Japanese Valentines Day

So how was Valentines Day back in the states?

I bet most of my boys had fun buying stuff for their girlfriends and wives. I remember scrambling each year to make reservations at restaurants and buying flowers or chocolates.

Well you can all be jealous because on Valentine's Day in Japan the woman have to take care of the men. I got a box of chocolates from my students and my girlfriend bought me a bunch of gifts. She then made me chocolate fondue and took care of me. Japan is sweet, I love this place.

Don't worry I know its only for one year and next year, I will be just like all the boys back home. Standing in line at the flower shop and calling expensive restaurants trying to make reservations.

PS I won teacher of the month for January!!!Woo hooo

Naked Man Festival Hadaka Matsuri

So nothing new has happened so I havent posted anything until now!

This weekend was the naked man festival. Imagine 9000 men naked in the middle of winter, fighting over 2 sticks in a temple. Now imagine me doing it. Sounds crazy, fun, exciting, strange, wierd? Well it was all of the above and I did it.

I didn't really know what I was doing so I didnt win but I managed to stay alive and undamaged. Although I can't say that for everyone, one man was crushed in the action and most of my friends got injuried falling down stairs or fighting in the mud. If you are one of the two lucky guys to win then you get a $1000 dollars.

The battle starts when you arrive at the temple. You take off your clothes and put on a fundoshi which is basically a towel that you wrap around your family jewels. There is a special way to wrap it and it is not pleasant. The wrapping process ends with the equivalent of an atomic wedgie or else you end up like my friend Tim who spent one year run around naked holding his towel. We then run outside in the freezing cold and rain. Thank god, I was lucky enough to be here a year that it rained since I just love being cold and wet.

Then we run to the temple and when we get there we have to do laps around the temple. First stop, a fountain of cold water where you run around a statue while throwing cold water up in the air. Second stop is an altar where you are suppose to pray and then head back to the fountain. You are suppose to do this three times but we just went straight to the temple after one lap.

Once in the temple it is really similar to the most crowded club you have every been too or a huge mosh pit. You can't move at all but everyone is pushing to the front. It gets so crowded that you have to put your arms up so you can breath easier and protect your head. Then everyone pushs and pull trying to get to the center and wait for midnight. At midnight the lights go out and they start throwing wooden sticks into the crowd. There are around 100 fake sticks and 2 real sticks but nobody can tell at the time. The madness ensues and everyone starts fighting over sticks. I couldnt see anything but I did notice it started to get really tight. Then I noticed that the pile of people was moving backwards and I tried to hide next to the pillars so I wouldn't fall off the stairs. My buddy Tim wasnt so luck and fell 10 feet to the ground below. But I noticed the pillar wasnt such a good idea either since I was starting to get crushed against it. So I slide around the pillar and watched the chaos that continued. It was almost like a controlled gang fight. Some people had teams and formed offensive lineman to block for the stick carrier. Once I left the temple I was cold and ran back to the house to get my clothes back on, but some people continued to fight all the way back to the houses.

It was good fun and an experience I will remember for a long time.

Here is a link so you can read about it.

http://www.city.okayama.okayama.jp/saidaiji/guide/eyo/English/eyo.htm