Nihon Musings

I think I am strongly drawn to Buddhist temple festivals. There is something about a Buddhist temple in Japan that makes it special, Maybe it is  the street leading up to the entrance which is always festive, the myriad   interesting shops on the street selling dolls, chimes, purses, toys and senbei(japanese rice crackers) or just the people who are always so beautifully dressed in some beautiful kimonos.  In this case the street was more colorful than usual because of the festival! The Kawasaki Daishi temple holds the wind chime festival once a year. The temple, located in the city of Kawasaki a mere 15mins from Tokyo, by the super fast express is easy to get to. I went there with my kids to see the wind chimes, and was thrilled to see  the sight of Bon dancers with fans gathered at the beginning of the street to start the dance.

The music blared from a large speaker on the temple grounds, and a single taiko drummer beat the drum to keep the beat. Lines of japanese men and women dressed in colorful yukatas with the symbol of the temple moved gracefully along the street as I tried to squeeze past in front of them to take the best picture I could!

We saw the largest and most amazing  Daruma dolls in most of the shops on the street leading to the temple. Having never seen such huge dolls before, we had to stop and take a few more pictures! My girls wanted two of their own! Daruma dolls are a symbol for good luck and are sold with blank spaces for eyes. The japanese draw a single eye to symbolise a wish and then draw the second eye in when their wish is fulfilled!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daruma_doll

The dolls come in many sizes, and colors and it is hard to pick just one to take home! My mind was filled with my endless wishes and I was afraid I would end up buying the whole shop!

We moved on to the entrance of the temple to be greeted by a huge display of wind chimes! there were the traditional “daruma” wind chimes each of which looked the same, but had a different sound because of the glass cutting. There were bonsai chimes, cat, fish, sumo wrestler chimes and many more! It was hard to just choose a few to buy, but I managed to pick a few for friends and for us!  What a lovely way to spend an evening!