Nozawa Onsen Fire Festival

Went to the Fire Festival in Nozawa Onsen, in the neighbouring Nagano Prefecture. Nozawa Onsen is a cool town. The town has an old rustic charm, the streets remind me a little of Kyoto.

Apple shop (Nagano is famous for apples)

Famous for its ski fields and onsens. all the onsens in the town get their water from Ogawa hotspring which is almost boiling hot at 90 deg C. Villagers actually boil eggs and vegetables at the hotspring. There are 13 FREE public onsens in the little town. They're smaller and have virtually no amenities like soap, shampoo, hairdryers, etc, but they're packed! This is the one I went to...it's one of the oldest onsens in the town.

Basically after you enter the door, there are pigeonholes along the wall for you to place your shoes, clothes and belongings and it's the onsen area. Very small, but I guess this was how it was like in the past. No heating! Freezing cold I tell you. There were 2 baths and everyone was crowded into one, so I chose the unoccupied one. Bad mistake...the water in that one was scalding hot! Turned out that everyone was in the other one cos it was cooler. It was still very hot though, but you get used to it after a while and it feels quite shiok actually. Only thing I didn't like was that there was a strong sulphur smell.

Fire Festival

The Fire Festival at Nozawa Onsen is one of Japan's top three most famous fire festivals. Started in the 1800s, it is held to pray for a bountiful harvest, health and good fortune. Men aged 25 and 42 yrs old (cos the Japs consider these to be the most unlucky ages) build an 18-metres tall shrine from beech wood before the festival. On the day of the festival, the 25-yr-olds stand guard at the bottom of the shrine and the 42-yr-olds stand on top.

Of course, as with every Japanese festival, everyone is drunk. To make sure that you will get drunk, they give out free sake. (As with every Japanese festival, there were also fireworks and taiko drumming)

The drunk 25-yr-olds (You will see why they need to be drunk later)

The 42-yr-olds happily singing away

Pretty decorative pedestals

When the festival begins, the 42-yr-olds will throw bales of sticks from the top of the shrine to the spectators below. Spectators light these from a bonfire and charge at the shrine. They attempt to set the shrine on fire with their torches and the 25-yr-olds' job is to protect the shrine. The fight goes on for about an hour, with bales of sticks continuously being thrown down. It is seriously dangerous. Since everyone's pretty drunk, people's clothing, hair, eyebrows, etc do end up getting burnt. There are also people standing by with pails of water, and ambulances on standby. Most of the 25-yr-olds end the night with blackened faces.

People queueing up for their chance to beat the 25-yr-olds with their flaming torches (I'm scared of fire lah, so moved back once the fire was brought out.)

After about an hour, the 42-yr-olds call for the fight to end and everyone got off the shrine. The shrine is then burnt as an offering to the gods.

Figurines of the gods