A yearly tradition.
Every year on January 3rd the fishermen in Meinohama go wild. They fight over a huge wooden ball, dressed in loincloth and get drenched in ice-cold water. And they love it! We spectators are shivering and huddle together for warmth, but our men are tough.
For Jaap this was the 15th time and it had me thinking about our first winter in Fukuoka, in 1990.
What was different? Not the festival, not at all. But the surroundings, yes. There was no bridge across the river, there were no wide roads, no high apartment buildings. Many of the houses of the fishermen had corrugated iron roofs. The people, well they had less wrinkles and their hair used to have different colors (- except for some!) and many of them have been replaced by their sons or grandsons.
And another thing that was definitely different: there were a lot less camaras
We start at the little shrine next to the kumiai's office and work our way to Sumiyoshi shrine in Meinohama. I will let the photos tell the story
Who has the ball??!!
The traditional interview with Jaap
This is what it looked like in 1997 and 1998:
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