How on earth did that happen?
Well, let's not look gift horses in the mouth. It just all came together, and so off I went. First stop in the morning was to Yokosuka, just about 30 minutes south of where I live and also home to a giant US Naval Base. My friend Lydia lives there, and she'd invited me over. Since I had to be in nearby Kamakura for the yabusame event in the afternoon, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to take her up on her invitation.
Look at this! I'm entering back into an American Zone without having to cross the Pacific!
Actually, it was very weird experiencing a Japanified America just a short train ride from my all-so-Japanese neighborhood. Everything was in English, the bank sign showed temps in Fahrenheit, I was surrounded by non-Japanese faces, and the streets actually had names. Names and street signs, too! (If you've ever visited Japan you've certainly run into their custom of numbering intersections rather than naming streets...so confusing if you haven't grown up with this system!)
I spent a great morning with Lydia exploring the Fall Bazaar, which was filled with all sorts of wonderful arts, crafts, antiques and so on. For sale in US dollars. Of course.
And then I hopped a train over to Kamakura where one of the teachers from school had arranged for those of us interested (turned out to equal exactly 2 people) to attend a Yabusame (traditional horseback archery) ceremony at one of the local shrines.
The ceremony began with a "service" at the shrine and was then followed by the actual archery. I don't know who our teacher knew, but it must have been someone well-connected, because we were personally led to front row seats for both the prayer service and for the archery.
Here are some of the photos I took. I love all the traditional outfits! According to the information I read, the tradition of yabusame dates back to the 6th century. I was trying to imagine that these were samurai galloping along...
Just about to enter into the shrine's precincts:
One of the smaller shrines, "Shrine of the White Flag", within the precincts:
At the start of the service (you can see the musicians - flutist, taiko drummer, and one other - sitting on the left in yellowish robes):
During the service:
Horses, archers and assorted others parading in front of the head priest (who was sitting just across from us, so they paraded in front of us, too!):
Cute little kids dressed up traditionally - they were in the parade, but I'm not sure what their function was. Mostly, they just sat across from us (beside the stand with the head priest):
"Iiiiiiiiyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!" the archer shouts, hooves thundering, as he is just about to loose the arrow at the target (which was a wooden board, which splintered into fragments with a crash):
Oh, here's the target, pre-splintering. No, it's not the wooden A-frame shaped thingy. That's the thing to stop the arrow in case the archer misses the target. The target is the diamond shaped board mounted tip-first atop the rougly 5-foot bamboo pole directly in front of the A-frame shaped thingy. And yes, I'm looking at it sideways, thin-side facing me, which makes it nearly impossible to see. But it's the best I could do - couldn't walk around to take a picture front-on (which would have shown you the actual shape!) because I would get trampled by a horse!
The grandstand for the head priest and assorted associates:
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