Crazy Japanese Festivals

[mattlucas 0]

Went to the log riding festival last weekend in Nagano. The name escapes me.

 

Any other SJ people there. This is one loony happening.

 

Any other Japanese festivals get this crazy.

 

 

 

 

 

[dale#1 1]

The Nozawa one is pretty cool.

[Yuki's Passion 1]

Ive been trying to go for so long - now I have to wait another 7 years!!

 

I recommend going up to the Kantou matsuri in Akita city over Obon. Best matsuri Ive been to. Not to mention 秋田美人 　Nebuta isnt worth the hype except that the city of Aomori is beautiful.

 

Asozan in Kyushu is awesome - a very chilled hippie festival with lots of intersting people.

[Davo 1]

The Kishiwada Danjiri festival in Southern Osaka is pretty loose and usually results in a death or two each year. The danjiris, which are wooden carriages steered by ropes front and back, sometimes go out of control. About 100? people pull/steer them around very crowded streets as fast as they can. Definately worth going to despite the heat(held in September) and crowds.

[nekobi 0]

the one in nagano was ombashira. i went to it the first weekend, but i heard the second weekend (where your pics are from) was better bc it was faster and more dangerous. however, my mate from that area told me two people died from injuries after falling off the log the first weekend. thought the fest was fun, but too much downtime waiting for something to happen.

 

yp- you dont have to wait another 7 years. the second part of the festival is the first two weekends in may. i think thats when they raise the shrines or something

[damian 0]

toque, looks like you got a WAY better position from which to view the event than another forum member who went. You got some great photos! They make it look pretty dusty, colourful and hectic.

[Yuki's Passion 1]

nekobi,

 

Really? I always thought Ombashira was every 7 years? Maybe there are several seperate events that make up this festival. I am only familar with riding the trees down the mountains and dont know much else which is why Id like to go. Ill try a google search. Cheers!

[NoFakie 45]

I went to Onbashira. It was pretty good. A couple of the locals from here got to ride the log! I scammed onto the rope team with some others but was quite happy with the close up view and stayed out of the melee. Even then, I still got knocked down by people careering down the hill.

 

There are blokes defending the log, so it's a bit like a no-rules British Bulldog (tag, whatever you call it where you're from) on a short but very steep dusty slope. The log doesn't go very fast and keeps stopping, so if you can get up close it shouldn't be too difficult to get on for a few seconds before someone pulls you off.

 

The guys pulling the log said they do it in the rain if need be.

 

The seven year thing everyone repeats is some idiosyncratic Japanese thing, like the "pregancy lasts 10 months" one. It's on every six years which by some perverse logic seems to come out at "every seventh year". The last one coincided with the Nagano Olympics in 1998.

 

In Kansai, the Kenka Matsuri at Himeji is pretty good. Drunken teams of blokes carrying heavy portable shrines (mikoshi) try to knock each other over. There's always lots of injuries.

[slow 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by NoFakie:

In Kansai, the Kenka Matsuri at Himeji is pretty good. Drunken teams of blokes carrying heavy portable shrines (mikoshi) try to knock each other over. There's always lots of injuries.

Is it "Danjiri-matsuri at Kishiwada"?

Yeah, there are many matsuris everywhere in Japan. It seems really fun to have their local matsuri, dance, music.