Hadaka HOW I SPENT MY NAKED FRIDAY Matsuri

I took off Friday with plans to go to the Inazawa City's Hadaka Matsuri. When presented with the option of spending all day wasting time at work, or drinking, eating, and watching drunk people draped in small amounts of cloth, I chose the nakedness.

The whole festival is about getting rid of your bad luck. The naked people rush the temple gates with big bundles of bamboo. Inside are prayers from people that couldn't make it to the festival. They carry these poles into the temple, and at intervals stand them up on their ends while yelling. The shrine workers take these into the shrine, and wait for the next group.

Once all the groups have made it to the shrine, the Shin-Otoko comes out. He was chosen to stay within the shrine for 3 days, be shaved, then released. Everyone tries to touch him to pass of their bad luck. Ofcourse, this turns into slapping and hitting a naked man, so there are people with buckets of water, splashing those that get too violent.

The Shin-Otoko returns to the shrine, then later that night, is released. He carries a giant cake (or either mud, or mochi, I can't remember), that represents the bad luck. After burying the cake, he returns to his normal life as a non-naked-bad-luck-receiver.

We watched the festivities, which were very festivus. Supposedly, when you are 23 and 42(?), you are supposed to participate in the festival, as these years are bad luck. Maybe in two years I'll give it a try.

Saturday, I had wanted to go to Takayama, a rural village area in the mountains, but eventually decided against it. 2.5 hours each way to and from, and no one in the area right now for me to stay with, sealed the deal. Instead, Saturday was spent in Osu, like most Saturdays. I met with Diana, and just in time to watch the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Now imagine this, a St. Patrick's Day Parade, in Japan, that culminates in the parade arriving at a Buddhist Temple. It was interesting, to say the least.

Wasting even more money on tiny guitars (I almost have them all!) and records, I headed home to drop my things off, then go try to find the senior citizen karaoke bar I had visited the first time I was in Nagoya.

I went to the area that I vaguely remembered the bar being in, but couldn't find it. In the end, I had walked all the way to a different station, so I rode the subway to Sakae. There, I needed to get my Guinness in honor of St. Patrick's Day Parade-Day in Japan, so I went to the same bar I went to last weekend. In the heart of the Filipino redlight district. After a few drinks, I left for the station, well after the last bus, but I had my bike waiting at the station closest to my apartment. On my way out of the Filipino debauchery, some guy stepped in front of me and started offering me something, in either Spanish or Tagalog. The chances that he speaks Japanese it pretty good, so if I respond in Japanese, he'll probably just continue his pitch in Japanese. There's also a good chance that he knows English. Or atleast enough to continue the sale. What can I use to confuse this obstacle? High school French. As I'm walking by, amazed that I still remember something from that horrible language, the guy just repeats what I said to him over and over.

I'm tired, still a bit hungry, and buying more records online. When I get back to the US, I'll have so many packages waiting for me at my parent's house; it'll be like Christmas. I should probably start planning my trip to Tokyo. And by planning, I mean that I should start emailing people, asking if they have room on their floor for me to sleep.