Writing this back home in Salt Lake in the wee hours of the morning - awakened by jet lag, but not feeling too bad. One month and one circumnavigation of the globe later than my first days in Kuwait. Parts of the trip now seem like a dream - the people I met, traveled with, caught up with, bonded with - after all those miles, it’s really the people that I’ll remember - the places blur, the dates are fuzzy but the experiences I shared with others are so vivid in my mind - the familiar voice of a young actor now turned cultural advisor to a country, the smile of the bedouin woman selling fabric in the souk, the excitement of a former student seeing her city anew through my eyes, sharing stories with colleagues on a roof-top bar in Vietnam, sitting at “home” in Japan watching Glee over satellite. Distances have certainly shrunk but human connections seem bigger and more important than ever.
Well, I need to wrap up my trip because the last days were exceptional. I met with the people from Kansai University on Saturday. Got there early because I wasn’t sure of the train system. Nice campus in a quiet suburb with a street leading to campus filled with restaurants, bars and shops - very unlike the U of U. Met students and they introduced themselves - mostly intermediate speakers. It was interesting to see them before leaving their country with their combination of excitement and worry. Some interesting dreams and future plans.I had a short tour with Yoshida - the coordinator of the program who was a little frazzled since he had to fly to the Philippines the following day to deal with a housing crisis for another group of students. That meant that a different professor would be going on the trip. Had dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant just off campus - a haunt of Kansai faculty with a chef trained in Italy with whom I chatted with in Italian. Excellent food - especially the sea urchin pasta!Got home safely and then met my friend Haruo the next morning who got me to the train on time to get back to Nagoya. Met Ryo and Narumi at the station and we headed off for the mountains stopping at an old Japanese town on the way. Got to our hot spring hotel where there was a large tour group - hit the hot springs which were packed at first and then at a certain moment emptied totally out - the tour had dinner scheduled I guess so we were left in out private hot spring complex with outdoor pools and a hot water waterfall with views of the mountains all around. Had dinner - viking style - at the brew hall attached to the hotel - finally some dark beer! Played Sequence in the room - got a little tipsy and hit the hot springs again before turning in. Up early for another soak - also emptied out at a certain moment and then breakfast - you guessed - viking style - and off stopping at Inuyama Castle - the oldest castle in Japan. Interesting shoe nonsense here. They ask you to remove your shoes and give you a bag to carry them in. Then they give you some slippers to put on - one size fits all (which means fits no one) and then send you up these steep staircases - five of them! With a bag in your hand and slippery shoes - crazy! Law suit waiting to happen. Well, I made it up and down somehow and it was great. The castle viewpoint also very precarious. Next off to the Penis Festival!
Took a train crowded with gaijin. Suddenly the shock of being able to understand what strangers are saying! A group of American college students - “I didn’t realize how much pork they eat here. They put pork in everything. And sugar. THey put sugar in all their food.”
Got to the town where the Penis Shrine is located and the streets were filling with people - makeshift stands selling penis shaped candies and foods - foot longs with special cuts in the ends to resemble male members - choco bananas with marshmallows attached. Headed to the start point of the procession - the crowd was thick - lots of gaijin - crowd pushing to get close and then the procession came by - one monk handing out salt, another monk dressed as the sun goddess with mask and those high wooden sandals - then some dignitaries and a sedan carried by a dozen men with a deity inside - at certain points they would spin the sedan to the cheers of the crowd. Then a host of penis maidens - young women holding wooden penises to be stroked and kissed by women in the crowd. Then the hit of the procession - a large newly carved penis made of cypress and looking pretty orange. It is also in a sedan carried by another dozen men with shoulder pads followed by a relay team -looking like a crew of quasimodos with hunch backs of shoulder pads on one shoulder. Again - they spin the penis first clockwise and then counter clockwise - more cheers - then a group handing out sake - more monks, more wooden penises, more stroking. Quite hilarious. Everyone taking it very tongue in cheek.
Next we moved to the shrine area for the end of the procession. Here the crowd was pretty high in spirits (literally). The procession entered, the monks looking tired and drunk. More cheers. Then the rice cake throwing! Dignitaries gather in front of stacks of rice cakes and the crowd presses in to try to catch them. The warning announcements - children, women, eldery, people with glasses or umbrellas should not participate. At the signal, they start throwing - first from one side and then the other. Narumi has moved in closer, Ryo and I staying back, but even at our distance, rice cakes come flying, Ryo manages to grab one. The crowd is going crazy, diving for them. People are being hit, rice cakes bouncing off heads, faces, hands. It’s a riot. Narumi comes out of the crowd with three rice cakes! Definitely, lots of good luck for her.
The trip back with the Kansai University students was fraught with mishap. Lost passports, lost boarding passes, missed flights, students stranded in Denver, but all it made it back to Salt Lake safely.
Now it's back to a hectic schedule of teaching, producing, presenting and a little more traveling. I wish you all amazing experiences and exciting travel.
