In Japan festivals are often held in to get the local community together. There are variations, but a common theme is for everyone to make a massive and extremely heavy portable shrine with a heavy wooden frame called a mikoshi. A few street blocks will get together to build one, then meet up with other groups and march through the streets shouting and generally making a lot of noise. It seems that the specific god you carry a shrine for is not really that important as long as the frame and shrine are very very heavy. This is probably so you can show your devotion and willingness to suffer to the shrine’s god. They are really very heavy.
Of course merely carrying them through the streets is much too easy and you must continuously rock it from side to side and bounce it up and down on your shoulders. Since I’m somewhat taller than the average Japanese man I was asked to help at the back with the frame sloping down towards the front slightly. Since there weren’t many others as tall as me I ended up getting my shoulders constantly battered by the frame. At some points the shoulder of the person in front of me wasn’t even touching the frame. Crouching down didn’t work either as it just ended up destroying my thighs. Interestingly having your shoulders repeatedly battered by a chunk of wood in the rain (of course it was raining) doesn’t cause much visible bruising but it does turn the skin on your shoulders rather scaly, which leads to the skin flaking of a few days later. There were a few brief rests to watch some taiko drumming and afterwards there was a small meal provided where everyone has the chance to talk with each other, or just sit there exhausted. But mostly the festival seemed to be about carrying a really heavy thing for several hours. It must be one of those cultural differences.
He’s not even touching it!
Even my shorts are drenched in sweat.
We really didn’t have enough people.
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