Hi all! I hope you are having a wonderful 2010 so far. I am back in Japan and enjoying every minute of it. Last weekend, I joined a group of friends in a trip to Nozawa-onsen's "Fire Festival" and for a day of snowboarding.
The festival is an interesting one and well, none of us really understood it. In this festival, there was a giant shrine like structure made from a tree and twigs. There were men under it who were "protecting" it. They had pine branches as weapons. Another group of men were to come at them with the goal of setting the shrine on fire. Together, they just beat each other up and eventually, let the shrine on fire.
A young man near us told us the fire had something to do with purification but that was about all we knew. He also later said that people in the area were just cold and drunk in winter and needed something to do. I concluded (after watching the fighting), they also must have been angry.
Some pictures from the festival....
These were giant banners with what I can only guess were wishes. I overheard something about all the new babies born in the city that year. I am thinking it was parent's wishes for their children. Either way...they were thrown into the fire at the end!
The giant sea of people...and the giant fire...
First of two pictures of the shrine. Check out the size of the snow flakes!
Better lighting the second time. You can see the way it was pieced together.
Dave, Christian and I...freezing our butts off...
Starting to attack...
Angry mob with fire...
"grab your torch and pitchforks..."
Eventually the giant fire won and the whole thing went up in flames...
And then came crashing down...
Christian and I after it was over (totally frozen and partically numb)
This video is when the men were attacking the shrine. You can see how they are trying to set it on fire and how they are all beating each other....
The fire festival was on Friday night and so we took advantage of being in the mountains and went snowboarding on Saturday. The weather was cold and snowy but the mountains were BEAUTIFUL! With 8 layers on top, 4 on bottom, 3 on my feet, 2 on my hands and 1 on my head (that is right...17 pieces of clothes to keep me warm!) I was warm and toasty on the mountain.
I concluded that I don't really like snowboarding so much as I just love being on top of the mountain. Christian was a very patient teacher in helping my learn and though I complained a lot, I did enjoy the day. Though, I did not enjoy the sore muscles the next day!
Here are some pictures from snowboarding on Saturday....
Christian scraping the car. The snow on top of his car is the snow that fell from over night! Over a foot over night!
Christian was patient with me as I whined about my legs hurting...
Last one of us on top of the mountain!
Christian playing in the snow!
(we also had fun sledding down hills while sitting on our boards and jumping in the snow!)
