Hughes Family in Japan: Pan de Park, Hiwatari-sai (fire walking festival), and Takaosanguchi Temple

First up, last week I complained about not being able to buy an entire loaf of bread. 山瀬さん Yamase san recommended we go to Pan de Park. It is a bread/pastry shop in Utsunomiya that he explained had full loafs of bread. We decided to go on Saturday around lunch time. There was a very good variety of breads and pastries and you get free coffee while you look around and while you eat. They also have a Totoro scene made entirely of bread, and yes it is true you can buy a whole loaf of bread there. We ended up eating lunch there. Kate and I had curry pastries, along with many others. Liam had a hot dog pastry and Colleen had a strawberry pastry. I am sure we will go back another time as it was very tasty.

The selection and line, it was very busy but efficient.

The scene from Totoro..

The shop was advertising for White day while we were there. This is something I was not aware of. In Japan men do not give gifts on Valentines day. Valentines day is an opportunity for women to express love or interest in men. I really like Valentines day here because there is no pressure on me..... Now for the down side, White day is when women expect men to return the favor. This is the day we have to be concerned with and get something for our wives or girlfriends. A Japanese man told me the women expect to be paid back at a value of at least 3 times what they gave.

On Sunday we decided to go to a Fire Walking Festival. It was in Tokyo in a town called Takaosanguchi. We got a ticket from my Sensei that allowed us to travel to Tokyo and back for the price of a child to go. Only down side is that the ticket does not work on the Shinkansen. We don't usually take the Shinkansen anyway because it is about 2 times more money than the local train. Of course it is faster, but with the family of 4 we typically avoid it. We headed to Hoshakuji station and started the day at 8:08am. Met up with Dan Croasmun at Utsunomiya station by 8:20am. Another gentleman Greg was supposed to meet us there, but he missed the train. He jumped on the Shinkansen and met us in Omiya to ride the rest of the way on the local train together. When we arrived in Takaosanguchi we immediately saw a really interesting building. Unfortunately I never found out what it is.

We then walked out of the train station and saw a group of Monks walking down the street chanting.

We figured they knew were they were going so we followed them. Interestingly enough they led us right to the ceremony. We were hungry from the journey so we hit up the Tako Yaki and Yaki Soba stands that seem to be common at festivals.

We walked past a temple on the way to the stands. This was the location for the start of the ceremony.

Next we determined where the line was for walking on the coals and got in it. The festival grounds are roped off and in the center was a giant pile of evergreen branches.

It didn't take long for the chanting Monks to arrive at the festival. They stopped at the temple first, chanted and played horns. Then they entered the ceremony grounds. The ceremony leader spoke as they Monks prepared for the ceremony. Below you can see as that happens.

The Monks performed a number of ceremonies in preparation for the main event.

Once in position the Monks began to chant as they lit the pile of evergreen on fire. Kate and I said they should make a CD of the chanting. It was very rhythmic and enjoyable to listen to.

The chanting got more intense as the fire grew. Even though we were standing away from the fire we could feel the warmth from it. Once the evergreen burned more cut dry wood was thrown on to make a bed of good coals.

You can see the heat in these two pictures. It looks like I have done some photo effect, but the pictures are distorted from the heat.

Once the fire started to die down preparation for walking on the coals began. There were more ceremonial activities as the Monks spread the coals.

A number of times during the festival the smoke became pretty intense. It even affected the ceremonial leader a few times, that you can hear below. The Monks crossed the coals first (while they were at there hottest) that is also taking place in the video below.

Finally everything was ready for people to cross the coals. Once the line started moving it continued at a steady pace. It didn't take long for us to get to the coals. In order to participate you have to take your shoes and socks off. This prevents them from catching on fire. (a bad thing). Here are the children getting ready.

Once it was our turn we were moved swiftly into position. A tap on the back along with a verbal cue and we were walking across the coals. They were only warm to the touch, and actually felt good as our feet were cold from standing barefoot in the cold mud before crossing. After crossing we threw an offering into a wooden box and exited to the right. I brought a towel to wipe our feet before we put our shoes back on, the coals made them all black and gritty. It was a very exciting event and both children participated in walking across the coals. So far this was one of my favorite (although we have not been to many yet.)

But wait there's more..... In the town of Takaosanguchi there is a huge temple on one of the mountains. We decided that we had trekked all the way to the town, we may as well see everything we could. We passed a town area on the way to the temple. In one of the shop windows there were two men making Soba noodles. It was interesting to watch.

You have three options to get to the temple. 1- hike, 2- chair lift, 3- cable car. We opted for 2 and 3. #2 on the way up and #3 on the way down.

Once at the top there is still a lot of walking left, including about 300 steps. I know this because the children did a guessing game and then counted them as we walked. We passed a sign that showed monkeys are in the area. I was afraid there may be some bad monkeys around.

Sure enough there were. This one required a little spanking to straighten him up.

After walking a while we passed through a gate this let us know we were heading the right direction.

The next indicator that we were getting close was the wall of family names. The picture below shows them going clear past the corner in the distance.

Finally we entered the Temple grounds. This is probably the largest temple I have been to so far. There were 4 different levels of the temple. We had to walk up steps in the mountain to get to each level and each level had different buildings. The pictures I have do not completely do it justice and I have way more than I can put on the site.

2nd level

This level had stone statues with knit hats and scarves on each one.

This one was on the 3rd level if I remember correctly.

After exploring for a while we decided it was time to head back. Of course we had to backtrack to get to the cable car in order to get down the mountain side first.

The ride down didn't take long and we had the entertainment of a film crew shooting video of the cable car operator the whole way down. At the bottom conductor hats were made available for photo opts. The children complied and posed for a picture. They are both wearing masks because they have colds. In Japan people wear the masks for a number of reasons. 1. allergies, 2. to keep there face warm, 3. when sick to reduce the opportunity to spread the sickness. So far I have been lucky and not had to wear one yet..

Finally back on the train we headed for Shinjuku. We had to transfer there to get home so we decided to leave the station and eat. Not far from the station we found a Mexican restaurant. Since we arrived about 4 months ago I have not seen a Mexican restaurant (El Torito was the name), so we all decided it was the place.. I also found a place that serves FUGU (deadly blowfish) so I will go back later for that.

The food was good and the price was so-so reasonable. I had a Dos Equis with my meal and it was super tasty. The portion sizes were a little smaller, but that is not really a bad thing. Finally on the way back to the train we hit the Tokyo Krispy Kreme.

This was the most money I have ever spent on a dozen doughnuts, about 1800 yen ($19.00). Everyone waiting in line was given a fresh doughnut right off the press. It was the tastiest doughnut ever.....and made us want to buy more. I guess that is the plan.

The children were super excited and were given Krispy Kreme hats before we left.

On the train ride back we discovered that McDonald's has a new offering in preparation for baseball season. The McHotDog. I can't completely make out the ingredients in the picture, but I will have to give it a try next time we stop at one.