've been away from the city for so long that I really don't have any friends in the city that I keep in close contact with anymore. So I usually just visit my folks, go watch a movie, take it easy for a couple of days and head back to Tokyo. This time, however, there was a Jugo-ya (full moon) festival going on at the Koshoji temple, to which I used to go as a child, while I was in town. So I decided to go to the temple for the first time in at least 15 years, possible close to 20 years..

The festival had changed quite a bit from what I had recalled. Back in the days, they used to have this big bon fire in which people threw their expired omamori (Shinto amulets) and ofuda (Shinto talismans, maybe?). There were also a bunch of food stands. This time, however, there were only a few food stands and they turned the whole thing into more of a show with a host and lighting and Noh performances.. it was pretty interesting though. It was my first time watching Noh live. Also the temples were beautifully lighted up as you can see in the pic.