Hounen Matsuri (Fertility Festival)

I had heard about this one a while ago. And when you hear about a huge wooden penis parade, you kinda take notice. Apparently this one is unusual for Japan too. When Kyoko saw my pictures, she said it looked quite strange.

Choices Choices... & My Chocolate covered Banana.

So basically it's a huge Fertility festival, one of the largest in Japan. The Tagata Jinja (Temple) is a year round shrine for fertility. Young couples go to visit and pray for fertility and even to touch the wooden phalli inside as part of that exercise. But once a year, the huge, 2.5 meter wooden penis you see in the pictures, makes a pilgrimage from its temple, to the nearby temple of what is supposed to be an equally impressive wooden vagina. I say "supposed to," because despite our looking in the temple, we were never able to catch a glimpse of it. If women touch the phalli during this parade, it's the ultimate in fertility blessings, so naturally with all the mid-20's foreigner women I know (I swear all I hear sometimes is talk about babies), there was a lot of that going on.

Some of the other foreigners at the festival.
And a nice, somewhat touchy feely older Japanese man.
& The Famous Shrine being carried in the parade.

Thankfully, the weather also could not have been better. The cold has finally broken and spring is definitely here. The Ume (plum) blossoms are coming out, Sakura are also just starting to show themselves as well.

After the festival, I had a small party at my house. It was a little awkward renting a keg from one of my student's grandfathers, but that's rural life I suppose. And given the drinking culture here, I wasn't too worried. All in all a great weekend.

Here's the Link to the Photo Album.