A few days ago, I left you right in the middle of the Saijō Matsuri. I admit, this was mostly a cheap trick to make you shiver with anticipation waiting for the grand finale of the Matsuri.
And actually, I’m not going to make you wait any longer, here it is:
[iframe width=”640″ height=”360″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/C3D0csSmoUQ” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen]
Impressive isn’t it?
I know that when one narrates their own trip one has a tendency to use and abuse superlatives, and if you look around this blog, you’ll see that I’m guilty of that too at times. But not this time. This time, I’m choosing my words carefully: this Matsuri and especially the final part in the Kamogawa is actually one of the most intense cultural experience I have ever witnessed… Ever…
That’s it. I said it.
I’ll end this report of the Saijō Matsuri with saying that what we had there were hundreds of people in the river (plus several tens of thousands of people around), most of them very drunk, carrying objects that weighted more than a thousand pounds each, and on which were attached small lanterns, in complete chaos, and all of that without one single incident happening, no accident, no act of violence, nothing. Just lots of incredible fun.
Try to imagine that in (almost) any other country…
One last thing. if you found this Matsuri to be interesting, I can only advise you to watch this video that was shot last year and that not only will ridicule my feeble attempts at filming things, but more important will show you an amazing vision of the festival (the best one I could find on the web!)
Enjoy.