It is almost time. 6 days from now I will be in the air. VERY exciting. Here’s the plan:
28 March – Travel from Nagoya, Japan to Bangkok, Thailand.
28-31 March – Play tourist in Bangkok for a few days.
31 March – Travel from Bangkok, Thailand to Kathmandu, Nepal.
1 April – Play tourist in Kathmandu
2 April – Fly from Kathmandu to a dirt landing strip in Lukla, Nepal and begin the trek.
3 April – Walk through villages along very old trade routes to Namche Bazaar.
4 April – Play tourist in Namche Bazaar and acclimatize (11,300 feet).
5 April – Walk to village of Thame and experience the life of the Sherpa people.
6 April – Play tourist tin Thame and acclimatize further (12,400 feet).
7 April – Walk to Tengboche, the cultural and religious center of the Khumbu Region. With weather permitting, get views of 8 peaks above 20,000 feet.
8-9 April – Walk to Pheriche, known for its high altitude research center. Acclimatize a full day (13,900 feet).
10 April – Walk to Lobuje (16,200 feet).
11 April – Walk to Gorak Shep (16,900 feet) and summit Kala Pattar (18,300 feet). We should have great views of Everest from here.
12 April – Walk to Everest Base Camp and return to Gorak Shep.
13 April – Walk back to Pheriche.
14 April – Walk back to Namche Bazaar.
15 April – Walk to the Phakding Region.
16 April – Walk back to Lukla.
17 April – Fly from Lukla to Kathmandu.
18 April – SHOWER for at least an hour!
19 April – Fly from Kathmandu home weather permitting.
20 April – Arrive home and start decompressing…
With luck, Alpine Ascents—the guide service based in Seattle—will be hosting a cybercast. Essentially, that just means they will post updates and photos of the trip. The link:
http://www.alpineascents.com/everest-trek-cybercast.asp
Right now, last year’s posts are still there. You can cheat and check it out if you want, but if you are like me, you will want to be surprised. Keep yourself from looking at it!
If you have a request for a trinket or photo or prayer or something, PLEASE email me: g.beverage@gmail.com . (Linda still has the only request: A photo of a yeti riding a yak.)
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Religious Ceremonies Outside of Work
It has been a couple of weeks since my last post. Sorry, kids. Hopefully this will make up for it.
Today, March 15th, I went with four friends to the Honen Matsuri (AKA Tagata Festival; AKA Penis Festival; AKA Fertility Festival.) This could be another check mark in the "Only in Japan" column, but since it has Buddhist ancestry, similar festivals are probably held in other parts of the world.
OK, so the Penis Festival. As you might already know, Shinto shrines serve as houses for divine spirits. The Tagata Shrine in Komaki-shi, a suburb of Nagoya, is estimated to be about 1,500 years old. It is dedicated to the diety (or kami in Japanese) Tamahime-no-mikoto, a princess from umpteen years ago.
Fertility is the main point here, hence the phallic nature of the many offerings. But also think "fertile," as in fertile ground for growing food, etc. Beginning hundreds of years ago, the offerings to the kami were often in the shape of a penis: Take a wooden wang from the shrine, wait for your prayers to come true, and return it with an additional offering to show appreciation. Makes sense, right? But that's not very entertaining.
Obviously, the festival is popular today because, well, there are tallywackers everywhere: Bananas, hot dogs, suckers, carvings, banners. Each looking just like a _____ (pick your own synonym.) There is something a little uncomfortable about kids eating food in the shape of a johnson.
The climatic event of the day is the parade starring a 13 ft long, 620 pound wiener. Each winter someone chops down a Japanese cypress tree and brings it to the shrine for a solemn ritual of purification and dedication. Wearing ritually-pure clothing, the tree is carved into the wooden phallus that will, after the festival and parade, reside in the shrine as the principle object of worship. (That said, it is actually an offering to the kami, so I'm not sure why people worship the ding-dong.)
Because my buddy Greg has a car, we also went a few miles up the road to the vagina shine. (I guess they didn't want the ladies to feel left out.) We showed up at the end of the ceremonies, but it was pretty much the same story. However, nobody had any food shaped like the female reproductive organ. On a funny side note, at the same shrine dedicated to the vagina, there is also a shrine dedicated to whiskey. HMMM! Is this a male-dominated society? I think so.
I'm sure there are plenty of people taking this festival very seriously, but, for the most part, it seemed the crowd of 10,000 - 15,000 was just having fun. The weather was perfect, we were hugely entertained and there were great people to hang out with. So, next time you're in Japan on March 15th, make sure to go to the Fertility Festival in Komaki!
PS
I tried to keep it PG-13. Enjoy the photos!
Today, March 15th, I went with four friends to the Honen Matsuri (AKA Tagata Festival; AKA Penis Festival; AKA Fertility Festival.) This could be another check mark in the "Only in Japan" column, but since it has Buddhist ancestry, similar festivals are probably held in other parts of the world.
OK, so the Penis Festival. As you might already know, Shinto shrines serve as houses for divine spirits. The Tagata Shrine in Komaki-shi, a suburb of Nagoya, is estimated to be about 1,500 years old. It is dedicated to the diety (or kami in Japanese) Tamahime-no-mikoto, a princess from umpteen years ago.
Fertility is the main point here, hence the phallic nature of the many offerings. But also think "fertile," as in fertile ground for growing food, etc. Beginning hundreds of years ago, the offerings to the kami were often in the shape of a penis: Take a wooden wang from the shrine, wait for your prayers to come true, and return it with an additional offering to show appreciation. Makes sense, right? But that's not very entertaining.
Obviously, the festival is popular today because, well, there are tallywackers everywhere: Bananas, hot dogs, suckers, carvings, banners. Each looking just like a _____ (pick your own synonym.) There is something a little uncomfortable about kids eating food in the shape of a johnson.
The climatic event of the day is the parade starring a 13 ft long, 620 pound wiener. Each winter someone chops down a Japanese cypress tree and brings it to the shrine for a solemn ritual of purification and dedication. Wearing ritually-pure clothing, the tree is carved into the wooden phallus that will, after the festival and parade, reside in the shrine as the principle object of worship. (That said, it is actually an offering to the kami, so I'm not sure why people worship the ding-dong.)
Because my buddy Greg has a car, we also went a few miles up the road to the vagina shine. (I guess they didn't want the ladies to feel left out.) We showed up at the end of the ceremonies, but it was pretty much the same story. However, nobody had any food shaped like the female reproductive organ. On a funny side note, at the same shrine dedicated to the vagina, there is also a shrine dedicated to whiskey. HMMM! Is this a male-dominated society? I think so.
I'm sure there are plenty of people taking this festival very seriously, but, for the most part, it seemed the crowd of 10,000 - 15,000 was just having fun. The weather was perfect, we were hugely entertained and there were great people to hang out with. So, next time you're in Japan on March 15th, make sure to go to the Fertility Festival in Komaki!
PS
I tried to keep it PG-13. Enjoy the photos!
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