Okayama is located on the south-eastern mainland of Japan (the largest island, Honshu) and from Tokushima we decided to drive there by zipping through Kagawa Prefecture and then crossing the Seto Bridge. The drive is pleasantly short - we left my place at about 1pm on Saturday and were checking into our hotel (Hotel Repose) by 3.30pm. Liz, Danielle, Todd and I spent some time chilling out in our hotel room waiting for our friends in the other car to arrive and after some confusion with their check-in (Colin accidentally booked a hotel room at The Repose in Morrocco instead...) we eventually met up with them for some pre-drinks on the way to Okayama Station.
With all three of the boys (Colin, Todd and Luke) registering to participate in the event and the Okayama AJET bus responsible for ferrying them to the site departing an hour earlier than the girls' spectator bus at 7pm, we decided to split the group and go our separate ways for dinner. Us girls ended up in an Italian restaurant, where we proceeded to both eat and drink waaaaaaay too much, in an attempt both to pre-game AND line our stomachs before such a big night out. The food was cheap, delicious and so worth it though. Stopping at a conbini (convenience store) on the way to the bus pick-up point, we stocked up on our handbag-whiskey supply and last minute essentials before climbing aboard and riding the 30 minutes out to the temple.
Pre-event girls dinner <3 From L-R: Maiko, me, Liz, Natasha and Danielle.
Natasha and I, excited on the bus out to Saidai-ji Temple!
We were quite anxious to meet up with our guys when we arrived at the festival precinct and after a few frantic phone calls to figure out where their changing tent was, we found ourselves with front row viewing for the lines of men running by, arms linked and yelling "wasshoi, wasshoi" in an effort to keep warm. Much to our amusement many of them wanted to shake our hand or give us high-fives and we took the opportunity to point, giggle and pose for photos. Finally, we spotted our guys running by and pulled them aside for a once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunity. To see them bare-arsed, shivering in nothing but loincloths, on a cold winter's night is not something I'm likely to forget any time soon!
Our Tokushima boys..
Randomly running into and posing with the naked Kagawa boys :)
Random lines of naked Japanese men...
Once they'd left us to continue their circuits and enter the temple grounds, us girls made our way to the ticketed area to find some of our other friends and hustle for a prime-viewing position. As the 10pm shingi-drop approached more and more men packed into the temple. Literally hundreds of naked men were crowded together on the temple's stone platform and soon the crowd began to surge from one direction to the other. Those on the edges near the stone steps caught the brunt of this swaying and often groups of up to 30 men at a time would topple backwards down the stairs into a pile on top of each other. Admittedly it was rather stressful to watch, with each of us yelling at one time or another "be careful, naked men!" and flinching in empathy. Uniformed police were also on-hand by the platform to pull out injured participants should the need arise. I think we saw 3 such 'rescue attempts', each time the crowd erupting into a thunderous applause as it was announced that no real harm had come to the man in question. We staved off the cold with our whiskey/cola mixes, took countless pictures/videos and waited for the lights to dim and the action to truly begin at 10pm!
Sure enough, at 10pm an announcement came over the PA system and the lights went down. The eight festival officials began throwing their shingi into the crowd, which was lit up intermittently by thousands of spectators' camera flashes going off one after the other. We tried in vain to search out our boys - wondering aloud where they had ended up, praying that they were safe and hoping that they'd lay their hands on a magical incense stick! The chaos lasted a mere 10-15 minutes as teams of men working together located the good luck shingi and hustled them out of the temple grounds to safety. Finally I was able to spot Colin (he looked like a glowing white, bearded Jesus amongst the crowd) and beside him, Austin. Flooded with relief that at least two of them were ok, we relaxed a little and decided to make our way back to the original meet up point to rendezvous.
Naked Man participants crowding onto the temple platform.
Unfortunately, by the time we met up with them they were already fully clothed and clutching plastic bags harbouring their dirty fundoshi. We relayed stories about the event from each of our perspectives and took a few celebratory pictures before making a start back towards the bus stop to hitch the ride back into town. None of them had managed to collect a shingi but from the looks on their faces, it barely mattered. How proud we were anyway!
Getting back to Okayama Station the group decided to head to Pinball Bar and enjoy a few post-event bevvies. We met up with some of the Kagawa JETs who'd also come across to participate and spent the night making new friends, catching up with old ones and just generally having a good time in a town that wasn't our own. I ended up staying until lights up and made it back to the hotel at around 4.30am to crawl, quite drunkenly, under the blankets on my futon at Hotel Repose.
Waking up at 9.30am in prep for an 11am check-out wasn't the most pleasant of experiences, but knowing that I didn't have to do any of the driving that day made me feel infinitely better! Each of us girls took it in turns to shower and change, eventually meeting up with the rest of the gang downstairs in the lobby to decide on our next move (which ended up being a visit to a cool little Mexican joint called Freedom Tacos for some much needed hangover food). I scarfed down a large taco rice order - which was the absolute bomb! - and then slept in the car for most of the way home, arriving safely at my door by around 3pm.
Hangover taco stop! L-R: Liz, Todd, me, Kiri, Luke, Colin and Maiko.
All in all, our journey to Naked Man Festival was a complete success. It's pretty close to being one of the craziest things I've experienced in my time in Japan and ranks up there as one of the best weekends I've had for a long time. The company was amazing, the food was sublime, the drinking was fun and the naked men... well, there were lots of them, very naked. I'd call that a win in any language ;)
