7 Days 7 Minutes (2014-08-11) Shibukawa Dashi Matsuri, Obon Rituals and more...

00:00 MONDAY Ashes to Ashes
01:00 notTUESDAY Web Surfing
01:22 WEDNESDAY Obon Rituals
02:03 THURSDAY Caffenation
03:22 FRIDAY Homecoming
04:23 SATURDAY Shibukawa Dashi Matsuri - Day 1
05:32 SUNDAY Shibukawa Dashi Matsuri - Day 2

The Great East Japan Tour

I've been busier than a former AKB girl turned hooker over the last few weeks, and the places I've been generally didn't have connectivity or I didn't have the time to use the connectivity to blog. I apologise. 

I left for Shibukawa, Gunma on the 9th, and rode the 50cc 6 hours on the backroads to get there. I stayed with Yoshitatsu that night and the next morning we pulled out at 2am to go to Nikko Circuit for the DRiFTWiRED1 drift event. 

When I got back The Cat told me that her grandfather wasn't doing well and the next morning I got the call that he passed away. I met up with her and her sisters in Takasaki, Gunma we went back to Nagano for the funeral and proceedings.

After the funeral, I hopped the shinkansen back to Gunma and participated in the Shibulawa Dashi Matsuri. Which is and was one of the highlights of my life when it comes around every 2 years. It was good to be home. 

After 2 days of festival and a day to replace the Chain on my bike, I rode back to kawasaki and barely had a day to recover some semblance of sanity before hopping a Shnkansen for 5 hours to Akita in the far north.

I interviewed the heads of the Yamamo Soy Sauce company and a maker of Inaniwa Udon (one of the best known types of udon in Japan)

Back on the shinkansen to Kawasaki where I had a night in my own bed before heading west to Nagahama, in Shiga Prefecture, on the shores of Like Biwa, Japan's largest lake. 

The work was to interview the management team at Top Seiko, one of the world's most precise ceramic and tungsten machining companies. 

I then tool a look around the Kurokabe area, near Nagahama Station, where one of Japan'a oldest downtown shopping areas has been preserved and still serves the same purpose. Lack of money prevented me form taking too much time there. 

I hopped back on the shink and finally headed back home where I am now putting together a craptonne of articles, images and videos  over the next 2 weeks before getting on more trains and heading to more exotic destinations.

not my actual route or transport method but accurate sense of scale

平成24渋川山車祭り(2012 Shibukawa Dashi Matsuri)

Every two years there is a little bit of awesome at the end of obon in my Japanese home town. Once again it was the Shibukawa Dashi Matsuri and like the last time, I joined Shimogo for an epic 2 days of heat, sweat, pain and adrenaline...

Photo: S.Nakamura Copyright: bakadaruku.blogspot.com

Shibukawa Bellybutton Festival

The annual Bellybuton festival was upon us once again and as always I went up the road to join in the festivities…

Shibukawa Dashi Matsuri. The best festival in Gunma :D

Once every two years Shibukawa’s main towns do battle. It is all friendly rivalry but it is intense none the less.

When I first Started this blog published a post about it.

Well its 2010… and Like I said… I did indeed take part again. This time I joined the actual community that I live in and made a point of helping out with some of the prep work. Brian and I are the only ALTs in Shibs who were willing to go all out for our towns. Which is something we, and our towns will never forget.

 

I live in a little town called Shimogo. It is the 2nd town in Shibukawa city after Shibukawa itself. For some reason we have a higher percentage of badasses and generally stronger people in our town than anywhere else in Shibs. So I guess I fit right in :D

 

“It is a trial of your strength, stamina and commitment to your community…”

 

I pulled from 10H00 till 22H00 on both the Saturday and the Sunday and being a member of the team i also did all the social things too which brought me much closer to the people whose town I live in.

We worked, sweated, bled and gave 100% together to do Shimogo proud. With Shared hardship comes real friendship. I met some truly awesome people and will meet them again in the near future.

I also managed to interact with many of my students who were participating in the festival with their own towns.

This year was also the first time in 14 years (I may be wrong) that Motomachi hill was a part of the route. The last time it was done, a Dashi’s brakes failed and killed a participant. There were fatalities this year but judging by the state of my heart at the top I am surprised we didn’t have a few heart attacks. To be fair.. we did RUN up a third of the bloody thing (but like I said… Shimogo is strong)

 

The Shimogo Dashi ‘drivers’. They make Leonidas and his 300 Spartans look like little girls.

