Spring is in full effect in Tokyo, and at this time of year in Bunkyo City the Annual Azalea Festival at Nezu Shrine is the main event! This year my wife and I went to see the festival a bit later than usual and as a result had a totally new experience!
We chose to go on the first day of the Golden Week holidays (4/29) which is something we usually avoid due to the heavy crowds. What we didn't know, however, is that the first day of Golden Week is a special day of the festival which includes special performances by local community performing arts clubs. It was definitely crowded, but the feeling of celebration that filled the shrine and spread throughout the atmosphere in our neighborhood made for a really great day!
Despite a bit of light cloud cover, it was a beautiful day, and as always the azaleas looked extremely lovely and provided a gorgeous backdrop for our local shrine. Hearing the music and singing drifting from the shrine's performance stage added an extra special flavor to this year's flower viewing.
Three veteran dancers from our local community hula dance club
Pre-performance practice session
Want to see some more? Here is a link to the Picasa album! As always, thanks for visiting! For my readers who are currently in Japan, you still have some time left! The festival continues until Wednesday, 5/6!
Snowstorms are a very rare occurrence for us here in Tokyo. I am definitely not complaining, but I enjoy some nice wintery weather once in a great while, so we've got to get out enjoy their fleeting beauty while we can! I decided to take my camera to Nezu Shrine this morning before heading in to the office to capture some of the scenery. Enjoy!
Happy New Year! 明けましておめでとうございます (Akemashite Omedetō Gozaimasu)!
This year the wife and I are enjoying a nice, quiet celebration of New Year (お正月 / O-shōgatsu):
Ate sushi
Watched the NHK Red and White Singing Competition (NHK紅白歌合戦 / NHK Kōhaku Utaga-sen)
Ate New Year’s Eve soba noodles (年越しそば / Toshikosi Soba)
Went to Nezu Shrine for the first shrine visit of the year (初詣 / Hatsumoude)
Took a bath and went to bed
As I write this, my wife is making a traditional New Year soup containing a light broth, chicken, shrimp and mochi called Ozōni (お雑煮).
We’re pretty tired after an exhausting week of spending Christmas in America coupled with nearly 40 hours of travel, so we wanted to have a quiet and relaxing New Year, and that’s exactly what we’re doing!
Apologies in advance to my readers. Here I am writing about something that happened over a month ago already. It's pretty bad, I know, but believe me it's not because I'm lazy; it's just been a really hectic month! Anyway, getting on to the fun! On 9/21-22, Nezu Jinja held their annual shrine festival, and again this year our entire town was in a fun festival mood!
Check out this next photo -- this was me at last year's festival. Words can barely describe how much fun I had and what a wonderful sense of community I felt as I carried the Mikoshi (神輿) along with the other members of my local neighborhood association.
Nezu Shrine Festival 2013
I'm guessing I don't need to point out which
one is me (hint- look for the white dude)
This year, however, my friend was in town from Chicago so I enjoyed this year's festival as a spectator rather than as a participant. Because of this, I was not as busy as I was last year and had the opportunity to enjoy the festival in a totally different light. I also had the pleasure of enjoying pride in my town while showing my friend around his first shrine festival! Nezu Shrine looks so much different than usual when it's all decked out for the party! If this doesn't put a person in the celebration mood, then I guess nothing will! The air was definitely charged with excitement (which I'm sure was helped along by all the booze. LOL)!
There would be no festival without music of course.
There was a traditional performance of Kyōgen (狂言) theatre, too! The performance was mesmerizing and also quite comical as well. We all laughed quite a few times, and with no dialogue it's a laugh for everyone there, regardless of which language someone speaks.
There was also a special performance by the Nezu Elementary School Performing Arts Group. I can't say that I understood much about the performance, but they were excellent and they obviously practiced very hard for this!
One thing I definitely did not know about was that as the main part of the festival is ending, there's an "after party," one might say, held down the street from the shrine that continues later into the night! The after party was alive with music, dancing and revelry! The dances being performed were fantastic, mostly because they were local dances specific to Tokyo's Bunkyō City and even more local ones known only in Nezu! Wow! To be honest, up until this point I was not even aware of these dances and the very local culture that's part of my neighborhood traditions so I'm extremely glad I made it to the afterparty this year! It was even more incredible to see how many people of all ages know these dances very well and perform them with expertise and confidence. There were, of course, quite a few people who were basically learning as they go, watching the "village elders'" moves carefully and mimicking them. I wish I possessed the confidence to do the same, but when I was invited to join in I was too chicken. Heh! Maybe next year.
I took a video of some of the festivities here. This is one of our local dances / songs called Nezu Ondo ("Nezu Worker's Song"). It's hard for me to communicate just how much fun I was having during the moments of this recording. Please enjoy!
After the party broke up, my friend The Phonaut and I walked back to my place on a high note and settled in for the night. What a wonderful time! I sure hope Phonaut enjoyed the party as well. I'm already looking forward to next year!
The last week of April I set out into my neighborhood and headed over to one of my most favourite places-- Nezu Shrine. During the end of April and beginning of May, the shrine's annual Azalea (つつじ / Tsutsuji) Festival is held and it's always a spectacular sight! Nezu Shrine's extensive gardens are planted with over 6,600 square meters of azaleas which include over 100 different varieties, some of which are quite rare.
Some of the azaleas on display are extremely unique with shapes and colours I have never seen anywhere else before.
So why azaleas? Firstly, no one could argue that they're beautiful, of course, but besides that, the azalea is the official flower of Bunkyo City (文京区 / Bunkyō-ku) in which Nezu (根津) and Nezu Shrine are located.
The shrine, of course, has a beauty and wonder all its own at all times of the year, so natually it makes a truly lovely background in which both visitors and regulars can enjoy the gorgeous flora.
