Moments of serendipity.

Ok, so I really should have posted this last year, but you know me, I'm terrible at keeping this thing up to date. 

Anyway, I don't know if you remember me taking about going to the Japanese embassy in London a few years back to see a Shishi Odori performance? (To cut a long story short, a friend and I had entered into a competition that was run by the embassy. It was to go to London  and watch a dance performance from a group of Japanese dancers. 

They were visiting the UK to help raise awareness after the tsunami. My friend had won the tickets but couldn't go, so gave them to me.) I distinctly remember being stood at the embassy watching the dancers perform and knowing that Japan was where I waned to be. Shishi Odori was therefore one of the driving forces that kickstarted my JET application in 2012. 

Sometimes you find little things along the road in life that remind you that you're going the right way. This was one of them.

The very first day I arrived at my school in Sendai, I was taken on a tour of the premises. I stepped out of the staff room and glanced up at a painting on the wall in front of me. To my huge surprise it was in fact a painting of some Shishi odori dancers. I asked my JTE at the time about it. She was surprised to hear that I knew of the dancers, they were mostly from more rural areas of the Tohoku region.

The dancers wear a traditional costume that resemble deer. They dance to the beating of drums that they carry with them, whilst on their backs are the 240cm long bamboo and paper sasara, similar to what many Japanese priests use at shrines. As they dance they hit the ground in front of them with the sasara which is meant to bless and purify. It's quite a mesmerizing experience.  

Last summer a friend of mine invited me to go with her to an iris garden in Kurihara, north of Sendai.
She told me there was to be a dance competition held there too. I check out the information on the website to discover that it was in fact a Shishi Odori dance competition. of course I had to go! 

We took the bus for an hour or two north to Kurihara, which is pretty far out into the countryside. The iris garden itself is really pretty in June when we went. But I will say though that you're likely to be done viewing it within an hour at the most and the park doesn't really have an awful  lot else to offer. In my opinion you'd be better off renting a car for the day and exploring some other places in the area.

Nevertheless, I got to see the Shishi Odori competition and it was absolutely amazing to have a chance to witness the dancers here in Japan too. It might not sound that special or important to most of you, but to me, Shishi Odori is a little reminder to myself that I am meant to be here right now doing what I'm doing. Sometimes in life it's these little serendipitous moments that wake me up and help me to recall the fact that, whatever we choose to believe in, life always has a way to carry you to where you need to be at the right time. 

Rinnoji Temple

So last weekend (or the weekend before, I've lost all track of time recently) a friend took me to Rinnoji Temple near Kita Sendai station.

It's not a huge place, but the gardens are quite pleasant for a nice afternoon stroll. It's hydrangea season here at the moment so there were plenty of dazzling blue flowers to be seen.

There are a couple of small pagodas and Japanese style buildings, and a rather large koi pond with some very friendly fish too.

I also highly recommend another small temple a little further down the road. There's some really pretty flowers around this area.

Anyway, if you have a chance at all to visit Sendai, you should check it out.