As night fell all the hard work became worth it. Seeing all the dashi lined up around the central intersection in Shibukawa with all the teams in their local outfits. Taiko drums beating and flutes singing. It takes you back to days past. 2010 is absorbed by a dream of an era long since past. Only that dream is a reality.

There was also the customary ‘Momi’ (the rope moshpit/wall of death that I described in the post 2 years ago) Unlike the last time I was both on and a direct contributor to our flawless record. not a single town in Shibukawa could stand up to the combined massive might of our town. Azumacho came close but we still won out in the end :D

 

I would like to say it was the best day of my life.. but I have had so many of those that it starts to lose it’s potency after a while. It comes down to this. If I had died during the event… or for that matter, right now as I type this.. I would die happy and content. It was one of those experiences that very few have ever had. I know for a fact that very few ALTs would ever go this far and put themselves through the kind of hardship, fatigue that the Dashi Matsuri brings.

 

It is a trial of your strength, stamina and commitment to your community and your neighbours. It brings you closer to the people you depend on, and those who depend on you.

Dashi Matsuri prep work 2010

Once every two years Shibukawa holds a giant Dashi (float) parade. Last year I just sorta joined in. This year I am doing it right as a member of the Shimogo community. Besides I reckon it will be more rewarding if I put my sweat and effort into the preparation for the event.

 

I liked how all the men were outside doing physical labour while the women were inside doing more delicate work and cooking for the men. Traditions can be cool too :p

At the end of it all I felt like someone was going to bring out a crate of Carling Black Label.

Shibukawa Dashi Matsuri

ok so this is the 2nd last big post i have... promise.. just gotta get the backlog out of the way and then i can get on with more random stuff :3

The Shibukawa dashimatsuri happens once every 2 years and it involves each of the different wards of the city pulling giant traditional floats (or Dashi) around town. Everyone dresses up in their ward's colours and has a big weekend long party. The dashi is a giant wooden monstrosity with people playing traditional instruments and gaudy mascots representng the wards placed on them.

On the saturday I took a stroll up the road in the miserable rainy weather and almost immediately encountered 3 of my students, and one of my colleagues waiting out the rain before the pulling got underway again :3
I strolled up the road under my 100Y umbrella, took a few pics and not entirely certain what was going on really. Then it began. I heard some chanting and different groups began to move their floats around. it was energetic but it seemed a bit dampened by the rain. i made a right toward the Tsutaya and wtched there for a bit. The group that my student's were with came around eventually and one of the 1st graders gripped my arm and pointed at the dashi and said to me "Ishogi wasshoi".. i was like WTF. he then bolts off and comes back with his sister and her boyfriend in tow. They through very broken english and easy Japanese basically explained that they wanted me to help pull the dashi. Yeah why not... could be fun....

THAT WAS IT! basically pulling the dashi is a cross between skanking and Tug of War. it is insanely high energy and a TONNE of fun!!!!!So i'm having a great time shouting Wasshoi Wasshoi and stomping along pulling a huge ass float around then we stop next to another ward's float. Float race ! yup we had to race the other group.. sadly we just lost, but it was a blast!

Then the next bit of awesomeness happened. I'm not entirely certain what it is but when the dashi's are stopped we did this amped up wall of death and epic skank... JUST FOR FUN!!!! all the time shouting WASSHOI WASSHOI!!!!! at one such stop our shouting tore a hole in the sky and the rain came down in buckets.... so we SHOUTED LOUDER!!!! and it got harder.. so we shouted EVEN LOUDER!!!!

eventually saturday was at an end and we made our way back to the ward from which the dashi came, and i went back home soaked.

Sunday came along and it was just a grey day. no real rain. I went to a traditional clothes shop, got me some Jika Tabi and walked around for a bit. I found the previous night's group eventuallu and was instantly recognised and half dragged onto the rope by some of the more boistrous high schoolers from the night before. I continued along the same way as the day before.. all day..

when i finally got to bed i was broken... in the morning i couldn't move my right arm... how the hell do you sprain your bicep??!!!

Needless to say, in 2010 i'm gonna be joining in again :3