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.

Welcoming the New Year in Japan

Winter vacation has come to a close which means I will be heading back to work tomorrow. I spent a few days in Seoul, and that was a great. Seoul would be a cool city to live in, and like Japan, Korea pays its English teachers pretty well. Who knows? Maybe I'll head there for a year or two after Yakage.

I wanted to be back in Japan for New Year's though. Its the most important holiday to the Japanese so I wanted to see how they celebrated it. Like the rest of the world, Japan goes out partying and counting down until midnight, but it has a deeper meaning.

Food stalls set up all week

The festivities occur at a local shrine where bells will ring announcing the new year. Then businesses will close for a number of days for people to continue celebrating. Some big chains will open by the 2nd or 3rd, but my favorite bakery has been closed all week, which was very upsetting. During this time, everyone is returning to their hometowns and going to a local shrine for hatsumoude, or the first visit of the year. At the shrine, you're wishing for good fortune this coming year. If you're a student or parent, this usually means praying for success in future high school/university entrance exams.

Wash your hands first!

I was fortunate enough to go to hatsumoude with a Japanese family, and they were nice enough to put up with me asking so many questions and to show me what to do. During other trips to shrines, like in Kyoto, I was always just going as a tourist, so I would always just walk through and never really wanted to wait in line with everyone else to pay money to get a fortune made for me. But this was hatsumoude, so I had to.



This photo on the left is like a giant collection dish as people throw in some change as an offering to the kami, or god, bow twice, clap twice, then bow once more as you pray for its blessing.



 There's a lot of praying that goes on at various places around the shrine's grounds. I guess less is not more in this case. In order to get my fortune for the year, I shook that wooden case, and received a description based on the number that came out. In case you were wondering, mine was normal luck for this coming year, as long as I remain calm and easy-going. After you read your fortune, you don't take it home with you, instead you just tie and seal it off forever.

 Also, as you might expect of an East Asia country with a lot of ties to Chinese culture, zodiac signs are fairly important. During my time in Seoul and throughout town, I've seen banners welcoming the new year with pictures of horses on them. So yes, for all the 1990 babies out there, this is your year. I'll be waiting a while for the snake to come around again.

メリークリスマス

Merry Christmas, merii kurisumasu, メリークリスマス!

Yes, Japan does in fact celebrate Christmas, just not the way Christians, or even Jewish people, are used to. Christmas has made its way over to Japan just like many other aspects of Western culture. And since only 1% of the population is Christian, it has no real religious significance for people living here. Instead it's become the most romantic holiday in Japan for couples or an excuse for kids to get presents. However, since the 25th is not a holiday for the Japanese, the special dinners are celebrated on Christmas Eve instead of the actual day. Your traditional Japanese Christmas dinner will consist of Kentucky Fried Chicken and for dessert, a Christmas cake! Because that's what Japanese people think Westerners do, so they mimic us by going to our Western fast food chains. Can you imagine taking your loved one to a KFC as a romantic gesture? The KFC Christmas dinner has become so popular that you need to order months in advance to get a bucket of fried chicken prepared for pick up.

Can't wait to eat my Christmas cake

Little something extra on the last day

As you can see from the photo, I once again dressed up to help talk about an American holiday. I started off pretty ambitiously, trying to explain in Japanese about the various traditions and Santa stories we have in the USA, like decorating Christmas trees and how Santa comes down the chimney. Most importantly, I had to correct the notion that the Christmas cake was something Japan took from the US. The tree part they found interesting (you bring it IN the house?!) but since Japanese homes don't have chimneys, there was a bit of a snag there (How does Santa deliver them to the Japanese kids?). And also, it was just too much to pack in as well as holding an activity to make the class fun. So while kid made Christmas cards, I rocked out to Christmas carols dancing around the classroom lip syncing Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You"

Perhaps the best thing that happened over the course of these past 3 weeks teaching Christmas lesson after Christmas lesson, was on the last day, it began to snow as I taught my first class of the day. By the time the period was over it had stopped and nothing was left on the ground, but it was still pretty magical

A Tale of Two Cities

As the year comes to a close, Japanese organizations plan events for coworkers to celebrate the past year called bounenkai, 忘年会. This past weekend, those of us at the Yakuba went off to Osaka and Kyoto for a 2 day trip. Since I spend most of the day off at different schools, and the office isn't a place for socializing anyway, this was an ideal chance to interact with my coworkers. Overall, it was a great time, and I learned some new things about Japanese social behavior along the way.

Bingo programmed into the bus

First, Saturday morning kicked off bright and early as we pulled out of the town hall parking lot at 7:30 a.m. Ten minutes later and the men were already cracking open beer cans and chilling in the back lounge area of the party bus. The two who had organized this trip did a great job making sure people would be entertained as we were fully stocked on booze, snacks, and games.

