A (sort of) Naked Man Festival

*Warning* There are a lot of men wearing very little in this post. Photos, videos and even words talking about them. Let's be honest, you should have known that already from the title, but if you find that sort of thing distasteful, now is the time to stop reading. Parental discretion is advised.

People have come up with some pretty crazy and fun ways to celebrate life. A lot of them seem to be in Japan for some reason. Sometimes it's just a parade like the Festival of the Steel Phallus. And sometimes, as foreigners we just don't understand why but luckily we can be a part of it. Welcome to Naked Man! There are many of these events held throughout Japan now at different times in the year, but the biggest and most popular is still where it all began, Saidaiji Temple in Okayama.

Bus full of eager exhibitionists

Fired up, ready to go

Why is there water?! WHY?!

Thanks to the awesome organization of the Okayama JET group, a team of foreigners is sent every year to the temple to represent the world. Team members came from all over Japan, showing just how popular this festival is. Some people might say that the best way to break down barriers is to just give everyone alcohol. While that does work, I think forcing everyone to strip down and to don a white loincloth is much more effective. For on that February night, those standing next to you were your brothers-in-arms. After running around the temple grounds and seeing the pool you will be wading into, you absolutely need someone next to you to help spur you on. Shower. Rinse. Repeat x 2. Whatever alcohol you drank doesn't mean a thing after you hit that water for the third go around. Your legs go numb and eagerly awaiting the time when you can return to the field tent for a little warmth from a single light bulb. Surprisingly, this was actually my favorite part of whole experience because the atmosphere is awesome. Spectators are cheering you on, hi-fives all around, and everyone on your team is bracing against the cold with loud shouts of Wasshoi! totally gets you pumped up.

The video is a little shaky at first, but towards the end you can see me in the 4th row. Thanks to the final chant, you can tell we are trying to catch "the shingi" so there is a point to all this semi-nudity. The first half of the festival involves a bunch of dudes running around in the cold for the enjoyment of spectators bundled up in warm parkas. The second half is when all of the participants then gather on the temple stage to wait for a bundle of sticks to be thrown. If you can catch the sticks and escape out of the temple complex, you would win about $2,000. However, there are many sticks thrown into the crowd. Only two of them will give you the cash prize, while the others are just "dummy" sticks. No prize, but you still win some luck for the future year because, hey, you were able to fight past a ton of dudes. Keep in mind there are thousands of participants, some reports say as many as 9,000 people, so a team is essential if you want to win this event. The team attempts to create a buffer to escort you out safely while opponents are diving in to grab at your loincloth touching a variety of sticks to see which one is the shingi.

This festival can be actually quite dangerous. Some people come away with bruised ribs, other people have died in the past. After all, this is a huge mosh pit. For about an hour, everyone is jostling for a prime position where they think a stick will land. The cold you were experiencing before is now replaced with an intense heat from bodies packed so tightly together. Temple priests occasionally throw water on the crowd from above only to see it evaporate almost immediately. From the photo, you see everyone's hands are raised up in the air. It serves a few purposes. First, since it's practically impossible to move, you can't really see where your team is. So people tape their hands with specific colors as a way to identify themselves. Also, you are constantly fighting against being swallowed up by this crowd, which means you need some leverage to keep yourself hoisted up. There is literally no room to move, so when one person inevitably moves a little, it creates this huge ripple effect that moves the entire crowd. Some people come out alright if they are safely in the middle. Those near the edges do not fare as well. Unfortunately, I was one of those near the stairs. After the first few times I tried to get up and get back in the mix of things but there was...no...way. So after maybe the 4th time of getting tossed down the stairs in a human domino and having 10 guys fall on top of me, I decided to wait at the bottom and spot those who were a little more persistent.

There's a lot of build-up to this point of the festival, but once the sticks have been tossed into the crowd, the real shingi seems to be carried out pretty quickly. There is a lot of strategy that goes into this such as decoy runners pretending to have it, and certain formations to pass the sticks along quickly and inconspicuously, all before anyone has had any time to notice what has happened. After that, people are just duking it out for the dummy sticks.

It's a unique way of celebrating, and certainly can be dangerous if you are not careful, but I'm glad I did it, and would definitely consider it again in the future if I have the chance.

SNOW FESTIVAL 2014!

The Sapporo snow festival, Sapporo yuki matsuri, is one of the largest festivals in all of Japan. It lasts for about a week, and I was fortunate enough to have a long weekend so I could catch the second half. Hokkaido is a place I've always wanted to see during my many times in Japan. The island is huge, representing about 1/5th of the country's land mass, and while Sapporo is the 5th largest city in all of Japan, the population of the whole island makes up only about 4% for all of Japan. Why all the stats, Posey? It's to give you a sense that while Japan has a reputation for being very congested with everyone living on top of each other, that is not the case up in Hokkaido.

