Thinking Allowed: Fire, Water, Earth

When looking through coming events I stumbled upon two lines mentioning the Wakakusa Yamasaki Festival. While these words meant little to me, the English byline "Ancient mountain burning festival" with a picture of fire and fireworks made my heart flutter. I like fire - when it is controlled and spiritual. While no one is quite sure of the origin of this tradition it has been happening every winter for nearly three hundred years. Nara was full of tourists and unusually tame deer but really lovely. We wandered around parks and gardens, fondled deer, awed at the giant buddha, ate freshly pounded street mochi, and enjoyed a resplendent vegetarian lunch before walking up to the base of Mount Wakakasu. The evening was started with some intense Japanese drumming and a lengthy parade of monks carrying fire up the mountain devoutly. The girls and I sheltered from the cold in a cafe where we conveniently saw the impressive fire procession pass by. We then cosied up with the other throngs at the base of the mountain waiting impatiently for the fireworks and fire as the firefighters all took their place along the demarcation line to ensure the safety of both human life and spiritual buildings. The fireworks began and Zadie was less then thrilled with the noise. Aurora and I stood mesmerised while Zadie wiggled and talked about going home. And then all at once they set the mountain on fire from multiple points. Even though controlled burns were a regular part of our Australian lives somehow making it a spiritual spectator event made it all the more impressive. Also the live drumming while the mountain burned was great. I was surpirsed that it burned much slower than I imagined. For half an hour we watched the fire front slowly moving uphill leaving what we imagine to be an charred slope in its wake. And after half an hour of Zadie's pleading I decided her cold tired body was more important than the last third of the burning mountain and we walked down the mountain in a human mass feeling claustrophobic but happy.

Common in Japan are onsen. I asked the kids if they were interested in going to hot pools where you bathe naked and they all looked at me in horror. And then I decided anyhow we would all head to a watered down theme park version of the concept and head to Spa World where there were many onsen but there was also a large swimming pool. The girls seemed skeptical but I built it up. We spent an entire day at Spa world experiencing family naked bathing in many hot tubs themed from different places from around the world. Zadie and Tova were thrilled to be naked and jumped around gleefully. I would have felt more awkward if I wasn't so occupied making sure the kids were all behaving appropriately sedate for the setting. We all enjoyed the onsen with one of our favorites being, oddly enough, the Canada themed room where there were large iron tubs with hot bubbling water set among paintings of fake pine trees. And the outdoor hot waterfall was a close second. We then put on our bathing suits to go to the large swimming pool to frolic some more in a play area, a lazy river, and more hot baths. Tova could have spent the entire day in the water. It was Tova who insisted we all then return to the naked part to bathe properly with the provided shampoo and conditioner and then sit at the vanity stalls to meticulously brush and plait our hair and apply lotions to parts of our body. Never a dull moment with Tova. So we all exited Spa World content, relaxed, and likely cleaner than we have ever been.

While it is not the most popular meal in Japan we have been enjoying the udon noodles here a lot and jumped on the opportunity to attend an udon making class. Aurora and I traveled across town to a small kitchen where a women guided us through the steps of noodle preparation and chatted about life in Japan and the unfortunate role of men in family life. She also divulged that no one really makes udon noodles as they are more of a lunch food and so cheap to eat in restaurants or buy ready made. Having made Italian noodles it was not all surprising but it was a different process, with harder dough that needed thorough stomping and mastering of hand cutting. The class culminated with eating of our work. Aurora was excited to replicate the process at home so we then had handmade udon for dinner the next night.