Danjiri

This area is famous for a harvest festival called "Danjiri." It's Shinto in origin, and dozens of people pull huge wooden floats (one for each neighbourhood) around town while playing Japanese drums and cymbals and dancing in the street. Along with baseball games, it's one of the rare opportunities for Japanese people to cut loose in public. For the majority of people today, this is more of a fun cultural event than a religious event.

The highlight is when they start busting moves with these huge, solid wood floats. They rock them back and forth and side to side. The most dangerous seat in the house is right on top of the float, a good 15 feet above the pavement. Needless to say, occassionally people are seriously injured and even killed, but Danjiri remains a family event (for many people).