Well, It's Final. I'm Running Away and Joining a Japanese Shinto Cult. Or, On Second Thought, Maybe Not.

As a final act of - we gotta get this damn foreigner involved with something cultural before he leaves - I was asked to be one of two salt-throwing-guys in Nakaton’s Omikoshi festival. Or, as I like to call it, the “let’s carry this old wooden Shinto shrine around town, hope it gives us good luck, and get really wasted at the same time,” festival.

Now being a salt-tosser might seem quite low and menial to the typical outsider, but OH...you couldn’t be more wrong! I was informed on repeated occasions that my ranking within the procession was a position never before bestowed upon a foreigner. Maybe they were just trying to make me feel better, secretly mocking me, or whatever, but regardless, I performed my duties with pride and sincerity, unlike my cross-eyed drunk Japanese counterpart.

So, I got to be a salt tosser in a parade, experience a real honest to goodness traditional Japanese festival, and see what it would be like to wear a crispy wafer on my head. Basically, it was the apex and swan song of a roller coaster ride of an AET career in Nakatonbetsu, Hokkaido. And, as the old saying goes: the best always go out on top. But, also, as in my case, even the struggling mediocre.