The Roving Ronin Report

Japanese Phallic Festival - Bonden Matsuri Sexual Innuendo Festiva l Festivals participants struggle uphill to deliver a gift, a decorative Bonden pole, to the god of a local shrine in return for a bountiful harvest At first glance, Yokote's Bondon Matsuri in Northern Japan may seem rather innocuous. Tall decorative pools are paraded through the streets where later they are taken up a mountain and offered to a Shrine for the sake of a good harvest. Bonden Poles with topped with decorations Anpan Man: hero to children and bread everywhere However, if one probes a little deeper they will discover that the 4-meter tall Bonden poles are actually suppose to represent the penis and only men can participate in carrying it up the mountain. When the Bondon poles are brought to the shrine on the mountain, the whole phallic symbolism becomes very clear.  A Bonden Pole is thrust through the Shrine's Gates Men lower their Bonden poles to a horizontal position before vigorously "enterin...

Japanese Igloo Festival Kamakura Matsuri Kamakura Matsuri - Japanese Igloo Festival in the northern Japanese city of Yokote In the small city of Yokote in northern Japan, the citizens eschew the modern conveniences of warm homes in the middle of February and pile into small snow huts known as Kamakura. It's the Kamakura Matsuri and they've been doing this for over 400 years. Sori - old fashion sled for transporting toddlers and supplies Kamakura occupants wearing old fashion hanten coats or donbuku in the Akita dialect These Kamamura-style igloos are two meters in diameter made of piled-up snow which is then later hollowed out. Inside is a charcoal brazier in the middle to keep the place warm. The temporary inhabitants of these Kamakura sit on cushions while cooking sweet mochi which is a type of a chewy rice cake and heating up a type of non-alcoholic sweet-tasting type of sake known as amazake. On the far side wall is a makeshift altar to Suijin-sama, the Shinto god of water....