There is a very large Japanese community living in Brazil so we get a lot of Japanese related programmes and news items. This morning I found out about the Kishiwada Danjiri Festival. What began as a dedication to Inari, the fox god of the harvest, has turned into a completely crazy race.
The different neighbourhoods of Kishiwada spend a year creating intricately carved wooden floats and then spend two days tearing round the streets of the town on these moveable shrines that weigh 4 tons. They are pulled by as many as 500 to 1000 people. The best parts are the high speed accidents that occur as they are dragged around narrow roads and street corners, crashing into buildings and sometimes completely falling over.
I haven't found a decent video from this years festival and this one from '97 doesn't really do justice to what I saw on TV. Guys falling off the roof and carts knocking over telephone poles.
Excellent.
(more info for the hardcore)
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