Last weekend, after a long Saturday of work, Gene, Nat and I had the unique opportunity to visit one of Japan's oldest, rarest, and weirdest festivals: The Naked Man festival. And just in case you ask, it's not a festival a showcasing pictures of Naked Men or even some Japanese sexual fetish. Located in a small town near Okayama and on the coldest day of the year, the festival features thousands of everyday Japanese men wearing nothing but a raggedy piece of loin cloth fighting over sticks being thrown in the air. And when I say thousands, I mean that literally and I mean that they are all cramped into a temple room about the size of half of a basketball court. Yes, it's sweaty, steamy, awkward, and strangely quite amusing. The crowds, which are nothing to scoff at in terms of size, are all shouting along and heckling (which is very UN-Japanesey in that they are usually the most polite of audiences). The festival is just a huge mess in all honesty. We were scrambling through a raucous crowd just to catch a glimpse the men, who were all pushing and shoving each other in the most amicable of ways. After finally reaching a decent vantage point at a nearby fence, the men were by then leaving the temple and running through a small court yard and threatening to break down the fence, at which point dozens of police officers ran between us and the fence and (politely, which is strange) asked us to step back. And then they proceeded to throw cold water at the freezing naked men. Weird? Yes. Okay, Okay. So that was about 20 minutes of the festival. I sit here writing this not fully understanding what it is I witnessed with my eyes. Why do they fight over sticks thrown in the air? Is it for honor? Is it for the emperor? Is it to show who is most awesome in a loin cloth? I forgot to ask along the way. Either way, it was an experience I'm not like to forget and hey, who can turn down the sight of Naked Japanese men? Not I.
Otherwise, the rest of the weekend was filled with us doing some socializing. We went to a really cool local bar with Gene after the festival. Me and Nat taught him to play the greatest card game ever, VC, while we sipped on some Cuba Riba's (Cuba Rivers AKA a Rum and Coke) made with real Ice and bottled cokes. Good times. The next night, I went out with Natalie, Rachel, and some of the other coworkers for a nice dinner, drinking, and some Karaoke. We met some cool new people as well. The week was pretty uneventful otherwise. There was one moment in my week that was just super interesting however.
The past Friday, my school had about 4 trainees (for Japanese Teaching positions) roaming around the office. Along with 6 other permanent staff in a small school, you can imagine how crowded my school was. Usually at lunch, we usually eat lunch in the teachers room which is just about large enough to fit 5 people comfortably. So instead of eating in that room, we all gathered into a classroom where there were more chairs and just a little more space. I sat at the head of the table and the other 8 Japanese people sat 4 to either side of me and we all proceeded to eat our lunches in the most awkward of silences. The trainees were nervous around my manager, not wanting to look the fool in front of a potential superior. The manager was nervous in that she didn't want to look a fool in front of a potential employee. The Japanese teachers were nervous because perfection is demanded of them when they are in front of potential colleages. And me, unable to keep myself from breaking into laughter at being in a room full of silent nervous Japanese people, at the head of the table, with all eyes gravitating towards me, and with a sandwich (that last part being notable in that Japanese people don't eat those). It was just too funny in a situation because I'm in Japan. I could've felt awkward at being the only foreigner but why? Only in Japan and while working for a Japanese company will I ever be able to experience such a situation. All of that combined to make it memorable in my eyes. When asked why I couldn't stop smiling, I told them that it was funny that I was the only foreigner there. They all laughed and proceeded to loosen up a little bit. A little bit. Just a little bit. It proved to be a fun lunch, but once is enough for me.
This past weekend was also another good weekend and definitely one for the books. We went snowboarding for the first time. It was a really fun experience and once again we went with some really awesome people in Gene and Yui (who organized the trip. BIG THANKS). We went to nearby Mt. Daisen in Tottori prefecture. It is Japan's second tallest mountain. It was a very nice picturesque area with lots and lots of snow. I won't go into too many details of the trip but it was great fun. Snowboarding is one really difficult sport to learn in a 4 hour time frame. After a lot and a lot of falling and mistrials and embarrassing moments, I was finally able to go in a straight line and not fall. But of course, 4 hours isn't really even enough time to learn how to board in the most basic of ways. I'm usually pretty okay at picking up sports but this was my first sport ever that involved a board of any kind. It was just something I wasn't used to doing. Learning to Ski was a whole lot easier considering that I have a bit of a background in skating, but balancing on a board is something I've never been very good at. Either way, I learned and I can do it now, but I paid the price. My body is sore in dozens of places that I never knew existed. It was all in good fun though. We laughed, we took pictures, drank beer, and even had an epic snowball fight to commemorate the end of our run. Afterwards, we headed back to town and ate Dinner at Yui's awesome restaurant; Kushu Kushu (9494). Great times. I'll be headed to Osaka next week to hang out with Lou from Korea. Can't wait!
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