Shiogama's Disappearing Shrine Boats

    Every time I leave my home and every time I come back from grocery shopping or work or getting my kid onto the school bus, I looked toward the bay. Our little part of the Pacific is only visible from my front door if you turn a certain way, but a nearby stairwell sports an uncommonly good view not only of Shiogama's port area but also of the islands further out in the bay.

    Part of my fascination with this view is because I wasn't raised in a place with access to the ocean and still find something to marvel at in the shifting waves. The postcard-like view of the islands at sunrise or sunset still excites me and is something that cannot be seen in my flat hometown far from the sea. Another part of my interest in this specific view can be attributed to that fact that this view from my building includes a pretty good view of Shiogama's fantastic shrine boats.

They weren't always parked out there in the bay, but this is been they're location for years now and it's nice to see the bird and the dragon, colorful and splendid, just floating on the waves.

    Usually, these colorful vessels take the portable shrines from Shiogama Shrine out to the outlying islands during the summer port festival. As we haven't been able to have the festival for two years running due to the pandemic, we've instead had the pleasure of seeing the boats just hanging out in the bay all this time.

    That was until a few weeks ago when I looked out to see that the dragon boat was gone. Of course of the two my favorite will always be the dragon and he was suddenly gone. For the first few days, I thought it might just be restoration work that they would usually have performed just before the festival but had probably put on the backburner with the pandemic about. As the coronavirus wanes, the return to normal in the area might include cleaning up the boats so that they can make the next portable shrine trip around the islands soon.

Where's the dragon? What did you do with the dragon?!

    Usually, in preparation for the port festival, the boats only disappear for about a week. When I checked back the next week, not only had the dragon not returned but the bird was gone, too.

What is even happening?!?!

    I was actually a bit worried about this. What did they do with the boats? Are they gone? Is this like 10 years ago when they chose to move them from being docked really close to our side of the shore to the middle of the bay as they are now? Will I never see those gorgeous boats again?

Spoiler alert: Yes. They're coming back. They're okay.

    Another week passed and I woke up one day to find that the dragon had returned, shiny as ever. The day before I'd seen a similarly shaped and colored boat on the docks rather close to where the shrine boats are usually kept these days, but the figurehead hadn't been visible from my point of view. Now I keep a lookout, waiting for the bird to join its companion. I'm sure it will also look better than ever.