Night Lights: Nara Lantern Festival

Sometimes, you're just in the right place at the right time.  


Such was the case on February 3rd.  We'd unintentionally scheduled our trip to Japan to include Setsubun Mantoro, a celebration marking the transition from Winter to Spring.  Don't be deceived.  It was only "spring" by the very loosest, upstate New York definition of "spring": damp, with daytime temps ~5 C/40 F, and there were snow flurries the day we arrived.  Setsubun Mantoro is celebrated with the Lantern Festival.


The Lantern Festival is pretty much just want it sounds like - the lighting of thousands of lanterns.  In Japan, this occurs at the Kasuga-Taisha Shrine in Nara City.  Kasuga-Taisha is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the first of many we saw in Japan. I should warn you, though - since we visited at night, we don't have many photos of the Shrine itself.


 Nara City is a short train ride out of Kyoto, so after spending the morning at the Kyoto Imperial Palace, and the afternoon securing delicious ramen, we set off for some lanterns.  We arrived in Nara City at dusk and walked from the train station ~1 km to the entrance to the Kasuga-Taisha Shrine.  The walk was lovely: up a cobblestone sidewalk, past lots of small shops and food stalls, and next to a park. 


The park and shrine grounds are inhabited by free-roaming deer that are, allegedly, the sacred messengers of the Shinto gods that inhabit the shrine.  There was some amusing signage warning us to stay away from the deer, and to take appropriate cautions to avoid getting bitten.  This doesn't sound very god-messenger-ly to me, but what do I know?  We took appropriate cautions (I guess??), and survived unscathed. We arrived at the entrance to the Kasuga-Taisha Shrine complex and were greeted by hundreds of stone lanterns lighting the path to the Shrine itself.  

Like this, pretty much as far as we could see.

Please excuse my less-than-super photos.  I am definitely still learning how to use my camera.  One of my pre-trip goals was to learn a bit about photography.  Clearly, that didn't really happen.  So instead, I'm using our travels as an opportunity to self-teach some photography.  I'm learning all the time, but I'll continue to post less-than-professional photos of very cool things (or sort-of cool things)  (and perhaps totally uncool things - but at least you've been warned).  I'm not quite sure what I did in this next photo, but I think the overall effect is pretty cool.  

And hey, I love that smile.

These lanterns that stretched all the way from the street to the shrinewere quite impressive, all lit up in the dark, but they were NOT the lanterns of the Lantern Festival.  In fact, most were lit with electric lights rather than candles.  A close up, using flash, looked something like this:

I think the moss makes a great hat.

We followed a long and winding path of these to the shrine, where we paid our 500 yen entrance fee and began our walk through the actual Lantern Festival lanterns.  These were much more delicate lanterns, made of bronze and with intricate designs cut in the sides.  

The lanterns were about 8 - 12" in the diameter and 18" tall.

There was no information or placard available (in Japanese or in English), but some subsequent research indicates that the Lantern Festival has been going on for over 800 years.  I'm not sure of the age of the lanterns - most were donated to the Shrine by citizens, and a few were donated by Samurai warriors.  The lanterns look pretty old - you won't be able to tell from our photos, but many had broken doors, and cracks or breaks in the designs.  But honestly, looking at them all lit up with candles, flickering and glowing in the dark, those details didn't matter.  Some were suspended, and others placed on the floor and walls. They were EVERYWHERE. Japan once again demonstrated for us their careless use of fire...  Good thing the Shrine was made of stone.

Come around the corner and see THIS

 The overall impression was ethereal and beautiful.  Although there were many other visitors walking through, admiring the lanterns, and taking photos - there was a respectful hush throughout the Shrine.  Everyone spoke softly, somehow all sharing a respectful quiet in the presence of such tranquility.  

Lanterns, for as far as the eye can see...

The whole experience was quite peaceful and lovely.  The walkways were "staffed" by some students (~12-16 years old) who kept an eye on the lanterns, as well as the older visitors, pointing out stairs, lending a hand over the uneven sections of ground, etc.  The Shrine wasn't that large - our entire walk through took about 20 minutes, at that included plenty of time for photography -but it was packed with over 3,000 lanterns.  There was also some "mood lighting", with small candles decorating the ground and lighting the paths.

Floor lights...

Single soldier, standing guard.

After finishing our lantern tour through the Shrine, we headed back to the train station to head home.  On our way, we were side-tracked by a loud, heavy drum beat and music.  We turned into another shrine complex and stumbled upon a play/performance/battle re-enactment.  There were people dressed in formal attire on a balcony outside this Shrine, all watching costumed figures engaged in an epic battle on the stage/ring erected outside.  The music was loud, heavy, and crashing. The lights were flickering and flashing.  Frankly, it felt like being in the middle of a thunderstorm.  We tried to get some photos, but the crowds of people, plus the odd lighting conditions, made it a challenge.  The best I could do:

The overall scene.

Best shot I could get of the "action".  

We still have absolutely no idea what was happening.  But it's amazing what you can find when your ears are open!  After gawking in true tourist fashion for a few minutes, we headed back to the train station, and back to Kyoto.


We had actually taken dinner with us to Nara, to eat with the lanterns.  But the situation wasn’t quite right for dining, and it was cold – so enjoyed our dinner in the warmth of our hotel room.  By this time, it was nearly 10 PM.  I couldn’t wait to break into the hand rolls we’d purchased earlier in the day at...wait for this...a department store.  


[A digression about Japanese department stores: Their basements are like supermarkets + 30 specialty food markets all in one.  You can walk through a regular supermarket area and purchase fresh produce, meat, and fish (no canned/boxed/packaged products, really).  A separate area has ~25 or more small stands selling fried food, yakitori, breads and pastries, and pre-packaged Japanese sweets (mostly this last one; there is a separate post coming on sweets).  There is no place to sit, so you just purchase food to take away.  This is where we bought our dinner.]

At the hotel, we broke into the rolls quickly:

Our dinner table.

Rolls in profile.

The rolls on each side were filled with egg (the sheet of yellow), tofu, a bit of veggie, and one had some eel, too.  The smaller ones in the middle were simpler fish rolls (tuna on the left, salmon on the right).  We were hungry, so they all were decent - but they weren't going to win any sushi awards.  

The best part of dinner came next - the chestnuts!  We'd purchased them much earlier in the day, at a stand in the train station. Japan's preferred method of chestnut preparation is roasting + steaming.  To re-create that "freshly steamed" feeling, we popped them on top of our electric kettle while boiling the water:

In another life, this blog will be called "101 Uses for an Electric Kettle".

This technique worked remarkably well.  And let me tell you, the chestnuts were delicious.

Look at this scrumptious chestnut!

See how easily it peels!
[I think the steaming does that. Every one opened and slipped out of its skin.]

 The chestnuts were the highlight of the meal for me.  They were very easy to eat, because they peeled so easily.  Plus, they were blackened with good flavor from roasting, but moist from the steaming (and kettle reheat). Our fingers got satisfyingly blackened from cracking them open. I often find Singapore's roasted chestnuts to be a bit dry, but these definitely weren't.  As a novice chestnut eater, I thought the steaming was a brilliant move, although Kee-Min, the chestnut veteran, missed the dry roastedness a bit.  Still, we both enjoyed them enough to keep running back to the chestnut cart for more!  There *may* have been at least four chestnut stops during our 8 day trip...

Mmmm...chestnuts....

And now, it's time to get our party-prep on at the Ngiam house.  We're entertaining some visitors this afternoon/evening.  I'll tell you all about the popiah we're serving in another post. Cheers!