Current mood:
excited Category: Travel and Places
Last Friday, Koen and I headed to Chinatown with friends for the Chinese New Year celebration. Two words describe the festivities, loud and colorful. There were probably several thousand people lining the streets to watch the parade.
The parade included women dancing, people in festive costumes, and several lions doing the Chinese lion dance. All of this was followed up by a metal cage being pulled along by a Chinese man who occasionally tossed a large pack of firecrackers into the cage, which filled the air with incessant popping and smoke.
One of the costumes was of a large, tall, barrel-chested Chinese man. The character had a large plastic head with movable eyes the size of a grapefruit. Each time he would jump up and down, the eyes would blink just like a baby doll. He was quite rolly poly.
Without a doubt, the lion dance was the neatest part of the parade. The colors were vivid - red, pink, blue, silver, turquoise, yellow, gold, and black. Each lion weaved in and out of the crowd "pouncing" on innocent bystanders. Koen stood along the edge of the street as the lions appeared before us. He didn't so much as flinch, but was completely unmoved and stoic. The turquoise lion made its approach shaking its head slightly and rising menacingly into the air as if to intimidate Koen. Still, he was unshakable. Then it happened, the lion moved swiftly and enveloped Koen. It seemed to swallow him whole and just when I knew all was lost, Koen emerged victorious, having survived his "attacker." He was elated and now could claim some bragging rights (sort of). By the way, my friend Naoko says the lion's head coming down on you like this brings good luck.
Another highlight of the parade was seeing Po from Kung Fu Panda, and the two men in costumes below. They seemed somehow celestial. Their faces were painted and they carried swords. At times they would stop their forward movement and engage one another in mock battle. Swords flew, bodies spun, and they energetically threw themselves into the air.
All of this was so exciting that Koen and I ran ahead of the parade. We had to take it all in once more before it was over. We wound the corner and followed the widening curve of people down the street weaving in and out of throngs of Japanese people, all the while looking for a break in the bodies to get to the street's edge. No luck.
With the crowd impeding Koen's view he wound up on my shoulders - a motherly sacrifice to be sure. If you haven't seen him for a while, he's over 70 pounds. Getting him up there was fun. Japanese people around me stared as we went through the process. The bird's eye view only lasted about five minutes, after which a lady on the street's edge reached through, grabbing Koen and pulling him to the front. I was very thankful. So was Koen.
After enduring the final blasts of the firecrackers, we were ready for some dinner.
Chinatown is one of those places where it's just as easy to eat dinner standing alongside a vendor's stand on the street as it is to sit down at a restaurant. There are plenty of both. We decided to head to a vendor known, by our friend Ashley, to have the best gyoza.
On the way, we stumbled onto the Kanteibyo temple (Buddhist). To say that the temple gate was ornate is a gross understatement. It was absolutely beautiful. Scores of people were climbing the steps, arming themselves with incense before penetrating the inner workings of the temple. I found myself drawn by curiosity. People left their incense sticks sticking upright in large bowls at various numbered stations. One lady stood the whole time we were there praying with her eyes closed at station one. On the inside was a large statue of Kuan Yu (Guan Yu). There were offerings on an altar before him. As a Christian, I've never seen such a blatant display of idolatry. It was fascinating and sad and I walked away feeling thankful to know the one true God.
In the end, we found our gyoza stand and partook of some pretty good eats. Ashley was right, it was excellent. They also made a variety of Chinese steamed buns called baozi. Koen and I tried one with pork, shrimp, veggies, and spices. Boy was that delicious! Chinese food is one of my favorites! We had fun just standing there eating our baozi. (In Japan you don't walk around eating food. It's more proper to stand in place next to the vendor stand and consume your food before walking around.)
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