The Naha Tug of war (那覇大綱挽?) is an event at the annual festival held in Naha, Okinawa, Japan. Its roots may be traced back to the 17th century. Held on Route 58, it is a battle between the East and West teams. This correlates with the competition between two rulers in the Naha area in days of old.
The event draws some 275, 000 attendees annually, and is preceded on the prior day with a parade celebration on Kokusai Street (also in Naha). In 1997 the event was first logged in the Guinness Book of World Records as being the largest tug-of-war event in the world. The rope weighs some 40 metric tons.
The festival begins with men dressed in traditional Okinawan dress standing on the rope facing in opposite directions to symbolize the battle between East and West. A myriad of performances take place along the rope's length, from martial artists of varying ages, to older women performing a sort of fan-dance. It is an international event with Japanese nationals, American military, and tourists in attendance. Just before the start of the match a man dressed in the dress of the Ryūkyūan kings stands on a wooden platform hoisted in the air on the shoulders of men standing on opposite sides of the rope. The "king" is carried on this platform down the length of the rope, before the festival starts, and the two kings perform a ritual sword contest.
The main rope, over 1.5 meters in diameter, has many smaller diameter, but very long ropes extending from it, and the participants pull these during the contest. The contest lasts 30 minutes and the challenge is to pull the other team a total of 15 meters. If neither side pulls the other the 15 meters, whichever side has pulled the other the furthest wins.After the 30-minute time limit expires, one side is declared the victors, and they are allowed to climb on top of their rope to celebrate. It is customary for participants to cut apart the rope, and take a length of it as a token, and so throngs of people using tools ranging from their pocket knives, scissors and hacksaws set on the rope, cutting lengths of it to commemorate the festival.
(Cited from wikipedia.com)
Kokusaidori (国際通り, Kokusaidōri, literally "International Road") is Naha's main street, stretching for roughly two kilometers through downtown Naha. The street takes its name from the former "Ernie Pyle International Theater", a movie theater that was built along the road after the war.
Starting around the Naha Bus Terminal and Prefectural Hall, Kokusaidori is lined by restaurants, cafes, bars, hotels, souvenir shops, boutiques and department stores. Many shops remain open until 11pm, and live Okinawa music is played at several restaurants.
If you are looking for even more shopping opportunities, you are encouraged to venture into the colorful Heiwadori, Mutsumidori and Ichiba Hondori arcades, which branch off Kokusaidori around the intersection with Okieidori, halfway along the street. The shops in the arcade are smaller than those along Kokusaidori, and are often made up of just a small booth and a single shop owner.
(Cited from japan-guide.com)
On the free self-study in Okinawa, once again we split into guys and ladies team...
The guys decide to go to Ashibinaa while the ladies would like to venture in Kokusai Dori a.k.a Kokusai Street a.k.a International Street...
It happen to be that Naha Tug of War festival will held a parade and will include Kokusai Dori as part of the route...
Hence we're like killing two birds with a stone...
We arrived Kokusai Dori around 0900...
The crowd wasn't not too much...
Slowly around 1000 and above people start to fill in the road...
In Kokusai Dori lots of omiyage shops that selling most Okinawan omiyage...
In this street you can easily find delicious Okinawan Yam Tart, famous Okinawa pineapple as well as Shisa (a pair of lion: one with mouth open and another with mouth close, symbolism of bring prosperity) miniature...
We managed to witness the parade and see traditional rituals that involved male adult in handling the long bamboo sticks (its like a flag)...
The parade involved school children too...
Therefore they're many cute faces of Okinawan kids and we can easily know how committed they're event their faces did turned into red in colour since the climate on that day were pretty hot...
We're in Kokusai untill lunch time...
From there I and Ida-chan took a train to Naha-koku (Naha Airport) before taking a bus to Ashibinaa to continue our shopping spree...
The others decide to going back to Solvita...
Ashibinaa Premium Outlet
Consider this is my second visit to Ashibinaa...
This time around is only me and Ida-chan decide to coming here as we would like to do some shopping...
With the fact that during the first visit here, we're just strolling around the shops and at Gotemba Ida-chan only bought toys for her sons...
After finish with our shopping session, we do treat oursleves with a good dessert before taking a taxi to go back to Solvita...
Initially we think of getting the bus and the train but its getting dark and its only two of us and taxi will better option...
Alhamdullilah we made it to Solvita around 1945...
To be continued
P/s: Courtesy pictures to all my YLP-ICT batchmate. Arigatou!
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