New Year - Crazy Man in a Red Dress

"Moronic Gaijin Murdered: Elderly Japanese Man lures foreigners with promise of costumes" This was the headline i had running through my mind as i sat on the tatami living room floor in the middle of Fujidera, wondering exactly what I was doing and how my New Year and turned out quite like this..... On New Year's Eve, KJ and Rachel and Ross and I went to the South of Osaka to a temple town called Fujidera with the intention of taking part in the New Year's Eve festivities, namely the ringing of a bell 108 times. We're still not entirely clear on why the bell is rung 108 times, just that if you get there and line up early enough you could be one of the lucky bell ringers. We were not one of those lucky 108, but we still had a pretty wild New Year's Eve. We arrived at the temple at about quarter to midnight and were standing on the temple steps, taking in the crowd and the ambience of the night (and the ludicrously long line to ring the bell) when an older Japanese man dressed in what looked like a red dressing gown came to us and in a way that seemed almost like he'd been expecting us said 'Hello, hello welcome! Please wait. Please wait, I have a gift for you.' He then proceeded to gift us with the complimentary chopsticks being given out by the temple to everyone. Ross noticed it was ten seconds to midnight and we quietly counted down before being interrupted by the strange man who, with a call of 'Let us enjoy together', led us around the temple grounds, introducing us to strangers, explaining bits and pieces about the temple to us and then leading us away from the temple grounds to the neighbouring shrine. We walked the streets of Fujidera with the strange man, mildly amused by his antics and still, at this point, believing he was in some way connected to the temple or the official evening's festivities. At the shrine he taught us to pray, encouraged us to drink sake and introduced us to the town mayor before disappearing momentarily and returning with a group of nine other foreigners from a mixture of places including Poland, Korea and China. At this point, he whipped out a wooden paddle, held it in the air and beckoned for us to follow him back to the temple. So, the thirteen of us complied and KJ remarked, 'I think he's collecting foreigners.' We followed him back to the temple, smiling amicably to the Japanese who pointed out to each other our motley group. At the temple, three Chinese men asked if they could take photos with our strange costumed leader and he agreed, but not without including all of us in their photos too! So we posed for strangers photos then invited these three foreign men to join us too. And so there were 16. 16 foreigners huddled around the strange man in red as he confused us with his attempts in a combination of Japanese and English to offer us New Year greetings and encouraging words. He then looked thoughtful, counted us all several times then proclaimed that today, the first day of the New Year was a special day, and that his office was nearby...and would we like to accompany him to his nearby office to dress in costumes like his so that we can take photos? Why, of course! said us foreigners, and we obediently followed our fearless leader through the darkened streets of Fujidera to his small hutlike home. We all tumbled into his home, running on a combination of confusion, nervous energy and sheer adrenaline from the ridiculousness of the situation. We squeezed ourselves into his tatami room and huddled together in the cold, watching as our crazy host revealed the several trapdoors hidden in his home - at this point I gasped laughingly (though nervously) 'That's where the last lot of foreigners are buried'. The strange man began to bring piles of clothes to us, assigning them to different individuals, leaving some on the floor to be chosen by lucky individuals. The 'costumes' were a strange combination of dressing gowns, floral women's dresses, strange shaped hat made from neckties and bringhtly coloured petticoats, none of which looked 'authentically' Japanese (or authentically anything really). Some, such as Ross and KJ, were 'knighted' with their own wooden paddles and assigned specific costumes (they ended up looking like Robin Hood and Friar Tuck) whilst others, such as Rachel and myself has to crawl on the floor, beating the other foreigners to the array of other costumes. Rachel wore two skirts, one on each leg and both surprised and disappointed our strange Japanese host, who was very precise about the costumes and ordered me to tie Rachel's 'Japanese costume' (a lemon yellow women's shirt dress circa 1955) correctly. We giggled our shivered in the cold as we donned our ludicrous outfits, posed for photos and gave self introductions, all the while pondering how we had gotten ourselves into this situation. It was at this point that anything resembling normalcy from the evening flew out the window as from every hiding spot in ther room came numerous and varying bottles of alcohol; Irish Whiskey, bottles of wine, huge bottles of Japanese beer and one scant bag of rice crackers. One by one the bottles were retrieved from hidey holes as open mouthed we stared and gave each other 'what the hell is going on' sideways glances. I'm not sure exactly when the 'funny' left the evening...perhaps when one of the Korean girls started to convulse and look very ill and was ushered from the building (but not before being MADE to pose for photos by our host!) but at one point, it all seemed very strange and we started to make movements to leave. I had since given up the fantasies that this man was going to kill us all, and had simply decided he was al ovely old man. A lovely lonely crazy old man. Then, as we stood up to leave, all the lights blacked out, and as a quick reflex I rallied the troops: 'Rachel, Ross, KJ, take off your ridiculous costumes, we're all going to be killed.' Of course, the crazy old man's house had simply blown a fuse, and all was quickly restored, but by then it definitely felt like it was time to leave! We picked up our bags, accepted the man's gift of an envelope of raw pistachio nuts and instructions on how to prepare them, and trudged off into the night. I can hear you now as you read: "Allie? Could all this really be true?" The answer is "Yes, my friends, it is. Check out the photos...and the looks of sheer terror and hysteria...that prove it."