Suwa Jinja Hashira Matsuri

Every 6 years, Chizu holds the Hashira Matsuri for Suwa Shrine. They cut down 4 cedar trees in the forest and starting at 3am they bring them down from the mountains, parade them all through the town, and rebuild the shrine. It's pretty important and has been a tradition here for hundreds of years. We were lucky enough to be here for this festival, since it happens so far apart.

The night before it was ridiculously windy, thanks to a big storm blowing in from the south. I checked the weather and saw that it was supposed to rain in the morning, possibly until noon. So it was disappointing, but not surprising to see the rain blowing down (yes, blowing - it was crazy windy) when I woke up this morning.

The first pillar procession started at 7:30am, but it was still pouring rain and awful outside at that time. We decided to kind of wait it out a bit, since there were 4 processions and they didn't get to the shrine until after 11am.

I was just starting to get ready when Yana spotted her friend, M-chan, out the window. A few minutes later our doorbell rang, and M-chan, her sister, and her mom were all there at our door, asking Yana to come down with them. And there we were all in our pajamas still.

I got Yana dressed in record time, managed to brush her hair, and sent her out with M and her family. They were watching pillar 3's group, which happened to include M's dad. It also happened to go right by our apartment building, so we went to the window and watched them go by.

Afterwards, Yana didn't come home. So we got dressed quickly and headed out to the train station, the next stop on the map (each pillar makes a bunch of pit stops along the way). Luckily we met up with Yana, M, and family there. And even better, the rain had stopped and the sun started coming out! And so we began a long morning of following around a bunch of drunk guys carrying a big log.

At each stop the men would put the pillar down and stop for refreshments (lots of beer). The local yosakoi dance group would also perform several dances while we waited. Our dentist is a member, so she came over and said hello.

Just past the post office, we made another stop. There was a big cask of sake which was ceremonially meant to be opened with mallets...unfortunately it wasn't effective. The guys holding the mallets then just started full-on beating the top of this cask, and....nothing. Eventually one guy just went at it with a big knife and finally - pop! An explosion of wood and the strong scent of sake. They served the sake in wooden cups to everyone there (yep, at 9:30am). An old lady told me it was special sake and brought a cup for me and Justin. I don't like sake much, but I could tell it was quite nice. It was incredibly clear and fresh tasting.

Meanwhile, Yana and some other kids managed to get themselves let into an old video store, where they were terrorizing the cats that live in there.

We started following the pillar again, but Yana needed a toilet break, so we went ahead and made a stop at the townsman ground. There were some food stalls there, and we got some doner kebap and Turkish ice cream, randomly enough. It was run by a pair of Turkish guys. The guy doing the ice cream was pretty funny, and I enjoyed watching him trick my students, who were also there buying ice cream.

It was near 11am now, so we rushed up to Suwa Shrine to catch the end of the procession. We watched pillars 3 and 4. We watched them carry the pillars up, but it seemed like we weren't able to go up to the actual shrine building ourselves, so we headed home.

And that was the once in six years pillar festival!