June 10 - 15 腐草為螢 Fireflies rise from the Rotten Grass

I didn't get to see any fireflies this summer. That's actually quite a bummer I didn't realize til now (last week of Sept) that I also didn't get a chance to play with Hanabi (fireworks). These are two very rural Japanese things I didn't get to do because I was trying to hard to stay out of the heat and away from mosquitoes.
I'm too logical for my own good a lot of times.

One of my housemates family business is magazine publishing, and she gave me a ticket to a rice-planting ceremony that her father always gets invited to every year. It was at the Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine in Osaka, and the ticket allowed one entrance into the private (I'm assuming) rice wine ceremony, and came with a bento lunch and a gift box of traditional Japanese sweets.

Private meant friends and family and special guests, I think. It felt like that type of crowd, and I definitely felt a little out of place, but that's ok! I'm used to going to things alone! ALL THE TIME.
And since it was in a hall-like covered space, I also got to see the shrine maidens get dressed for the afternoon public procession to the shrine. Out of decency I didn't take photos of them being dressed, but it was interesting to see it happen, and just like I've always been told, there were two dressers, one responsible for the front and one for the back, and it was done so smoothly. The last thing to go on were their massively tall stove-pipe-like hats, and it was kind of amusing watching the girls have to squat to get through parts of the roof without losing the hat.

I was essentially in the green room area of the shrine compound, where the dancers and kids gathered and got ready before heading out as a parade to the altar part of the shrine, and then out to the rice field portion to do their dance around the field while the farmers planted the ceremonial rice field behind the shrine.

There were definitely lots of standing viewers, but my ticket included access to covered seating and I got to watch a bunch of young boys enact a mock battle-dance, and a bunch of young girls dancing around the perimeter of the rice field.

The farmers had tabi galoshes! It amuses me that they would feel the need to make rain boots with a separated big toe. What is the purpose? It's not like you need to have the toe dexterity to keep the footwear on, like the thong on geta/zori/setta. When your foot is completely covered like in a boot, doesn't adding that extra toe separation just mean you have a new area to trap mud/dirt and therefore need to clean?

There was also a stage set up in the middle of the field, accessed by a long walkway. I took a lot of video of the dancing, so I have limited stills to show everything I experienced that day.

It was a 6 hr experience. By the end of the day, I was exhausted and all I did was sit and spectate. All in all, it was really fun to see, especially the ceremonial costumes, so up close. I honestly cannot

feel grateful enough to God for placing me in this share house where I've met this housemate who has allowed me to access things I never could have imagined.

My favourite part was seeing walkies hung on the hakama of the people in charge of running the show and schedules and paperwork stuffed in the front of the kimono, like a giant pocket. Traditional Japanese clothing should not hinder the process!

Also, sitting for 6 hrs is really tiring on the butt.