Live from Japan!

The sun is out, the flowers are blooming. Not only does it mean that spring is here, it also means that it is the beginning of festival season. With the exception of the yuki matsuri in Sapporo, it has been a few slow months on this front. Fortunately, we were able to kick off festival season with one of the most highly anticipated festivals (especially for foreigners) in this area.

The penis festival, at Tagata-jinja, is something that I wanted to attend since before arriving in Japan. It just seemed so out of the ordinary. I thought the Japanese were such a modest and reserved culture, that I could hardly imagine them parading through the streets with a 2.5m long giant penis.

Well, I don’t have to imagine it any more. We went, we saw, and we had tons of fun. And, thanks to the magic of the internet and digital photography, you don’t have to imagine it either, because we have pictures to share with you. If you are checking from work, you may not want to read the rest of this entry right now, don’t say that you haven’t been warned.

The procession began with a series of, what I can only imagine are, very important people. Some of them were dressed up in costumes. Some were carrying interesting objects. I wish I knew the symbolism of everything that was happening, but I don’t.

Then, once the procession of very important people was over, the sake cart came through. From this cart they were handing out sake to anyone that wanted it and they also had a few snacks. Some savvy people walked along the procession alongside the sake cart, getting a refill each time their cup was emptied. I guess it is good to get a little drunk before the giant penis comes.

Then it was time for the shrine. Notice the shoulder pads on these guys. This shrine is seriously heavy. You could tell when they knelt down to take a little break and switch lifters how heavy this thing really was.

Once all the pomp and circumstance was done, the main event came down the road. The men carrying the giant penis were also good and drunk. They were singing and chanting and at regular intervals they would stop and spin around in circles. The crowd went wild when they did this!

After parading all through the town, the giant penis was taken to its home in the shrine. Here it will sit to be visited and worshiped throughout the coming year until the next festival when it will be put on parade once again.

Just because the parade was over, doesn’t mean the fun ended. There were food stalls selling appropriately themed food (you will see more on this later) and little souvenir stands. We ate lunch and waited for the final event.

The last event of the day was the mochi throwing (mochi is glutinous rice). The general idea is that all the men up on the balcony would throw big balls of mochi (about the size and weight of a baseball) into the crowd. Catching one is supposed to bring good fortune, given the theme of this festival the fortune is said to be in the realm of fertility.

This is a close-up of the men that would throw and their ammunition, big piles of mochi.

The crowd was tightly packed and some people were wearing helmets and protective gear. The announcer asked the young and elderly to please move out of the way.

Then, the mochi throwing began. The people went nuts. Everyone started jumping up to catch the mochi and pushing into one another. It makes the mosh pits of my youth seem quite tame.

Aaron and I, along with many ALT friends, were in with the masses fighting for our balls of mochi.

After the third round, Aaron caught one. When it was all finished, someone gave one of their extras to me. I guess she only needed so much fertility fortune.