Minamiuonuma

Understand

Tourist information site The local tourist association has a Japanese-only guide site with integrated Google Translate.

See

Naked Man Festival (浦佐毘沙門堂裸押合大祭): In the beginning of March of every year there is a Naked Man Festival held at Bukoji Temple (普光寺) in Urasa town (浦佐) near the Shinkansen station. There are many of these kinds of Festivals held throughout Japan, each with its own regional flavor. At least one Japanese website claims that this particular Festival has 1200 years of history, but this is unconfirmed. The common description is that hordes of scantily clad men push and shove each other while chanting and carrying burning candles. What is actually occurring is a bit more complex. For the purposes of the Festival, there is a person appointed as the “good luck keeper”, who sits upon the elevated stage/main altar of the Temple. To touch this person is deemed to bring good luck the entire year. However, the correct and required way to touch this person is to proceed directly through the middle of the Temple, approaching “straight” down the center. The metaphoric connotation between “straight” and “crooked” is believed intentional. The “good luck keeper” has a number of guards who line the stage and prevent, often through somewhat physically forceful means, participants from entering the stage incorrectly from the sides. Before the Festival, all participants are encouraged to drink enormous amounts of Sake (Niigata-ken produces some of the best Sake in all of Japan) which is supplied by the Festival, and most (almost all) participants are highly inebriated. In addition, the Temple is overfilled, with a steady stream of (mostly drunken) participants continually flowing-in as the festival progresses. Thus, the shoving is a result of an overfilled Temple, in which numerous intoxicated participants are attempting to gain entrance to the center stage by charging directly through the middle of this unruly mob. Meanwhile, the gatekeeper guards forcefully shove off participants who attempt to enter the stage from the sides. Throughout the Festival numerous other events occur w

Do

Hands-on Agriculture School. Stay at a traditional Japanese inn, make soba noodles, catch insects, and create snow huts. Experience a rural life for the four seasons.

Eat

Yummy Gelato, 5138-2 Urasa, ☏ +81 25-777-2920. Great ice cream. A creative variety of seasonal flavors including jalapeno pepper, corn and wine.

Go next

Yuzawa Tokamachi Uonuma Tsunan Minakami Ojiya Nagaoka Numata Shibukawa