Off the Beaten Path-Akita, Japan Festivals
Of course one of the main reasons I wanted to live in the Northern Japan prefecture of Akita, is because of the traditional festivals they have their. Along with the festivals, they also have a Foreigner Sumo tournament which I participated in.
Now it is time to introduce to the things that made this part of Japan so special and talked about in my Off the Beaten Path…..
HIburi Kamakura Fire Throwing Festival
Not quite sure the purpose of this festival was but it was pretty neat to watch. While it was snowing like hell, there were groups of people that would light crates with burnables on fire and swing them around from a string. While this does not sound like much, all it takes is for one person to slip or the rope to break and this crate goes into a crowd of people…
Innuko Dog Snow Sculpture Festival
I couldn’t call this festival the most drop dead exciting, but it was the most interesting in how it was set up. It was set up in a small city and they made dogs and buildings out of snow. I thought it was brilliantly done. There were tents of food all over the place where you can have some warm sake and also eat some hot ramen. It was snowy and cold out, but everyone enjoyed jumping on the ice sculptures of dogs and/or houses….
Kakanodate Float Festival
This festival was in the small town of Kakanodate which was two train stops away from my town. The festival was rather odd to me as it involved these huge floats which probably weighed a few tons and people on top of them. Some of the people were local adults and some were dancing children. I did not know the purpose of the festival but what I did find out was that it was different neighborhoods in the town that made the floats and run them into each other to try and get by. I reckon the winner is usually determined by which float makes the most damage or breaks it. Overall it was an interesting festival with mobs of people looking on…
Yokote Kamakura Festival
This was another snow festival (seems to be the same during depressing winter season). It was in the tiny town of Yokote where a few friends lived. It was another festival that found interesting things to do with snow. This one involved building huts out of snow and people cooking and offering you sake in them. The huts were very well formed as you would think that they would melt with cooking going on inside, but it did not as they were built very good!!!!! They also had other snow sculptures in the town like a beautiful Disney one and a snow slide. It was very hard to get clear pictures because of all the snow, but I tried my best…
Kiriwano Tug of War Festival
Tug of War is a game we used to play as kids with a simple 20 foot rope and X amount of competitors on each side. Seems like a kids game right? Well this whole town is involved in a Tug of War contest in which the rope at some points is about 600 meters long. Each side of the town decides to tug on this rope which in some instances in 3-2.5 meters around. Hard to get your hand around this? That is ok as they have little ropes coming out from this big rope. It is literally the craziest concept in Tug of War in which you will either get dragged up and down the street or drag a bunch of people up and down the street. I am not even sure who the winner was at the end as after about ten minutes of doing this, I was pretty worn out….but it was fun and I had a blast….
Omagari Fireworks Festival
This is not done in the winter, but rather the summertime in August. It is one of the biggest firework shows I have been a part of. It is an all day drinking fest at a part of my town I lived in Omagari in which people just eat, drink and get ready for the fireworks. We ended up staying out there all day and having a great time. The fireworks show lasted for a good hour and then afterwards we went out to a few bars and had a blast. What was good about this is that all the Japanese people cleaned up all their trash after and put it in a bin…now that is what I call a clean society….
Namahage Festival
The Namahage Festival was odd in that it was up in a small enclave up in the mountains and it involved a long standing tradition. The tradition was a scary story for kids. The Namahage as a demon that if kids misbehaved for their parents, would come and scare and hurt the kids. I went up in the mountains and I was about the only foreigner up here. There was a ceremony with some people offering something to the Namahage. They then come out from the hills and run around the ceremony a little, then they do a dance while beating on drums. Finally they run around and the parents let them scare their little kids. Extremely entertaining festival as I love seeing small kids screaming at the sight of a demon yelling at them. No wonder why Japanese kids are so well behaved…..perhaps we should follow suit in the rest of the world…..
Takeuchi Bamboo Hitting Festival
Ranked by a website and by different websites as the 6th to 8th most violent festival in the world, this was defiantly a crazy festival. I have participated in the Running of the Bulls in Spain and thought this was way more dangerous than that one.
So what is this mysterious festival? Well it takes place in a town that is no more than a few thousand people. This village/town was located very close to the town of Omagari that I lived in. It seems that it has gone back hundreds of years. It says if one side of the village wins then the rice harvest will be good that year, if the other side wins, then the price of purchasing rice for people will go up (where they get these stipulations from is beyond me..probably old folklore).
So the whole point of the festival is to take 30 foot long bamboo poles that are like whips at the end and beat the hell out of the person of the town across from you. If for some reason you get dragged over to the other side, then they all gang up on you and beat the hell out of you!!!! The festival is usually done in snow and there is three rounds to it. When you hit the third round a huge fire gets lit.
At the beginning I gave a Brave Heart type speech to everyone on our side of the town (a bunch of foreigners and old people). We were all wearing helmets because if you get hit with one of these sticks, it will crack your head open!!!!! The first round began and all it turned into was a bunch of sticks intertwined. The only thing I remember is getting caught between two of them and choking for my life!!!! I am glad the police called that end to that round because it was a tough round. I looked something like Mankind when he was caught up in the ropes during a match and was still able to give Shawn Michaels a Mandible Claw
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The next round was the crazy round….we started off hitting each other with these sticks and all I remember is seeing one of my friends getting dragged over and the shit beat out of him. I was not going to go over to the other side in fear that I was going to get beat so I grabbed an old man’s stick and tried to drag him to my side, but I was unable to get him over. Then they called the round and the fun began for me…..
Third and Last round they lit the fire in the center and now it was time for fun. I remember I started hitting certain people with my bamboo stick and a few minutes into the round I accidentally went to the other side because I thought a person from my side was in trouble (a guy was wearing the same jacket as him), bad move because as soon as I got over, I was jumped by five guys who beat the living shit out of me. They pulled my jacket over me as I could not breathe and were pulling my hair out and hitting me. When I fell on the ground because of the snow I was kicked soccer style in the face. It ended up cracking half of my molar. I was able to get out to my side as the police called the fight….
It was an experience….people from both sides were hurt and we spent the rest of the night celebrating at an Izakaya and drinking and eat
Gaijin Sumo
Have you ever wanted to Sumo Wrestle but are under weight to do it? The answer is to join a Foreign Sumo tournament for charity in Japan. I got to do just this while I was living there. It was fun but rather exhausting and dangerous. I got pooled into a pretty tough group and we had to have a run off for our matches, because we all tied. I ended up hurting my knee in one of my matches and eventually lost, but it was an experience that I will gladly be able to do again, if my poor knee holds up….
