GL’s Beach

In mid-August, either the 2nd or 3rd week depending on where you live, or on a solar calendar I don’t understand, there is O-bon.

Before I knew better, I thought of O-bon as a Halloween-like holiday. But that’s silly ~ Halloween is in October. Besides, my friends in Japan are as insane about that least-favorite holiday of mine as they are in my own country. And just like here at home, on Halloween I either stay home and pull all the blinds, or treat myself to a luxury hotel for the night. Don’t believe me? Just ask my friends.

Arashiyama Bone Temple Offering, Obon Travels, Kelsey Bennett

However, now that I’ve fully established that O-bon is not Halloween, let me explain what it IS. It’s a Buddhist time of praying to, paying attention to, and feeding the spirits of one’s dead ancestors. It is believed that our ancestral spirits come home every year during this week, and there are special prayers the faithful pray, and special attention is given to cleaning and sprucing up the cemetery grave markers and in-home altars. Lest you think I was joking, there is indeed food meted out and set aside for these guests. At the end of the week, small paper boats with candles are sent down the local river, to help guide the ancestral spirits back to… back to wherever they are the rest of the year.

I’m not clear on all the details.

My personal experience with O-bon is… a week off! Holiday! Actually, I rarely went anywhere during O-bon, because prices are particularly high then, and all means of transportation except for my own car or bicycle are packed. Jam packed. Everyone is either going to their ancestral hometown, or getting away on a vacation somewhere. I found it easier to stay home or stay local, taking what has recently come to be called a “Stay-cation” ~ local travel.

However, one year my Iranian boyfriend and I went to Chiba to spend some time with one of his friends and some more friends. We were three sets of friends who all converged on the 1st friend’s beach house. It was a small house, but the 11 of us had a good time most of the time. A few tempers flared now and then during those several days, (uh-UH! Not mine! Okay ~ fine), but for the most part it was good. I remember lots of tea, curry, beer, smoking, and talking. There was no air conditioner but in my mind, no self-respecting beach house has air conditioning anyway. That’s why you go to the beach!

So we went to the beach.

It was August, hotter than snot since early July. Hamid and I got on the train in Kofu, and began the 6-hour ride to Chiba. I think it was six hours. Felt like 20, but I think it was only six. We rode the “milk trains,” meaning, those that stop at every station along the way, because they were cheaper and not as crowded as the express trains. And it was hot. The trains attempted air conditioning but every time they stopped, they insisted on opening the doors. So “cool” was inconsistent. We changed trains a few times, and then it started to rain. Hamid’s friend ~ whose name I could never pronounce right (they told me the way I said it meant “turkey” in Farsi), so I just called him “GL” ~ he picked us up at the station and we drove to his beach house. It was evening, around 8:30, and it was raining, so all 11 of us ~ Hamid and I were the last to arrive ~ sat on the floor around a big sheet with food in the middle, ate, drank, and told stories.

The next morning came crashing into the house with the 5:00 a.m. sun. Maybe 5:30. It was blinding! But we got up and the men made breakfast (hooray!), while we women relaxed in our sleepy state, and sipped on mugs of sweet tea. Out came the sheet and dishes and food, and we dug in.

We were all on vacation, so there was no rush. It was a long and leisurely breakfast with many, many mugs of sweet tea. Finally around 9:00, to my utter shock, the men picked up the dishes, cleaned up the kitchen, and then… we headed to the beach. Sometime during our lolling repast, the clouds had rolled in, but we were undeterred. Clouds come and they go, so we went on.

To be shocked twice in one morning seems unfair, but that’s what happened. We got to the beach and it was pretty empty. Granted, it was not quite 10 a.m., but in my days of beach living in New Jersey, all summer long, the beaches begin to get crowded by 9:00. After 10:00, you have a pick your way through the carpet of people. But here at GL’s beach, it wasn’t like that. There were a few people sitting on their beach towels and kind of looking a little dazed. Others were walking around with their towels wrapped around their shoulders. Not a typical beach scene…. but…. it was freezing!

A front had come in, and that wind was cold. Surely the water itself was warmer than the air, but no one wanted to test that theory. We spent some time walking along the beach, hoping it would clear up and heat up. We walked out on the pier, took some photos, walked along some more, then went back to the house. We had to regroup, warm up, and decide what else we would do. All of our plans had been based on spending most of our time at the beach.

In the end, we took a few local drives, did some shopping, had some arguments, played cards, had a barbeque, and found more to laugh about. We just hung out together. The whole time we were there, it was cold enough for sweatshirts and socks ~ fortunately, Hamid and I had each brought a sweatshirt (not sure why, but we had), and GL had plenty of socks!

After breakfast on the fourth day, GL drove us to the train station. As we stood around waiting for the train, the sun came out. And just like that, it was oppressively hot again. We boarded the train to go back to Kofu, and until the end of October it was, as before, hotter than snot.