What do a temple ceremony, the Japanese Mafia, and zombies have in common?

Well, this is Tokyo! This actually is just another day in my life in Tokyo, last Saturday.

To begin with I met up with a group from Tokyo Meet Up at one of the largest spiritual festivals called Sanjay Matsuri. Here is a description from Wikipedia:

Sanja Matsuri (三社祭^?, literally "Three Shrine Festival"), or Sanja Festival, is one of the three great Shinto festivals in Tokyo. It is considered one of the wildest and largest.^[1] The festival is held in honor of Hinokuma Hamanari, Hinokuma Takenari and Hajino Nakatomo, the three men who established and founded Sensō-ji. Sanja Matsuri is held on the third weekend of every May at Asakusa Shrine. Its prominent parades revolve around three mikoshi (three portable shrines referenced in the festival's name), as well as traditional music and dancing. Over the course of three days, the festival attracts 1.5 to 2 million locals and tourists every year.^[2]

So, why not join the 2 million others and make it 2,000,001 visitors?

I was there the day that each neighbourhood carried their own portable shrine around their neighbourhood and then took it to the temple to be blessed. Here's a photo of a portable shrine.

Each shrine would be carried by between 30 and 50 people because they are extremely heavy. The goal is to go all around the neighbourhood shaking the shrine is much as possible because this brings good luck. Then you take it down to the temple for blessing and bring it back. Here are some of the different shrines.

And one carried by kids:

There were 100 of these shrines and they were brought to the main temple to be blessed. This is one of the more beautiful temples in Tokyo, flattened during the second world war and rebuilt afterwards.

To serve the up to guests there were all kinds of fabulous Street foods and street vendors. How about these skewered fish? I enjoyed the battered squid. I definitely am getting enough of the fish oil.

Leading the portable shrines:

You could tell each group by their kimonos:

The more they could bounce their shrine the greater the prestige:

The children had their own shrines, closely monitored by the parents:

All of the 100 portable shrines gathered at the temple for their blessing. Check out the crowd!

One portable temple that drew a lot of interest was the Yakusa shrine. The Yakusa are the shady and very powerful Japanese mafia who function very much in the background of Tokyo. The only time they're visible is at this festival. Members take off their shirts to show their tattoos. Tattoos are a sign of being involved with the group. There seems to be an implicit agreement with the police to let this happen on this date.

They walked around quite proudly that day exposing their tattoos for all to see.

This was quite a moving experience feeling so many people focused on the same thing. All the neighbourhood had all kinds of benches and food set up for the many visitors. This was a powerful event.

But this is Tokyo, got to keep moving! 

Just as an after thought on the way to the metro I went down the street that is nicknamed 'restaurant street'. On that street you can buy anything you need for your restaurant, including stores that sell only plastic food. These food dishes are reproductions of what you sell in your restaurant. You put these dishes in your window so that clients know what to expect at your restaurant. These were beautiful reproductions and actually quite mouth watering.

  Well, got to keep moving! 

Just time to pause to check out one of the local rickshaws:

I took a five-minute break to contemplate a well-dressed Buddha tucked away in a beautiful corner of the street. Notice the disciples at his feet who were also well-dressed.

The  second real stop was at Yoyogi park where the Thai festival was on full swing. Hundreds of booths of Thai food, Thai singers, Thai fashion show, Thai sports, an amazing event. It was pretty hot so I just ended up skimming the surface of this. I stayed long enough to soak in the subtleties of a teen Thai pop group.

But, there's no rest for the new Tokyo resident.

 It was over the bridge and diving into the depths of Yoyogi Park forest to find… The zombies! As it turns out Saturday was a Zombie Day in Tokyo. Why? Who knows, but zombies were everywhere in the forest.

Check out some of these spiritually uplifting characters.

Zombies were clearly enjoying getting photographed, And photographers were clearly enjoying taking pictures.

But I have to admit that by then I was a bit saturated. I gawked at the zombies for about a half an hour then I came home for a quiet evening at home to recuperate  and try to remember everything that happened on that one day.

Yes, What would one expect from a day in Tokyo?