Oh My...A Lesson Learned

...just when i thought i was done blogging for the day...remember the children dressed as monks i mentioned earlier today who were going door to door ringing bells and such? they came back, with their friends, carrying yet another several thousand pound mini-shrine...seems to be festival season here...
...i was minding my own business, playing the j-45, when i hear drums and yelling and hooting and hollering outside...so i look out the window and see the mini-shrine swaying down the street on the shoulders of men...i thought 'this is cool, a festival coming down my own road, i'll take a picture'...so i stepped out onto my stoop...big mistake...
...to my horror, the ringleader (the dude in the big pants) dragged me out to lug the mini-shrine down the street...so there i was, chanting something in japanese that i didn't understand (only because the ringleader yelled in my face through a megaphone if i wasn't at least mouthing whatever it was they were saying)...part of me was thinking 'wow what a great cultural experience this is' and another, more prevailing part of me was thinking 'how the %&#@!! did this happen!' and 'why are those monk children laughing at me!' and 'these men are smelly!' and 'i want my mommy!'...
...my saving grace was that a) i had no shoes on and b) that i had left my front door wide open with my camera sitting on the front step...so a few hundred yards down the road when we set the mini-shrine down for a break, just as they were about to put a happi coat on me and accept me as one of their own, i bolted back home, locked the doors, turned off all the lights, and hid under the bed...
...well, not like that exactly, they recognized that i had no shoes on, acknowledged that i had left the front door open, and let me return home under the impression that i was coming back...
...so i'm left torn by this experience...here were some friendly, open minded japanese people willingly inviting me into a very unique experience, and i ran away from it...but at the same time i really wasn't prepared...i was just being a passive cultural observer, which i suppose is part of the problem...in a situation like this, there is no such thing as a passive observer...if you don't want to be involved, stay inside...
...so the next time a parade comes swaying down my street i'll know, let it keep going, or put my shoes on and get out there...
...for now, i'm rationalizing my cowardice with the notion that all festival parades end in heavy drinking, and i'm on the wagon baby!! self preservation...it's a beautiful excuse...