Alright enough of that, onto the real reason I wrote this entry. We hardly ever get snow in Yakage, and if it does snow, it won't last very long on the ground, so I was pumped to be in Hokkaido where it snowed every day during my stay there.

Yes, that tube is my room

It might sound a little weird, but another reason I was excited about this trip, besides there being a huge festival devoted to the awesomeness of snow, was the experience of staying at a capsule hotel. I was expecting something like a sarcophagus, but you had decent room to move around inside of them. There were even TVs mounted inside.

 After checking in, it was time to hit the streets and see some artistic displays. There are several sites around Sapporo featuring different things depending on what you'd like to see. My hotel happened to be located in Susukino, the entertainment district, and where you'd find ice sculptures of all varieties.

A famous alleyway packed with ramen shops

Every city and region of Japan has it's signature food item. Sometimes it's just being the best place to eat a particular food, like fried octopus in Osaka, while other times it's a well-known food that has been slightly tweaked and embraced by Japanese people. Sapporo is one of the top cities for all the ramen noodle lovers out there. Sapporo's claim to fame is using miso, fermented soybeans, as its soup base but on top of all that, you have great local seafood being thrown in like crabs and shellfish. And a whole wad of butter to top it all off doesn't hurt either. Truly a great meal to enjoy after being out in the cold.

Besides Suskino, another site is Odori, a large park in the middle of the city that has all the snow sculptures. Teams came from all over the world for this competition. The USA team's wasn't too impressive in my opinion but others were incredibly detailed.

Besides those that were entered into the contest, there were many others that were just made by locals wanting to show off some famous characters from Japanese culture. I was happy to see a fight scene from the story of Momotarou the Peach Boy. And then there were just these jaw-dropping constructions that make me wish I had been able to come sooner to document the day to day progression and see how long it took to create one such as the Sochi Olympics at the top of the page.

An old brewery that is now a museum

It would have been wrong to visit Sapporo and not pay my respects to its delicious beer, so I went on a pilgrimage. Even though all Americans I've talked to say they like Sapporo beer the best, it only ranks number 3 here in Japan! Come on, son.

My last full day was originally going to be a sports day as I wanted to get some skiing done for the first time in like 6 years. Instead, I decided to go out into the wilderness to some remote town with a famous hot spring. Baths are so popular here, so having an onsen at your inn is a huge tourism draw. Walking into the adjoining bath house and smelling that rotten egg smell...Mmm...Yeah it was worth the hour bus ride. On top of that, this place Hoheikyo onsen was great because you could bathe outdoors, men and women in separate locations of course. So yeah, sitting in a volcanic hot tub with the snow falling down on you was awesome to say the least.

This is not my photo, as you would not be allowed to bring a camera in, but I wanted to show you all what I got to see

Relaxing vacation, but there was more I would have liked to do, so I guess I'll just have to go back another year.

A Look Back at January

This past month was full of a ton of stuff, but instead of dedicating one post to each one, I am providing a summary of all of them together. First off, after going to hatsumoude with the closest thing to a Japanese host family I've had, it was time to start the school year again. And oh how I missed school, which sounds weird saying. I loved vacation, but my kids are even more entertaining. My first day back at one of my schools saw me getting some New Year's cards, nengajou, from my first graders, reaffirming why they are one of my favorite classes. Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu - customary greeting after January 1st, wishing you a new year

Most cards had pokemon of some sort

I guess I have blonde hair in my Green Lantern form

 Occasionally, there are special events hosted at the local train station. Nothing that stellar, but Japanese people love mochi, and on this day, in addition to the usual food stalls, there was a mochi stand. I was amazed to see how long the line was for the mochi. Also, the time I made mochi back in the fall, we fortunately used a machine to mush the rice together into the mochi consistency. The traditional way is to just beat on it with hammers. I'm glad we used a machine.

Another cool event was at my Friday school. All the kids were required to make kites and fly them for the afternoon. Encouraging some good ol' fashion fun. Parents came to fly the kites with their children. Many of the kites featured horses since it just became the year of the horse in the Chinese calendar. However, some were creative, like this kite with an octopus. Taco is the word for "octopus" as well as "kite.

Decent height on many kites

There were some lows to all of the highs. I had to decide what I will be doing in my second year with Princeton in Asia. I've decided to continue with the theme of this blog and picked a post that will send me to a small town in another country to share a new culture with all of you. Also, one of my favorite teachers went on maternity leave which was very sad. As a support teacher we would teach together whenever I had 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade classes at one school, and I thought we had great chemistry working together.

The month of February should be very exciting. This coming weekend I am going to Sapporo for the snow festival and the following week will be the most famous festival in Okayama prefecture, Naked Man.