Ryoma and Snoopy

At one time there were four primary schools in Kitagawa-mura, each with its own thriving student population. Now there is one, and with around 75 students, Kitagawa Elementary is not huge (there are only five kids in the sixth grade).

But with the massive depopulation that's taken place in the Japanese country-side in the last 50 years or so, for this area, Kitagawa Primary is a big school. There are schools with ten, five, even two students. But the cake has definitely been taken by a school in the mountains near here: Narugawa Primary School has a grand total of one student... and one beagle.



I went there to translate and take some photos for my friend Stuart, a journalist (though teaching English to 10 year olds for now) who's writing an article on the school. As you drive into Narugawa, the most striking thing is the almost total lack of people. There are just rice fields, mountains and narrow empty roads. The little township has about 100 houses, but more than half of them are now vacant, and the average age of their inhabitants is around 75.

The primary school is made entirely of wood, and is actually the oldest in the whole prefecture. Until last year there were 3 students, two of them brothers. But when the brothers got fed up trying to play baseball with three people and switched to the bigger school down the road, Ryoma was left on his own.



The school still has a principal, one teacher, and an office lady. The disarmingly friendly principal seems to have become something of a surrogate father to little Ryoma, who is being raised by his 80 year old grandmother while his father works (and gambles) in Osaka. His biggest concern for Ryoma is that with all his playmates adults (even the Snoopy doll is 24 years old), he'll lack the social skills to interact with kids his own age, or to speak out if he runs into problems.



And it is with this in mind (and surprisingly not for economic reasons) that later this year Narugawa Primary is scheduled to suffer the same fate as so many other schools in the area and be closed. The principal will be transferred to another school and Ryoma will have to ride his bike down the valley to the (only slightly) bigger None Primary and try to make some new friends there.

No one really seems to know what will become of Snoopy.



Narugawa photos

Naked Man Festival

Most Japanese festivals are a time of kiminos and elegance, a time to celebrate Japan's rich spiritual culture, to connect with her ancient traditions (whether anyone can remember what they mean or not) and to relax with family members.



The Hadaka-matsuri is not one of those festivals.

For there is another more primal purpose behind many Japanese Festivals, namely that of wall to wall drunken abandon (albeit precisely defined and well choreographed) - to let loose with some ancient and ill-conceived maddness that would be otherwise unthinkable in the sober light of all-too-sensible non-festival Japan.

Last September was the Fire Festival in western Kochi, where a group of drunk men (plus sober me) carried a huge burning tree through the middle of the town, getting showered with red hot ashes all the way, and groups of even drunker men ran around with big drums starting fights with other groups of drunk men with big drums. No one really seems to know why, but they've been doing it for a hell of a long time.(Kure-matsuri photos here)



Last weekend was the Naked Man Festival (Hadaka-matsuri) in Okayama.



Even if the thought of thousands of all-but-naked men packed together like sumo-sardines and fighting over sticks did it for me (and alas it doesn't), the Hadaka-matsuri still wouldn't quite be the homo-erotic wet-dream it sounds like. But though it may not be kinky (or then, maybe it was...), the controlled chaos, the mass drunkeness and the apparent lack of reason, certainly all made for a quintessentially Japanese event.

It's done in the middle of winter in the middle of the night (that Japanese obsession with the cold again), and the thousands of participants (unfortunately all men) are clad only in fundoshi (the sumo-style nappy), and tabi (traditional Japanese socks). Contestants first run through an icy pond with a statue of Kanon in the middle,



then gradually assemble around the main temple, the sea of pink flesh surging in waves and occasionally breaking on the stairs in a torrent of naked bodies. Every now and then a line of police would charge in to try and contain the crowd or to carry an unconcious body from the fray.

At midnight, the monks throw 2 sticks into the mob and a million yen prize is given to whoever can get one of them out through the temple gates. But despite the thousands of punters, rumour has it that the yakuza team wins every year. I was too caught up in the madness to even notice.

Amazing though this mother-of-all-mosh-pits was, I can't say I regreted my decision to keep my clothes on. A few of my foreign friends did take part though and charged in balls-n-all, and while I've got nothin' but respect for them, hey... someone's gotta take the photos.

Naked Man photos

Just hanging out now for the ancient Giant Steel Phallus Festival coming up in April. Japan's got so much to offer!