[Whatever-Wednesday] 24th WGT - Wave Gotik Treffen

WGT - Wave-Gotik-Treffen presented on Whatever-Wednesday.

Last weekend, to be correct on Whitsun / Pentecost / Pfingsten from Fiday until Monday it was hold in Leipzig.

This event is a huge event with 100+ artists and many sub-events throughout the whole city of Leipzig. (http://www.wave-gotik-treffen.de/english)

In almost every spot in the city you can meet or see groups of people with their beautiful costumes.

It is one of the biggest events in the whole world for this culture.This festival is very international, people from many different nations travel to Leipzig to enjoy and their passion with others.

You can either get a wristband for all of the events (~100€) or a ticket for the sub-event itself depending on the event and location.

I visit the pagan village (Heidnisches Dorf) every year (10€)

I like the presented music, the great food and tasty traditional MET - JUST AWESOME

I also enjoyed taking a bath in a wooden bath tub - some years ago was my last time ;)

I hope I could give you a good round-up of this great festival.

Japan-Sunday: Matsuri

Hello again!

From now on I'll present something typically Japanese to you on every Japan-Sunday, let's start with Japan's traditional festivals: MATSURIs

There are several matsuris during the year, also many differnt kinds. Some of them are unique for the region they are held in, e.g. the Gion Matsuri of Kyoto in July, others are of the same kind and more regional. Mostly they are held to pray for things such as good harvest, luck and other purposes and for sure these festivals are done to please the Kami.

Almost every festival starts at a shrine with a certain ceremony to honor the Kami (Shinto God). After that normally a second "ceremony" starts, depending on the matsuri, carrying a Mikoshi (portable shrine with a Kami in it) is very often a part of it. Other parts can be Yabusame (horseback archery), during this part arrows are hallowed and then used in this archery to honor the Kami.

These festivals are events of the region / commune and very often Sake and beer is consumed to celebrate and also to honor the God, also music (e.g. on Taiko drums) or dances are common.

Even for me as Gaijin / Gaikokujin (Non-Japanese) it was possible to be part of one Matsuri in Nakano. To do so someone lent me his tradional festival robe and bandana and "packed" me. After being prepared I could join in carrying the Mikoshi around the Nakano station. I don't know how easy it is to be part of it in general, but I will find out, I promise.

That's all for Matsuris overall, sure the best way to understand a Japanese festival is to see or to be involved in a matsuri by yourself, but I hope I could help you to understand Japanese festivals a bit better.

See you again - Bye!!

WalpurgisNight and Hanafuda on Treasure-Thursday

Today it's Walpurgis Night and Treasure Thursday.

I present to you my first Treasure: HANAFUDA


Hanafuda is a Card Game that was invented by Nintendo in 1889, so more than 125 years ago, it's the product, that Nintendo started its business with.

There are several versions of the decks, even one with typical Nintendo characters like Bowser or Mario, but the traditional is this one:

To win you have to get a combination, there are many different ones, two examples are in the middle of all the other cards, depending on the combination you can get more or less points.

All players get the same number of cards and then they draw from the deck one after another. If anyone gets a combination, he can declare it to win this round and he will get a certain number of points, depending on the combo. He can go on to get even more points, but if an opponent gets a combination himself, the first combo doesn't count and the first player won't get any points.

If you're interested in a combination list, I can get one for you or even play a round of Hanafuda with my friends and film it.

That's all for my first treasure, stay tuned to know about upcoming ones.


And for celebrating the Walpurgis Night - enjoy FAUN!

Festival Time - Reisaitai / Yubasama in Kamakura

Today I went to Kamakura for the famous Reitaisai festival, with its highlight, the Yubasama (archery on horses).

The day started a bit late bacause I overslept, but still could make it to the hotel's breakfast.

At round about 11AM I left the hotel. I went to Ningyocho to go by TOEI Subway Asakusa Line.
I was unable to use the Exit/Entrance 1 and 2, the only had access to the Hibiya line.

When I got in finally, I went by Metro until Shimbashi, where I transfered to the JR Yokosuka Line.

I left at Kamakura - Kamakura is famous for its giant Buddha statue, which I didn't visit this time.

Next to the station there was a shopping street. There was a shop of "My neighbor Totorro" (thanks for telling me about the wrong title).

The street had some traditional shops, sweets, Yukatas...

And a statue, which I'd like to call Neko-Lord

When finally reaching the temple area one felt the spirit of old EDO (former name of Tokyo) - Taiko drums, a shrine, Mikos, shinto priests, men in Samurai cloths. - BTW, pidgeons tried to kill me!

After filming the hole area, the "starting ceremony" (?) began.

 

Then it finally started, the hole area was totally crowded, 3 archers had devine(?) arrows from the shrine in the middle of the temple. A few meters away from the shrine there was a track, which I guess was uses for 800 years for this ceremony at the Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine.

I harshly could see the 3 archers, because there was only a small range to see their ride.
After their "round" the track was opened to enable everyone to get a good angle.

The rounds were with other archers. Doing one ride, it was the task to hit 3 targets, many riders hit the first and the last, but for the second some of them didn't have enough time to get the arrow and aim correctly, especially, when the horses got that fast - some were so fast, that stones flew around, one hit my arm, now i got a bruise.

After all the arrows were shot, it was finally over and we went back to the station after taking the last pictures of the hole temple area.

When taking the Yokosuka Line back to Tokyo I fell asleep after 2 stations..., Yokohama was the last that I noticed. When I woke up I noticed some stations, which I didn't remember from the way to Kamakura - Osaki, Ebisu and others were Yamanote stops..., so we left the train at shibuya and decided to go to Hamamatsucho (Yamanote Line taken). We went into the Pokémon Center and went home after taking pictures and a small film.

We used the Asakusa Line from Daimon station - almost next to the Pokémon Center - to get to Ningyocho.

That's all for now

Trophies today:

found a Tanuki