May 2010: Kawasaki Fertility festival, Kawasaki Daishi & Shomyoji temple
I usually try to keep this blog... kinda clean, heh. But a certain topic should be left to the adults only (who can handle a few phallus pics). It's only a section though, the rest of the post is quite family friendly.
Anyway, I left this little adventure out of the April post as it deserved its own spot --our Kawasaki Fertility Festival trip. :D
We started the trip early in the AM on a bus from base. Our tour guide was the poor lady from our fail of a rainy Fuji-san trip. She's great though.
Anyway, I didn't look into the location for some odd reason and got suckered into buying tickets from ITT for the "Fertility Festival Tour". We later found out it could easily be found after taking a train ride from Yokosuka, and were left with the option of leaving the tour and finding our own way home. We totally opted for that and left the group ASAP upon arrival.
Did get to see some cool sites along the Highway though.
Anyway, the Kawasaki Fertility Festival is really the "Kanamara Matsuri" or Festival of the Steel Phallus! :D
It's a Shinto fertility festival held on the first Sunday of April in the Kanayama shrine --in the Kawsaki-ku prefecture of Kawasaki, Japan of course! The matsuri (which dates back to Japan's Edo Period) used to be where prostitutes would come to pray to the shrine's large penis, wishing protection against sexually transmitted diseases. And of course for the regular people they would pray for their marriage, prosperity, and well, fertility.
But nowadays it's more of a fertility festival that raises money for HIV research... and a chance to crack open a beer, drink some sake and see penis... shaped everything... all before noon!
We arrived in Kawasaki way too early for the actual Matsuri so we walked to the other side of town where the Kawasaki Daishi Temple was located.
They had penis candy over there too --sold by pushy little old mama-sans.
Lunch break right outside of the temple. Of course the menu was in all Japanese. I just pointed to the special, and Terry asked for tonkatsu which they totally had. You can't go wrong with those choices --just look how awesome my meal turned out!
The temple dates back to 1128. The main structure on the grounds, the Dai-Hondo, is only around 50 years old since the hall was destroyed in a fire from 1945, and then rebuilt in 1958.
On the temple grounds you can find the Dai-Sanmon (the main gate), the Dai-Hondo (the main structure), a Prayer Hall for Safe Driving (built in the late 70's), Hakkaku Gojunoto (Octagonal Five-Storied Pagoda, Restoration Pagoda), and the Statue of Prayer and Peace.
The Kawasaki Daishi (informal name for Heiken-ji) is one of the most popular spots for hatsumōde (the first temple visit of the year), and tourists.
Here's some of the structures I named above. Most of them have been built to commemorate Kobo Daishi’s death, the Buddhist priest who is worshiped in the temple grounds.
Oh, hai.
The grounds were beautiful and there was a lot to explore. These pictures don't even cover half of what was located around the temple.
And there was kitty-gatos everywhere to pet~!
We eventually returned back to Kanayama shrine for the Kanamara Matsuri. The atmosphere quickly changed from a history lesson to drunken phallus fun.
At the actual shrine it was packed like sardines since the grounds are very tiny for this extremely popular event. We quickly went down an alleyway to get ahead of the parade so we could watch it up close.
The little boy was handing out charms for a donation. I bought one... I'm not sure why I did, I don't want to be fertile. *nervous laughter*
Yes, that's a black penis on the matsuri float. Fertility festival, remember?
And then the main attraction of the festival, you could say. The main o-mikoshi, matsuri float, carried by transvestites and drag queens.
It all just seems fitting, ne?
There was another one but just seemed kinda boring after the spectacle just witnessed.
We went back for a little more fertility festival fun times. Def the weirdest morning I've ever had. I got my penis pops too. Good times. >:D
So we said Ja-ne to Kawasaki to start on the rest of our day.
On the way back we stopped in Kamiooka for a little Yodobashi run. Which is a grownups playground of electronics. Not to mention the wall of gashapon toys.
Only a few trains stops over on the limited express train line from Yokosuka is Kanazawa Bunko. And a twenty minute walk from the station brings you to a temple that is a must see in the Sakura season.
Well, it's not actually the temple, but the walk leading up to it. It's lined with Sakura. Really a sight you'd expect to see in a movie... I mean the Sakura were even gently falling around us like a soft rain shower. Geez.
By far the most beautiful Sakura, and spot in general, I've seen in Japan. And there is a lot of competition. That afternoon just seemed to sum up what all of my tween dreams could conjure up about Japan --minus the Geisha strolling down the pathway, of course, ha ha.
Shomyoji Temple was built in 1252. This is one of the few temples I've been to where the original building is still standing and hasn't been rebuilt from some great disaster.
The grounds are very simple, but as always, very beautiful.
And since I got my phallus pops, Terry got his Mameshiba cotton candy~
I hope I can return again for the Sakura season again this year. My iPhone pics did not do the place any favours, I want to go back with a real camera!
Up next: MAY 2010!