my weekend at naked man.

firstly, they aren't naked. some show a little too much, but they are in sumo-diapers (as we gaijin like to call them). the whole situation is quite ridiculous, but kate, natalie, maki and i felt the need to see this example of stupidity. we took the train to okayama--the first time for all but maki to go to this prefecture--and got there saturday morning. dropping off bags at our hotel, we killed time waiting for nats to join us then lunched at bagle and bagle (yes, another fun spelling error). another bag taken to the hotel, traded for our room keys before heading for the okayama castle. i was excited about this castle because it was supposed to have a photo shoot set up so you could get dressed up like geisha and preserve the experience on film. Through the misty rain, we made it too late to the castle for photos, but we still took the tour and our photos of yet another rebuilt japanese castle.



since we were exhausted at this point, we napped back at the hotel before getting our okonomiyaki dinner (a strange craving to have outside of the okonomiyaki capital, hiroshima). the fireworks started at nine, after dinner it was already 8:30, the actual naked man fest didn't start till midnight, but the fireworks we wanted to see didn't look likely. thirty minutes later on the train we arrived at sedaiji, the part of town where the festival was happening. beautiful lit lanterns welcomed us, as well as fireworks off in the distance. photos were taken and then we followed a small mass towards the temple, we hoped. once there we got stamps, and free ginger sake (yummy!). we weren't sure what was going to happen, but then we saw our first group of 'naked' men, some scrawny japanese men running down the 'street' then quickly turning around. this was followed by masses of cops dressed in white, covered in plastic, and then a group of enthusiastic gaijin 'naked' men running by. This was the beginning of many jiggly (and not so jiggly) butts passing us that night.



this story then goes onto running into okayama JETs, hiroshima JETs and other familiar (if only because they were gaijin) faces. we eventually found out we needed tickets, which we didn't have, and were told by a cop to just 'try and stay in'--all the non-ticketed guests were supposed to leave at 10pm. well it worked, and we spent the next two hours standing in the rain repeating the phrase, 'oh my god, this is insane!'. for two hours the 'naked' men, including a quick to thin population of gaijin, ran around in a large circle. in the cold and the rain. nearly naked. they circled the temple grounds, even running through pools of cold water, passing by us girls in progressively organized groups. we were standing on the line, being cold and wet, and shacked at how stupid and cold these men must have been. there were elderly men, boys who looked twelve, wide strong looking guys, chubby guys, impossibly skinny guys; all of which you could easily imagine walking down the street ing their salary man uniform. most surprisingly there was even a group of about twenty blind guys in a huddle, being guided by about four sighted men. most impressive, extra stupid. looking to the men's uniforms, mixed in with all the white and off-white sumo diapers were very few men with red, or a few more with navy blue, loin clothes. we assumed you earned these by winning in previous years, or participating for so many sequential years.

as we begin to tire, just standing there in the wet and cold night, midnight finally approached. the 'naked' men now gathered on the steps of the temple. firstly, gathered is really to gentle of a word. these men pushed and shoved their ay to the top of the marble steps of this large (but not large enough) temple. one man would slip, twenty would cash down onto the hard steps. the spectators would get back up, now covered in bright red bruises, and attempt to again push their way to the top. now this, along with all the running, was all build up to the main event. this exciting 'climatic' event is the 'naked' men being thrown a stick. they fight over the stick. whoever has it must take it some place special (i assume on the temple grounds) without it being taken away. what this turns into is five hundred (or more) men, dressed in loin clothes, at midnight, on what is supposed to be the coldest day of the year, fighting over a stick. hmm... i wonder which is the smart stick? could this festival possibly answer this question?



well, while this stupidity was happening, us girls were getting old and soaked, and ten minutes after the 'fight' started, we opted to scadadel out of there, since we couldn't really see anything besides the stream. the steam coming off of these guys was absolutely amazing. we actually thought maybe there was fire involved once the 'fight' got intense. leaving the insanity seemed like an even better idea once i realized my umbrella didn't just have a leak, it was a leak. after two, three hours in the rain, my umbrella had given up and just decided to let the rain come on through. the night was over. we happily sat on the toasty train for forty minutes, then hobbled from the okayama station to our hotel--that we were freakishly happy to have booked in advance.

the sunday after this fiasco of a festival we had breakfast at our hotel, trekked it back to the castle (missed the photo thing again) then wandered the garden across the way. we were all very happy to catch our trains home--nats splitting off to catch her own, the other three of us road to fukuyama, we said good-bye to maki, and kate walked me to my haircut. feeling well groomed and exhausted, i got home at seven or so.



my conclusion about this event is that i will only do this once, and the polar bear club has nothing on naked man. (one man dies over the weekend as a result from anticipation in this festival).