October 8, 2008
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Weekly Photo Challenge - Sports
This is not technically a sport, and these are technically not my pictures. I saw these posters going through a train station some years back and took pictures of the posters. Every seven years at Suwa Shrine in the mountains of Nagano Prefecture a kind of festival takes place called "Ombashira Matsuri," in which a bunch of fellers all ride a huge log down a mountain like a sled. The log does tend to roll and nasty things happen to the riders, which is why I can hardly stand to watch it on TV! I think some of the riders fortify themselves with sake before mounting the log for the slide down the mountain.
Is this crazy or what?
I think most of the riders have fallen off, and the rest are either scraping up the pieces or trying to get out of the way. Yep, it is a man's sport - no woman would be dumb enough to do it! Haha!
This You Tube video gives live action!
If you want a fuller explanation of this shrine festival with great pictures, go here to see more.
Comments (3)
I have never heard of this before now. I tend to agree with you at least from this womans viewpoint, I would never have been stupid enough to do this but there are a ton of people who seem to get off on the thrill of the dangerous. Amazing stuff and yes, whacked out crazy. I think this is a great entry myself and I have done a few photos of photos or I guess mine were sculptured images. Same thing I guess. Great entry, I love reading about things I have never heard of before.
Great week to you,
Yep crazy is the word, great for the challenge though, i remember seeing a japanise tv show called "Endurance" a few times after that nothing surprises me.
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