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Published: March 5th 2006
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On Saturday the 18th a bunch of English teachers and I travelled to Okayama City (about 3 hours East of Hiroshima City) for a weekend of castle viewing, festivals, and yes, naked men!
My weekend began with a 3 hour train ride with Casey to Okayama City. Once there we decided to go and check out Okayama Castle. The castle is usually nick-named "U-jo" or "Crow Castle" due to its "black appearance of the donjon which was actually faced with black weather-boards." "Destroyed in WWII, the exterior of the 16th Century castle was faithfully reconstructed in 1966. The interior has an authentic period collection of palanquins, samurai helmets, swords, and the like."
(Okay, I just got lazy and used the castle description from the phamplet... hence the quotation marks.)
After our castle viewing we met up with some other English teachers that would be staying in our hotel for the night and began our preparations for the night's outdoor festival. Preparations: one cheap dinner at the local "Freshness Burger," and 3 trips to the local convienence stores to put on our 'liquid jackets.' Afterwards, we boarded our buses (4 busloads of foreigners) and were driven out to
who knows where, where the festival was taking place. (LOL, by the time the 45 min. bus ride finished, there were atleast 30 foreigners who were just crossing their legs needing a pee break, and not a toilet in sight! Haha... I'm not going to lie, there were a few 'puddles' in the parking lot by the time we left! I know.. too much information!)
As we walked through the streets of this small village (I'm not sure, I guess it was the outskirts of Okayama), the locals didn't know what had hit them! In general, I get starred at for being seen in Japan because I am a foreigner... but when there are 4 bus loads of us walking in a large group.. now that is something to stare at! Needless to say, we attracted a little attention!
Okay, enough about us, let me try to explain the "Hadaka Matsuri" a little. Basically, this festival takes place once a year, and it is tradition for Japanese men (men only) to strip down and march around town wearing nothing but traditional Japanese underwear (picture a white cloth diaper). On the way through town they walk through a small
but freezing cold pond (I guess to demonstrate their strenght/manliness), and then continue their path until they reach the local temple. Once all 2,500 participants have assembled within the temple grounds the feature performance begins. The festival's highlight: five 2.5 foot-long wooden sticks which all 2,500 men are willing to fight for. The math is simple, 5 sticks, 2,500 men.... it creates quite a commotion! To make things a little more complicated, out of the 5 sticks, only three of them are made from the desired wood, so after some men fight with all they've got to capture a stick, they bring it to the Shinto priest only to find that they have gained nothing! There is a cash reward for the 3 men lucky enough to possess one of the authentic sticks, but after seeing what they go through to get one, I wonder if it really is worth it!
From the spectators standing area I saw men being pushed from the edges of the temple 'stage' and then being trampled by those surrounding them, I saw men shivering for up to an hour after the festival due to the fact that they were absolutely frozen, and I
saw how slim their chances were of actually attaining one of the sticks! This is just my opinion, but I really don't think I would ever want to participate in anything like this, even if it was open to females!
By the time we returned to the shuttle buses it was 1am, and from there we were driven back into the city where the after party was to take place. After being outside in the cold all night I was absolutely exhusted, and by 4am we called it a night!
What a day!
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chris
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???
They are crazy! To be running arround in the cold like that just for some money. Why don't they just buy a loto ticket? They'll have the same chances to win money, I'm sure.