Laufeyjarson writes…

Today is a big day.  Finish setup, clean everything, and get ready for the first batch of visitors at the midnight ceremony. (more…)

Lots of cleaning, setting up tents, moving the firewood, a little raking, and an embarrassing mishap.  Tired, and my feet are worn out.
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Didn’t blog yesterday.  Fell over instead.  Second long day of physical exercise in a row.  Mostly raking.
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I arrived shortly after noon today.  The sky was heavily overcast, and the temperature mild, around 45F.
I paid proper respects, and then knocked at the front door.  Rev. Barrish was pleased to see me, as was another volunteer, Steve.  I was given a key to Kaikan, their guest lodge.  Rev. Barrish told me I have a room of my own, which is unexpected and pleasant.
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Last year I spent three days working hard as a volunteer at the Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America‘s New Years festival.  It was a ton of work.  And yet, I’m going back this year, for even longer.  I’ll talk about why. (more…)

While I volunteered to help Tsubaki America with their New Years festival, I got to talk to a lot of people and see their reactions.  Some of them stuck with me, all of them good.  Here they are. (more…)

While I volunteered at the Tsubaki America New Years event, I was offered the chance to perform Misogi with Rev. Barrish and some of the other volunteers.  At 6:00am on 1 January some of us went down to the river and performed misogi.

Rev. Barrish has a description of misogi on the Tsubaki America page, and John D. has a description of his experience in Japan on his Green Shinto blog.  Both of those show misogi in the summer.  The Pilchuck river was cold.

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Last year, I spent three days at Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America volunteering for the New Year event.  I haven’t posted yet, which is silly, because Saturday I’m heading up there to do it again, except for longer.  I wrote pages and pages about it, but it’s too much, so I’ll try and keep it short here.  I bet I fail. (more…)