In the summer of 2008, I made my way up north into the Tohoku (North-East) region of Honshu.
At that time, the furthest the Shinkansen will go was Hachinohe, in Aomori. Before going to Hachinohe, I decided to stay around for one night in Morioka, the prefectural capital of Iwate. There was to be a summer festival (Matsuri) going on that evening in Morioka.
It was the "Sansa" matsuri. I believe the word means "Three Stones". How this relates to the matsuri, I am not sure. What I do know is that Iwate means "Stone-Hand". I guess that's the link.Anyway, the festival involves groups after groups of locals parading down the street, beating on a drum strung over their shoulder, to one uniform tune. It sounds pretty boring, and it can be. Until you are there, looking on.
To see this mass of people coming down the street, with their colorful mix of costume (and flags and banners declaring their various affiliation), while pounding out the same beat and dancing to the same steps is really something else.
It is pretty clear that in matsuri everyone in town got involved. The old grannies, young pre-schoolers, housewives and some huge burly men.
Even the Self-Defence Force chip in with a military three-tonner.
Another thing interesting about the Japanese matsuri is the poster. I usually check out information about wet-weather programme, whether the matsuri gets cancelled, postponed or moved indoor when it rain on their parade. Normally, the wet-weather programme is summaries in 4 kanji: Ko Same Kek-Ko, 小雨決行 or 雨天決行. Which meant "the show will go on even if it drizzles".After Morioka, the next day I went on up north to Hachinohe. There was another matsuri going on here. It was again a community affair where everyone seems to be chipping in.
The next morning, before leaving Tohoku, I decided to take a local line down the pacific coast of Honshu. Making a stop at Tanesashi station.
Just a few stations from Hachinohe, Tanesashi is just a quiet coastal town, where the moths cling to the vending machine for light and warm without fear of being disturbed.
I took a stroll along the coast. It was a sunny morning, and the wave was lapping up on the beach while an old fishermen tended to his nets.
The Hachinohe line runs very close to the coast, and it run for about 15 stations from Aomori into neighboring Iwate. After that the local JR lines ends. Going south, the coastal region of San-riku is served by private local San-riku Railway.
It is perhaps because San-riku is too remote and rural and does not have a sizeable population to support a JR rail line. I remember there is a railway line which runs from the Shinkansen Shin-HanaMaki station down to the coast named "Galaxy Express DreamLine KamaIshi Line." A very romantic name, but sadly, I guess, it was 'branding' to attract tourists to this remoter part of Tohoku.
As I trace the railway line on the map of the train timetable from 2008, from the Hachinohe line, down to the San-riku railway, and then to the Yamata line, I see stations that bear the names of towns/villages which was wiped out: Kama-ishi, Rikuzen-Yamata...
When it's time to move on, I waited at a small train station near the coast. The station has a long platform but only a small shelter on it. But on the notice borad on the station was quite a great amount of info for any visitors who may have found his way off the beaten track to this area. It tells you the train time table, who you can call if somehow no train appear at the designated time, where you can find a public phone should you have no cellphone to make that call, a map to show you the way to the phone, and ("pre-emptively") info on the nearest bus station, the map to the station and the bus time table. They think of everything, don't they.
Before the actual Sansa matsuri starts that evening, there was a group who walked down the street. They were not in costume, and was not performing with the drums. But they were met with cheers from the spectators lining the street. They were carrying a long banner which read "Genki desu! Iwate Ganbaro" (loosely translated as "A-ok! Iwate Hang in there! Good luck!"). When I later check on the web, it appeared that there was a serious earthquake in the prefecture just a couple of months ago, on 14 June. Known as the 岩手・宮城内陸地震, Iwate-Miyagi Inland Earthquake, it measured 7.2 on the Richter scale. But with its epicentre inland, there was no tsunami.And if I got my Nihongo correct, Ganbaro is grammatically the command form of the more usual Ganbatte. It seems the people of Iwate meant it as a command to hang in there, that there will be no compromise, no ifs, no buts.
So it seems the spectators could be from all over the country, showing their solidarity with their fellow countrymen by spending their tourism cash in Iwate.
I would not have imagined then that less than 3 years from that summer festive evening, Iwate would again be caught up in another earthquake...the largest in Japan in recorded history...and tsunami. And from the news, some of the railroad on the Sanriku coast would have been washed out.
Ironically, the kanji character for festival (matsuri) in Japanese is the same Chinese character for Ji(4): ceremony for remembering the dead. Surely, with so many casualties in this earthquake, this is a time of mourning in Japan. But at the same time, I am sure the Japanese are mobilizing, closing rank and digging in. And hopefully, in the near future, on a breezy summer evening, I could be back in Iwate, and the banners will once again read "Genki desu! Iwate Ganbaro!" And come rain or shine, come hell and high water, come earthquke and tsunami, Japan will move on.
Iwate Ganbaro! Miyagi Ganbaro! Fukushima Ganbaro! Nippon Ganbaro!
小雨決行
津波決行
地震決行
Metallica, St. AngerShoot Me Again (...I ain't dead yet.)
I won't go away
Right, right here I stay
Stand silent in flames
Stand tall 'till it fades
Shoot me again
I ain't dead yet
C'mon, shoot me again
I ain't dead yet
I said, shoot me again I ain't dead yet C'mon, shoot me again I ain't dead yet C'mon, Shoot me again Shoot me again Shoot me Shoot me again Shoot me again C'mon, Shoot me again Shoot me again Shoot me Shoot me again Shoot me again C'mon
All the shots I take I spit back at you All the shit you fake Comes back to haunt you All the shots All the shots All the shots I take What difference did I make? All the shots I take I spit back at you (Haa) I won't go away, with a bullet in my back
Right, Right here I stay, with a bullet in my back Shoot me Take a shot Shoot me Take a shot Shoot me Take a shot Shoot me Take a shot
I stand on my own, with a bullet in my back I'm stranded and sold, with a bullet in my back Bite my tongue Trying not to shoot back
No compromise My heart won't pump the other way Wake the sleeping giant Wake the beast Wake the sleeping dog
No, let him sleep...Wake the sleeping giant Wake the beast Wake the sleeping dog No, let him sleep...
Bite my tongue Trying not to shoot back All the shots I take I spit back at you, Yeah All the shit you fake Comes back to haunt you
All the shots All the shots All the shots I take Hey, What difference did I make? What difference did I make? All the shots I take I spit back at you
