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Published: March 7th 2006
Thousands of naked men romping around the streets near Okayama, Japan. Have I caught your attention yet?!? The Hadaka Matsuri hands down wins the spot of 'most bizarre festival'....based on what I've visited so far!
The Saidaiji Naked Man Festival is one of Okayama prefecture's biggest claim to fame. The gist of the festival goes like this:
***Thousands of men run through the city streets, dressed in white nappies and cotton slippers, and enter a temple's courtyard area. They wait their for a few hours, nearly naked, in temperatures just above 0. At midnight the lights go out, and some Buddhist priests throw four sticks into the crowd. All of the participants fight to be the first guy to run out the temple gate with a sacred stick in hand. Apparently if the person with the special stick reaches the final destination, he will have good fortune for the year, and win a cash prize!***
Bus loads of foreigners were shipped from downtown Okayama city to Saidaiji, which was about a 30 minute drive. Seeing a group of 10 foreigners in Japan is generally overwhelming for the Japanese locals....so you can imagine the kind of looks we were
getting in a group of over 100! There were insanely large groups of police were swarming the area as well. They kept the crowds entertained with a group of ladies performing traditional taiko drumming near the temple. I ran into some friends that I hadn't seen since I left Toronto, so it was a great socializing night!
Before the actual stick searching began, all the men had to be cleaned in an ice-cold purifying bath in the temple. After this, there were groups (and sometimes organized teams) running around shouting 'wa-shoi, wa-shoi', a typical Japanese festival chant. Team after team, they came marching in. We hung around the main gate to watch all the guys enter, but we eventually were shuffled off to the spectators area up on a hill. It was a sea of bodies surrounding the temple. We could see them spilling off the steps as everyone pushed each other around. I'm sure there were endless fights....most were drunk (to 'protect' from the cold) and had major adrenaline rushes! As far as I understand, there are no rules....you can imagine how dangerous this is, when thousands of people have the same goal: get that stick!
Men
with tatoos are not allowed to participate in this competition. I think the reason is because the yakuza (the Japanese mafia) has been banned from competing. The men in the yakuza have significant tatoos on their upperbody as a trademark. I've heard though that through the powers-that-be, the yakuza still join the competition, and even have their own coloured loin-cloths! All the foreign guys that have tatoos strategically covered them up, as to not be associated with this crowd!
The actual competition was lost on most distant spectators. We couldn't see anything except for a mass of 9000 bodies below. It all was a blur. I couldn't get any pictures of this....so you'll have to use your imagination!
To wrap up: 9000 nearly naked men, fighting for a stick, drunk, at a Buddhist temple, in 0 degree weather. Japan gets more interesting every day!
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anonymous
non-member comment
the naked men entry is quite an eyeful. I just quite don"t know what to say. that must have been an experience and a half. Just finished talking to gramma she is all set to go. i can't wait to see the pics of your reunion in Japan. By the way Don really liked the gifts you sent him from Japan at Christmas. Have a great time together talk to you soon hopefully. Love Marie