Incredible Nothing!

Choose the appropriate rhetoric to continue the following sentence:

This post comes before Lucky Star becomes just another passing anime craze…

a) Wait, what do you mean it already has?

b) Oh wait, who am I kidding?

2008 was a year when Lucky Star was still leaving its mark on the anime scene despite how it initially split viewers into camps of those who couldn’t stand 5 minutes of choco-coronet-talk and those who voted for Kagami in SaiMoe, so it should only seem befitting that  I made the potentially 10 hour long train journey from here to Saitama prefecture to visit what literally is the shrine of worship for the series, not once, but twice in the span of 6 months???

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Yea, I can’t believe my own stupidity either. And I’m hardly much of a LS fan in the first place. The first time was during summer last year, and I only ‘dropped by’ the place since I was in Saitama to go watch Animelo. Unfortunately, with my sporadic ‘blogging efforts’ during the time details of my visit never made it to light on this blog then, so I thought I’d just revive them here now (for no particualr reason. Obviously have time to kill).

For anyone reading who doesn’t know, Washinomiya Shrine is purportedly the place where the Hiiragi twins from Lucky Star ‘reside in’ (i.e. the shrine where they do in the series was purportedly based on this one in real life). The shrine has quite a history as one of the oldest Shinto shrines in the Kanto region (the east-ish side where Tokyo is) according to Wiki, which should earn the shrine its fair share of visitors.

But when I visited in the summer, there not being any special occasions centering the shrine during the time, the place was rather empty really. I guess it had to do with the rural-ness of the location and that it’s more of a local place of worship than a tourist spot. The few people who were around though, were very obviously otakus making the sacred ‘pilgrimmage’ to come worship their ‘lucky stars’ *groans* , or (if they were like me) to see what all the fuss is all about.

Obligatory shot of thousands of emas (planks of wood traditionally where you write wishes on) containing the many wishes of many slightly(?) tragic specimens of the male species who continue dreaming for *insert LS character name here* to be their waifus or something.

I guess the local townsfolk are split between those who find hoardes of otaku coming to the shrine a nuisance, and those who see it as a business opportunity. The teahouse-like place next to the shrine’s entrance had a Konata-like mascot (which I assume was based of the Kuidaore doll in Osaka), and there were local hair salons advertising a “Shiraishi Minoru haircut” for 4200yen. No kidding.

It was an interesting enough way for my otaku-self to kill the time before Animelo the same day, but I didn’t think I’d need to come back again (”I’ve done the bloody ‘pilgrimmage’, so there! Now back to life it is…“), and certainly didn’t feel the immediate urge to do so really. Or so I thought.

Washinomiya Shrine, January 1st 2009.

Winter break came along, and I found myself once again in Tokyo again, this time to hang out with friends who came visiting from outside the country (sadly, not a good time for them considering the yen at a high then) to supposedly ’see the sights’ (which ended mostly being the same ones I came to see by myself in the summer that year -_-”). 2009 rolled along while there, so we thought we’d make like the Japanese and visit a shrine for New Year’s Day. Guess where we ended up visiting?

‘Luckily’ for me, the second time around was a totally different experience, obviously owing to the fact that the time of year was when even the Japanese non-otaku in a x-mile radius flocked to the shrine to offer their first prayers for the year. God knows how long the line actually was when we got there in the evening (extending all the way along the main road), but thankfully it was just for the prayer and ringing the bell ritual which our group felt we could skip, so we just wrestled through the crowd milling about the food stalls between the gate and the temple itself.

And to think the shrine grounds were like this just a few months before…

Somemore Summer/Winter comparison shots (Do I need to say which is which?):

Pulled an omikuji (fortune) – got a  “small fortune” one which basically told me to refrain from doing just about anything -_-” – and helped my friend to put up a Lucky Star ema to complete the New Year’s Day shrine experience. Speaking of emas, some  of note from that day:

Okay, so there is a Lucky Star I actually do like =P

Err, wrong shrine perhaps?

(edited for irrelevant career related wishing)

And finally, slightly more amusing to me than all the anime related emas flooding the designated posts for hanging them, a wish for “the old Washinomiya Shrine to return” – presumably to a time before Lucky Star written by a disgruntled local?