And the Insane Festivals Keep Coming

A few days ago, one of my teachers invited me to a midnight festival in Furukawa- a small city near Takayama. I had no idea what to expect, but decided to go anyway. After an amazing dinner at someone's house, her friend found a spot on a roof overlooking one of the city's intersections. We sat up there while a crowd started gathering around a fire in the middle of the intersection.
Nothing happened for a while, then all of a sudden, things got crazy. Groups of men dressed in white shorts and a bandage-type cloth around their torsos started showing up. They were carrying taiko drums bound to long logs.

Several of these groups showed up, maybe representing different parts of the town. After some sake-drinking around the bonfire, the groups started gathering around their poles. And then there was this:




And this was all leading up to the big event. For the previous hour or so, a huge taiko drum was being carried on a platform by about 70 men, with a few men standing on top and beating the drum. It was being paraded around the city, and as it approached, the whole street was a sea of people.
At this point, all the groups of men with their small drums had hoisted them onto their shoulders and were all rushing the big drum trying to hit it. Apparently, if any of them do, they earn some kind of ranking for next year's festival. This scene lasted for about 20 minutes, then the big drum just kept moving. I couldn't believe how many people there were, and how no one got trampled (though, I hear some years, people get badly injured). I'm just glad we were up on a roof to witness the whole thing.