Depending on the schedule you chose, you could either get dropped off in Kobe for some horse race gambling, or continue on to Osaka for a comedy show. I opted for the comedy show despite my reservations about how much I'd actually understand. The show was put on by a famous comedy troupe called Yoshimoto that apparently has venues all over Japan. It seems like the first half was a variety of stuff to showcase some new talent while the second half was a hilarious Christmas skit. When some colleagues later asked if I had understood what was going on, others who had been sitting next to me chimed in that I was laughing louder than everyone else. I apologized for the noise level, but I was pleased I had been able to follow the plot.

Osaka is famous for its takoyaki (fried octopus)
Also a lot of fun to watch them make

Now Osaka doesn't have much in the way of cultural sites. It's a destination for people wanting to shop and enjoy the nightlife. So after the show, people went their separate ways to spend the time until dinner. Once dinner started, the beer kept flowing until dessert. Drinking in Japan is something else. I don't really know how to put it. People are constantly refilling your glass before you even finish all of it because you don't pour for yourself. "Oh no! Your glass is half-full, let me top you off. Some coworkers went too hard too quickly and tried to signal no more drinks by keeping their glasses full. NOPE! When that bottle came around you were expected to take a sip so at least some could be poured in again. After dinner had concluded, people once again went their separate ways. I went off to a karaoke bar with some others and sang for two hours. I do love me some karaoke.

Now you might be thinking, "Wow! That sounds like you had a great bonding experience." After all, in America, sometimes a drunken night will lead to a new friendship. Or you may never talk to that person again once you're sober. Japan is a lot like the latter. What happens when you're drunk, stays there. So even though I rocked out to some 80's classics with my bosses, I can't act all chummy with them the next day. Also, fortunately for those that got totally smashed at dinner, there is no public shaming the next day.

On Sunday, we set off for nearby Kyoto. What Osaka lacks in culture, Kyoto makes up for tenfold. Kyoto has the largest population of working geisha in Japan, and it's not uncommon to see men and women walking around wearing traditional kimonos. There seems to be a famous temple or shrine of some sort every half a mile, and some smaller ones tucked in between commercial buildings. First, I went off to Fushimi Inari shrine and later met up with everyone else at the temple Kiyomizudera. 

 Fushimi Inari is one of my favorite shrines because of the thousands of torii gates that you walk through as you ascend the mountain. Since it is a shrine, it is related to the Japanese religion Shinto. Shinto is a little ambiguous with each deity's role, so Inari is the god/goddess of business and many other things. The inscriptions you see on the torii gates show the patrons who donated the money to the shrine.

The Buddhist temple Kiyomizudera has a variety of things going for it to attract visitors. The photo at the top shows a fountain that will grant a long healthy life and wishes and other good things if you drink from it. So of course I did, and you can see people extended their cups out under the water. Even though this is a Buddhist temple, religions often overlap in Asian societies. Within the temple grounds there is a shrine to the Shinto god of love and matchmaking. At this shrine there are two rocks about 20 ft apart, and if you can walk from one to the other with your eyes closed, the myth is you will find true love. People rarely do that one for fear of ridicule.

Winter in Japan

Wow, I did not realize it's been so long since I did my last blog post. A month has gone by pretty quickly. I just sent in my 3 month field report to PiA. It's actually hard to imagine that only 3 months have gone by. It seems like Backstreet Boys and rice picking was forever ago.

One reason for the lack of new posts is because things have slowed down here in Yakage now that winter is descending upon us. Things are pretty routine here now. But all of you should get a sense of what Japan is like in the winter.

Japanese people like to say they have 4 distinct seasons, but if you ask any foreigner, there are only 2. Muggy summers and chilly winters. Summer temperature was extending through October, then for a week or so in late October/early November, there was some perfect cool temps. Then suddenly it all got freezing cold again. Growing up in New England, I liked to think I could handle inclement weather better than the average person as I walked around Dickinson in shorts and a T-shirt. And it certainly is colder in the States from a degree standpoint. But the cold just pierces through your walls and into your room.

Buildings in Japan, at least the schools and houses here in Yakage, seem to focus around letting air flow in and out of rooms. I've heard that houses in Japan are not built with thick walls because they need to be flexible for the frequent earthquakes. This means not a lot of insulation. I get that, what I find surprising is the layout of these schools I go to everyday. To move from one class to another, you have to go outside. Meanwhile, school uniforms require kids to wear skirts and shorts. It's tough to be a student in Japan

So how do Japanese people deal with the cold? Some inventions are pretty amazing (like a toilet seat that heats itself up when you sit down). Others are pretty low tech (kerosene stove). Every classroom has one of those babies parked right in the middle blasting away to keep the room piping hot.

Japanese people love their baths for relaxing. Hot springs can be found all over the country. In Japan, showers are really just a way to rinse off so you can be clean upon entering the tub. Don't want to be sitting in a pool of your own filth after all. Also, bathrooms are separated to keep everything free from contamination. The toilet is in a completely different room, and the shower is located next to the tub for the rinse.

Sadly, despite the chilly weather, it hardly snows here in Yakage. When it does, it's a light dusting. However, during the one Christmas lesson I taught at my school, it began to snow for a few minutes. I'll take that as a good sign of things to come.