Shimogamo Shrine

During orientation, AKP took us to Shimogamo Shrine in order to pray for a good year. There are two words for such religious establishments. The first お寺 (otera) refers to Buddhist temples while 神社 (jinjya) refers to Shinto shrines. You first take your shoes off, as much of Shinto pertains to cleanliness. Padding through the wooden hallways, we first went to sit and the priest did what I think was a cleansing ritual, however it was in Japanese, which, if you can’t tell, I so far have a limited knowledge of. The second was the ritual to pray for a good year. They asked who wanted to sit in front and, as usual, my hand shot up on its own, so I hunkered forward completely unsure of what I was supposed to do! I sat in front of the group, which sat on benches behind me. Towards the end of the roughly five minute ritual, the priest came over and had me kneel before a small table and then handed me a sprig of laurel with folded white papers often used in Shinto. He gestured for me to bow my head to it, turn it, set it down, and bow a few times. He spoke some words that I again did not understand and we bowed some more. I then stood and sat back down. The whole time, NHK (one of Japan’s major television networks) had been filming and afterwards interviewed me! They asked about why I was interested in Japan, how long I was saying, and what I thought of representing the entire group in the ritual. To tell the truth, it was overwhelming! It was, of course, the one day I decided to not put on any make up or give any thought to my appearance. One of the AKP staff members actually saw the program on TV! Next step, idol.