Some clever kid in the pack decided to organise our first ski location to coincide with the Nozawa Onsen fire festival. Nozawa Onsen is situated in the Japanese Alps on the main island of Honshu. The Dosojin or Fire Festival is an ancient Shinto festival where drunk 42year old men sit atop a huge wooden pyre and, using smouldering branches, beat off drunk 25 year old men who try to storm the pyre. Meanwhile, everyone watches the spectacle and drink free sake which is dispatched by drunk wardens. It is bizarre and utterly fun! After a hard day's skiing the perfect powder conditions at
Nozawa, we head off to the festival in deep snow. There are cheering crowds, film crews and jeering 42 year olds sloshed atop the pyre. After hours of being thrashed and burnt, the 42 year olds are brought down and the whole pyre is set alight! What results is a huge bonfire, singed eyebrows, chaotic scrambles as bits of smouldering wood comes crashing down. I come out of the festival covered in dirty ash and snow and thinking, "Those crazy Japanese..."!
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