To pick up where I left off, yesterday (Sunday) Sakiko and I went with the rest of the AKP students and their various host family members to Shimogamo Shrine, which is old enough to be mentioned in ‘The Tale of Genji’. The actual buildings are fairly recent, but the small forest that surrounds it and the grounds themselves are quite old. Once there, we purified ourselves at a fountain outside and entered the actual temple proper, where we were led just outside the man area of the shrine by one of the priests and a priestess in full regalia, who then conducted a full prayer to ask the shrine god to grant us exchange students a successful year. There was chanting, music, offering of food to the God, a dance by the priestess, and then ceremonial cups of sake for everyone. At the end, we were given small talismans for ourselves, and then blessed food for our host families’ household gods. Sunday’s points:
-The proper way to pray at a Shinto shrine is as follows: Bow twice, Clap twice, bow your head with hands in prayer position in front of your face concentrating on what it is that you want, then bow again.
-Don’t stand dead-center in front of the God’s house, it’s disrespectful.
-When giving someone a gift from a shrine, don’t use the usual ‘this is nothing but here you go’ (Tsumaranai mono desuga, douzo) ritualized phrase, since the actual item is not from you, but rather from the shrine God.
-Some brands of liquid soap, shampoo and cosmetics have special refills, so that you do not buy a whole new bottle every time you run out, but rather refill the one you bought the first time.
-It might be better to buy an electric Japanese/English dictionary before you leave America, since the ones sold in Japan are for Japanese people, and thus the manuals are in Japanese. There are, however, translations available.