Heavy lifting

Post VXII 

 I have had a pretty crazy 4 days. The last two are completely boring, I had 7 demonstration lessons – more than the average ALT has in a year – which were just so draining, mainly because of all the lengthy meetings that go with them. But, at the weekend before the working onslaught I carried a Japanese portable (and I use portable very liberally here, as they weight just under three tones) shrine, known as a Mikoshi (みこし). I carried it for 2 2 hour stints, on Saturday and Sunday. So 8 hours in total. It was amazing! On the first day, it wasn`t actually a shrine, but a `portable` taiko drum (Japanese war drum). The people carrying it were some of the younger and more boisterous islanders, some of whom I have gotten to know through drinking and so on – in fact I was invited to carry it by the owner of a café I often drink at. Before we carried it, we all drank Shinto `holy water` - and lots of it. Of course, it was actually just Sake, which meant that some of the Japanese people were rather merry by the time we got to carrying it. Slightly worrying seeing as you are relying on everyone to pull their weight and not fall over. 

The style of carrying also involved a lot of bouncing up and down, and running down the street, both of which were a mixture of extremely exciting and extremely terrifying. But, it was a great party, and afterwards we went back to the café and all got extremely drunk. I went to bed, knowing I was going to wake up rotten hung over, knowing that I had to be up at 7am, and knowing that I would be carrying three tones of shrine again in the morning. My shoulders were in absolute agony, and the thought of doing it again made me feel sick (or maybe that was the drink). But, I decided to force myself to do it and I am glad that I did. The second day was much more like a ceremony. I wore a special ceremonial white robe and hat, and carried a beautifully ornate Mikoshi complete with God inside. We took the God (no one really knew which God) to chill out in the town, and just generally carried him/her for a few hours. I was given a huge bento for lunch, complete with beers, which was the perfect reward for the hard manual labour of carrying this thing! It was an absolutely unique experience, and one that I am very glad that I had, even if my body is absolutely knackered, sore, bruised and blistered. Looking forward to carrying it again next year!!